Vestry Report
This year’s Vestry consisted of Rector Claude Schroeder, Wardens Kate Berringer and John Stark, and members Andrew Henley, Joe Bailey and Eric Haaland. We have meetings approximately once every 3 weeks, to discuss the business operations of the church which can include anything from building and property issues to upcoming events and building rentals. We also continue to take time each meeting to study God’s word (short discussion lead by Claude) as well as share personal experiences where we have seen God’s presence in our lives. Through discussion and prayer, we aim to
provide Christian leadership in making the best God centered decisions possible for the congregation of St. Mary’s.
In this 125th anniversary year of the diocese, the St. Mary’s vestry was able to support many projects lead by both vestry members, ministry team members as well as members of the congregation. Some of the highlights of the year included: a very successful Parish Retreat at Dallas Valley Ranch in September, where the congregation gathered for a day of worship, reflection, fellowship, fun and food; a fundraiser event for Habitat for Humanity in the form of a coffee bar/concert/silent auction in support of the Diocese’s partnership with the charity; a Charles Dickens Dinner Theatre Event for an evening of great food (prepared by St. Mary’s Volunteers) fellowship and entertainment; and the celebration of our Rector’s 10 year anniversary with us at St. Mary’s. We also had the privilege of having Fr. Gary Thorne from Halifax lead an Advent Mission study at St. Mary’s in early December.
The vestry has continued to have each vestry member responsible for various ministries designed to be the ‘go to’ person for when the leader of one of these ministries requires help in leadership or wishes to communicate a problem or a success story with vestry or the congregation at large. The idea behind this is to foster open communication between congregants and vestry.
The building of St. Mary’s has never been so busy. Besides all of the events organized and planned by the church itself, in the summer the building was rented out to the Regina Fringe Festival where both a canteen was located and a play was staged. Then in the fall the Prairie Sky School began using our facility, occupying mostly the lower hall, but making use of many other parts of the church as well. So far the arrangement with the school has been working fairly well and brings revenue for the church but more importantly fills a community need and allows St. Mary’s an outreach opportunity.
We also had some changes to the faces of people working at St. Mary’s in the past year. In May, Claude began a short but much deserved sabbatical, which brought Chris Snook in for 3 months to fill in. This past fall, both Marilyn Dean and Bruce Russell began working with us at St. Mary’s. Marilyn will be working part time as our parish administrator and Bruce Russell began as Church Deacon after his ordination in December. Unfortunately our music ministry director Sarah Harvey has left St. Mary’s after one year for other job opportunities. We wish her well in her future endeavours, and hope to fill her position in the near future. We also have some exciting news in that Murray Wright will be starting an internship at St. Mary’s in the new year, as he will be learning the intricacies of parish church life from a clergy perspective and also helping with the youth ministry of St. Mary’s. Murray is a student at Briercrest College and this Internship is a requirement of their program.
Vestry approved the purchase of a new office computer this past year as the old office computer was slow and quite dated relative to current computer standards. The laptop purchased last year for use by the church and rector has quit working and a decision on whether to replace it has not yet been made. The website overhaul project continues, and the new website should be operational very soon.
The vestry applauds the hard work of the ministry teams and parishioners that keeps St. Mary’s operating and focused on the teachings of God and Jesus, and asks for continued support and prayers in these functions of the church.
Respectfully submitted by Eric Haaland