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Dear Members of St. Paul’s Kent Parish —
Welcome to summer! We wanted to update you on our progress in the search for a new rector for our church.
This summer will be a busy time for us, the soon to be named Search Committee and indeed for the Parish. We have been working with our parish consultant to understand ourselves, our parish and our relationship to the wider community and world. We have been doing this so that we can have a very clear picture of who we are as a parish and to discern what kind of qualities and experience we seek in a new priest.
We have met with our consultant three times and will meet again on July 16 for a long session focused on our missions and needs. Between now and then, several things will be happening, with specific opportunities for you to participate:
Our consultant will be conducting a very limited number of interviews with members of the parish. The purpose of these interviews is to “dig into” the expectations of the members of the congregation about what St. Paul’s can be. These will be conducted between July 1 – July 17.
During the same period of July 1-July 17, we will be sending all parishioners the same set of questions so that if you wish, you may write responses that will be included in the information we review as part of our process.
At both services on June 14, many of you took the opportunity to give us feedback on 3 questions. You overwhelmingly agreed that an all-Parish event/meeting would be beneficial to this search process. We will be selecting a date shortly and will communicate that to you in our next update letter. We are considering mid to late September.
There will be some attention paid to our website. Within the next two weeks, we will make minor changes to make it easier to find information. In the fall, before our search package is sent to Bishop Parsley for approval, we will make more changes, knowing that our website is one of the first places potential candidates will look to see who we are.
Our consultant will be addressing our congregation again on August 9. That morning, we will have Morning Prayer, an update on our process and light refreshments on the lawn.
We will continue with monthly updates to keep you informed.
Please pray for St. Paul’s, your Vestry, our consultant and our Parish in this process.
Jim Peace – Senior Warden
Vestry of St. Paul’s Kent