This is a statement of where St. John’s is and where we would like to go as we continue growing in the Lord. This information is part of the input of what we will be using in our search for a new Rector.
1. The worship life of St. John’s is strongly based on Eucharistic-centered services, using Rites from the Book of Common Prayer at both Sunday services. We have a mid-week healing service with a Eucharist. Members of our congregation have expressed wishes for more use of the various liturgies in the Book of Common Prayer, with regularly scheduled instructed liturgies and laity-led Morning and Evening Prayer services during the week.
2.The spiritual life and growth of our congregation is centered around Sunday worship, along with Sunday School classes for children and specially challenged adults. There are additional educational activities, including adult class series and the Education for Ministry series. A desire has been expressed for short term retreats, quiet days at the church, and more topic driven book studies.
3. St. John’s music ministry is strong, alive and well, engaging many participants of all ages. We have an adult choir, children’s choir, youth choir, two quartets, bell choir and youth choir camp each summer. We encourage participation by university and college students and conduct periodic musical productions at the church, including recitals and musicals (most recently “Godspell” featuring youth choir members). Our congregation would like to develop additional financial support to further strengthen this ministry.
4. The membership of St. John’s is moderately diverse economically and socially, with some ethnic diversity. A high percentage of our members are college graduates. Ithaca itself is a university town, with all the benefits and drawbacks that status brings with it. New opportunities for participation and leadership in parish activities occur regularly. We would like to increase opportunities for newer parishioners to be integrated more quickly into our parish life.
5. Many of our parish youth participate in a group for which there is a lay minister and a lounge. Recently there has been a strong growth in youth involvement in our music ministry. Both adult and youth parishioners have expressed their desire that our youth be encouraged to join parish committees and to provide stronger ministry opportunities, including a Sunday service conducted entirely by youth members.
6. Fellowship at St. John’s revolves around several traditional annual events, as well as a monthly parish breakfast. There is an ongoing fellowship group for 20’s - 30’s-age parishioners. There is a desire that everyone who wishes to do so can be in one or more small fellowship groups. For this to happen, all parishioners need to be aware of the various groups and ministries within our parish, and to understand that they are encouraged to participate in established groups or to form new ones as their ages and interests change.
7. We see ourselves as welcoming to visitors and newcomers, however we cannot underestimate the importance of being a place that is more immediately welcoming and comforting. Some of this can be accomplished by better communication among our membership and the greater community. Our major means of communication presently are the parish newsletter (The Eagle), announcements at the Sunday services, a bulletin board and our parish web site. We are in the process of developing and utilizing a more active electronic media presence, gearing specific sections of our web site toward college-aged and new people in town, and creating a St. John’s Facebook page.
8. St. John’s physical plant consists of a beautiful historic building in downtown Ithaca, New York. This brings with it many pluses: being centrally located, highly visible, and with a continuing historic presence. We need to fund the growing costs associated with maintaining this handsome but aging structure.
9. Financially, St. John’s current endowment provides about 31% of our annual parish budget, with an annual draw of 6% from the principal. We need to increase the size of our endowment so it will generate an equal percentage of interest for the annual budget but with an annual draw of 4% or less. To accomplish this, we will need to develop a capital campaign in the near future which draws more of our members into the financial life of St. John’s.
10. Lastly, and most importantly, we are children of Christ, on varying paths of individual discipleship and discovery. We share a future in which we wish to express our faith by gathering together to worship and by growing together in Christ.”
