Vesry Retreat

The Place
On Saturday the vestry gathered at a new retreat center, Tabor Cottage in Butler. For several decades the Community of Transfiguration has used this space to do summer camp with groups of inner-city children. A few months ago Sister Nadine and Sister Rachel moved in to begin to create a year-round space. We were their first official group and they did a good job making us feel welcome and cared for.
Both sisters are potters. Here is the Eucharistic set sister Nadine made for their chapel. We were given the honor of blessing these vessels before being used for communion.

The Task
Most of the work we did at this retreat came from the book Values-Driven Leadership by Aubrey Malphurs. In the morning we completed and discussed a "readiness for change" survey and decided our parish was able and ready to deal with the change of no longer having a full-time chaplain.

In the afternoon we began trying to discern our parish's core values: those things which are unchanging, make the church the church, and we would continue to hold even if holding them became a disadvantage. We began with another survey, and from this survey we agreed on a group of words that contain some of the core values of Harcourt Parish.

Survey Results
Community
Worship
Relationships
Encouragement
Cooperation
Team Ministry
Prayer
Fairness/openness
Mobilized Laity.

Those of you who know Harcourt Parish, does that sound accurate?

I could agree with those things, but they still didn't hit on the essence of our parish. So we continued to work and struggle and began with these:

Possible Harcourt Parish Core Values

Empowering Outreach
-we are a caring community that strives to improve the quality of life around us
-we are blessed to be a blessing
-we mentor and encourage newcomers and students in outreach
-"I am the Episcopal Church at work"
-virtually everyone in the pews is involved in some outreach work
-we are very involved locally while not ignoring international concerns

Thought-Full
-we're a congregation of people who like to think
-it's OK to have questions and to ask difficult questions here
-we don't all think the same

Honest Worship
-we are a church because we worship together
-we are linked to other churches because we all use the Book of Common Prayer
-we worship whole-heartedly, sometimes imperfectly, and faithfully

Does that describe us? What is still missing? Any suggestions?

Another Possibility
Near the end of our time together we prayed the Litany of Thanksgiving on page 837 of the prayerbook. This line stood out as a possible mission statement:

Minds to think, hearts to love, and hands to serve.

As the vestry continues to ponder these things, we seek your input. Comment here, catch one of us at coffee hour, or send us an e-mail. Thanks.