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Transition Notice 8/13

 The Faith Lutheran Church congregational meeting on 8/10 yielded the outcome we expected. They voted to separate from our clergy sharing partnership.

St Ann’s vestry met on 8/12 and voted to move forward with hiring a full-time priest. More details on this will develop as a candidate emerges for consideration of a call.

The six member St Ann’s Discernment Committee, led by Meredith Scaplen, will meet this Thursday 8/14.  They are charged to update our Transition prayer and prepare for first round interviews with two candidates already in the queue.  Rev Suzanne Roberts, our transition guide from the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, will confirm if the two candidates are still interested in St Ann’s.

If we cannot call one of these two candidates, we will need to update our St Ann’s profile without FLC clergy sharing and repost the position.

So we’re asking the Lord to continue to bless our Discernment Committee as they adjust to the changing landscape of this process. And we’re praying the Holy Spirit will make a smooth path for our new priest to find us quickly.

Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s 7/16

Expecting to Move Forward without FLC

The planned 7/27 FLC full congregational meeting has been moved to 8/10. This means their vote on the council’s recommendation to step back from the financial clergy sharing partnership with St Ann’s has also been postponed.

Rev Suzanne Roberts has informed any potential candidates of this new development.

The Finance committee met today (7/30) to discuss compensation options and will meet again on August 5^th to put together a proposal to present to the vestry at the August 12^th meeting. Once the vestry votes we can move forward with the discernment process.

Two Discernment Committee alternates from St Ann’s have agreed to step up and join at this time. Special thanks to Irene Rounds and Paul Petersen! Meredith is now the chair. The St. Ann’s Discernment Committee met Monday evening, 7/29 to bring Irene and Paul up to speed.

We know the Holy Spirit is in charge and God frequently turns circumstances that are out of our control into new possibilities, in ways we never predict!

So we keep calm and pray on. 

Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s 7/16

Leaders from FLC, including their Transition liaison, Rev Betty Balderston, whose role is similar to Rev Suzanne Roberts, met over zoom with St Ann’s leaders, the Discernment Committee cochairs and Suzanne on 7/14 Monday night.

 FLC Council leaders called the meeting to inform us all of their changing financial picture. They have recently learned that the permitting for the solar project has been denied and with that, FLC is not going to be receiving the $50K payout for the ROW for that project. This, along with a few members leaving the church for various reasons (moving, etc.), which means a decrease in offerings, has presented them with a significant financial change. This has created real concern as to whether they are able to continue their relationship with St Ann’s in sharing a Clergy person as planned.

 After painful deliberations, FLC Council leaders will meet with the full congregation on 7/27 to recommend a vote to withdraw from the partnership with St Ann’s.

Betty is researching if there may be a Lutheran equivalent to the Episcopal fund that provides clergy salary support to small churches.

FLC leaders expect there will be discussion of all options in the 7/27 meeting. Should they vote to withdraw from the partnership, St Ann’s will regroup to determine their best course of action.

Until we know the outcome of the 7/27 vote, there’s not much we can do … except pray. While this new development is discouraging, we know the Holy Spirit’s in charge and God frequently turns circumstances that are out of our control into new possibilities, in ways we never predict!

So we keep calm and pray on. 

Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s 6/25

 Our full time opening for a shared priest was posted again online at several sites the week of June 9th. The posting will be active until August 1st.

The Discernment Committee will meet at the beginning of July in preparation for any interviews that may be scheduled. We will share updates as we have them.

Thank you in advance for respecting the confidentiality of the call process.  Please continue your support and prayers.

Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s 5-15

The Discernment Committee has been hard at work and enjoying working together as a unified team. Earlier this month we offered a call to a candidate who is located on the west coast.  We soon learned she will not be pursuing a call in Maine for family reasons. We are disappointed but not discouraged.

We ask for your support and prayers to buoy the Committee as we regroup to start the search process again. The position will be posted online at the beginning of June.

We will share updates as we have them and thank you in advance for respecting the confidentiality of the call process.

Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s 3-26

Interviews have begun! 

We’re excited to have entered the interview phase of the clergy search process. This represents a significant milestone – with lots of hard work behind us.

And it’s important to understand, now that we’re here, the rhythm and content of communications to the congregation will look very different. Not only is the Discernment Committee held to strict confidentiality around discussing candidates, the entire interview process is handled as confidential!

Another way to look at this: we’re giving the team the “sacred space” they need to do their work.  This means these Wednesday Transition updates are winding down. We don’t expect to send anything new until we are announcing a clergy has been called.

We’ve got great representatives from both churches on the Discernment Committee, and we know the Holy Spirit is working through them. Please continue to pray for all engaged in the process.

Older Notices

3/12/25 Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s

The Discernment Committee is entering the interview phase of the Call process, with our first interview next week. We also are entering into the confidentiality period, where we are not able to share many details about our applicants.  We ask that people respect this by not asking committee members too many questions as we conduct our interviews. Please continue to pray for God to guide the right leader to us.

Discernment Committee Update for FLC and St Ann’s 2/17

The Discernment Committee met on February 17th and finalized the order of the interview questions, deciding who would be the questioner for each of those questions. We also discussed potential questions that we may be asked by a candidate with regards to our two congregations. We have one person from each church who will be the spokesperson to answer those questions or pass the question to another committee member, if appropriate.

We are still waiting patiently for a few applications to trickle in and we hope to see some activity in the next few weeks. We are well prepared at this point, so we do not have another meeting scheduled until March 31st. We’re praying that we’ll have a couple of candidates by then.

Please continue to pray that interested clergy will apply and one of them will be a good fit for our churches.