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The articles below are excerpted from the 2006 Westminster Presbyterian Church Annual Report to the Congregation. |
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The
Spiritual Formation committee consisted of 5 members: Marcia Stockton, Chair Marian Bauer, Director of Christian Education Kathleen Owens, Youth Coordinator Sandra Cole, Chair of Adult Education Doug Halls, Elder-Personnel
This
committee met monthly to coordinate program plans for children, youth and
adults. Nursery/Children—up to 4th Grade The nursery has been staffed by three female college students who worked
out a schedule so that two of them are present each Sunday. Parents of infants and toddlers have been
pleased with the quality and consistency of care provided by the young women. The SPLASH program has continued under the leadership of
Ruth Hein. It is a program for parents
of out youngest children held monthly on Saturday mornings to assist them in
nurturing the spiritual formation of their children and to provide time for
family fellowship. 9th Hour
Sunday School — children age 3 – Pre-K was taught by Kate Fletcher and
Linda Kwiatkowski. Kindergarten through
4th grade
children participated in a variety of activities as part of a workshop
rotation during 9th hour. Teachers included Marian Bauer, Susan Bush,
Denise Meier, Juanita Halls, and Carl Martin.
The 9th Hour for all
children began with music (singing
and instruments) with help from Sandy Curran, Liane Kosaki, Susan Bush, Jamie Ringsmuth,
and Joe Chrisman. Worship Education took place after the Children’s
Message in the worship service for children age 4—grade 2. Children worked on worship words and phrases
and completed art work related to these worship symbols. Linda Kwiatkowski, Jamie Ringsmuth, and Marian Bauer helped with leadership. Vacation Bible School was held June 22-26 for children age
3 - finishing 4th grade. Sunday, June
22 was an intergenerational VBS Preview after
worship in Fellowship Hall. The
children’s program took place Monday-Thursday, 5:30-7:45, and included a
simple supper, Bible stories, crafts, science lab, and music. VBS
coordinators were Susan Bush and Liane Kosaki. Youth Programs 5th-12th grades The
youth program grew in many directions over the course of 2008. January
through May the middle and high school students participated in a study of
the entire Gospel of Mark led by Kathleen Owens and Nancy Zellmer
during the Sunday School hour. During Lent we met on Wednesday evenings as
part of the congregational Lenten series to create a video about what Micah 6:8 means to
us. We were able to upload our video, “ In
July we provided two opportunities for youth trips. Noah
Thornburg, Joseph Bailey, Carolyn Curran, Evangeline Smith, Sandy Curran,
Kate Curran, Alex Thornburg, and four people from Cambridge-Oakland
Presbyterian Church went to In August we started a new program for youth at Several opportunities for mission activities were also provided,
including sorting food at the Allied Drive Food Pantry, and shopping for
Christmas gifts for our Angel Tree. We also enjoyed fellowship activities as
a group, including going to the Thai Pavilion at Olbrich
Botanical Gardens to learn about SPAM would not be successful without the countless volunteers who have helped
with the program. There are over a dozen people who have brought snacks for
our ever-hungry youth and many others who have lifted the program up in
prayer. Doug Halls, Kathy Granquist, and Marcia
Stockton each come one week a month to help lead our gatherings. Cynthia
Bush, Heidi Miller, Ed Miller, Carl Martin, Marcia Stockton, Thatcher Root,
Dave Granquist, Kathy Granquist,
and Sam Buffat have participated in our special
activities. In Sunday
School this fall
we participated in several studies. In September there was a series on the
meaning behind the different parts of the worship service. In October and
November we had a study of different religious traditions, including Judaism,
Islam, and Hinduism. In December we had a focused study on Advent. Teachers
were: Kathleen Owens, Alex Thornburg, Jennifer Meyer, and Joe Chrisman. In September we revived the Youth Council, which did
not meet until this point in the year. We established a meeting time of every
third Sunday following worship. The Youth Council co-moderators are Kate
Martin and Evangeline Smith. The Youth Council has worked to make decisions
about where we will go for our 2009 mission trip (Sault Ste. Marie, In December
we began a confirmation program
with Dale Heights Presbyterian Church and Cambridge-Oakland Presbyterian
Church. There are twelve confirmation students in the program, nine from |
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The
membership committee contacts members who are no longer active in the
worship, work and/or the financial support of Westminster to see if they wish
to be classified as inactive or deleted from our roles. We are required to pay a per capita
assessment on all active members to the Presbyterian Church (USA) to cover it's budget. Half
of our members paid their per capita in 2008.
The rest were covered out of the church budget. This year thirty members were moved to an
inactive status and nine were deleted. The committee oversees the printing of the church directory, maintains
the name tag board in the narthex and posts membership news on our bulletin
board in fellowship hall. Committee
members: Lee DeSpain, Session Marilyn Potter, Deacon Barb Vogelsang,
congregation Mary
Jean Bartholomew, staff |
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The
Mission Committee continued its work and completed its vision for 2008. The
Global Mission focus of winnowing will be accomplished with the
recommendation of eliminating The Crossing funding for 2009. We
now have one large Global Mission — and one large local
mission—Allied Drive Partners. We
continue to support one other global, four local ministries, two local
Homeless agencies, and four local community programs. The proposals which have come to us
throughout the year were addressed with many receiving financial support
and/or time and talent. The Mission
Possible Fair held in November was a tremendous success with 22 participating
booths. A pictorial CD was prepared. The recommendation of the Mission
Committee is to follow up with fairs every three to five years. Three Minutes for
The
Peace Making Offering will be directed by the Mission Committee as 25% of it
returns to our church for mission endeavors. There are two file drawers in
the office for this committee. We instituted reading new correspondence as
part of the monthly meeting. VISION An
increase of 10% of the total budget is requested from the committee for 2009.
The committee recommends a strong initiative to send church members to
integral conferences using the Peace Making Funds available to us. We have
found having a reserve of non-designated funds beneficial as new requests
come in monthly. COMMITTEE
MEMBERS:
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The
nominating committee for 2008 consisted of Teresa
Bear, Joyce Buseman, Cynthia Bush, Margo LaPerre, and Walt Pridham;
current elder Cynthia Bush served as chair, and elder Julie Madden served on
occasion as advisor from the previous year’s committee. We were officially
recognized at the congregational meeting on May 11th, but we
began our organizational duty on May 7th in the conference room and continued
meeting there over the summer and fall. Since not everyone was able to
be present at the same time for each meeting, we kept in touch by phone and
email also. We
began by compiling a list of likely candidates from the directory of church
members who were active, attended church regularly, who were neither
currently serving nor had very recently served as church officers, and aiming
for a balance of men and women and between recent and long-time
members. We gratefully followed a few suggestions that came from the
congregation and minister in our first list of forty names, whom we
eventually contacted throughout the summer and into the fall. Our youth
leader, Kathleen Cook Owens, recommended several young people whom we might
ask to be the youth deacon, and we were fortunate in getting an acceptance
from our first contact. By the grace of God, four people quickly agreed to serve as elders and
two as deacons before August 6th; it has taken longer to find the
necessary deacon candidates, but at the November 9th meeting of
the congregation five elders and four deacons were
elected. Thanks to a change in the By-laws, we are now permitted to ask
couples to serve as deacons. Our committee has continued the search
process through December; a former elder has
graciously agreed to fill the last year of an unexpired elder term. We
are still working and hoping to fill two vacancies in the deacons. The
incoming officers for the class of 2010 are Ron Behling,
Sue Bridson, Beau Meyer, Bruce Murray, Bill Vogelsang, elder; Arnie
Chandler, Agnes Dako, Sue Hummel, and Kathy Granquist (2009) as deacon, and Liane
Kosaki for elder class of 2009. Our youth deacon is
Carolyn Curran. Respectfully submitted by Cynthia Bush, Chair, Nominating
Committee 2008 |
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The Personnel Committee (PC) of WPC met ten times in the calendar year
2008. Committee members for 2008 were;
John Wright (Chair), Doug Halls, Ed Cothroll, Doug
Rouse, Sue Jerome, Kate Fletcher, Bill Vogelsang,
and Alex Thornburg as ex officio Head of Staff. Elders Doug Halls and John Wright
represented the Session, and Doug Rouse, Sue Jerome, Kate Fletcher, and Bill Vogelsang represented the Congregation. Ed Cothroll was the previous committee chair and provided
leadership continuity. The Personnel Committee by description and policy has
seven members including the Chair who is always an elder in the current
Session. The Committee tries to
represent all groups within the church whenever possible and the number of Session
representatives cannot exceed the number of Congregational
representatives. Also by custom the
Committee tries to rotate the chair to continuing Session members, and asks
that the outgoing chair remain on the Committee in order to provide continuity. During 2008 the Personnel Committee’s
agenda included the following subjects:
We appointed Bill Vogelsang for a three year term as a Congregational
Member. At the beginning of the year,
we discussed the on-going budget deficit and our previous efforts to examine
ways that it can be reduced. We decided that there was little more that we
could do to trim our spending further and that we were committed to
continuing our efforts to increase the income through congregational growth
and increased congregational commitment. We also did not want to pursue any
issues associated with staff changes. The committee approved a Memo
of Understanding to define the conditions for Alex serving as a Theologian in
Residence. The Memo of Understanding states that Alex can be part of At the beginning of 2008, the committee
revisited the on-going search for a permanent Youth Coordinator. Kathleen
Owens had been serving as the interim Youth Coordinator. We decided that we
would continue having Kathleen serve in that capacity and postpone a search
for a permanent Youth Coordinator. The committee
discussed the administration of the WPC web site and decided the web site
administration should be overseen by the Head of Staff. We also discussed the
responsibility for the administration of the office and any changes that might
be made to update the office. We decided that the Head of Staff is
responsible for administration of the office and if it is necessary for a
Session committee to be involved, the Head of Staff will refer the question
to the suitable committee. For example, if the staff recommends that a new
piece of equipment
needs to be added to the office, the Head of Staff would refer the request to
the Property and Finance Committee. In preparation for the annual
staff evaluations, the committee decided to develop a series of questions
that were specific to the individual staff members. We forwarded the
questions to the staff and then pairs of the Personnel Committee members met
with the staff to discuss their answers and their performance during 2008.
Alex provided his annual review of his goals and objectives. The entire
committee participated in his annual review and a discussion of his goals and
objectives. The committee is pleased with his performance and approves of the
goals and objectives that he is planning for 2009. Alex is also intending to
finish his Ph.D. thesis in Spring, 2009. The committee reviewed the
budget situation, attendance figures, pledge increases, congregational
growth, and the projections for our financial situation in the future. We
decided that there was no indication that our financial situation was
improving or that our situation would improve in the future. We also decided
that further delay would threaten our future financial options. After a great
deal of discussion, we decided that the only viable option for bringing our
budget into balance and preserving our financial security was to eliminate
the Director of Christian Education position after December 31, 2008. On
September 23, John and Alex met with Marian to tell her about the decision
after the Session approved the recommendation of the Personnel Committee. The committee recommended and
Session approved a severance package for Marian that includes three months of
salary, 6 months of continuation coverage insurance for health care, and moving expenses. The committee also invited
Marian to suggest other ways that we could ease her transition to another
position. The Personnel Committee worked
with the Spiritual Formation Committee to define a strategy to continue
supporting the children and youth programs. The joint committees decided to
create a part-time Interim Coordinator for Spiritual Formation (CSF) position
that will continue for 6 months. The Interim CSF will identify the needs and
program goals for an effective children and youth Spiritual Formation Program
and work with the Personnel Committee and the Session to define a position
description for a permanent CSF. The
Interim CSF will also coordinate and unify the education activities of the
church into an integrated and effective ministry of Christian Education and
Spiritual Formation for children and youth. In addition, the Interim CSF will
work with the Seasonal Planning Teams and the congregation to identify
Christian Education needs and work on ways that we as a parish might address
those needs. The program will coordinate all activities for children and
youth, support the work of the Sunday School, develop educational
opportunities for children of all ages, and provide opportunities for
intergenerational events. The Chair wishes to thank all the
members of the Personnel Committee for their contributions during the 2008
calendar year. Submitted by
John Wright, Chair 2008 |
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For
the seventh year in a row We met with Roberts Construction in the spring to get suggestions for
alleviating the congestion and accommodating the coffee hour in the narthex
and reconfiguring the office to reduce distractions and improve productivity. US Cellular: We signed a contract on July 29th permitting them to install
antennae on our chimney with a platform on the ground to hold cabinets for
the radio and battery. They will pay
us $15,000 a year when the work is done and operating. Session voted that Stewardship will now handle the four yearly special
offering - Joy, One Great Hour of Sharing, Pentecost, and Peace. Session voted to continue Dave Granquist as
church treasurer with assistants Linda Tanke, Peggy
Douma, Alice Paremski,
Nell Seiberlich, and Peggy Zimmer. A bicycle rack was installed by the handicapped entry, coat rack removed
by the lounge and a closet opened up as a coat rack by the office. The seven outdoor planters, seasonal
bouquets on tables in fellowship hall and nature photos with scripture in the
restrooms started by last years property committee were continued in 2008. MATC, TOPS, AA, PRISM, Kaleidoscope, 7 girl scout troops, a community
choir, TRIAD, On Track, Westside Garden Club, We
wish to thank our custodian Joe Brennan, crossing guard Jim Kohl, Bill
Butler, Larry Graham, unnamed others and especially John Tarr
who handles our financial affairs, keeps an eye on the property and
grounds, makes arrangements for activities in the building, and much
more. The committee: Lee DeSpain chair, Julie Madden, Don Thomson, Walt Pridham, Ed Cothroll, and Jim
Marshall. Submitted by
Lee DeSpain, Chair |
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Women of |
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Having
organized women into Presbyterian Women's circles more than 70 years ago as
part of the national organization, PWW the oldest group still
functioning in The purpose of PW is: 1.
to nurture our faith
through bible study - this year's bible study is Jubilee! Luke's Gospel for
the Poor. 2. to support the
mission of the church worldwide - this year we supported: Presbytery,
Synod and National levels of the Presbyterian Church ( Allied
Drive Eviction Fund
$2,350 Allied
Drive Wellness Center
850 Allied
Drive On Track Parties
350 Triangle
Ministry
300 Interfaith
YWCA
Homeless Programs
250 Church
Women Church
Women United Fair Share dues 50 Income to support these missions came from: Members
second-mile giving
$1,562 Christmas
auction
$775 Spring/fall
rummage sales $4,349.51 We
thank Beth Swedeen, Sara Pope, Ruth Hein and so
many others who make the rummage sales such a success. 3. to work for justice and peace - in the
Fellowship of the Least Coin we join with women around the world for these
goals. 4. to build an inclusive. caring community of
women - we invite any interested woman
to visit or join one of our three circles meeting monthly September through
May either on the second Tuesday at 9:30 AM, the second Tuesday at 1:00 PM or
the second Thursday at 5:30 (includes supper) in the lounge. Look for news
of the PW Gathering in PWW Board Lee DeSpain,
Secretary Alice Paremski,
Treasurer Ruth Hein, Membership Mary Jean Bartholomew, study resource Kathy
Granquist, Lee DeSpain
and Ruth Hein, Circle contact persons |
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The
Worship Committee plans the liturgical calendar for Holy events such as
Advent, Lent, Epiphany, Pentecost, and other worship events such as weddings,
funerals, baptisms, and communion. To quote the Worship Committee
Responsibilities committee description; The responsibilities of the Worship Committee center
around the functions in and around the Sanctuary,
and oversees the physical and the spiritual needs of Four people to serve communion (Joel Jones) Four people to usher for every service, and two
people to greet (MargoLaPerre) Liturgists (Carol Wright) Sound engineers (Jon Tanke
& John Tarr) Tuning pianos and harpsichord (Joel Jones) Organ tuning scheduled by (Joe Chrisman) Altar Guild to keep the Sanctuary pristine (Linda
Tanke, Marilyn Potter, Maxine Jurrens,
Lee DeSpain &Gloria Stange) Maintaining our web site (Jon Tanke,
John Tarr, & Bill Owens)
<westminstermadison.com> Advertising special worship services, such as
Christmas Eve, the service of Nine Lessons and Carols, Good Friday and
Easter. (Michaeline Hansen, John Tarr and Joel Jones). The
Worship Committee budget is used to fund special music and to support costs
associated with worship: The Jazz Society Service held in April and the Gaudete
Brass Quintet, which played for the Nine Lessons and Carols held in December. Minister of Music (Joe Chrisman) The Chancel Choir accompanist (Dorothy Blotz). The Galilean Choir director (Nancy Prine). Copyright Licenses for music used in our services. Honoraria for pulpit supply. New
policies initiated this past year included Church cancellation for inclement
weather and emergency pulpit supply. During
2008 the Worship Committee engaged, together, in the following activities to
support worship at We reflected in depth on the responses to the
Worship Survey, summarized our reflections, and identified approaches to
responding to comments, requests and issues raised in the survey. Carol
Wright provided leadership to this activity by collating and organizing the
many responses. A Wedding manual was finalized and submitted to
the Session. The committee studied the book by Marva J. Dawn, How Shall
we Worship; Biblical Guidelines for the Worship Wars to help us
better understand worship as the central practice, along with the mission of
our congregation. We reviewed the paraments we
have and discussed plans for new paraments, examined
what might be needed to new plants, floral arrangements for the final
creation of a worshipful sanctuary setting. Our heartfelt thanks to the staff of Respectfully
submitted, Bill
Owens.............. Session
Member Karen Pridham Session
Member Jon Tanke............... Session
Member Mary Ihlenfeldt
Member
Harriet
Vander Meer.............. Member Rod Johnson
Member Carol
Wright......................... Member
Margo LaPerre
Member |
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