Our Vestry

In an Episcopal parish, the day-to-day decisions about such things as building maintenance, finances, are handled by a group of laypersons called the Vestry. Vestry members serve rotating two-year terms and are elected at the annual congregational meeting. After Vestry members are elected, the Vestry decides among themselves who will be the officers for the coming year.

St. Matthew's 2019 Vestry is:

• Sister Rachel Margaret (Senior Warden)
• Bill Clark (Junior Warden)
• Dawn Peters (Secretary)
• Allan Andersen
• David Gibbs

In addition, Curt Allen, not a member of Vestry, serves as Treasurer.

Where the Money Comes From

Money for St. Matthew’s comes from several different sources, and generally the Vestry must spend money for projects for which it was designated. Here is a breakdown:

Designated Contributions

The people who donate this money specify what it must be used for, so it cannot be used for general expenses such as heat and electricity, and these donations are not part of fulfilling your pledge.

• Memorial Fund. This is money given in memory of a loved one, and often the donor specifies exactly what the money can be used for. In many cases, the money goes to purchase some long-lasting memorial such as stained glass windows or oil candles for the altar.
• Flower Fund, etc. We have two or three other minor funds. Again, money designated for these funds cannot be used for ordinary expenses and does not get counted as part of your pledge.

Capital Campaign Money

These are the funds you are sending to the Diocese for the Planting for Tomorrow fund. Recent uses of this money have included the new roof and the upgraded electrical system. We cannot use this money for paying general bills, and we depend on your continuing support and your fulfillment of your promise. (Our next major project is probably the floor in the Parish Hall.)

Diocese Outreach Grants

This money comes to us from the Diocese in response to grant applications, and is used for very specific purposes. Because they are outreach grants, they must in some way reach out to the community. Many of our outside music groups are funded by these grants, and the idea is that we will advertise the music to the community and invite nonmembers to attend.

Rector’s Discretionary Fund

The loose offering on the last Sunday of the month goes to this fund, which is used to help needy parishioners with extraordinary bills. One example might be a prescription after surgery.

Private Pocket

Some parish needs, for example the coffee for coffee hour, are simply paid by parishioners directly. This money never goes through the ordinary church budgeting process.

General Operating Budget

This money comes from the offering plate. It includes your pledge money plus loose offering from the first three Sundays of the month and $350 monthly rent from the Montessori school. This money goes to pay the daily expenses of running a church: Rector’s stipend, gas, electricity, organist, postage, insurance, and so forth.

How we spent that money

We have seen a lot of changes around the St. Matthew's building, much of it paid for by Capital Campaign money. Here's a list of what we have done recently, and how we paid for it.

Paid with money we contributed to the Capital Campaign

• New kitchen stove
• Rewiring to improve safety
• Exterior door replacement (two of them)
• New roof
• Painting half the church exterior

Paid with money from memorial contributions

• Altar candles (this was a while back)
• New church organ
• Signs directing people to our front door

Paid with specially designated money

• Parking lot repair (David Eisel has been collecting money from people who park here to watch the football games. This fund covered the cost of the first repair cycle.)

Paid from savings

• General landscaping

Yet to do

We are about halfway through the five-year cycle of the Capital Campaign, and contributions continue to come in. Three more building improvement projects need our attention:

• Parish Hall floor (Currently it is made of disintegrating asbestos tile. We need to fix that.)
• Second phase of parking lot repair (The parking lot had gotten really bad, and we need to follow up on this year's patch with a more permanent fix.)
• Remainder of the exterior painting

Website not down

Apparently, Google has been refusing to index our church's main website for some time now. (I don't often search for the name of our church, but I should.)

The church and the website are still going, and I have cut the site down to very simple content in hopes that I can get back in Google's good graces, which is why you will not see any pictures or much of anything else fancy there. The bad news is that Google typically takes six weeks to index a site, so if my fixes didn't work, I will not know until the end of October. And if the site still has problems, there is no really good way to find out. The good news is that people do keep finding out Facebook page and the church website will appear if they follow the link.

If you want to see what the new (and very simple) home page looks like, just follow the link to St. Matthew's home page.

Later news:

The church site might have been hacked. Google simply refused to do anything with us, so I went through all the arcane little items and deleted the ones that didn't make any sense. Miracle! Google now can see the site!

We might have some action in the near future!

Still later news (September 9):

Aside from the hacking, another problem with the website is that I used fairly old-fashioned web code to do such things as inserting pictures and specifying where things would actually appear. Google did not love me for that. The home page is now done according to the new style, and the three following pages will soon be revised too.

If you type "Church Ashland Ohio" into Google, we are now on the third page of results. (Too far down in my opinion, but we are getting closer!)

Church Organ News

As Rev. Kay said on Sunday, there is some bad news, some good news and some excellent news about the organ.

The bad news

Kevin Jacques, who plays for the church several times a year, gives the current organ six months to live. An increasing number of notes simply do not work, including one whole stop.

The good news

Our organ committee has listened to several options and has made a decision. The proposed new organ is a digital (electronic) organ that sounds remarkably good and has the endorsement of several of our friends who are organists. We will keep the organ pipes, and it's possible in the future to set up the organ console so the pipes will sound too.

The excellent news

One member of the organ committee, Mike McKinley, has decided to pay the whole cost of the new organ as a memorial to his dear wife Norma. The papers are being signed this week, so a new organ will certainly be in place by summer.

The footnote

When the Capital Campaign was first proposed, organ repair/replacement was part of the plan. We held off on several other needed projects (for example, new floor in the Parish Hall and landscaping) because of the expense of the organ, but now we can use Capital Campaign money for other needed building repairs and improvements.

Church Building Improvements

As a result of our Capital Funds Campaign, we will be able to make several improvements around the property. The money from the Capital Campaign comes in quarterly, so here are a few of the changes you will see over the next few months.*

Landscaping

Many of the plants and bushes around the church have gotten tired and/or overgrown, and nobody ever took a look at the whole property to give it a coherent appearance. We've asked Brandon Nardo to draw up some plans and begin working on them. By the time the weather is hot, you should see some definite changes.

Paint

We were supposed to get a lot of painting work done last summer, but weather prevented our contractor from doing it. He's promised to get on the job just as soon as things are warm and dry enough that the paint will work well.

Door Paint

Church buildings often have red doors. The symbolism goes back centuries, and it's not just Episcopal churches. The reason behind the tradition is a little uncertain: some say it's because of the blood of Christ (and he did say, "I am the door."), while others say it's because churches were traditionally a place of refuge and safety. Whatever the reason, we have chosen a shade of red, we're buying the paint, and we will soon have renewed red doors on the church.

Church Organ

Our pipe organ represents the best technology of the 1970s. Unfortunately, the company that made it has gone out of business, and 45 years is a long time for electrical components, so some of the notes are reluctant to sound, while others simply do not go at all. We've got an organ committee examining several options for replacing and/or repairing our organ. It will be a major expense, so this change will probably not be immediate—but we are working on it.

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*If you have pledged to the Planting for Tomorrow campaign, you are receiving an envelope every month. That is where the money for these projects is coming from. Please be faithful in fulfilling your promise. If you would like to begin contributing, please talk to the church treasurer.

John Wagner, Parish Assistant

John has actually been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the parish for years: collecting mail, cleaning, and so forth. Now we are making it official and giving him the recognition he deserves. John's new title is Parish Assistant.

Vestry Changes

In an Episcopal parish, the Vestry is the group of lay members who watch over physical, temporal aspects of the parish (such things as roof repairs). At St. Matthew's, we have five Vestry members, who are elected for three-year terms. A Vestry member cannot be re-elected until he/she has been out of office for a year.

The Vestry elects its own officers: Senior Warden (the chair-person of the vestry), Junior Warden (who acts as vice-chair, and who has special responsibility for building maintenance), and Secretary. The parish also has a Treasurer, who is not necessarily a member of the Vestry.

The two members who are leaving Vestry are Allan Andersen and Judith Ream. Many thanks to both of you for your service these past three years.

Our Vestry for 2016 is

Curtis Allen, Secretary
Erin Fuller
Mike McKinley, Senior Warden
Sister Nadine
And Shifley, Junior Warden

Dean Glasener is our church Treasurer.