Looking Back and Stepping Forward
(Rector’s Report from the Annual Meeting)

It is difficult to try to capture the depth and breadth of life at St. Aidan’s in 2007 in writing. A highlight for me every year is the retreat with the vestry at Mt. Calvary. I know how difficult it is for individuals to offer a full weekend to worship, planning, and fellowship with one another, yet the time together sets a foundation of trust and Christ’s love for the work in the year ahead. Last January we discerned some focus areas: fixing up and caring for our physical plant, beginning our long-range planning, developing our preschool, renewing our worship and increasing participation, purchasing and implementing a new financial system, and supporting our high school ministry. On the vestry retreat this month we will follow up on these areas as well as God’s yearning, a vision/mission, for St. Aidan’s.

The mid-week Lenten series was very well attended. Chris Soper led us in a Course on Basic Christianity with themes such as “How do we know God?”, “How do we interpret the Bible?”, “What is worship?”. Some of the students preparing for confirmation attended as well as new church members. Eight young adults concluded the confirmation preparation course (including a tour of the Cathedral Center) and were confirmed by Bishops Talton and Carranza in May. Eleven women went retreated to Mt. Calvary Monastery for a weekend in June and were introduced to Benedictine Spirituality by Brother Robert.

Many helping hands came out for the spring work party and critical areas of the campus were refurbished – the kitchen, the bathrooms, the roofs, the paint indoors and outdoors, the list goes on. Without the 50th Anniversary Fund, people’s generosity and help, this work could never have been done. Thank you all so much!

An Endowment Committee was formed this year with the following members: Mark Glattly (Chair), Marnie Mitze, Gy Waldron, and Don Howarth, and we soon hope to establish a St. Aidan’s Endowment Fund. A long-term planning committee was also formed with the following members: Margaret Bowles, Lon Porter, Don McCrea, Jeff Kramer, and Ed Milkovich. They met with the Rev. Canon Jim Newman, the Dean of our Deanery, and two prospective architects to discuss expanding the sanctuary and making it more accessible. Cory Buckner AIA, who has restored many A. Quincy Jones homes in Los Angeles and is the author of A. Quincy Jones recently published by Phaidon Press is now working on three alternative concept designs. She also collaborates with Nicholas Roberts AIA, her husband and a senior associate at Leo A Daly, leading the firm’s Los Angeles office religious building group.

In the fall St. Aidan’s hosted an elegant wine tasting, music, and art festival including a silent auction, which raised funds for outreach and brought various community members to our campus. The choir had two gatherings in homes with music, singing, delicious food, and fellowship in preparation for Sunday’s music and the Advent Evensong. 

This year we said “good-bye” to Vonnie Saquilan as she moved to Minnesota (and sends her greetings!). We welcomed to our staff and ministry team three very talented and dedicated individuals: Lisa Devine (Youth and Family Ministries), Barb Dijker (Parish and School Bookkeeper), and Annie Gomba (Parish and Preschool Administrator). It has been a joy working with each of these individuals along with Kathy Cook and Sara Banta.

Finally, I am grateful to each of the vestry members for their commitment to and care for God’s work in this place. Our officers Chris Soper, Joe Lopez, Jim McGee, and Joe Pickard have been willing and faithful servants, modeling Christ’s love to all of us.

As we begin this new year, God’s words from Isaiah echo in our midst today:
“Look, I am doing something new, now it emerges; can you not see it? Yes I am making a road in the desert and rivers in the wastelands… for my people, my chosen one, to drink.” Isaiah 43:18-20

Yours in Christ,

Joyce

From the Parish Register

Baptisms: 3 
Weddings: 1
Burials: 1
Confirmations: 8

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February 2008