Dear Members and Friends of the Hills Church,

This past month has been a time of planning for your church leadership as the church makes arrangements for Matt’s departure, the recruitment of an Interim Minister, and how we might resume in-person worship safely and enter a new phase of streaming worship to people’s homes. At this time, we celebrate the ministries of Reverends Judy Swahnberg and Anne Marie Holloway as the Holy Spirit calls them to serve our entire congregation through their preaching, leadership, pastoral care, and ongoing activities. We are blessed to have them walking beside us as we look to our congregation’s future with optimism and confidence.

CLERGY REPORT

Reverends Matt Wooster, Judy Swahnberg, and Anne Marie Holloway continue to be busy preparing for our worship services together, Noontime Prayers, A Cup of Monday Morning Prayer on Facebook Live, and tending to our congregation’s pastoral needs through on-going programming and one-on-one consultations. On April 17, Judy conducted a funeral service and committal for beloved centenarian, Stanley Hodges.

Matt has focused his attention upon the pastoral, logistical, and administrative aspects of planning for his transition, and positioning the church for future decision making in terms of our building monitoring system and development needs. He has also been involved in the dissolution of the Grace Knight Babson Trust which will result in the distribution of $16,200 to each of the participating congregations with religious education as its suggested purpose.

Judy was able to continue her on-going professional education class, “Virtual Pilgrimage to See Truth and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama,” that was interrupted earlier in April because of pressing issues associated with the news of Matt’s resignation. To quote Judy, “this intense pilgrimage educated me and broke my heart.” She also brought to the attention of Church Council the copyright issues associated with live-streaming (versus pre-recording) church services, which may require the church to seek legal licensing advice. If anyone has expertise in this area, please let the moderators know.

Anne Marie is busy planning Confirmation Sunday (along with co-leader, Mimi D’Angelo) on May 23rd for 10 young people, and Youth Celebration Sunday (along with Sally Tomasetti) on June 6th. The High School Backyard Ministries continues to be well attended and the middle school youth are preparing gardens for the Farm to Table Project. Families with young children (5th grade and under) are meeting in small, in-person groups throughout May with Sally Tomasetti and the Church School Teachers. Individuals interested in serving on the Faith Formation Support Board or the Safe Church Ministry Team are encouraged to contact Anne Marie for additional information.

SUPPORT BOARD REPORTS

Faith Formation Support Board: Church Council thanked Betsy Wooster for her service on the Faith Formation Board and elected Mary Hill Canavan to serve on the support board. Plans are underway for many new activities – stay tuned!

Spiritual Care Support Board: The Deacons have formed an Interim Minister Search Committee and are making plans to bid Matt and Betsy farewell on June 13th and to host a special “Release of Vows” service on June 20th. On June 13th, the church will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of our congregation voting to be Open and Affirming.  

Christian Service Support Board: The Easter Offering raised $8,810 which will be split evenly between Family Promise MetroWest and City Mission.

TASK FORCE UPDATES

Strengthening Church Governance Implementation Task Force has recruited its initial members, drafted a preliminary work plan, and is making plans to host a open forum zoom call with the congregation to provide an update on governance plans, and to answer and explore questions about how the church governs itself.

The Strategic Visioning Task Force and the Financial Governance and Planning Task Force both reported to the Council this winter. Many of us were struck by the degree of the overlap and convergence in many of their recommendations, and how they resonated as well with some of the themes mentioned by the Strengthening Governance Task Force. The Moderators and Matt drafted a proposal for combining and building upon the suggestions they made by developing two new ministry teams.

The Development Ministry Team would oversee fundraising at the church. It would be broken out into three sub-groups that would coordinate their activities as needed.

Stewardship – This group would be responsible for the annual stewardship campaign, and would have a rotating model of leadership, like the Office of the Moderator, so that there is continuity of leadership and development of institutional history. It could also explore opportunities for year-round giving at events and work with the Membership Ministry Team to convey a consistent stewardship messaging.

Capital Campaign - This group would follow-up on this campaign Endowment and Bequests. This group would explore giving opportunities, including bequests, to support the endowment. They would investigate the potential benefits of creating additional endowed funds for specific programs such as Outreach, and Children and Youth programs, possibly in conjunction with the church's 175th Anniversary.
     
The Membership Ministry Team would build on the work already being done by the Deacons and expand its membership and mission. This group would have three charges:
  • Recruit new members in the systematic manner recommended by the Strengthening Governance Task Force. They would collect and create data on membership; collect information on guests attending our worship services, contact them, and monitor this activity on a monthly basis; actively engage guests and invite them to participate in church events.
  • Support / Re-engage current members in the manner recommended by the Strategic Visioning Task Force. This would include personal outreach to less active members and exploring ways to better engage all members in church activities by making programs more invitational, better communicated, and/or better scheduled.
  • Work to Publicize WHCC to the larger community through the efforts of the Open and Affirming front lawn displays, possibly the creation of Youth Ministry and Outreach T-shirts, and, eventually, a revitalized website.

Other steps already being taken to follow-up on other suggestions made include:
  • Installing streaming opportunities at church
  • Better leveraging the church’s facilities. Currently, a task force is looking at the use of the space on the third floor of the Parish House for possible nursery school expansion which would be done so as not to impinge on the use of that space for the Church School and youth groups. Other groups will also explore possible ways the physical assets of the church might be better leveraged (e.g. cell phone tower, solar carport, and reexamined rental rates).
  • Challenge existing Ministry teams to be more efficient and cost-effective in their operations. These groups would follow-up on specific recommendations made by the Financial task force and explore new possibilities as well.

Church Council approved a motion to continue to develop plans with the Membership and Development Ministry Teams in coordination with the Spiritual Care Support Board and the Stewards Support Board, respectively.

OTHER REPORTS

Live-Streaming Worship Services – Bill Spencer updated the Council on progress with developing the capability to record and live-stream worship services in the Sanctuary. During last summer’s renovation, we took the opportunity to wire the Sanctuary so that we could place video cameras on the rafters. Since then, the task force, which in addition to Bill consists of Rob Andrews, Ted Garland, Steven Hopkins, Kenny Goshgarian, Carl Novotny, Laurie and David Otten, and others have completed the installation of a basic, single camera system with a good sound system and a good internet connection, and have tested it out successfully. The plan calls for two ‘dress rehearsals’ of live-streaming the services in the Sanctuary on June 27 and July 4 (when there will only be celebrants present) with the intent of being fully operational by the time we begin to gather in the Sanctuary for in-person services on July 11. Fortunately, the skill sets of our sound techs, Steven and Kenny, extend to video as well. Some issues that are still being worked out are possible copyright restrictions for some music, and how to replace sensitive parts of the service, such as Celebrations and Concerns or appearances by the children of the congregation, perhaps with pre-recorded music. The Council also approved up to $5,000 for the purchase of a second camera and a dedicated computer for the system.

Transition Planning Update - Gary McCabe and Robert Williams, Co-Senior Deacons, updated the Council about the plans for celebrating Matt’s ministry, filling the pulpit for the summer and finding an interim minister. The Deacons are planning for an opportunity for small groups to meet with Matt and Betsy on the parsonage lawn on Sunday afternoon, June 13 after the pre-recorded service, or by specific appointment during the week of June 14-18. In addition, the service for the release of Vows for Matt will be held on the parsonage lawn at 10:00 am on Sunday, June 20. The details will be communicated separately.

The Deacons are creating the Church Profile, a document used in the UCC when recruiting ministers (interim and permanent) and have begun the process of identifying an interim minister.

Re-opening Task Force – Chris Stowell and Matt Wooster reported for this group that they met last week and plan to issue a communication about plans for re-opening during the week of May 17th.

We hope you are enjoying one of the most beautiful Springs in recent memory, and looking forward to the gradual resumption of our pre-Covid patterns of life, and especially our life as a community in Christ.