Spiritual Life and Worship

Minutes - November 6, 2008 7:30pm – 9:00p

For the opening prayer Betsy read a beautiful meditation on the persona of “Joy” from the “Book of Qualities”.

The October Minutes were reviewed and approved.

Updates from John
John let us know that we have a vacancy for church secretary. Jodie Ramsey is doing a wonderful job filling in and will train the new secretary. We currently have four candidates we are considering.

Special services – John told us that he thought the dedication of the chancel went well, and applauded Chris Keiter’s work in making everyone involved feel welcome. John reminded us that this coming Sunday is the dedication of the kickoff of the 275th anniversary celebration. He also asked for feedback on the new method of serving of communion with deacons seated as part of the congregation. Our consensus was that the new way of serving was generally going well and John heard some positive feedback from both participating deacons and the congregation about this more “intimate” way of serving.

Pastor parish relations meets in two weeks. John will take them first draft for plans concerning church life during John’s sabbatical.

Conversation on “What is Worship?”
Betsy shared that Elsa asked us to put this item on the agenda as a way to reignite conversations that had happened during the discernment process about alternate worship services. SLW was seen as a body that would be interested in hosting a congregation conversation about these opportunities. We talked about the difference between “What is Worship” being a different focus than “What are other special worship opportunities?” We all agreed that Chris Mills, Elsa, Peggy Murray and the others who initiated this idea should be part of this discussion. Betsy said she’d email this group and try to find a time for them to meet with SLW.

On-Going Events/discussion
• By-Laws Update - Council is working on it.
• SL & W Mailbox Responsibility - Betsy generously volunteered to attend to this.
• Pew Papers - Betty Deschaine has generously volunteered to attend to this.
• Use of Multimedia in Worship Service - Rick shared that Bryan and he went to Saco to review the multimedia system in the First Parish church there. Rick said that chapel service there was similar to ours, but with the addition support multimedia. He said the church there intends to expand their ministry through worship. We discussed copyright issues and how we might implement multimedia services in our church. Bryan shared that he thought SLW could help facilitate such a service if the energy and idea came from a group in the church. Rick said that there were resources from first Parish that would help us with this. We saw this as a service to have at a different time than chapel or 10 am service. Rick wants to research some more by going to other services and said that the growth group has interest about this as well. Deb suggested we put an article in the Beacon about our church’s capabilities. Rick saw multimedia as a way to stimulate growth in our church. We had a discussion about what would be needed in terms of cost, resources, and staff involvement to get something like this to be a regular worship opportunity at church. Rick said he could talk to Abby about the steps needed to implement such a plan.
• November Coffee Hour Schedule.

Upcoming Events – For next month
• 275th Anniversary Celebration – November 9.
• November Coffee Hour Schedule and Coordination.
• Advent.

New Items?

Shirley’s Request – Shirley reminded us that she sent us a memo about the use of the sanctuary for the upcoming Longfellow concert. Betsy mentioned that Chris spoke for the council in authorizing SLW to make the decision about permitting this to happen, but asked if there would be a fee for the concert. John recommended that since there was admission charged that we let the council make the final decision. The SLW sent the request to the council with our endorsement for the concert. Debbie expressed her appreciation that the new sanctuary was welcoming people outside of the church.

SLW expressed their strong endorsement for appropriate use of the sanctuary by outside groups as a way to introduce our church to the wider community. Issues such as security and charging fees made this an issue that needs to be considered by the church council.

Budget
• $2500 for SLW budget will stay the same.
• Combined SLW and music budget will go from $7205 to $7380 (music committee ($4880 - $175 more and SLW budget – increase for piano maintenance).
• $600 for signing last few years $345 used to date – balance is available for Christmas Eve signing.

Hymnal Info - moved that we approve memorial fund for $3900 for new hymnals.

Next Meeting Date: December 4th – 7:00 p.m. next time.
• Items for next month’s Agenda?
• Volunteer for November’s Opening Prayer – Bryan; taking Minutes – Betsy.

Adjourn