Virtual & In-Person Meeting
Members will have the option of attending the meeting in person after Sunday worship service or virtually via Zoom. However, you are encourage you to attend in person if possible due to technical challenges that can arise.
Zoom meeting link: tiny.cc/2024annualmeeting
Meeting ID: 828 8026 2271
Passcode: 688908
Go here for full instruction on downloading Zoom.
Agenda
- President’s Report
- Minister’s Report
- Stewardship Committee Report
- Treasurer’s Report
- 2025 Budget
- Nominations Committee Report
- Council Elections
- New Business
- Congregational Feedback
- Music Program
- Coffee Hour
- Other Items
Full agenda available here (PDF)
2025 Budget
2025 Proposed Operating Budget – click here to download PDF
Council Member Election
Three Council Positions to be Filled
All three seats are full-term, three-year positions. Members are eligible to serve two consecutive terms.
Meet your candidates:
Laurie Carlson
My name is Laurie Carlson. I have been a member of the church since 2004. I was invited to the church by two friends. I was immediately impressed with the warm and welcoming community I met. I was awed by the beauty of the sanctuary and garden, moved by the beautiful music and felt the Sunday message always gave me words to reflect on and try to live. I have been an active member since joining. I have served on council for two different six-year terms. I have been involved with the church through ushering, as a liturgist, member of the stewardship committee, and assisting with coffee hour. It would be my honor to serve on the council again
Chris Hammer
I have been attending the Swedenborg church since the early 1990’s but became a member in 2011. I have been a liturgist for about 5 years.
I am now retired, but before I retired I was a consultant helping commercial building owners reduce the environmental footprint of their buildings. I hope to provide this expertise to our church operations. I was a project manager at my last position so I am familiar with creating and managing budgets, reviewing meeting notes, listening and collaborating with colleagues, and building consensus.
I served on the church council from 2010 to 2012. During that time we were searching for a replacement for Rev. Rachel Rivers and Rev. Jeff Cheifetz was our interim minister. From my previous time on the council, I have experience with historic preservation issues, reviewing financial spreadsheets and budgets, maintaining and operating the sanctuary and parish house, assisting with the annual retreat, planning events of outside speakers or musicians and much more.
I would like to serve on the council to support our church community and to be a steward to the buildings that I love so much. I’m sorry I am not able to attend our annual meeting in person this year as I am out of the country.
Joshua Jennings
Having previously served as a council member, I am very excited to be considered to serve again. It was an immensely edifying experience and I have gained great insight during my time away. What’s changed? Love as I never could have imagined it in the form of an Angel – my son Cole. I am humbled every day by his love, joy, and wish to be connected to all creatures on this Earth and beyond. In true Swedenborgian fashion, it this demonstrated desire to be an active member of the community, to do the right thing and to love genuinely and unconditionally.
My spiritual path has been replete with many twists and turns: baptized Episcopalian (my grandfather the Custodian of the Book of Common Prayer), I attended Grace Cathedral which was as physically distant to my adolescent understanding as are the walls, stained glass and the pulpit to my being. I attended St. John’s Church in Ross, where my mother served as a member of the choir and lay reader. I attended Quaker meetings which I found to be peaceful and easily transferable to my everyday life. I got married in a Catholic cathedral in Cuernavaca, Mexico which required that I attend Catholic theology preparation classes. Since divorced from my ex-wife and the Catholic Church, I have attended Alanon meetings for many years, many of its tenets based upon Swedenborgain teachings. Alanon is a large part of my commitment to spiritual growth. I became a member of the Swedenborigian Church in 2009 because of its egalitarian thought, its belief in the teachings of Bible as metaphor, and its commitment to love as a nexus to one’s spirit. I hope to further serve the church to the fullest of my capacity.