The following is excerpted from my Annual Report for 2011. The full report can be found either in the hard copies available on the table in the narthex, or by clicking here.

You can also listen to the Rector's 14th Annual Address by clicking here.
 

[As we begin a new year together,] we have said our goodbyes to the Rev. Jill Williams, our third Associate Rector. As you may recall, Jill came to us as a deacon right out of seminary. She was ordained a priest at St. Francis and has been a gift to us not only as priest and youth minister but also (a great bonus!) as a soprano who has supported the music ministry on both Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. She will be missed. We are glad that she will be with us to see things through as our youth minister for a while longer, but in the meantime we prepare ourselves to welcome a new Associate into our midst, hopefully not too long into this new year-perhaps as early as April 1 and hopefully not later than June 1.

The Search Committee for our next Associate Rector (Cynthia McIntyre, Chair; Jane Howell, Joe Reynolds, Julie Mankowsky, Brion Keagle, Greg McGuirin, Liz Korandanis) has already been very busy. We've had some informal conversations with three potential candidates and more importantly have listened to the parish as we try to discern where God is leading us next. A revised job description will be presented to the vestry at the February meeting for their approval, and then we will advertise the position. We anticipate and hope for second interviews with the three persons who have already expressed interest and perhaps with others as well. We will keep you posted. In the meantime, I am grateful to the Rev. Janice Schuyler, a retired priest from Maine who is part of our St. Francis family, for her willingness to help out in worship as we navigate this transition.

One ministry item that it is important for the parish to understand clearly as we move forward:  before Jill, our Associate Rectors were NOT in charge of Youth Ministry. When the Rev. Mark Hatch was hired, we had a couple who served as our Youth Ministers, Phil and Melissa LaBelle, In September 2001, when Phil began his studies at Yale Divinity School, we hired Lori Churchill as our Youth Minister. Then when Mark left, we hired the Rev. Darrell Huddleston as our Associate Rector; and Jill followed Darrell. At that point, Lori was still a member of the staff.

I remind you of this history because it was only after Lori's departure that Jill took on the youth ministry work. Initially she was hired to do basically the same work that Mark and Darrell had done previously. After Lori left, and given Jill's camp background and interests, it was the right move for us at the time. And among other things, I am very grateful that she helped us to transition to a more structured J2A/Rite 13 program, which had been identified for a number of years as a parish goal. But what that transition meant for me, and for us as a parish, is that we lost a chunk of the Associate Rector's time that had been previously focused on pastoral ministry to youth work. I ended up picking up most of that slack in terms of pastoral work, and to be honest there is more than enough of that for one person. We have been a bit short-handed for a while now. 

Moving forward, our desire is to gain some of that support back in 2012 as Jill continues (at least for the time-being) to do youth work and we now seek to hire a half-time Associate Rector. As mentioned above, we are still working on that job description. Both clergy (i.e. me-now that my kids aren't in youth group anymore-and our new Associate Rector) may end up involved with youth ministry at some level. But most likely it will be in a supporting role as we go forward. In addition, because the youth program is now a Rite 13/Journey to Adulthood program, when Jill leaves that work and we re-write the Youth Ministry job description, it will almost certainly become something more like the position of Church School Coordinator, since recruitment and training of lay leadership is now a key part of that work. (Rather than "running the whole show.")

There are two comments I want to make about this as we look forward. First of all, staff transitions always raise anxiety. (All transitions raise anxiety!) I have been here a while now, but I can still remember what it was like to arrive as a brand new rector after a lengthy and stressful interim period in the parish, and the loss of a beloved rector. Those who were here then would, I think, all agree that it was a polarizing time in the life of this congregation. In my tenure as rector, we've since had several transitions in both the music department and youth ministry. None of those transitions have been easy, and in their own way they have raised similar stresses that have rippled out to the congregation as a whole.

For my part, what I have learned is that it takes time and patience and a sense of humor to navigate change. I cannot tell you that everything will be the same in 2012 and 2013, because it most definitely won't be. I can't even guarantee it will be "better," although clearly that will be a subjective judgment. What I can say for sure is that our new Associate Rector will not be Jill; she or he will bring her or his own unique gifts to this work. At some level that will mean that my own role shifts in some subtle, and perhaps some not-so-subtle, ways. What I can tell you is that we will find, with God's help, a "new normal." I cannot tell you how long that will take, but I can tell you that we will navigate the changes best if we have trust in God and each other and open communication. I pledge to do my part in making it as smooth as possible.

Secondly, all of this will have some impact on our annual budget-more in 2013 than in 2012 since we will not be paying an Associate for a full twelve months in 2012. This is something that the Finance Committee and Vestry are well aware of, and so, too, the Stewardship Committee. Together they, and I, hope to make all of you aware of this challenge as well so that we are prepared to move forward in 2013 in doing the work we feel convinced God has called us to do. The fact that we have ended 2011 with a surprising surplus and enter 2012 with a balanced budget suggests to me that we are ready to face that challenge, and that we will meet it.

Update:
 At the Annual Meeting I announced that due to family matters, Jill will be leaving the Youth Ministry position sooner than she or we had anticipated. While she had hoped to be able to be with us through the end of this program year, that has proven to be impossible and she'll be leaving us in mid-February. I have asked Elizabeth (Simmons) Korandanis, who is already working as a volunteer with the Rite 13 group to serve as our Interim Youth Ministry Coordinator through the end of this program year. I've also asked Laura Caswell to chair the Search Committee for a new Youth Ministry Coordinator. The first task will be to revise the job description for that position. More details will follow as that plan becomes clearer, but for now I want to thank Jill for all of her work among us, as priest and youth minister and Liz for her willingness to step into this new role.