St. James' is a community where we come together in Christ to develop spiritually; find opportunities for outreach; receive comfort when in need; and engage in sacred experiences through our liturgy, music, fellowship, and mutual ministry.
Worship Committee
The Worship Committee seeks to lead St. James' to be a Eucharistic and music-centered parish. It commits to helping the community grow spiritually in faith and practice as we expand ways of knowing and experiencing God. The committee strives to ensure that our worship at St. James' is positive and enriching, and to welcome all persons who desire to be part of this faith community. This includes worship planning, altar guild, choir, acolytes, ushers, Lay Eucharistic visitors and ministers, lectors and worship leaders.
Property Management
This group helps ensure a safe, well-functioning environment that it improves, maintains, and oversees operations of St. James’ building and grounds. It allows the church to fulfill our mission of being a holy place of worship, and a welcoming environment where parish and community groups can gather in places and spaces that encourage and support our mission.
Youth
The Youth Committee oversees the acolytes and Sunday morning nursery. It plans special events for church families including movie nights, game nights, dinners, parties for the children of the community, and assists with the Christmas pageant and scheduling acolytes.
Communications
The Communications Committee informs parishioners and the community at large about St. James’ many activities. This group plans, develops, and facilitates the flow of information both in and outside the parish. The committee acts as a support group to the other leadership groups and assists with media flow and materials through St. James website, Facebook page, weekly and monthly newsletters and e-weekly bulletins.
Finance and Investment
The Finance Committee, which includes our treasurer, ensures that financial best practices are followed, advises the vestry on financial matters, and develops the annual budget for vestry review.
The Investment Committee looks after the long-term financial health of the community. It oversees a professional investment manager who handles the portfolio of investments for both endowment and non-endowment funds. In addition, the committee advises the vestry on income projections and seeks out opportunities to invest responsibly and ethically.
Altar Guild
The Altar Guild has many duties at St. James', one of which is preparing for every service. Guild members take count of the wafers, order the oil, wine and wafers (wheat and gluten-free) and the flowers and candles for special services, set out envelopes for flower donations for special services, insure that the priest vestments and altar hangings are in good condition, and change the colorful hangings to coordinate with the seasons of the Christian church year. Altar guild members work in teams of two, for a total of two months each year to perform these regular duties. Together, all members of the altar guild contribute to make Eucharist at St. James' a meaningful experience for all.
What It Means To Be The Church
"Doing outreach activities, having a meaningful discussion with one other person or with a group, especially with people I otherwise would not have the opportunity to engage with."
"I enjoy the people and love the historic architecture. It feels like home."
"Every time I sing with the choir, I recognize the importance of the welcoming community at St. James'."
"I think it's important and inspirational when our church community pulls together in times of crisis. It doesn't matter if the crisis is local or many miles away."
"On Maudy Thursday, we gather and eat. We then share communion and go into the church to worship and sit in silence and prayer, together. We are together with God and the Holy Spirit."
Music
Challenges and Opportunities
We have done significant work over the last year to address some of the challenges we faced in the wake of our separation with our past rector. Because of this work, we are ready to move forward, but we are also cognizant that we aren’t completely healed. The history that led to the separation is now part of our story, and thus part of who we are. Here is a summary of the challenges we have faced and continue to address.
Under mutual agreement, we parted company with the prior rector. The parish is more cautious about trust. Individuals want to reinvest their trust in a new leader, but for some it may take more time, as some are wary of being hurt again. We have learned that certain areas are going to require attention in the future:
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Finances: we need to carefully monitor our spending to stay within our budget.
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Relationships: we would like to work together with our next rector to build a trusting and healthy relationship.
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Pastoral care: this is an area that is in need of rebuilding and we look forward to mutually improving visits to our sick and shut-in parishioners.
We face several additional challenges from our interim period:
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Our average church attendance is shrinking. We know we are not alone in this experience, but in the absence of a Rector, the shrinkage feels more ominous.
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We are re-invigorating our committees that were disbanded or neglected during our former rector’s tenure. Consequently volunteers are asked to do more, and may be stretched thin.
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There is general impatience across the congregation in waiting for our next act.
Despite all this, we have remarkable resilience and enthusiasm as a congregation. We like each other and are very close. That’s what keeps us coming to St. James’. We believe we have great energy for facing our challenges and have taken this past year seriously as a healing year to get us ready for a healthy relationship. Mutual Ministry is very important to us. We look forward to finding someone who will be our spiritual partner and journey with us. Together we hope to face the challenges and optimize our energy and gifts to better serve God.
Vestry and Wardens
Nine vestry members are elected for three-year, overlapping terms. The vestry has managerial responsibility for the parish finances, buildings and grounds, and staffing.
St. James' elects two wardens, who serve single, two-year overlapping terms. The wardens meet regularly with the rector and provide leadership to the vestry.
MUTUAL MINISTRY
