[Magdalen] Leaving...

[Jo Craddock]

Regarding the size of our vestry: a few plaques on the walls of the 
church attest to the oligarchy which held sway over St. James for the 
first-half of the twentieth century. "XXX, forty years a vestryman of 
this church, twenty-four its senior warden," and "xxxx thirty-five years 
a vestryman of this church, fourteen its senior warden," etc., etc. Most 
of those families are still represented, at least by name (or maiden 
name), today. Hence, "their name is known."

As I understand (before my time), in the late 1960s, early 1970s there 
was an uprising, and the seemed-sensible-at-the-time solution was to 
increase the size of the vestry to get some fresh voices heard. 
Interestingly, St. James also "sent out" two other parishes during that 
period, but these old families didn't want to serve *there* (closer, in 
actuality, to where they lived); they had to be "leaders" at St. James, 
downtown between the banking and law offices.

Our current ASA is 300-350; about 1000 are on the rolls, I believe.

Peace,
Jo

On 01/24/2016 4:35 PM, Roger Stokes wrote:
> On 24/01/2016 21:22, Scott Knitter wrote:
>> On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 3:12 PM, Grace Cangialosi 
>> <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I can't even imagine a vestry that large--sounds like a nightmare! 
>>> I'm not
>>> sure, but I think vestries here are limited to 12--I'd have to check 
>>> our
>>> canons.  I know they can't be smaller than 3.  The two churches I 
>>> served
>>> had 5 on their vestries, and even at that, we had trouble getting 
>>> folks to
>>> serve.  But 5 was quite large enough!
>> I think in Michigan a vestry could have 9, 12, or 15 members. Most had
>> 12. Ours in Chicago does as well.
>
> In England the size of the Church Councul is laid down by a formula.  
> The wardens and those elected to deanery or a higher synod are on ex 
> officio.  The number of other members is giverned by a formula - 6 for 
> up to 50 members, 9 for 51-100 members and 3 more for every 100 or 
> part thereof beyond that but parishes can increase that if they 
> choose.  Given that the deanery synod reps may include one or both 
> wardens I would guess the typical size would be 12-15 people, the 
> lower end of that range making for a more cohesive and 
> business-orientated group.  Smaller churches will tend to have small 
> Councils, partly for the reason Grace gives of a reluctance to serve.  
> A lot of our parishes have less than 50 members and will share a 
> priest with others and they may well struggle to get the two wardens 
> plus 6 elected members.
>
> Roger