As of Friday, June 13, Vacation Bible School 2014, Wilderness Escape, is full. We cannot accept any more registrations at this time.  However, we do still need help from older youth. If your child is available to volunteer, please contact Leland Baldwin, Director of Christian Education. You can also contact her for any other questions regarding VBS.

We are thrilled with the response, and look forward to sharing our Wilderness Escape with those children who are already signed up! 

Dear Fellow St. John's Parishioners,

The members of the Vestry want to update you on our progress as of the end of May.  A good portion of the Vestry attended the Diocesan-wide Annual Vestry Retreat and training Saturday, May 10th, at DaySpring. We heard great presentations by Bishop Smith, Canon Michael Durning, Ann Vickers (the Diocesan CFO), and Martha Goodwill (our Diocesan Administrator).  These presentations focused on the role of the Vestry in a normal course of operations of a parish, as well as statistical data showing how St. John's compares to other parishes in the diocese. The retreat was very helpful to us in our goal of normalizing our Vestry functions and duties as it gave all of us a great deal of useful information.

On Saturday, May 31st, the Vestry held a second retreat with Canon Durning and Fr. Connelly.  Canon Durning helped us in expressing, in this stage of our history, where the Vestry feels we are as a parish and where we are headed.

Following the retreat the Vestry met with Canon Durning for the planning of our next steps.  In keeping with the wishes of the Bishop, the Vestry will be working on a process of discernment for the parish over the next 30 to 60 days. 

The goal of this process is to gather input from all of the parish members on several important questions.  Some of these questions include

• As a community of Christians - who are we now and who do we want to become?  
• Where is God calling St. John's now?  Is there a new vision for St. John's? 
• What leadership qualities will take St. John's on the road toward our vision for the future? 
• Prayerfully - what do we see as God's will for St. John's?  

As a part of that discernment process, the Vestry will host small group meetings that will be open to all members of the parish after each of the Sunday services during the month of June. We don't know the specific locations yet, but the schedule will be 

• This Sunday, June 22 -- After the 9:00 a.m. service and after the 11:15 a.m. service

This schedule allows for summer travel and should give everyone an opportunity to participate.  If you are out of town and unable to attend any of these gatherings, please feel free to put a letter in either of the Wardens' mailboxes in the hall near the parish offices, mail a letter to one of the Wardens, or email the wardens at srwarden@stjohnstampa.org or jrwarden@stjohnstampa.org.  

We want to hear from you! Please join us at one of the six opportunities in June to listen to your fellow parishioners and to offer your prayerful response to these questions. 

Team 2 is in the middle of their week of hard work and ministry in the DR, having left on Sunday, June 15!  Thanks for your time and dedication, youth and adult missioners!