The Sunday service schedule for the month of November is:

November 6 (Communion Sunday) – Rev. Donna Kendrick-Philips
November 13 – Rev. Dori Hudson
November 20 (Memorial Sunday) – Rev. Donna Kendrick-Philips
November 27 (Hanging of the Greens) – Rev. Dori Hudson

Have you ever wondered what’s discussed at council meetings? Well, the last two times the council got together, the discussion centered around finding a new pastor. There’s a new category of interims called “transitional.” That means that the interim can become the called pastor after a designated period of time and that sounded like a good arrangement to us.

We were provided with the profile of the pastor whose church wanted to keep her but on a half-time basis. She wanted to stay but needed a full-time income. That’s where we came in. Since we also have less membership and fewer people at services, the prospect of having and paying for a half-time pastor sounded interesting. So we interviewed her and really liked her but we had to meet with her current church to see if we could work out the details. Knowing that both churches would have to make concessions, we came up with some ideas to coordinate the services and times spent with each church. They were very cooperative and easy to work with.

According to our by-laws, the council can call an interim without a congregational vote. The vote would come after the agreed-upon interim period. We want her to be our pastor and have agreed to call her but her present congregation needs to change her status with them to half-time. They will have a congregational meeting on November 20 to make that proposal. That’s why we’re not able to give you her name or the name of her current church at this time and have pledged to keep this information confidential.

After the vote of the other church, we will give you all the information such as name, starting date, etc. We’re very optimistic that she will be a good fit for St. Philip’s and that you will be as enthusiastic as we are to have her as our pastor. In the meantime, we continue to be grateful to Rev. Dori Hudson and Rev. Donna Philips for so willingly providing inspirational services each Sunday. They have been wonderful and we appreciate them so much.

Sandy
Church Council