St. Paul's Episcopal Church Wickford
Rector's Report
January 30, 2005
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The Rev. Philip J. Tierney
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Wickford RI


St. Paul’s Annual Meeting
Rector’s Report -- January 30, 2005

They say that the best way to stay awake during a speech is to deliver it your self, and the best way to remember one is to have it be about you. Well, this talk is all about you, St. Paul’s. Still, to help a bit more I’ve made every effort to be alliterative. I’m going to talk about 3 P’s, 4 G’s and 5 F’s.
  1. Personal Comments
    • The Search Committee represented the parish very well.
    • The Vestry has been very supportive.
    • The Staff has been great to work with.
    • The Parish has been warm and friendly.
    • Coming to St Paul’s, 5 months ago, has felt like a homecoming.


  2. Parish Observations
    • Friendly
    • Welcoming
    • Accommodating
    • Contrary to Some Perspectives, St. Paul’s Church has seemed to me to be a community of people characterized by
      1. Gathering – Over 150 came to our home or to meetings at the Rectory and more than 50 signed up for the first Wednesday Night Live. We will always be a community of Christian love that accepts people as they are.
      2. Generosity – As you’ve heard from the Treasurer, pledging has increased by about 30% over last year at this time, and parishioners have spontaneously rallied to give $10,000 for the relief of the survivors of the tsunamis.
      3. Stewardship not Budget – a church exists to promote the faith, spiritual lives, and service of its members to God, not organizational growth. That’s why we will always emphasize proportional giving – giving a percentage of income – a tithe – rather than merely to underwrite a budget.
      4. Giftedness – People, both new and long-term members, have come forward to offer themselves – their time and abilities to serve God through this church, time and time again. A few examples: Ted Seymour, Mark Warter, Tracy Wilkinson for new ministries, and those who have accepted my invitation to serve on the Ministry Discernment Team, as well as those who have quietly been offering themselves for years. We will be a community that enables parishioners to experiment by responding to God in ministries – never a failure always more information.
      5. Godliness – I’ve noticed that parishioners, here, freely admit to wanting to follow Christ and to be open to God’s Spirit.


  3. Possibilities for the Future
    • The Ministry Discernment Team chose this sentence from Ephesians, chapter 4, as its mission statement: " The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ."
    • That’s our mission – to use our gifts to build up this body of Christ in unity so that all of us, in our own ways, will more like Christ and serve His purposes in this corner of the world.
    • Toward that end we need to emphasize a few things.
      1. Faith and Fellowship – Wednesday Night Live will help us to enjoy each other’s company and mutual support as well as offer classes and groups to keep us growing in our faith and our relationship with God – for unity and faith, small groups.
      2. Foster Gifts and their Use – Ministry Discernment Team will work under the Vestry and me to promote people’s ventures in ministry and mission.
      3. Focus on Coordination – to avoid wasting energies, fruitless activities, and lurching efforts – we need to try to better organize the parish and so the vestry and I will examine the various committees in the church – adding some and better connecting others.
      4. Fill out the Gifts of the Church – no church has all the gifts it needs, and so, when it feels called to exercise a particular set of ministries it sometimes needs to import other people, who do possess those gifts and ministries. It’s clear that St. Paul’s needs a more effective program of youth ministries, and so we’ll be trying to identify and recruit someone, preferably ordained, who possesses both the enthusiasm and gifts to run the best youth program we can at St. Paul’s. In any case, by this summer we plan to add an additional priest / youth minister to the parish staff, and to do the best we can to structure the staff to make it as effective as we can for all our ministries.
      5. Follow Christ and His Spirit – We can do nothing to serve God’s purposes if we don’t stay on track and that calls for following Christ on our journey together. If you plan to go on a trip but don’t have directions or someone to follow and enough fuel to get you there it doesn’t matter how earnest your desires are to make the trip, you’ll either get lost along the way or break down along the way. Christ is our lead and the Spirit is our energy source. We must follow Christ in the power of the Spirit.