The year of our Lord 2024 has been an active and vital one for our church. According to SGGEC’s parochial report, we currently have 349 active participants, 225 active baptized members, and 199 communicants in good standing. That’s a healthy number of great people engaged in worship and ministries.
A lot happened among those ministries, too. Anywhere from 12-15 people have attended the Adult Spiritual Formation class each Sunday, led variously by Ellen Richardson, Ron Balthazor, and Wayne Coppins. The Security Committee, led by John Barrett, had produced a detailed plan of Standard Operating Procedures to cover a variety of possible emergencies the church might someday face. The Environmental Sustainability Committee, re-formed under Mark Tavernier and Maggie Reinberger, has put in motion several initiatives, ranging from the best use of our consumable resources to ideas about land ownership and use, and stands ready to advise the church on important plans involving the playground and other capital improvements.
Speaking of capital improvements, the vestry acted as sounding board for several exciting ideas put forward by Mark Reinberger and others about what SGGTG might look like moving into our second half-century. The Capital Campaign Committee, led by Stacie Court, has worked mightily to raise the funds needed to put those great plans into motion, while the Stewardship Committee, led by Alice Mohor, has worked just as hard to keep the daily life of the church on track with pledges in support of our operating budget. To date, 110 pledges have been made, totaling around total of $342,500. Meanwhile the capital campaign has raised a similar amount--around $350,000.
All of our other committees have remained vibrant and active, especially Outreach (under Cheryl Copeland), Parish Life (led by Karen Brill and Jill Crandall), and Pastoral Care (led by Rhonda Packer). I also want to mention Terri Tillman, Ron Balthazor, Pete Nichols and Anthony Barkdoll, who, although there is no formal Communications Committee, have kept our online presence strong, and of course Kendall Kookogey, who in addition to all the other ten million things she does, keeps the Chant and the service bulletins timely and appealing. And I want to thank Anna Hiers and Jay Pullin for leading the ushers so ably.
Really, I could go on to mention every other ministry—they are all vital. I’ll save the rest for another report.
Vestry members also participated in another demanding but critical activity. Under the leadership of Les House and Jeff Welch of the Finance Committee, the vestry and Finance members completed an exhaustive inventory of the church’s assets, from the chairs to the sheet music and the vacuum cleaners to the works of art—something our yearly audits and our insurance company both required that we do.
In addition, the vestry this year has approved a retroactive cost-of-living increase for our salaried staff, has approved bids to remove aging trees from our campus, has accepted the nominations of Everett Krause to succeed Les Welch as chair of Finance and of Austin Baeckeroot to succeed Les House as Treasurer, and has grappled with and approved no fewer than seven different financial policy revisions. And those are just the big things!
I’m leaving a lot out--but let me just conclude with this thought: from the top to the bottom, from the pulpit to the pews, SGGEC is in great hands. Thanks be to God!
Mark Richardson, Sr. Warden
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