Meeting details
Meeting conducted on-site in the Clanalpine Meeting room.
Present: Chris Chandler, TseRuey Low, Chris Stretton, David Mayes, Lee Beeston, Naomi Reichardt, Michael Gold, Rev. Bruce Stanley (chair),
Apologies: Mike Lum, Amanda Haywood, Yvonne Hall
Next Parish Council meeting: Tuesday, May 9th at 8pm
Bible Reading
2 Thessalonians 2:15-3:5
Paul provides us with a reminder to be standing firm in the faith, encourage one another, pray for deliverance, and have confidence in God our Father. As we continue in the year of Evangelism, we need to be reminded of these things often as we seek to do God's work in a hostile world.
The Year of Evangelism
After a significant Easter, full of many taken opportunities, we are thankful to be continuing with more in term 3 - more prayer, the Mark Drama, and many other events. We spent time praying and giving thanks to God for all of the visitors and newcomers who attended services over Easter. We want to encourage all our members to continue to pray and continue to be a part of the training events each term.
Vision 2030!
Please pray with us as we plan for the next 7 years of growth, as well as develop a strategic investment and financial plan to allow us to complete the larger building work of stage 2 at Eastwood whilst also considering the future major building needs at Ermington.
Parish Council and the staff team are working to determine the high-need areas for allowing us to care for the growing number of people in our congregations. These include two main categories - "equipment" and "equipping".
We will begin with an immediate need for new chairs for the War Memorial Hall. As our (much) older chairs start to fail, and as our need for moveable seating increases, we will be aiming to purchase 150 chairs for the hall that can be used for Sunday services as well as the many other events we have in the hall. We will launch a small fund-raiser soon to encourage people to consider giving $100 to purchase a chair. We only need 150 people to take up the challenge and we will have all the funds we need!
Staffing
Youth Ministry update
We were delighted to announce before Easter that we have appointed Bec Faggion to the position of part-time youth pastor (2 days a week). She will be accompanied by Jo Lum (1 day a week) as our youth ministry assistant. They will start in term 2. Please pray for them both in this new role.
Please also consider financially supporting this growing ministry in our church by making a financial pledge to the youth ministry fund today:
Works report
Ermington:
A Development Application is in process of being prepared for Parramatta Council for a new shade shelter over the new playground (funded by a State government grant)
Air conditioning has now been installed in the main church meeting area as well as the creche/childcare room. Installation is to be completed by this Sunday.
A few shrubs have been removed from the Ermington Car park area which has enabled better access for increasing car parking needs. We will investigate some road base for the high-traffic areas.
Eastwood:
The tender documents for the detention tank and the car park completion are almost ready to go out in the next week or so.
An old sewer line has been replaced and the new toilets are now functioning very well!
Bells (Eastwood): We continue working on submitting the Development Application for Ryde Council.
Other Business
We are looking into training for people to attend to assist with disability inclusion in our churches and buildings. If this is an area that interests you, please contact Bruce with your details.
Finances
Our 2023 budget includes a 12% increase from last year.
Details for online banking can be found on our website here: Giving page
Budget summary 2023 - March year to date:
- Income required:
Year to date: $226,335
Weekly: $17,196 - Current offertory:
Year to date: $214,114
Weekly: $16,470 - Shortfall: $12,521
The current offertory is 94.5% of the budget (an upwards trend of 0.6% from last month)
We are very thankful for the continued generosity of our members. This regular giving is what enables the daily ministry to continue at St Phil's and St Mark's. We ask all members to be prayerful in their giving, regularly considering how God has equipped them to financially support his work both here and throughout the world.
Prayer
The meeting finished in prayer at 9:25 pm.