From Our Bishop’s Warden

The end of September saw Father JJ Bernal’s last day with us. He is now serving in the Diocese of West Texas and living in McAllen, Texas. We wish him God’s speed and a joyful life there.
Almost all members of the Bishop’s Committee completed the Anti-Racism Training the first week in October. We found the training illuminating and helpful to our interactions with peoples different from ourselves to grow into the Beloved Community Bishop Curry envisions.
Stewardship letters went out to all members of the congregation the first week of October. We are receiving completed pledge cards each week.
Our bookkeeper, Sandra Calhoun, and I met and are working on accounts she has for income purposes. We should soon have a new list for the Tellers to work with to enter income for each week. We are also working to simplify the accounts she works with so that it will be easier to keep track of income and expenses for specific categories.
The First Aid and NARCAN boxes are installed in the Parish Hall and the Education Building thanks to Michael Powell. However, the first aid kit and NARCAN box are missing. Anyone who has any information about what happened to them, please contact Mark Sowards.
I had an informative conversation with Bishop Jennifer Reddall on the 9th. She and several staff members will be visiting Cochise County Churches on November 19th and all Church Members are invited to a meeting at 1:00 pm in the Education Building to meet with her. Following the meeting we are invited to have dinner at St John’s Church in Bisbee at 6:00pm. We can meet at our Church and carpool to Bisbee for the dinner with other congregations in the Church.
The 2nd Saturday Supper was at Vinny’s Pizza. There were about 8 persons attending. We hope to see more friends join us on November 14th at The Orient Express following the Saturday evening service.
The Stewardship luncheon was a great success after the Sunday service on October 10th. The food was delicious and we had about 30 friends attending. Clyde Kuntz spoke about his experience of Stewardship, encouraging us to remember that we become more interested and participate in those activities where we invest our money.
The Search Committee met as a result of the bishop suggesting we might be interested to follow up on a possible candidate from Tucson for our half-time priest position. The Committee is following up on the suggestion and more information will be forthcoming as their work progresses.
Nicholas Sowards and Anne Roth were our delegates to the Diocesan Convention on the 17th. Deacons Dottie Gutwein and Sherry Simon as well as myself were also there to vote. Deacon Sherry and Renee Olejnicak monitored the EFM table among many interesting vendors. St Barnabas in Scottsdale is a beautiful church and we enjoyed an inspiring communion service, lunch and a successful annual meeting.
On Monday, October 19th we celebrated Joan Strom’s Memorial Service, followed by a finger-food reception.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Rea
Bishop’s warden
St Stephen’s Episcopal Church