Grace Episcopal Church
Annual Meeting
January 23, 2022
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Rector's Report 2022
Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:12)
This was a difficult year. The pandemic, significant losses in the membership of our Parish, distancing, isolation, and learning to live with the covid-19 virus. I am deeply grateful to you, the Parishioners and Members of Grace Church, for your ongoing presence, support, good will, and continuing participation in the life and community that is Grace Church.
You will have read the reports by the Committees. Each describes the activities, changes, and achievements that each Committee has accomplished in this past year. Taken together, they are a manifestation of your faith and the ongoing work of the Gospel in our Community and beyond. Thank you to each of you.
Because of your faith and your involvement in our common life, I am pleased to be able to tell you that our Average Sunday Attendance for 2021 increased by 3.5 over the year before and that two individuals have recently indicated their interest in transferring their membership to Grace Church. Both of these are signs of hope for our future.
In terms of my own reports,
I want to thank Maureen O’Malley and Chris Berry for their hard work and for their willingness to go above and beyond in order for Grace Church to be successful. Thank you both for everything you do.
Following up on last year’s Annual Meeting, I can report that the Standing Committee of the Diocese has approved the revisions we made to our By-Laws last year – thank you Glenn Alberich and the Vestry for your work in revising them.
Harbor Homes, in light of their new building at MV Community Services, has moved their Warming Center from Grace Church to that building. We are glad to have been a resource for them and wish them the best for their future.
I can report that the transition from Sunday School on Sunday to Sunday School on Tuesday is going well. While we are currently not meeting because of the surge in covid, our intergenerational format of gathering in the Chapel, sharing instruction before receiving Communion, followed by a shared meal in the Parish Hall participation has been going well. We look forward to reconvening as soon as we can. I want to thank the families who are participating and Leigh Ann Yuen, Liz DaSilva, and Grace O’Malley for building such a strong foundation that made it possible for us to grow on.
The Worship Committee, combined with the Re-Gathering Committee, had a challenging year in developing the content of our liturgies and the means to share them. When it was safe, we moved from virtual services to meeting in person in the tent, with the simultaneous commitment to stream all our services and meetings through Zoom so that everyone could feel safe in attending worship. Our Hybrid model of worship has enabled us to offer our services to the world and to our parishioners who join us from their homes.
The farthest away to view our services has been Ireland…
I particularly want to thank the Choir, which has met faithfully every week to record the hymns for our services. I want to commend Wes Nagy, Jan Hyer, Karen Huff, and all the members of the Choir for recording on Wednesdays and Karen, for taping and posting the hymns on our website every week. Thank you also to Abby Bates, for doing the work of the initial selection of our hymns each week.
Our App continues to have close to 400 active users and is one of the main conduits to our Friday Night Community Suppers; we also used it for our Advent and Christmas Calendars – at one point in May, we had over 800 people using the App.
If the Wardens have not already told you, your Vestry had two retreats last year: one in the Fall and on in the Spring. The topic of both was ‘Vestry Development’ with the objective of establishing a shared understanding of the Vestry’s role.
Looking ahead to the rest of this year, we face several challenges and areas of growth:
We are making the shift from reacting to covid to learning how to live with it – what I have seen described as a shift from pandemic to endemic. Covid will continue to impact us, but, as I have said before, we are going to adapt and carry on with being the Church under these new circumstances.
Climate Change continues to be perhaps the underlying issue that affects all of us. Not just in Vineyard Haven, not just West Tisbury, Not just Edgartown, but our entire Island and the world. Grace Church, with the leadership of Abby Bates and Betsy Holcomb, has formed a Climate Change Group that is working with others on the Vineyard to develop a response from the faith community. I have been appointed to the MV Commission’s Task Force of Climate Change and Public Safety. There is a lot of effort, good ideas, and dare I say ‘momentum’ around this issue. Grace Church will continue to be involved in the Island’s response to climate change as we go forward.
One of the challenges we will face this year is what to do about Lobster Rolls, which has traditionally been our fundraising arm. I don’t have an answer, but climate change and conservation are likely to force us to either change the way we have been doing lobster rolls or develop a new revenue stream to replace it.
Building on the work of our three-year plan, our Buildings and Grounds Committee is about to propose a plan to the Vestry to repair and maintain our buildings and make the conversion to solar power as our energy source.
A Capital Campaign Committee consisting of Glenn Alberich, Bill Cini, Annie Palches, Bernadine Prygrosky, DiAnn Ray, has been established – and yes, there will be a Capital Campaign later in the year. There will be more on that in the coming weeks.
Finally, one of the impacts of living with covid over these last two years has been the loss of a wider perspective and increased isolation over time. We will continue to deepen our relationship with the Cathedral of St. Paul and explore how to regain a wider perspective and connection with others this year.
In conclusion, I am confident as I look ahead. Thanks to your grit, determination, and faith, we have ended our second year of living with covid well. We have moved online and have tried to take advantage of the opportunities that our changed circumstances have given us. We are no longer limited to spatial proximity, we are doing things in new ways as well as the old, and we are attracting new members, and we are engaged as Grace Church in our community and in the issues of our time. Let us continue to move forward with confidence in each other and with God’s blessing upon our ministries.
Thank you all for your willingness to participate in this journey together, and God bless you all.
Stephen+
The Reverend Stephen Harding
Rector
This was a difficult year. The pandemic, significant losses in the membership of our Parish, distancing, isolation, and learning to live with the covid-19 virus. I am deeply grateful to you, the Parishioners and Members of Grace Church, for your ongoing presence, support, good will, and continuing participation in the life and community that is Grace Church.
You will have read the reports by the Committees. Each describes the activities, changes, and achievements that each Committee has accomplished in this past year. Taken together, they are a manifestation of your faith and the ongoing work of the Gospel in our Community and beyond. Thank you to each of you.
Because of your faith and your involvement in our common life, I am pleased to be able to tell you that our Average Sunday Attendance for 2021 increased by 3.5 over the year before and that two individuals have recently indicated their interest in transferring their membership to Grace Church. Both of these are signs of hope for our future.
In terms of my own reports,
I want to thank Maureen O’Malley and Chris Berry for their hard work and for their willingness to go above and beyond in order for Grace Church to be successful. Thank you both for everything you do.
Following up on last year’s Annual Meeting, I can report that the Standing Committee of the Diocese has approved the revisions we made to our By-Laws last year – thank you Glenn Alberich and the Vestry for your work in revising them.
Harbor Homes, in light of their new building at MV Community Services, has moved their Warming Center from Grace Church to that building. We are glad to have been a resource for them and wish them the best for their future.
I can report that the transition from Sunday School on Sunday to Sunday School on Tuesday is going well. While we are currently not meeting because of the surge in covid, our intergenerational format of gathering in the Chapel, sharing instruction before receiving Communion, followed by a shared meal in the Parish Hall participation has been going well. We look forward to reconvening as soon as we can. I want to thank the families who are participating and Leigh Ann Yuen, Liz DaSilva, and Grace O’Malley for building such a strong foundation that made it possible for us to grow on.
The Worship Committee, combined with the Re-Gathering Committee, had a challenging year in developing the content of our liturgies and the means to share them. When it was safe, we moved from virtual services to meeting in person in the tent, with the simultaneous commitment to stream all our services and meetings through Zoom so that everyone could feel safe in attending worship. Our Hybrid model of worship has enabled us to offer our services to the world and to our parishioners who join us from their homes.
The farthest away to view our services has been Ireland…
I particularly want to thank the Choir, which has met faithfully every week to record the hymns for our services. I want to commend Wes Nagy, Jan Hyer, Karen Huff, and all the members of the Choir for recording on Wednesdays and Karen, for taping and posting the hymns on our website every week. Thank you also to Abby Bates, for doing the work of the initial selection of our hymns each week.
Our App continues to have close to 400 active users and is one of the main conduits to our Friday Night Community Suppers; we also used it for our Advent and Christmas Calendars – at one point in May, we had over 800 people using the App.
If the Wardens have not already told you, your Vestry had two retreats last year: one in the Fall and on in the Spring. The topic of both was ‘Vestry Development’ with the objective of establishing a shared understanding of the Vestry’s role.
Looking ahead to the rest of this year, we face several challenges and areas of growth:
We are making the shift from reacting to covid to learning how to live with it – what I have seen described as a shift from pandemic to endemic. Covid will continue to impact us, but, as I have said before, we are going to adapt and carry on with being the Church under these new circumstances.
Climate Change continues to be perhaps the underlying issue that affects all of us. Not just in Vineyard Haven, not just West Tisbury, Not just Edgartown, but our entire Island and the world. Grace Church, with the leadership of Abby Bates and Betsy Holcomb, has formed a Climate Change Group that is working with others on the Vineyard to develop a response from the faith community. I have been appointed to the MV Commission’s Task Force of Climate Change and Public Safety. There is a lot of effort, good ideas, and dare I say ‘momentum’ around this issue. Grace Church will continue to be involved in the Island’s response to climate change as we go forward.
One of the challenges we will face this year is what to do about Lobster Rolls, which has traditionally been our fundraising arm. I don’t have an answer, but climate change and conservation are likely to force us to either change the way we have been doing lobster rolls or develop a new revenue stream to replace it.
Building on the work of our three-year plan, our Buildings and Grounds Committee is about to propose a plan to the Vestry to repair and maintain our buildings and make the conversion to solar power as our energy source.
A Capital Campaign Committee consisting of Glenn Alberich, Bill Cini, Annie Palches, Bernadine Prygrosky, DiAnn Ray, has been established – and yes, there will be a Capital Campaign later in the year. There will be more on that in the coming weeks.
Finally, one of the impacts of living with covid over these last two years has been the loss of a wider perspective and increased isolation over time. We will continue to deepen our relationship with the Cathedral of St. Paul and explore how to regain a wider perspective and connection with others this year.
In conclusion, I am confident as I look ahead. Thanks to your grit, determination, and faith, we have ended our second year of living with covid well. We have moved online and have tried to take advantage of the opportunities that our changed circumstances have given us. We are no longer limited to spatial proximity, we are doing things in new ways as well as the old, and we are attracting new members, and we are engaged as Grace Church in our community and in the issues of our time. Let us continue to move forward with confidence in each other and with God’s blessing upon our ministries.
Thank you all for your willingness to participate in this journey together, and God bless you all.
Stephen+
The Reverend Stephen Harding
Rector
