St. George’s of Forest Hill
Parish Council Minutes for October 27, 2015
Present:
Charlotte Cromarty, Chair
Mike Stredwick
Fr. Don Davidson
John Dale, Secretary
Reta Risto
Wendy Williston
John Ryrie
Mary Shaw
Karen Baker
Nelson Cuthbert
April Couzens
Anne Taylor
Valerie Cuthbert
Judy Proctor
Murray Gamble
Vivian Harris
Mary Ann Millar
Lesley Burland-Prong
Regrets: Cheryl Fox, MaryLynn Forrest
Absent: John Shaw
1. Call to Order: At 7.30 p.m., by Charlotte Cromarty.
2. Devotions: Fr. Davidson.
3. Agenda- Additions or Revisions: Amended at the request of John Ryrie to add notification of
the need for an additional counter for the 8.15 a.m. service to item 7(a). Motion to accept the
Agenda as amended: Proposed, John Ryrie; Seconded, Judy Proctor. Carried.
4. Reading and Acceptance of the September 22nd, 2015 Minutes: Motion to accept the
Minutes of the September 2015 meeting as presented: Proposed, John Ryrie; Seconded, Nelson
Cuthbert. Carried.
5. Business Arising from the Minutes:
a) New Parish Council Members. Mary Ann Millar has prepared a description of the duties of
PC members, together with an invitation to consider joining the Council; both to be inserted in
future Bulletins. Fr. Davidson explained that our PC can have a maximum of 26 members, and
must have a minimum of 20. Now that MaryLynn Forrest has had to resign as a full-time
member, and Janet Hartry has stepped down, we are essentially at the minimum. PC members
were urged to encourage likely candidates to apply.
b) Date for Parish Auction. Nelson Cuthbert said that it was his responsibility to set the date for
the auction and currently he is thinking of a Friday or Saturday in late January or early February.
Reta Risto suggested a date just before Valentine’s Day; the latter could then provide the
theme for the auction. Nelson said he would announce a date at the next PC meeting.
c) Practice Emergency Evacuation of Church. Mary Anne Millar pointed out that it was many,
many years since a practice evacuation had been carried out, and that instructions should be
given to the congregations regarding exit procedures in a variety of emergency situations.
Lesley Burland-Prong added that ‘leaders’ such as sidespeople should also have their
responsibilities explained to them—the warden on duty, for example, would have to call 911.
John Ryrie suggested that time be taken on a couple of Sundays to explain the necessary
actions in a variety of situations to the congregations. Nelson Cuthbert offered to work on this
need with Executive; Reta Risto said that she would involve sidespeople as necessary.
d) Vestry Reports. January 24th 2016 is the date of our next Vestry Meeting. Fr. Davidson
explained that reports for Vestry have to be published and available by January 17th, and thus
must be in the hands of the church secretary by January 5th. The financial report is the only one
which cannot be prepared until after the end of December. Charlotte Cromarty said she would
ask the church secretary to put these deadlines in the bulletin. Nelson Cuthbert asked that
reports should be submitted in electronic format.
e) CLAY 2016 Planning Meeting. April Couzens reported on this meeting to which St. George’s
youth and their parents were invited. April told us that the dates for 2016 CLAY were Aug 17-22
(with programming from Wednesday 17th to Sunday 21st). The cost is $1500 per person,
although there have been commitments to diocesan fundraising given at Synod which, applied
across the board, might somewhat reduce the cost. The bus to CLAY for our youth will start in
Windsor and there will be two stops in Montreal and Fredericton, with a further chance for
sight-seeing in Quebec City. April pointed out that there is a need to initiate some serious fundraising to support youth that wish to attend. Some of St. George’s youth have expressed
interest.
6. Fr. Don’s Report.
i) On November 2nd the Deanery Great Chapter will be held at St. George’s, and the draft
budget for consideration has just been received. It shows a 1.4% increase in the appropriations
amount across the diocese, but Fr. Davidson cautioned that this may well translate into a larger
increase in the amount contributed by individual parishes because there have been church
closings during the last year.
ii) Fr. Davidson updated PC on the installation of an ambry for oil in the chapel. The ambry for
oil has to be separate from that for bread and wine, since the oil would taint the latter. He
showed us a design for an ambry with a glass front large enough to contain two cruets of oil
which has been designed by a senior at a woodworking group, who would also make it for us.
Further a location at which the ambry might be installed in the chapel has been identified.
iii) The electoral synod for the new bishop will take place on 13th February next year in London.
Each nominee needs two sponsors and so far there are eight nominees, including one from
outside the Diocese of Huron. A bishop has never been appointed from outside the diocese
before.
iv) A celebration of Bishop Bennett’s forty years in the ministry will be held on Saturday
November 28th. Eucharist will be celebrated and there will be a ticketed lunch.
v) It has been discovered that Elizabeth Appleyard’s permit to practice ministry has expired and
a police records check is required before it can be renewed. This last is being obtained speedily.
7. Standing Committee Reports:
a) Finance. Anne Taylor reported that, at the end of September, St. George’s was nearly $8000
below the budgeted income target, due almost entirely to shortfall in parishioner donations
(expenses having been held to the budgeted figure). This is worse than the situation at this time
last year because there is no major-fundraising event planned for October. Anne has looked at
October’s donations, and, although the figure is closer to budget than in August and
September, the improvement is not large enough to make up the shortfall. Our ability to break
even this year will depend on a very significant surge of giving in December.
Anne further informed us that 90% of the cost of the new roof had been paid in October, and,
as a result of ASCEND monies being used, it proved unnecessary to dip into our $40,000 line of
credit. However, the current bank balance is now almost entirely depleted.
Motion to accept the financial statements for August 2015 as presented: Proposed, Anne
Taylor; Seconded, Judy Proctor. Carried.
John Ryrie said that another counter was needed for the 8.15 a.m. service. PC members were
urged to suggest the names of individuals who might be approached.
b) Outreach. Reta Risto said that she has taken 15 bags of outerware for the Share the Warmth
initiative to the Salvation Army, who will open their warehouse to those who need the clothes
on November 7th. There is also a considerable current need for single-use socks for the
homeless, and she is considering a sock drive. Some ground beef for St. John’s Kitchen has been
collected, but Reta will wait until more has been brought in before she delivers it. The Angel
Tree and Angels will be erected for November 22nd, and arrangements are in hand for the
Christmas Market on November 21st. A sign advertising the market has been ordered and will
be erected outside the church on the Monday of that week. Reta also reported that a schedule
of sidespeople (scheduled and spares) is now available on the bulletin board in the narthex.
John Ryrie indicated that he took 125 lbs. of donated food to the Food bank on Monday 26th
October.
c) Property. Murray Gamble stressed that we should obtain a WSIB statement and statutory
declaration from the Roofman before completing payment for the new roof. It was decided that
the Fall Clean-up would occur on Saturday 7th November from 9-11.30 a.m. Murray asked that
this information should be put in the bulletin and highlighted by the warden on duty at both
services. He emphasized that we should give very careful consideration to the plans for our new
and re-furbished signs, making sure that the two complement each other and stay within
municipal requirements. Nelson Cuthbert agreed to try to fix a dripping tap in the Handicapped
Washroom and do what he could about a slow draining urinal in the Men’s Washroom (the
fundamental problem in this case is a drainage pipe of insufficient diameter below the
basement floor—this would be very expensive to fix). Nelson further reported that, as
compensation for the penetration of roofing nails into the chapel (repair of this ongoing) the
Roofman will re-roof the flat portion of the roof, fix soffits to the gables and fix the eavestroughing along the chapel side of the roof at no additional expense. Also, new LED bulbs have
been installed on the lamp standards in the parking lot and the damaged lens on these lights
have been replaced. The driveway light is no longer on a motion detector and the bulb has been
replaced by a low-wattage LED unit.
d) Worship. Wendy Williston indicated that next meeting of the worship committee will be next
week. Nelson Cuthbert pointed out that there was now a critical need for the committee to
address the lack of Sunday School teachers. Anne Taylor said that, due to a change in the
curriculum being delivered from an ‘academic’ type involving worksheets etc., to more ‘handson’ activities, there was no need for potential recruits to feel intimidated by the need to
actually ‘teach,’ what was needed was more a kind of enthusiastic supervision. Murray Gamble
said that there was a need to articulate this to those people who might be interested. Anne said
that there was an urgent need for Susan Hipperson to be reassured that the problem of lack of staff will
be fixed, and that there will be a Sunday School next year. It was pointed out that some parishioners
have selected St. George’s simply because it has a Sunday School.
e) Atmosphere. Mary Ann Millar indicated that material for the next edition of the Dragonflyer
must be delivered to Mark Mennel by November 16th. John Ryrie asked April Couzens to insert
material about CLAY.
f) RENEW/ASCEND. Valerie Cuthbert said that the current focus of the committee is the parish
potluck this Friday. Sign-up for helpers has been excellent, but a few more are needed for setup and clean-up. Fr. Davidson indicated that he will probably do his presentation in the church,
because a screen is available. He will essentially repeat the presentation at St. Anne’s Byron,
and said that it was of interest that the latter (which was given at a Friday Coffee Hour which St.
Anne’s runs monthly) attracted 40 people, of whom only 15 were active parishioners; the
conclusion being that such events do have the potential to attract newcomers from the local
community to church.
g) Memorial Garden. Karen Baker and John Ryrie indicated that there has been no meeting of
the committee to discuss raising the rates. There will be a report to PC at the next meeting.
8. New Business.
a) Mary Ann Millar reported on an initiative run this summer by Forest Hill United Church. One
evening a week Food Trucks were invited to set up on the church premises and 10% of the
profits was donated by the truck owners to the church. Unofficial reports indicate income to
the church of $350-$500 per week. Forest Hill United plans to repeat the initiative this summer,
but apparently has no objection to St. George’s running a similar event. It was pointed out that
Fisher-Hallman is busier than Westmount and that such an event could be very profitable to St.
George’s. Teams of 8-10 people would be needed for about 10 weeks to supervise the events. It
was agreed that Mary Ann should approach representatives of the Food Trucks to determine if
they are interested in events at St. George’s.
b) Lesley Burland-Prong suggested that there was a need to advertise opportunities at St.
George’s which would allow High School students to satisfy their requirement for Volunteer
Hours (these can now be worked on from July 1 of their Grade 9 year). Opportunities such as
work in the Sunday School, Fall Clean-up and at the Christmas Market were identified. Fr.
Davidson thought that the Dragonflyer was the best place for such information, and Valerie
Cuthbert suggested Facebook and that information should be given to the Youth Group.
9. Correspondence. None.
10. Upcoming Dates and Events:
- October 30th. Parish Potluck
- November 2nd. And 5th. Dream for Uganda concerts.
- November 7th. Messy Church and Fall Clean-up (morning).
- November 8th. Remembrance Day service—contemporary service including Praise Band.
- November 14th. Wedding at the church.
- November 15th. Meat Pie Lunch
- November 21st. Christmas Market; Men’s Breakfast in a.m.
- November 24th. Next PC Meeting (7.30 p.m.). Chair Wendy Williston; Secretary, John Dale;
Devotions, Valerie Cuthbert; Refreshments, April Couzens.
- November 27th. Brother Mark’s Advent Quiet Day from 7 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
- November 28th. Bell Ringers’ concert.
- November 29th. Memorial Service.
- December 13th. Lessons and Carols service.
- December 20th. Church Pageant.
- December 24th (Thursday) Christmas Eve services.
- December 25th. Christmas Day.
- December 27th. One service at 9.00 a.m.
- December 29th or 30th. St. George‘s to run lunch at St. John’s Kitchen.
- January 24th, 2016. Vestry Meeting.
- February 13th, 2016. Diocese of Huron Electoral Synod at St. Paul’s London for new Bishop.
- June 12th, 2016. Church Picnic at Mannheim Community Centre.
11. Adjournment:
8.40 p.m. Proposed; Valerie Cuthbert. Carried.