Our November Church Meeting – assuming it is quorate – will be the ‘annual’ meeting at which our Church Members receive the reports from our Church officers and elect our deacons and others who serve our Church in various ways, so all Church Members really should make every effort to be with us in the Quiet Room at 8 p.m. on 22nd November. At present we have only three deacons – Phil Andrews, Antony Ball and Trisha Lumm – so, if you are a Church Member, please pray and think about whether you or any other Church Member might be willing and able to stand for election. The procedure is straightforward: nomination forms will soon be available in the vestibule, and must be counter-signed by the nominee and one other Church Member. The election then takes place at the Annual Meeting at which each candidate requires a majority of at least two-thirds of those present and voting. (Incidentally, Elizabeth Crewes does attend Deacons’ Meetings, ex officio, in her role as Church Treasurer, but is not currently a deacon.)
As you will see from the article opposite, we could not hold a Church Meeting this month because there were insufficient Church Members present to constitute a quorum – in spite of having recently reduced the quorum number from eight to six. Antony has included later in this newsletter an article about what it means to be a Church Member – please do think about whether you feel God is moving you to apply for Church Membership.
We gathered together for our service last Sunday evening but, alas, it didn’t ‘happen’ because the congregation was limited to Sally (at the organ, behind the preacher) and Antony, and our visiting preacher (the Revd. Peter Vannozzi MA) perfectly understandably declined the opportunity to conduct a service with a ‘visible’ congregation of just one worshipper. Peter was extremely gracious about it, and even forewent his preaching fee, but it was obviously an exceedingly embarrassing situation. When Sally, in her role as Pulpit Secretary, invites visiting preachers to lead evening services she does explain that the congregation is likely to be very small, but on this occasion three of our ‘regulars’ were on holiday, a fourth was ‘otherwise engaged’ and there were no ‘occasional’s – hence the problem.