Reprinted from the Emmanuel E-Letter dated March 9, 2007
I would like to thank the many of you who attended the Vestry Forum last Sunday. We began these meetings in the hope of a true forum, with questions from the floor. I appreciate the dialogue we created last Sabbath.
For those of you unable to attend the Forum, there was a restatement of the criteria developed and used by the Vestry to govern the sale of the Cobb House. Someone asked, "What is going to be done with the money from the sale?" Our current thoughts, though we have not voted about money we do not yet have, are to retire the debt on our properties to the east. We still owe somewhere in the neighborhood of $400,000 on them.
In terms of current and future space needs, we plan to conduct a space audit, based on our programs and vision, and from there have fun exploring how to create what we need.
We also announced that the vestry decided at its February meeting to "relinquish" the cottages. What this means to us is that we will not incorporate them into Emmanuel's future space plans. The options for them are to sell them or "give" them away to a stable organization(s) that work for good in the world. The vestry has formed an ad hoc committee to investigate the options and report back. We will keep you posted.
I will also paraphrase some of Father Robert's comments: As a relative newcomer, I have a different perspective on these cottages. They have pitted brother against brother and sister against sister. We need healing and I'm not sure that healing can be accomplished with parish use of those cottages. Also, the heart of the church is here, in the sanctuary and these buildings. Let's create a space that connects our programs to the heart.
We ask for your continued prayers for all of God's work.
Robin Bewley, Senior Warden