Last Sunday we held our first congregational meeting for the year. The whole morning, worship, meeting and lunch was a great time of community demonstrating our unity in Jesus Christ.
At the meeting we spent time sharing in an activity to complete the annual report for 2013. The bible, the Basis of Union and our practices as a church tell us that each one of us combine together to be the church. The ministry of the congregation is not something that is done for us, it is something that we do together. Included with this notice sheet are the responses that attendees to the congregational meeting made to three questions.
· Who is the person or people that you want to appreciate? Here we named individuals for the contributions they made in 2013.
· What do you want to celebrate? We named specific highlights of the church’s ministry in 2013.
· What are your wishes for the future ministry of Emmanuel?
The budget for 2014 was adopted. Our budget for 2014 is comfortable. Our income levels are sufficient to meet our ongoing expenditures. This is as a result of the generous response that we make to the grace of God through our tithes and offerings. More people are taking advantage of direct debit for their offerings. Since we changed banks this has become a simpler process. Direct debits provide a greater certainty in the church’s income; it also reduces the workload for offering counters, the people who do the banking and the Treasurer. Please speak to Barry Jardine (3353 4551) if you would like to know more about Direct Debiting your tithe or offerings.
However, our income is not sufficient to fund some significant major property expenses we have this year. Carpets, pews, painting all need to be done. As an early indication we have received quotes of between $15, 000 and $20, 000 to either replace the pews with individual padded chairs or recover the existing pews. There is significant expenditure needed on our building in the next couple of years so that we can continue to use it as a tool for our ministry, the money for that needs to come from somewhere.
Our Roma partnership was discussed. Anne Maloney, Sandra Stanton and Maureen Witheyman will help us in building relationships with the people of the church in Roma. They will do this in conjunction with representatives of the Roma church.
It was advised that the role of Transport Coordinator has been vacant for a number of years. Bronwyn Kelly (3354 4961) would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to volunteer for this role. To assist people to attend worship who have transport issues the first and best thing we can do is for us to be aware of those who might need transport assistance and to offer help. Those who need assistance are encouraged to make contact with either Bronwyn Kelly (3354 4961) or Harlee Cooper (3355 2162) and they will seek to make transport arrangements.
Grace and peace
David Fender
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