Annual Parish Meeting

It seems like I had tons of notes and things to write about from the Annual Parish Meeting yesterday, but a computer crash (hard drive failure) intervened to slow me down. But there are a series of cryptic notes scrawled on yesterday's bulletin.

First cryptic note says "87% 'The Bible arranged for worship'": Okay, I can place that one from Fr. Davis' sermon in which he noted that 87% of our Book of Common Prayer comes straight from the Bible. (He even related the joke of the Episcopalian who, when encountering some Biblical verse or another, said, "Oh! They took it from the Book of Commmon Prayer!").

Next cryptic note reads "Provincial Synod Oct 21-23, Bay Area." Yes, the every-decade-or-so Synod of the Province will be this October. And this was a reminder to me to mark this out on my Calendar (including work Outlook) to avoid conflicts with meetings, conferences, etc., since it appears I will be a diocesan delegate to this Synod. I hope I am up to the responsibility.

Third cryptic note says "New altar?" Yes. It seems our old portable altar, used in our "church-in-a-box" days a quarter-century and more ago, is sagging to the point where the candlesticks no longer stand quite upright. Several sheets of heavy-duty (and heavy!) plywood are not standing the test of time any longer. A very nice (and ornate) altar has been located on the other side of the country; the Vestry just has to figure out the best way to transport it. Mary Ellen sayd that when we retire this altar the wood can be returned to its original use as retaining walls for concrete pours. (Funny, I don't recall seeing any concrete on the wood -- but it has been almost 25 years!)

All the rest of the notes had to do with trying to recover the computer's functions ("fdisk", "partitioning", bookmarks", etc.) and nothing to do with St. B's.

But I have to say it was a well-run meeting where we got through the issues without overlong drawn-out discussions.

Congratulations (or is that condolences?) to Cary and Bob for their election to the Vestry. And thanks to the outgoing Vestry for the needed new roof!