Trinity Vestry Retreat
October 14 - 16, 2016

 

 

 

A parish church faces three basic demands of the spiritual life -- "the need not to run away, the need to be open to change, the need to listen. They are based on a commitment which is both total and continuing. And yet the paradox is that they bring freedom, true freedom."  Esther de Waal

 

Please read before we meet

The Benedictine Promise 

 

Please review before we meet (If you've been on the vestry over the past couple of years you should already have read this)

The Process of Change  -       A PDF on the Process of Change

2016 working packet - a PDF

Schedule

Friday Evening  … Feast of Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop of Shanghai, 1906

6:00

 

Social Time

7:00

 

Supper

7:45

 

Work Session: 1) Overview  2) Connecting  3) Getting started –

9:00

 

Compline – beginning with intro to doing the Office in a group (Michelle); then Compline -Hymn 24

9:30

 

Social time 

 Saturday  … Feast of Teresa of Avila, Nun, 1582

8:00

 

Breakfast

9:00

 

Morning Prayer -Ps 20 & 21  Reading - Luke 9:37-50

9:20

 

Work Session

10:30

 

Break

10:45

 

Work Session

12:00

 

Lunch

12:45

 

Work Session – 1) continue assessing work 2) how we get things done

2:15

 

Rest – Recreation

6:00

 

Supper

7:00

 

Work Session

9:00

 

Compline - Hymn 24

9:20

 

Social Time

 

Sunday …. Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost      Proper 24

8:00

 

Breakfast

8:45

 

Holy Eucharist

9:30

 

Work Session – 1) Wrap up as needed – next steps, 2) Evaluation 3) Routine vestry work beginning at 11:00

12:00

 

Lunch



 

Overall Purposes of Leadership and Vestry Retreats

A yearly leadership conference that is a mix of:

  1. Developing strategies and plans for the improvement of parish life & ministry. This would be based on a process of reflecting on and learning about, the whole, or some area of parish life
  2. Community building among parish leaders
  3. Spiritual development
  4. Increasing the common competencies of parish leaders for the above. Part of our purpose is for the vestry and other leaders to increase their skills and knowledge for congregational development and leadership.

Specific area of interest for this year:

1. A broad assessment of parish life and ministry. 
- Get a read on how we see the current state of the parish
- Identify a few areas for deeper conversation and work. Begin that work.
Rationale -  As we reviewed the work of recent years it struck us that we haven't done a broad assessment for a number of years.

2. A specific assessment and conversation on the vestry's work and new ways of working. We'd want to pay particular attention to how the changes are going; doing that within an assessment of the vestry's overall functioning.

 

Assessments such as this are not for the purpose of defining reality or making judgments. They are best used to begin structured and disciplined forms of parish conversations. The assessments we use offer a particular perspective grounded in the field of organization development and systems theory and incorporating a theological view of the parish church.

 

Vestry Retreats 2011 - 2015

Newsprint and working packets from earlier years - These may be useful for new vestry members to gain a sense of the kind of work done and for ongoing members to recall what was done.

2015 - Newsprint   Packet

2014 - Newsprint       Packet

2013 - Newsprint     Packet

2012 - Newsprint     Packet

2011 - Newsprint     Packet