Grace Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Parish

Online Tidings

Pentecost 13, 2007

P.O. Box 51410, Colorado Springs, CO 80949
www.graceepiscopalcolosprings.org
grace.episcopal.church@gmail.com
719/328-1125

Prayer of the Week

For Schools and Colleges:

Book of Common Prayer, page 824

Be Still and Know That I am God

Services This Week

Sunday services this week will be at 12:45 pm at First Christian Church, on the corner of Platte and Cascade. Father Michael will preach, and the music will include Sacerdotes Domini by William Byrd. The hymns will be 615, 620, 524 and 518.

In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer, today we remember Cranmer Memorial Chapel in Winter Park, St. Andrew's Church in Denver, St. David of the Hills Church in Woodland Park, St. James Church in Wheat Ridge and St. John Church in Ouray.

Weekly Healing Service

We invite any who can add their voices to this weekly time of prayer and worship. There is a bonus that has developed since we are meeting at First Christian and that is that often members continue their fellowship with lunch together. All are welcome.

MOSTrust Headquarters - Changing Directions

However, in July we learned that the agreement for the purchase of the existing building could not be fulfilled because the seller had decided not to sell the property. But this is working out for the good (Romans 8:28). The MOSTrust Tanzania Trustees have now been given land by the government—3.3 acres on which a MOSTrust Center is being built. Clearing and preparation of the land is taking place now and foundations are being laid. A recent email from Bishop Alpha has assured us that the construction details are in good and proven hands.

With this change of plans, the building is being designed to fully meet MOSTrust Tanzania needs. It will enable improved and more efficient service to ministry clients, and will better establish the MOSTrust identity within the community. Bishop Alpha expects the center to be finished in late October.

Some 80% of the Center’s cost of just under $40,000 has already been contributed. Now only $8,000 more is needed to complete the funding, and you’ll have an opportunity to contribute toward this additional need in September. Please pray that this amount will be quickly donated so that MOSTrust Tanzania will be poised to serve more people more effectively!

Bill and Cindy Page, and Paul and Beth Ronka will be available at the conclusion of our services during September to answer any questions you may have about this project or about how to make a donation. Thank you.

Youth Group Rummage Sale

1. Drop off items to be sold at the Hinkles, 1523 North Tejon, between 4:00 and 8:00 pm on Friday, September 7th.
2. If the items are too big or too many for storage and transportation to the rummage sale Saturday, call or email Jim Hinkle to set up a time for a pick-up.
3. Youth group members will be calling parishioners to seek items during the next few weeks.
4. Coffee, donuts and hot dogs will be available throughout the day.

Donations will be accepted from anyone in the entire congregation, not just youth group families. Please support our youth group as they seek to move valuable treasure from one parishioner's house to another, for the benefit of MOSTrust. Email Jim Hinkle or contact him at 440-4432 if you have any questions.

Nominating and Electing Vestry Members

The basic requirements for nomination for vestry are: 

1. minimum twenty-one years old,
2. "in good standing" for at least six months prior to election (good standing means you are an Episcopalian officially on the parish roll) and
3. nominated in writing by three members of the parish in good standing. 

The Nominating Committee includes the current vestry plus Father O'Donnell and Deacon Sally.  We ask that nominees submit a brief biography showing their church and/or other relevant experience and stating their interest in serving.  The most important qualifications apart from basic eligibility are strong interest in serving the Church and willingness to give time to it.

The deadline for nominations is Sunday, August 26th.  A slate of nominees from the Nominating Committee and nominations by parish members will be published on Sunday, September 2nd.  There will be a simple ballot for the special election on September 10th.  The top three vote-getters will be elected.

What is the workload?  The vestry meets once a month usually on the third or fourth Tuesday at 7:30 pm.  Meetings may last two to three hours. There may be occasional extra meetings to deal with matters needing immediate attention.  Email traffic can be extensive at times to avoid too many extra meetings.  There are delegated oversight tasks among vestry members in areas such as finance and Christian education, communications, or oversight of our responsibilities at First Christian Church. 

Appointed vestry will serve until the next annual parish meeting, which will be held at the usual time specified in the 1974 By-Laws of the parish that still govern us.

Financial Update from the Vestry

In order to improve our financial tracking and reporting, the vestry has been working with Doug Derr, treasurer of the Sangre de Cristo Region of the Diocese, the Church of the Good Shepherd, and former treasurer of two churches back East. Doug comes highly recommended by the comptroller of the Diocese and we are very blessed to have his services.

Based on Doug’s recommendations, the vestry is setting up a three-fold financial structure. A committee of 4-5 parishioners under the direction of vestry member David Watts will oversee the structure and recommend to the vestry any adjustments or changes as the need arises. This structure is far more extensive than anything Grace Church has attempted in the past and requires some changes in the way we typically handle our finances. However, the vestry believes these changes are necessary to put in place sound internal controls, embodying standard accounting practices and procedures that will withstand the scrutiny of annual audits.

To facilitate the financial tracking and reporting for the church, Doug recommended the purchase of church accounting software. Of the four software packages considered, the vestry approved the purchase of Church Windows software. In addition to tracking all income and disbursements, individual contributions, etc., the system also records all modifications to church accounts to provide an accounting trail that documents the changes that are made. We are also purchasing a laptop that will be dedicated to this task. 

Briefly the structure is as follows:

1. Management of receipts, which means receiving and counting weekly contributions.  Approximately 4 teams of 3 counters each will rotate this assignment each week. David Nuss has offered to take responsibility for scheduling and management of the counting teams. David has been involved with the weekly counting at Grace for several years and we are grateful for his dedicated service. We will be looking for volunteers to staff these positions.
2. Data entry and maintenance of church accounts. Doug Derr is training parishioner Bill Marbaker on the use of the software. Bill is a longtime parishioner at Grace and handles the finances of his family business. Balance Sheets, Profit and Loss statements and other financial reports necessary to assist the vestry in planning and providing financial information to the parish will be generated directly from the software program, based on inputs to the system. This integrated approach for our church’s finances provides all the tools necessary to accurately gather and report on our financial health.
3. Disbursements or payment of bills and other expenses. For the time being, David Watts will be responsible for writing checks on behalf of the parish. All checks will require two signatures.

The vestry is agreed that what happened with the church’s finances in the past resulted from a lack of adequate internal controls and church accounting practices. We believe the steps we are taking are the right ones for the short term and we will continue to elaborate on them in the long term.

If you have questions about the vestry's plans, please contact David Watts at 389-0050. To volunteer for a counting team or other tasks you may email Marti Lindberg or call 636-1863. A financial statement for the second quarter of 2007 will be available to the parish after church on August 26.

Vestry Meeting and Minutes

You are invited to attend all regular monthly meetings of the Vestry. Meetings are held at La Posada del Sol Clubhouse at 2090 Mesa, on the corner of Mesa & Fillmore. Turn in the gate at La Posada del Sol -- the clubhouse is directly ahead clearly marked. The next meeting of the vestry is scheduled on Tuesday, September 25th at 7:30 pm.

Minutes of the April and May Vestry meetings can be found on the Grace Episcopal homepage.

Minutes of the June and July vestry meetings will be posted soon.

PigNic? PigOut!

Grace Bibliophiles

September -- Turning to a classic modern American novelist they will read Joyce Carol Oates' 1971 success, Wonderland. Reviewers said, "Wonderland is not a place from which one escapes unscathed but for those who care about the best in American fiction it must be visited."

October --As special as The Kite Runner was to its readers, the consensus is that A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.

November -- In this month readers will have a wide choice of books by Ruth Rendell, an English mystery writer who combines her sharp observer's eye with an analytic view of how some of our modern vices can feed our malaise. Some of her best are The Water's Lovely, The Lake of Darkness and End in Tears. The Pikes Peak Library has a good selection of these gripping books -- choose one and come to discuss with us.

Bibliophiles meet at noon on the third Friday of the month in the Chapel. The next meeting will be September 21st.

Tuesday Bible Study

• To begin to appreciate the significance of God's covenant with David for understanding the content and meaning of the New Testament.
• To understand the biblical idea of the monarchy and the Old Testament background for the Davidic covenant.
• To understand the basic outlines of the promises made to David and the shape of the Davidic kingdom under both David and Solomon.

Fall Choir Schedule

The St. Cecilia Young Adult Choir is for those who are in seventh through twelfth grades. They will rehearse, also in the chapel at FCC, Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, and participate in services on the second and fourth Sunday of each month. On those days, their warmup will also begin at noon.

The St. Stephen's & Taylor Adult Choirs are open to all adult parishioners, and will sing every Sunday. Rehearsals will be Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 in the choir room at First Christian. They will meet there Sunday at 11:45 am to prepare for worship.

For more information about joining one of these choirs, please contact Deke Polifka via email for call him at 633-7956.

Youth Group

Don't forget, the date of the MOSTrust Rummage Sale has moved to Saturday, September 8th.

Recognizing our Friends

ESM Offerings

Summer Child Care

Weekly Calendar

Contact Information