 C. More
News
Jump Back to B. School Days
Jump Ahead to D. Activities & Dates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Receiving the Messenger
If you did not receive a copy of the Messenger, there are 4 ways to obtain it:
Web: There is a copy available at the web site. (Note the spelling.)www.saintstephenschenectady.org.
US Mail: Call the Church office, weekday mornings at 346-6241, to add your home address to her mailing list.
E-Mail: You can give us your email by sending it to messenger@saintstephenschenectady.org. You can unsubscribe any time by using the links at the end of each issue.
At Church: Paper copies of the Messenger will be prominently displayed at the back of the Church. (At the Usher's table, but sometimes they are by the mailboxes.)
Please feel free to submit articles to the E-mail address above. The Messenger is published when all the anticipated articles are submitted.
Thank you.
Larry Levine
Keeping You Up-To-Date
http://www.saintstephenschenectady.org/Directory/Schedules.html
Want to know who's counting the money next Sunday? Well, unless you're one of the counters, you might not care. But we now have several schedules on the web site just in case you have misplaced yours. To find the schedules, go to our web site
and click on "Information", then "Members". Not only will you be able to find schedules for acolytes, lectors, chalice bearers, The Book and the Counters, but our on-line picture directory is also available there.
These days everyone is trying to get "green". For us that means using less paper. One of the ways we can do that is to use less US mail and more e-mails. So it's important that the e-mail listings in the directory are correct. If you find any errors there, we certainly want to know about it. If we don't have your e-mail address, please share it with the parish. We are working on a new printed directory, so that's another good reason up update your family's information.
Another goodie you'll find on the "members" page is the original St. Stephen's Cookbook. To read it, you'll have to download it to your own computer. If you want, you can even print out your own copy. There are quite a few people around who contributed to that collection including Jane
Tatge, Olive Luczka and others. There are not many copies of that cookbook still around, so now it's available to everyone.
If there are suggestions about how we could make the St. Stephen's church web site more useful, please let me know.
Chris Jones, web site organizer.
***************
 Pancakes Rule!
A dinner crowd of about 80 joined together on February 24th to celebrate Shrove Tuesday before we entered the solemn season of Lent.
The annual dinner was a success.
Huge thank you's are due to all who helped in setting up, decorating, cooking, serving and cleaning.
Gregg Varno
VESTRY MEETING UPDATE - February 9 & 16, 2009
New Members
This being the first official meeting of 2009, we welcomed two new Vestry members - Carole Merrill-Mazurek and Tracy Schierenbeck. We also welcomed Liz Levine as the new Clerk.
Returning Vestry members include: Rocky Bonsal (senior warden), Barbara Wisnom (junior warden), Melinda Renken, Tracy Ormsbee, Glenn Kaler, Sid Woodcock, Susan Feyrer, Peter Nelson, and Austin Spang. Denise Crates is our Treasurer.
Please feel free to contact your Vestry members at any time if you have questions, issues or concerns you would like the Vestry to address.
Financial Reports
Denise Crates reported that financial reports for January, 2009 were not available due to computer problems in the office. These problems are being addressed by computer professionals and should be fixed soon. Denise reported that she would forward the January financial reports as soon as the problems were corrected.
Name Change
Father James reported that he has officially changed his name to "McDonald". It is no longer "Brooks-McDonald."
Finance Committee
The significant budget shortfall was discussed. Our income is projected to be approximately $20,000 less than our projected expenses. The Finance Committee presented their recommendations for dealing with the shortfall. Extensive discussion occurred regarding the various options, all of which were difficult.
After evaluating many different scenarios, a decision was made to eliminate two paid staff positions: the administrative assistant in the office and the sexton.
The Wardens and Fr. James will be meet to address how to deal with the gaps resulting from this decision. It is clear we will need much help from volunteers.
Communications Task Force
This group is now an official committee and is no longer a Task Force.
Publishing a new Parish Directory is the Committee's newest project. Efforts continue to ensure that the parish contact list is kept up to date (phone, email, etc)
Bylaws Task Force
The Vestry voted unanimously to accept the proposed bylaws. This was the second of two votes as required by our current bylaws.
The final vote by the congregation will take place at a special meeting on March 1st. The requisite announcements for this meeting have started.
Buildings and Grounds
Austin Spang provided an update on the continuing work continues on Reid House. Volunteers come on Tuesdays & Saturdays. The electricians are doing the wiring.
We ask your cintinued prayers for this project.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it for the January meeting. "See" you next month.
Contact Barbara Wisnom for questions, feedback or suggestions at 371-6187
or bwisnom@nycap.rr.com
VESTRY MEETINGS
Vestry meetings are open to all members of the congregation. Vestry meetings are held the 2nd Monday of each month at 7:30pm in the basement of the Parish Hall.
.
On very rare occasion, the Vestry may need to meet in "Executive Session" to discuss a confidential matter, and the congregation is not able to be.
Feel free to contact any member of Vestry at any time if you have questions about what goes on at Vestry meetings, or if you have something you would like to bring before the Vestry for discussion.
Please note the Vestry does not meet in July or August
Barbara Wisnom
**********************
 Help isn't on the way. It's already there
Episcopal Relief & Development reached more than 2 million people in over 40 countries last year.
Rather than impose "one size fits all" solutions, Episcopal Relief & Development supports local, long-term initiatives that address poverty, hunger, disease, economic development and disaster response where the need is greatest.
Our partnership with the worldwide Church creates opportunities to serve communities in some of the most remote areas of the world, as well as in urban environments where extreme poverty persists.
In many of these places, the Church is often one of the few institutions people trust and turn to for help.
"Go with the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they have. Build on what they know. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say, 'We have done this ourselves'
referred by Kabby
|
Lenten Study: 
Make 2009 transformative by taking advantage of these excellent CRTC opportunities:
