Saint Alban's Vestry

Saint Alban's Vestry sets policies and allocates resources to support the mission and ministries of the church. When we set an item on the agenda for discussion and action we undertake to identify what action to take, who will take the lead on making it happen, and when they will report back to the vestry. If additional resources or assistance are needed we can seek to supply them.

For 2011 the vestry agreed on three mutual ministry objectives with the rector: stewardship of finances - address the budget deficit, stewardship of facilities - develop and begin to implement a comprehensive maintenance and renovation plan for our buildings and grounds, and stewardship of people (human resources) - ready a team to send to the diocesan College for Congregational Development.

In 2012 we will need to carry forward these goals and work under the guidance of the Spirit to bring into being in our community the Kingdom which is the Reign of God. We will need to identify Saint Alban's charism, its gifts and mission, as it seeks to become the good news to the people in our town. We will need to identify what policies and resources we will need to bring to bear - to assist in the work that God is calling us to do, here and now, where we are, as his disciples and as God's beloved children.

We pride ourselves on our welcome and on how well we take care of our own - now it is time to claim as our own, as God's own, not only our selves (our souls and bodies, our livelihoods and professions and gifts for ministry) but our neighborhood, our community, our towns, our state and nation and world.

What is going to happen as we seek to fulfill God's purpose in our lives?

Do Not Worry

25‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,^* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?^{* 28}And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God^* and his^* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. 

(Matthew 6:25-34)