Dear Fellow St. Paul’s Parishioner,
Each year a Nominating Committee, which includes four Vestry members and two parishioners at large, meets to consider names, holds conversations with potential nominees, and prepares a slate of candidates to be individually voted on for the Vestry (church leadership) election at the Annual Parish Meeting held at the end of January. Our usual practice has been significantly complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic’s making church gatherings, committee meetings, and even the voting process itself much more difficult.
Because of the pandemic, this year's Annual Meeting (and Vestry Elections) will be held online through Zoom, and as a result, the Vestry has preliminarily determined that the election process needs to be simplified. We recommend that this year’s ballot is a single slate of one nominee per seat open on the Vestry. Under this temporary approach for the 2021 election, each voting member of the parish may vote to accept or reject the entire slate. After 2021, we plan to return to our previous method of electing Vestry.
In our recent (12/11 and 12/18) weekly e-news, Grace Notes, we asked the congregation for nominations for the Vestry Class of 2024. While we have yet to receive any nominations from our invitation through Grace Notes, this year's process has also involved the Nominating Committee considering the names of approximately 50 members of the parish, the vast majority of whom have been considered/nominated in past years, to which the Nominating Committee added some additional names of newer, younger members.
Because this “single slate” election process during the pandemic would represent a change from past practice, we wanted to communicate this change with you, and allow a little more time for submission of names for consideration by the Nominating Committee.
If you wish to nominate a person (with your having determined their willingness to serve), please send that name to vestry@stpaulsrva.org by the end of the day on Sunday, December 27.
We will continue the practice of announcing the names of the nominees, along with their bios, well in advance of the Annual Meeting, scheduled for Sunday, January 24, 2021. We will send out more information regarding the Annual Meeting in early January.
Thank you for your faithful support of St. Paul's and its Vestry as we work to Proclaim Christ in the Heart of the City.
Christmas Blessings,
Vestry Nominating Committee -
Joseph James, Senior Warden
Ellen Spong, Junior Warden
Jim White, Vestry
Laura Carr, Vestry
Martha Anne Ellis, Vestry
Jeanne LeFever, At-Large
Lynn Kotrady, At-Large
