February 29, 2008 Notice of Congregational Meetings

Dear E-pistle subscriber:

Last week, you should have received a memo in the mail from Ken Getty, your Senior Warden. The purpose of the memo was to invite you to attend an informational session after church this Sunday, March 2, with a make-up session to be held after the 11:15 service on Sunday, March 9, in preparation for a Congregational Meeting to be held on Sunday, March 30.

As Ken said in his memo, we’re making a lot of progress on our goals: ensuring that each parishioner of St. James’ is inspired, equipped, and empowered to serve as an active disciple within the Christian community of St. James’, and further extending Christ’s love to the world by enabling and encouraging each parishioner to become involved in hands-on service projects in the local community, the nation, and the world.

Ken also told you that as part of the mission-driven renovation and expansion, we announced a six-year, two-phase, $10 million capital campaign. The first phase, Laying the Foundation, will run from 2008 until 2010, and will focus on investments in, improvements to, and renovations to our existing infrastructure. The second phase, Building on the Foundation, will run from 2010 to 2013, and will be focused on new construction. We’re now completing plans for the first fund-raising initiative, which will begin this spring and continue into the fall of 2008.

The Congregational Meeting on March 30 is being held for two reasons: the first is to consider a motion to take advantage of recent lower interest rates by approving the refinancing of the King Street properties; the second is to approve one of two design plans of the parking lot to be constructed in the 2010-12 timeframe.

During Sunday’s information sessions, you’ll be presented information about two plans for the 2010-2013 construction phase: one which would attempt to preserve the ash tree in the center of the parking lot, at the cost of making no improvements to our traffic flow, and one which would remove the tree, replacing it with additional trees in a landscape plan favoring better traffic flow.

These informational sessions are intended to present the pros and cons of each of these two possible approaches, so the congregation will have plenty of information, and time, to consider which option is best.

I hope you will make every effort to attend one of the Information Sessions and the Congregational Meeting itself.

See you Sunday,

Fr. John