Minutes of August 25th, 2011

Mission Task Force Minutes
August 25, 2011
Noon – 2:00 pm, St. Paul’s Pawtucket

Noonday Prayer in the chapel (15 min.)
Since most of us were late arriving our Chaplain, Bill Locke, got us started with a short prayer. In attendance: Jennifer Pedrick, Modesta Pellot, Susan Wright, Buck Close, Bill Locke and Paul Jordan. Absent: Ricky Brightman and Melody Shobe

How are we feeding the hungry?
As always we included some time to talk about the things we are doing or have seen around the Diocese (or beyond) that are working
Modesta spoke of visiting Ecuador for the ordination of a young priest. He is paid $100/month to serve 4 churches and must supplement his income making small musical instruments for the tourist trade. Despite that, she observed a deep spirituality within him and a commitment to his work.
Susan told us of the first anniversary of the Hispanic congregation at Church of the Ascension in Cranston. She sees that in just a year two congregations are joyfully coming together as one. People are coming together to create a single Sunday school for the children that will be bracketed by the English and Spanish language worship services.
Buck had a joyful story of St George’s families coming together at his farm for the annual parish picnic. He saw a deep hunger for companionship outside of worship being fulfilled as children followed the farm animals around or took cart rides through the woods with his wife.
Jennifer has found that young families in her church are eager to do more despite the daily demands of work and small children. One in particular has offered to lead a regular bible study in her home.
Paul reported that Church of the Ascension - Wakefield combined the annual picnic with the regular Sunday supper where a meal is prepared and shared among all comers. He says that after a cautious start, good food and live music had everyone coming together, at least for the day, as one church family.

As these tales of Jesus visibly at work around us unfolded we were reminded that feeding the hungry is not about providing for those “less fortunate” than ourselves. Instead, it is a sharing of whatever we have in abundance with others who need some of what we have. The point is that all bring something to the table and in turn all take something away.

Diocesan Task Force 2015

A sub committee of the 2015 Task Force asked for 2 members from the MTF to join an ad hoc committee for evaluating all Diocesan programs. They also asked us for input regarding what the process might look like. None of us are able to commit to serving on another committee. We offered the following suggestions for the process:
The evaluation process should encourage thinking and planning in terms of the diocesan mission focus. How do programs and ministries "feed the hungry"?
What are the goals? How does a program, process and ministry lead to a fulfillment of goals? How is the progress measured?
Consider money spent vs. measurable outcomes and progress toward stated goals? Do the outcomes justify the money spent? This is an issue of stewardship of resources and valuing mission over loyalty to and maintenance of the institution and the status quo.


Reports from Convocation Planning Sub-Committees (45 minutes)
Note: Some information was sent in advance with this agenda. In each area we should identify next steps, potential problems, new ideas and calendar planning.

Logistics (Jennifer for Ricky)
Sub-Committee made a good start on identify issues and event management requirements.
Minutes are appended with this report

Rhode Island’s Greatest Potluck (Paul)
A number of volunteers have been identified to help organize the potluck
Paul, Ricky and Ken Poulton will meet briefly at St Luke’s upon Ricky’s return from vacation to scope out the facility and identify any problem areas
Soon after, the entire sub-committee will convene to begin event planning
Will consider idea for creating a cookbook from the recipes served. Each parish to have it’s own page with recipe and list of 5 ways they fee the hungry. Diocese would print and bind books for distribution at convocation.

Program Planning Sub-Committee (Buck)
Jennifer Pedrick, Melody Shobe and Buck Close met on July 27th.
Their discussion began by identifying those hungers we wish to address at the 2012 Convocation. These are physical, spiritual, intellectual, justice, righteousness, beauty, community, hospitality and transcendence.
Possible workshops include:
Creative Feeding - featuring the best of gardens, soup kitchens, pantries, etc.
Radical Hospitality - getting people out of the kitchen and into mingling with guests, avoiding a “painful” coffee hour, creating a welcoming environment, feeding the workers needs.
Children/Youth Workshop - nurturing spiritual hungers of children and youth
Transcendence and Celebration - the best of creative liturgies, how to get started, what works and what doesn’t
Much care will be needed in selecting presenters and format
Their notes are included with these minutes as an addendum.

Liturgy (Bill)
Committee has not met formally (Bill on vacation)
Do have a number of ideas and a basic direction in mind
Planning will occur in conversation and consultation with Bishop Wolfe
Bilingual Spanish/English
Each church represented by a banner - good Sunday school project

Report from Conversation with Ruth Meteer – Jennifer (5 min.)
We need to update our web page with news of our main objective this year for a superb convocation - Paul will coordinate with Ruth.
Ruth is prepared to help us with convocation publicity but we must take the lead.
We will update MTF membership info on webpage


Proposed budget for Convocation – Jennifer (10 min.)
Convocation budget derived from a number of accounts
Getting a handle on previous event costs problematic
Our proposed budget is ~ $20,000 and seems to be in-line with past years
discussed lowering cost by eliminating morning muffins and switching from buffet to box lunch. Most felt that bad food would be a negative and detract from message
We may raise ticket price to $30 if deemed necessary, but will work out scholarship for those who find price burdensome


Communication review and updates (10 min.)
Paul - remember to send meeting minutes to Bishop following approval by four MTF members
Electronic Newsletter: Bill working on MTF newsletter and mailing list. Next issue for early September
Discussion of independent newsletter vs eRisen. Agreement that a separate MTF newsletter would be best
MTF secretary (Paul) will maintain communications with Ruth Meteer on website, blog, Facebook, event planning, publicity and MTF news. Paul to connect with Lavonne Seifert about access to MTF blog
Paul will work with Ruth to update the MTF webpage
Reminder that we have stories to tell and should be getting them onto our Facebook page

Convention 2011
What do we want to communicate to the Convention in November?
Our excitement about convocation at a launching point of new Diocesan wide mission focus of feeding the hungry,
Show off newsletter, blog and Facebook page - get involvement
How are parishes feeding the hungry - Eastertide letter and responses
What educating, inspiring, inviting to we hope to accomplish at convocation?
How will we do this?
Voices of mission task force, video of sara miles

Next Steps:
Jennifer will meet again with Ty about program and budget considerations
Jennifer will meet with Peter Tierney (Task Force 2015) on recommendations for program evaluation evaluating programs
Paul and Bill will contact Ruth about communication issues.
Paul to work on blog with Lavonne Seifert and web with Ruth Meteer.
Ricky and Paul need to get Potluck sub-committee moving soon.
Bill, Modesta, Susan and other will meet on Thursday, September 1 at St Paul’s to discuss Liturgy


Next Meeting: Thursday, September 8. Susan Wright will take minutes as Paul cannot attend Addendum
Convocation 2012 - Logistics Sub-Committee (meeting date?)
Ahead of Tine
Publicity –
Through e-risen
Through churches, bulk mail, parish administrators, wardens
Have something to give out at Convention in November 2011
Develop a recognizable Logo to say __________
Registrations
Electronic registration – who to set up and compile
Friday need to know how many for meal and what people are bringing (may need to readjust menus)
Saturday
#1. Workers on site
#2. Name tags and packets – ahead of time
#3. Meal count and tickets
Friday – On Site at St Luke’s
Altar Guild etc. preparations and clean up
Greeters, giving directions – to church and auditorium
Ushers
Service Program
Any Audio setup
(could service be recorded)
Extra chairs for service
Pot luck
#1. place to receive, store, and heat food
#2. serving tables
#3. Places to eat
#4. Garbage and cleanup
Point person for problems – program and facility
Shut up church when all done
Saturday – on site at Marriott
Registration area and tables
Registration workers
Program – Packet - signs for various parts of the day – who to prepare and give out
Audio set up – to check and monitor
Introduce sessions, conclude sessions
Where and what needed for worship, speaker, breakout sessions
Point person for problems – program AND facilities
Conclusion and clean up


Addendum

Minutes from Program Planning Sub Committee Meeting
July 27, 2011
Buck Close, Jennifer Pedrick, and Melody Shobe

Convocation will be on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at the Marriot in Providence
These are the hungers we wish to address in the convocation: physical, spiritual, intellectual, social justice, righteousness, beauty, community, hospitality, transcendence.

Pre-Convocation actions:
We want to include Friday night worship and dinner attendance in Registration (so we have a head count)
We want to have an initial registration time frame for Diocese if RI people, then open to the general public

8-9 a.m. Registration/Sign-in
We still need to decide on the the following:
Registration fees
Nametags
Breakfast/snacks
How to set up the main room during the keynote
Need to identify people to volunteer with welcoming/nametag pick ups, greeting

9-9:15 Morning worship
Sara Miles to lead
Need to decide upon music
Will we use projection or leaflets at tables?

9:15-9:30 Welcome/Introduction of Sara Miles

9:30-10:15 Keynote: Sara Miles (inspire, teach, challenge, and motivate us.)

10:15-10:45 Q & A with Sara Miles

10:45-11:00 Break/moving time

11:00-11:50 Workshops A (four breakouts)

11:50-12:00 Moving time

12:00 Noonday prayer in main ballroom, led by Bishop Wolf

12:10-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:50 Workshops B (four breakouts)

1:50-2:00 Moving time

2:00-2:45 Closing Keynote, final reflections including Q & A

2:45-3:00 Gratitude and Good-Byes
Evaluations
Follow-up questions/discussion for parishes distributed

3:00 Search and Nomination Committee announces the Bishop's slate

Guidelines for workshops/workshop leaders: Each leader will be given these when they are invited to lead a workshop.
Each should begin with a piece of scripture-- Where does this relate to what God calls us to be and to do?
Clearly connect the content to specific hungers you are addressing. Go beyond the obvious to explore: physical, spiritual, intellectual, social justice, righteousness, beauty, community, hospitality, transcendence. Elaborate a little on this-- how each is addressed.
We want workshops to include lots of practical tips/tricks, dos/don’t’s
Offer handouts!
We hope there may be a few carefully chosen people to give their brief, to the point personal stories as illustrations of feeding in these particular ministries.

Workshop options 1, 2 & 3 offered in morning and afternoon, #4 would focus on children in the morning and youth in the afternoon.

1. Hunger for transcendence/celebration: worship that truly feeds
-including feeding our Aesthetic side-- beauty in worship (maybe Sara would be one voice in this?)

2. Community Gardens/Feeding Operations

3. Radical/kingdom hospitality in and beyond coffee hour. Who are the guests, who are the hosts?

4. Nurturing the spiritual life of children and/or youth (EYE, J2A pilgrims) (divided- one in the morning for children, one for youth)


To be done:
Jennifer is meeting with Ty to work out budget
Melody to put together a guideline sheet for workshops
All of us, including MTF members to be thinking about who we might ask to do some of these (finding one person to be leader of workshop, have them invite others?)