Wardens’ Report: May 2020
The Wardens’ Report: a brief summary of highlights from monthly Vestry meetings, designed to provide information about our growth, finances, priorities and progress towards our strategic plan.
The vestry gathered for its third socially distanced meeting on May 26th. We opened this month in prayer for our congregation, our staff, and our vestry. We prayed for wisdom and clarity about how to connect with, care for, and serve each other and our neighbors in this challenging time.
Our staff report this month was from Louise Brooks, Director of Kids’ Small Groups, and Abigail Westbrook, Coordinator of Kids’ Small Groups. Please join us in our thanks and prayer for them both.
Brad Jones, our treasurer, reported that we are currently above our budgetary projections year-to-date and are in a strong financial position. Thank you for being such a generous church, Restoration! Brad also briefed the vestry on preparations for the fiscal year 2021 budget, including the need for caution as the effects of the pandemic continue to unfold, and how our finance team recommends we handle our mortgage going forward. If you would like to hear more details about our finances, check out this week’s rector’s update featuring Brad and David. It’s well worth a listen.
We confirmed 2 motions that needed decisions between our April and May meeting: The first was to allocate funds for the purchase of equipment that is needed for our Sunday livestream. The second was a motion to provide funds to our friend in West Asia that are over and above our normal grant. These funds were used to repatriate him to London after he suffered a stroke.
We devoted most of our meeting to discussing the work of six exploratory teams made up primarily of staff and vestry members who have spent the last month thinking about how Restoration can continue to connect people to God, others and the needs of the world in a global pandemic. We look forward to sharing more of what we are hoping and planning at our congregational meeting on June 7th (at 11am) and 9th (at 8pm) on Zoom. Details on how to join the congregational meeting to come. (And to make sure you are getting updates from Restoration, you can sign up for more information on our contact us form.)
As always, if you have questions, concerns, words of wisdom or encouragement, please know that we are open to your feedback. You can read an archive of past Wardens’ Reports on our website or Vestry Meeting minutes on CCB, under the ‘Files’ tab in the ‘Entire Church Group’
– Johanna Montague and Kevin Marshall, Wardens