Parish Council Minutes

April 27, 2023 7:00pm (Lower Hall)

We gratefully acknowledge that we are in the ancestral

and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people

Call to order: 7:00 pm

Opening Prayer: The Rev. Dr. Kyle Wagner  

Chair of the Meeting: Cathy Connors

Regrets/Quorum assurance:

• Regrets - Marilyn Doyle, Dwight Corbin, Beth MacDonald, Christine Hoehne

Correspondence:

• Grace Smith attended a Youth Synod event on Sunday to meet the youth Synod delegates who would be attending the next Synod.

Review of Agenda/Additions/Approval:

• Gail Teixeira/ Barb Hart
• Unanimous approval - motion carried

Review of the Minutes from March 23, 2023 (errors or omissions/motion of approval):

• John MacDonald/ Geoff Turnbull
• Unanimous approval - motion carried

Business Arising from the minutes:

1. Chair proposal - Cathy Connors - as circulated

• A spreadsheet was circulated to members outlining the various options for chairs.
• We will be getting a sample of the Comfort Tech chair from Office Interiors.
• Questions/Comments:
• Have we made the final decision about getting chairs?  At this time we do not believe that we have made a final motion to purchase chairs, however, we have a motion in principle.
• There would not necessarily have kneelers for the chairs.  The Cathedral reports that having the kneelers can be problematic as they do not allow the chairs to be stacked well and the kneelers can fall and cause harm to parishioners.
• What will keep the chairs in line as people have to get up and let people into the aisles?  The chairs are heavy enough to remain in place when they are connected to each other within an aisle.
• The first straight pew should not have chairs in front of it as it makes it difficult to get in and out of the aisle for such things as communion.  It may be best to have the dividers returned to in front of these pews.
• Parishioners were given the opportunity to provide feedback and input on whether we should or should not have chairs.  The majority of parishioners indicated that they would be in favour of chairs.
• Will there be a mechanism to buy a chair as a memorial?  This is a good idea, another church in our region has done so.
• Will the sample chair have the gangling on them?  

2. SafeR Church  - the creation of the committee

• John Gallant, Vanessa Turner, Dwight Corbin, and Gail Teixeira have offered to serve on this committee.

3. Presentation on Parish Councils - Rev. Dr. Kyle Wagner

• “What is the Parish Council?” presentation.
• We are the governing body that orders the life of the congregation and in so doing shall:

• exercise general oversight over the life, worship, and governance of the parish
• it is collaborative
• discerns the needs of the parish and community
• regularly evaluate the overall life of the parish - working together to make sure our ministries are effective and working as we seek to build up the body of Christ

• governing body - falls under Canon Law
• Discerning also means listening to the community

• Ministry  - using the gifts you have been freely given for the work and benefit of all.

• we should enable the baptised (not just those physically baptised) to discover their calling (Ephesians Chapter 4)

• Who sits on Parish Council

• 1 Peter 5:2-3
• Elected Members - done so at the AGM

• Committee Membership - Committee chairs may have voting rights and a role in Parish Council should it be agreed to and in our Policy Handbook.  This needs to be determined this year to be presented at the next AGM.

• Not all Parishes have an Executive Committee that makes decisions for Council between meetings, with some limitations.  They are still expected to be presented at the Parish Council for approval.

• The Parish Council is prayerful, pastoral, prophetic, and enabling.
• Parish Council also received a copy of the new Diocesan Sexual Harassment Committee.  Steve Smith was a member of the committee who helped draft this new policy.

Questions/Comments:

• Are we governed by the not-for-profit act of the province?  Yes.
• The Executive Committee should clearly define the role of the Nominating Committee as well as develop an educative piece to follow the AGM.

Reports:

1. Rector’s Report - as circulated

• Is Whitney Canning going to submit a report to the Parish Council?  It would be nice to have a report quarterly.
• Parkland was looking for an Anglican Service monthly.

• We do a service in June and Christmas at Oakwood. Kyle also does home communion for our parishioners.
• We will be relying on support from the laity to serve this ministry.
• There are some concerns that the nursing homes are using this offered ministry as they are advertising this service and monetizing this for themselves.

2. Finance - John MacLeod

• As John Gallant is on vacation we did not receive the data from the online system.

3. Property - Cathy Connors - as circulated

• The fire department has now come back to say that we do actually need a sprinkler system.  We will be presenting a case that there is no source of heat inside the Church that would impact the property so we should not require a sprinkler system.
• Spring Clean-up this Saturday.
• Have the back stairs, from the office, issues been addressed?  The top of the newel post is loose and there are some boards that are weak.
• The handrail on the ramp at the side door of the Church and the stairs from the Hall to the Church is no longer secured to the concrete.
• Storage of flammable materials was in the closet with the light switches.  We need a secure storage space for these materials.

4. AHANS - Cathy Connors/John MacDonald

•  A letter to the Parish has been written.  This was circulated to the Parish Council at the table.  This will be sent to the Parish in the upcoming midweek announcements.

Questions/Comments

• What parameters would be given to the architect?    We are asking them to be part of a process with both the Parish and the city to determine what would be acceptable and doable.
• Are we talking about having affordable housing on our property?  Yes.  This came from the visioning process we went through as an entire parish.  We would also want to ensure we had space for our own work and ministries within this space.
• This next step is just a continuation of the exploration process.  No decision will be made until it has been brought to the parish.
• We will have to work with the city to have an amendment to the zoning designation we currently have for the area.
• We will also be informing the community as a whole once this letter is circulated to the parish.

5. Pastoral Ministry Committee - Janice Silver - as circulated

•  Thank you to the Pastoral Ministry Committee for all their hard work in visiting these parishioners.

6. Garden Committee Report - Janice Silver - as circulated

•  The food scarcity group is interested in using the old rectory lot as a container garden.  This group will be looking at options for funding outside of our Garden Committee and the Church.

7. Sunday School Report - Heather Downey - as circulated

•  The children are being asked to make cards for our parishioners who are unable to attend church.

8. Food Bank Committee - Kathy Smith

•  Met recently with another Food Bank to see how they run their operation.  They have immense amounts of storage and buy items in bulk.  This food bank had a lot of products left even after their food bank time.  
• Our food bank is near empty at the end of our food bank slots.  
• There is an increase in the number of people attending on Wednesday.  The demand continues to grow weekly.  There continues to be an issue with the supply we have available weekly.  As a result, we may need to begin taping into the Food Bank funds to make up the difference each week.
• Protein and dairy are in constant short supply.  Gluten-free and halal foods are also in need regularly.
• For the last few months, the food bank has not been buying hygiene products and has been relying on donations from the SPCA.
• The requests for donations need to be added to the midweek announcements.

Motion to accept the reports as circulated and presented (Rev. Dr. Kyle Wagner/Heather Downey)

New Business:

1. Regional Council

•  May 18th - pre-synod meeting.
• The meeting may be hosted at Christ Church Dartmouth.
• We need another representative for the Regional Council - to be elected by the Parish Council.

2. Water Station

•  People, from the community, are coming during coffee hour to ask for water, coffee, or tea.
• Maybe we could consult with the Dartmouth Community Fridge to install a water-filling station.

BIRT this issue be referred to the Executive Committee for further discussion and exploration.  (Barb Hart/ Rev. Dr. Kyle Wagner) Unanimous approval - motion carried.

3. Nigerian Family Update

• Adsum House housed them for a week.  We housed them for the last 2 weeks.  
• The way the family can claim refugee status is by working for a company and claiming temporary worker status.
• The family purchased tickets to go to Toronto via train.  They decided against going at this time as they want to still try to make a success here.  This is most likely what will be the outcome.  We would like to also look at how to make connections in Toronto to support them should it come to this.
• Christine Hoehne is currently housing the family in her basement on a temporary basis.

BIRT the Parish Council supports this family with up to $2000 to either find work or to find connections in Toronto for the long term. (John MacDonald/ Geoff Turnbull)

Votes: 9 yes                2 no                1 abstain

Motion carried

4. Coronation Tree Planting

• The Dartmouth Region is hosting this event based on the discussions held at the Regional Clergy meeting to be a unifying event for the Dartmouth Region.  Each parish is also going to be given a tree, a perennial and native to NS.  Christ Church will be receiving a raspberry bush.  Each parish also is asked to send the rector, the regional representatives, and the Church banner.
• The tree is being planted at St. Luke’s as they are celebrating 75 years.  They had planned to plant an evergreen tree so that it could be decorated yearly for Christmas to shine light in the community.
• This event also serves as a fulfillment of our newest Baptismal Covenant around ecological stewardship.  Also, there is a call from the most recent Lambeth to plant 10000 trees.
• The Bishop and the Lieutenant Governor will be in attendance.

Next council meeting: May 25, 2023, at 7:00 pm in Lower Hall  

Motion to adjourn the meeting.  Vanessa Turner 9:05 pm

The Grace.