[Magdalen] Please pray for Ascension, Chicago - annual mtg tomorrow

[Lynn Ronkainen]

with prayers and hopes that the truth was spoken in and with love by all
Lynn

My email has changed to: houstonKLR at gmail.com

website: www.ichthysdesigns.com

When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a 
single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." 
attributed to Erma Bombeck

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From: "Scott Knitter" <scottknitter at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2015 2:33 PM
To: <Magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Subject: [Magdalen] Please pray for Ascension, Chicago - annual mtg tomorrow

> We'll have our annual meeting tomorrow at 10 a.m. (which means we'll
> only have about half an hour, really) to vote for vestry members and a
> warden. But right now we've got a lot of angry parishioners as the
> result of the rector's firing of the parish administrator and the
> longtime organist and choirmaster. I've just read notes summarizing
> various non-vestry-member parishioners' comments to the vestry from
> last Wednesday evening's meeting. There are accusations of
> misrepresentation/lying on the rector's part, a systematic reduction
> of the Catholic nature of our liturgy and music, a corporate-style
> layoff giving a cold and disrespectful ending to the long tenures of
> our topnotch musicians, and more.
>
> A vestry member who is an attorney drafted a resolution (which I
> gather did not survive a vote of the vestry; not sure if it will be
> moved at the annual meeting) distancing the vestry from the rector's
> actions based on his not having worked with the vestry to make these
> decisions, and she quoted several passages from canon law that she
> believes were violated.
>
> My position: I don't like the way these changes were done (a kick in
> the head to those who have worked so well for so long) but I do
> understand the need for a new rector to be able to make staff changes,
> and he waited a year to do so. The parish administrator job in
> particular needs to be done by a non-parishioner who can be held
> accountable and let go if necessary. The parishioner who has been in
> the job has, fortunately, done very well and with integrity, but he
> should have figured his time in the job was limited as there was a new
> rector.
>
> I also don't like the way our search and this layoff processes have
> been gamed from the background by the bishop and his staff. I'm still
> a bit gobsmacked at the blatant manipulation of the search committee
> (which didn't work) in the form of a vestry/search committee "retreat"
> that served as a bully pulpit to a captive audience for the interim
> rector to make his pitch for the vestry to set aside the search
> committee's recommendation and hire him. The first diocesan liaison to
> the search committee botched her assignment to game us at the
> beginning (by lying to us that there were very few applications so why
> not consider hiring the interim...we saw through that and demanded and
> got a different liaison).
>
> The politics behind all this are of course not surprising but are no
> less a pile of crap for being standard operating procedure.
>
> So I get why changes would be made; the way they are being made is a
> dog's breakfast; and I feel rather sick about all this right now. I
> don't want to leave and don't expect to. But I feel a bit distant from
> the rector right now and wonder if things will play out in a way I
> feel I can defend and sign up for as a supporter.
>
> I don't look forward to the annual meeting at all, but of course I
> need to be there to cast my votes on whatever comes up for a vote.
> Lord, have mercy and guide us, heal us, and reunite us.
>
> -- 
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA