Church Council Meetings
Highlights
from the September 10,2003 Church Council Meeting
Desi
Larson spoke to the Council about the web as a Ministry of School Street UMC. It
promotes the mission of the church and can be a powerful tool. She asked the
Council’s permission to change the host of our web site to “E-zekiel” and
the web name to a shorter name. The cost would be between $20 and $30 to do
this. Upgrading School Street site to a bronze level would give us more
capability and a slicker look. What we have now is free but very basic. It was
moved and seconded that School Street go with “E-zekiel” as a host for the
web site. The Council vote was unanimous.
Rev.
Arnold showed us a configuration of the New England Conference. There are 8
Districts now instead of 10. School Street is included in the Tri State District
rather than the Southern District, and Rev. Paul Chang is the District
Superintendent. Rev. Arnold said this administrative change does not affect the
way we do business.
Trustees:
Sweetser was interested in doing a pre-school program in the space formerly used
by the Co-Op Preschool. The Trustees had no objection to this; but after
discussing the matter, the Council decided not to give Sweetser the option to
rent the space because of our vital Sunday School program.
Staff
Parish Relations Committee:
Linda Barker is taking over the directorship of the Nursery on Sunday mornings.
She will be getting the parents involved for each Sunday morning as well as
Junior and Senior High students.
Learning
Community:
Thirty-six attended the Fall Retreat at Mechuwana on September 5, 6 & 7. It
was a huge success. Vacation Bible School had an attendance of 140 children.
Fifty children attended the “Back to Scuba” Party on August 20th. Two more
Sunday School teachers, Lori McCarty and Marcia Trail, have been added to the
staff.
Building Committee: The Gorham Planning Board approved the building plans for Cressey Road UMC at the meeting on September 9 by a unanimous vote, and we have everything needed to get the permit.
Outreach
Committee: The
Caring Network Program will
be off and running by October 15th.
A plaque will be placed in a Sunday School room in memory of Lauren Hawkes.
Highlights
From The May 14th Church Council Meeting
The
Trustees met April 30th. The main agenda was the offer from a realtor
that wanted to list SSUMC. It was decided not to list the Church with one
realtor. This was brought to the Council as a recommendation, and the
Council agreed with this decision.
The
Worship Committee met on May 11th to set up the summer Worship Service
schedule. The summer Worship Hour of 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM will begin on
Sunday, June 15th, and continue through and include the Sunday of Labor Day
week-end, August 31st. The early Praise Service will be combined with the
regular service for the summer months. The Praise Service time of 9:00 AM
and the regular service time of 10:30 AM will resume on Sunday, September
7,2003. The Council approved this recommendation..
The
Learning Community reported that Vacation Bible School will be June 23rd-27th.
The Church Retreat will be September 5th, 6th & 7th. SSUMC is not able
to have the Retreat fundraiser at Sam’s this year, so the Learning
Community is working on finding another fundraiser.
Outreach
Committee reported that the Root Cellar
meal put on by School Street will be either the 12th or 19th of June. There
are 8-10 people who have signed up to be sectional disciples or chaplains in
the Caring Network program, so we are moving ahead slowly.
Building
Committee reported that
we have everything that is needed to go to the Code Enforcement Officer and
are just waiting for all the permitting to be in place.
The Youth Group has sold 150 of “The Faith We Sing” books. These will be dedicated on June 8th, and the Youth are also buying 33 of “The Faith We Sing” -one in honor or memory of each of the 33 pastors of SSUMC since 1880. The Youth Group has done a great job with this project.