Chapter Meeting Highlights for July

Summer may be here, but the Cathedral’s board of directors, or Chapter, continues to meet. People’s Warden Elizabeth Carey was traveling at the time of the July 5 Chapter meeting, so I volunteered to provide the update this month.

Bishop Mathes joined us for dinner, prayer, and the first hour of our formal meeting, and it is always good to have him with us. In addition to giving us an opportunity to check in with him, he offered high praise for the way the entire St. Paul’s community is living into the role of a modern cathedral, citing specifically the recent outreach to the city at the time of the Orlando tragedy. He also encouraged us to redouble our outreach both to the city and the diocese, and to this end the Chapter passed a resolution to provide increased support to St. Luke’s, in North Park, as part of our ongoing relationship with that congregation.

Following Bishop Mathes’s departure, Chapter had an opportunity to discuss and ask questions about any of the regular reports that are submitted to it on a monthly basis by clergy, the wardens, and other staff and ministry leaders. Perhaps the most important item out of these reports was from Treasurer Betsey Monsell, who told us that audits had been completed for 2014 and 2015, and that the auditor provided an unqualified, or clean opinion. This is huge, since it “closes the book” on the period of our less than adequate financial reporting following our transition to fund accounting. We now know precisely where we stand, and clear, accurate and appropriate financial records are maintained.

Chapter reviewed the latest “dashboard metrics.” We have been working on an online dashboard that will allow us to keep an eye on the pulse of Cathedral activities, insofar as they can be measured. We hope to be able to share some of these metrics with the congregation in the near future.

Two members of Chapter, Joan Reese and Alan Cornell, were nominated to serve on a subcommittee to consider any additional entitlements for additions to the Cathedral that might be needed along with the plans for development of the Olive Street parcel. Joan and Alan will work with both Cathedral staff and LLC managers to this end.

It was reported that a facilitator has been engaged to work with the Dean and Wardens as they begin the process for a Mutual Ministry Review. Mutual Ministry Agreements are a standard part of the letters of agreement that rectors and deans in this diocese (and throughout most of TEC) enter into with their respective vestries/chapters. Reviews of both the clergy and vestry, based on these agreements, are to be conducted annually.

A draft version of a procedure for Nominating Committees to follow when developing slates of Chapter candidates was presented and discussed; with feedback from our Chancellor, Andrew Brooks, it was returned to the subcommittee that developed it, for revision. It will be reconsidered at our next meeting.

The date of the October meeting was pushed back one week, until October 11, due to a scheduling conflict with the Diocesan Clergy Retreat.

The meeting adjourned after appreciations, regrets and prayer.

-Mark Lester