The vestry is the elected governing body of the church. St. Mary’s vestry consists of 12 lay members of the congregation and the rector. Four members are elected to three-year terms each year at the annual meeting. The Vestry typically meets on the second Tuesday of most months. You will find regular updates from them here.
The month of March is already a transitional time since it ushers in the first day of spring and leads to longer, lighter days. This year, March has been even more full of transitions for our church community, in addition to our local, national, and global societies. So much is happening so fast, and we are trying our best to keep up. It is a time of mixed emotions, and perhaps even conflicting or confusing feelings. We want to embrace the positive changes with enthusiasm and hope, all while we continue to keep ourselves as informed and educated as possible. We recognize that this time requires a great deal of emotional adjustment from each of us. Although we may be different in terms of how quickly and readily we adjust, we are still one body of Christ at St. Mary’s. We remain united by our love for God, for each other, for the beauty and purpose of our liturgy, and of course, by the high value we place on community. We enjoy seeing each other and worshipping together, and whether we do that now in-person or virtually, we remain connected.
This has also been a period of transition for the Vestry: we have moved into a new season with Shane J. as our Senior Warden and Craig T. as Junior Warden. Kim D. has graciously accepted to continue as clerk. We continue to hold our meetings on Zoom, but perhaps in the near future, we will be able to gather in-person. At our March meeting, John S. joined us to discuss the functioning of the new HVAC system, and to explain the kinks that still need to be resolved. Overall, the system is working well, but it is a little loud, and we are considering possible ways to temper the sound. The system is actually turning over the air at a faster rate than we need, so we may consider slowing it down just a bit to lessen the noise. We thank John S. for his work and for offering his expertise throughout the duration of this long-suffering project. We also thank Judy A. for her work during all the phases of this project.
We’re happy that the March 6 transition to having all four Sunday services in the sanctuary went well. We send a thank you Craig T. and Ryan B-F for setting up chairs when the services were still up in Berktold Hall. As a next step, we have been discussing the live-streaming process and what it will take to get it up and running. We understand that the overlap between in-person services and the pre-recorded video service creates extra work, especially for our clergy. We’re hoping to be able to live-stream one of the services as soon as possible (maybe in April), but this depends on multiple factors. For now, we think it is important to continue to offer video and virtual options in addition to in-person worship.
Due to the two recent and significant transitions regarding masking—the Governor lifting Oregon’s state-wide mandate on March 12 and the Bishop also lifting diocesan-wide COVID protocols—the Vestry had a long conversation about this issue at our March meeting, which revolved around trying to discern what is best for our specific community. This is a very tricky issue, and we had an in-depth discussion. We took the time and gave space for everyone to share their opinions, ask questions, clarify terms, reflect on their individual positions, and of course, consider the various needs, desires, and concerns (that we are aware of) among parishioners at St. Mary’s. We decided to settle for a hybrid situation, where masks continue to be required only at the 9:30 service, but they are optional at the other services. Staff and community groups can decide for themselves whether to wear a mask or not. For groups, this means that they can determine amongst themselves and their participants whether or not they should be masking during the time that they are inside our building. The Vestry will revisit this decision at our next meeting, adjust as necessary, and keep you informed.
As a group, the Vestry contains differing opinions that are, for the most part, reflective of the wider congregation. We try to consider all sides of the matters we discuss, and we know that issues are not black and white. As Bingham summarized in his recent email, some of us don’t know quite how to feel about masking and the easing of COVID regulations, while some are still in the stages of emotionally processing these transitions. Masking is a multifaceted issue, but our concern remains the health of our entire community and the best way to move forward together. As followers of Jesus, we want to live the call to love our neighbor and to create spaces of belonging where all feel welcomed and accepted.
We are together on this journey, through all of its twists and turns, ups and downs, excitements and disappointments. Thank you for your resilience and flexibility during this time, and also throughout the entire pandemic. In addition to the bigger, more obvious changes happening right now, there are smaller adjustments going on in our building (mostly related to the sound system since the HVAC is a little loud and we’re muffled with masks), and also in each of us, related to our individual recalculation of risk and reestablishment of routines. The unfolding of the next few months is one of these “known unknowns” that we’ve become familiar with, and so for now, cautiously but hopefully, we welcome the changes.
