Announcements

2009 ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

Posted Thursday January 22, 2009

Annual Parish Meeting
Sunday, January 25, 2009
8:30 am – Holy Eucharist
10:00 am – Parish Meeting

Highlights of the Annual Meeting
January 25, 2009

Appointed Elizabeth Moran to the position of Senior Warden was approved.
Election of Ted Panayotoff to the position of Jr. Warden.
Election of the following candidates to the vestry: Pat Ayers Catherine Kitt Ruth Tolman Nancy Soderberg Barbara Yatsevitch
Approval of the following addition to the by-laws:
The 2008 Budget had a shortfall of $24,196 or approximately 9%. This amount will be paid with accumulated surplus of monies.
After completion of the addition there is only an outstanding balance of $155,000 on the Building Loan. It is estimated that in two years the load will have been reduced to $60,000.
The 2009 Budget was approved. However, the parish does need to raise an additional $35,000. This could be done during the year through the combined efforts of a mid-year pledge campaign, rentals, new members and additional fundraising efforts.
Due to the financial melt down of the stock market, the endowment has lost approximately 20%.
A very special thank you was given to Treasurer, Chris Glass, for the exceptional presentation of the Financial Reports.
Father John explained that there will be some scheduling changes due to his up-coming treatments.

Copies of the Annual Report are available in the church office or sunroom, if you were unable to attend the meeting.
VOTING AGENDA

Bylaws Revision To Amendment Section 1.03
Section 1.03 Authority for Assisting Clergy
The rector, acting with the vestry, has the authority to select and
direct services of other clergy, as appropriate to their clerical order and as specified in a Letter of Agreement.

Junior Warden Nominee
Ted Panayotoff

Vestry Member Nominees (5 positions)
Ruth Tolman
Pat Ayers
Barbara Yatsevitch
Catherine Kitt
Nancy Traill Soderberg

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Ted Panayotoff
My wife Jo and I came to Camden, Maine from Long Valley, NJ in 1994. While living in Long Valley, NJ, we attended St. James Episcopal Church, Hackettstown, NJ for 9 years. During that time, we served on the Outreach Committee together, as Sunday School teachers and later I served as the Sunday School Superintendent. I also served on the Vestry, as Junior Warden and then as Senior Warden. Jo and I purchased The Elms B & B in Camden in 1994. We began attending St. Thomas but then transferred to St. Peters in Rockland. After selling The Elms in 2003, we returned to St. Thomas. Since January 2006, I have served on the Vestry and as Chair of the Outreach Committee. I would be honored to serve St. Thomas Parish as Junior Warden.

Pat Ayers
This year marks my 40th year as a member of St. Thomas’, although I am a lifelong resident of Camden and Richard and I were married here in 1952.

From pulling weeds in the garden, sorting rummage, or cleaning kitchen cupboards, to serving on the Vestry, the Altar Guild and as a Receiving Treasurer, taking part in the everyday life of St. Thomas over these years has given me an awareness of the many ways we can serve Christ in our church and our community. And, of course, some of it is actually fun!

Ruth Tolman
Soon after returning to Maine in September 2003, I reentered St. Thomas’ Church.

With a long history of living in this area, and raising my son’s, Eric, Nelson, and Benjamin, they too have beautiful memories of life, growing up with the priests and the church families. It has been a warm and wonderful journey of entry back into the work and worship inside this Parish.

I am humbled and honored by being chosen to be a nominee to the Vestry of St. Thomas’ Church. I would feel privileged to be part of the body of men and women that work for the renewal of our community and its continuing spiritual and physical growth. It is with God’s grace that I accept this call.

Nancy Traill Soderberg
I was born, educated and married in Massachusetts. My mother was of a long New England heritage and my father was of Scottish parents. My marriage to Richard Soderberg added strong Swedish traditions to my background. Following graduation from Wheaton College and a year of laboratory research at Harvard Medical School, I joined the Red Cross in their Club and Recreation program serving two years in the Pacific-on Okinawa and in Korea and two years in their Service to Veteran’s Hospitals in Connecticut. The next 50 some years were spent in following Dick’s career and expanding our family by two girls and three boys. In my spare time, I kept busy as a volunteer in Girl Scouting, Junior League, Libraries and tennis.

In all the 12 places we lived, church associations have been very important to me and to our children. Through our participation in the Sunday Schools, Choirs, as Acolytes, on the Vestry and as the Padre’s Warden, we had meaningful experiences in many different types and sizes of Episcopal communities: the simplicity of the small village parish of Lincoln, MA; the youth-filled congregations of the active suburbs of Riverside and New Canaan, CT; the majestic traditions of the Cathedrals in Houston, TX and Minneapolis, MN; and the service complications of multi-lingual parishioners in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It was during our six years in Brazil that we found our spot in Maine where we could dock our 35’ Alberg on which the entire family had been sailing for 20 years in New England waters as well as out to the Great Lakes for 6 years. Upon Dick’s retirement, we moved into an old Adirondack type lodge over-looking Buck’s Harbor in South Brooksville. After 15 years of cruising along the Maine coast and among the islands as well as occasional family-crewed racing, we decided the time had come to sell our boats and move to a larger community. Camden has proved to be the right place. Our scattered family –from Gloucester to Singapore-now consisting of our 5 offspring, their spouses plus our 10 grandchildren have come to agree with us that it is a worthwhile place to be in both summer and winter.

Catherine Kitt
I began my relationship with the Episcopal Church in ninth grade by joining an active youth group in a neighborhood Episcopal parish along with several friends. I also attended and later graduated from the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland. Although not strictly an Episcopal school, we used the Book of Common Prayer for our daily prayer service and for special occasions. My parents continued to attend the Presbyterian Church, but I felt more at home in the Episcopal Church, where I continued to attend services at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As our older children grew up, our family joined Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia – the church of George Washington when he was in residence at Mount Vernon. I taught Sunday School and our son was my assistant. We appreciated the historical connections to 18th Century America through the church building and to 17th Century Britain through the Book of Common Prayer. Additionally, we felt at home in a “world view” of the Episcopal Church through the National Cathedral in Washington DC, where people of all faiths are welcomed. The inclusive attitude and tolerance of the Episcopal Church has always been important to me. We attended family programs at the National Cathedral while all of our children grew up in the DC area. One Saturday class on the history and significance of the stained glass windows of the cathedral is particularly memorable. Our daughter, Cynthia, attended and graduated from St. Agnes School for Girls, and our son, Christopher attended St. Stephen’s, later moving on to boarding school at St. Andrew’s in Middletown, Delaware. Both Cindy and Chris, who are now in their thirties, say today that the grounding they received in the Episcopal Church through Christ Church and through their schools has been very important to them as adults.

As our daughter Karen joined our family in the mid-1990s, we were living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. We were members of Old Wye Parish in Wye Mills, Maryland. Karen was baptized there and I taught Sunday School and directed many Christmas pageants. When we began visiting Camden for Bay Chamber Concerts in the summers, we naturally visited St. Thomas, and felt welcome and that we had found yet another church home. We transferred our membership here in 2003 when we built our home and moved here permanently.

In addition to being a parent of three, I have been connected to the field of education all of my adult life. I was an editor for Education Times in Washington DC for three years, an elementary and secondary school teacher for fifteen years, and a college instructor for seven years. During the time we were in the DC area, I worked on my Masters Degree in English at George Mason University, adding an MA in English to an MAT in Education from the University of San Francisco and a BA in English and German from the University of Michigan.

If I am elected to the Vestry, one of my major interests will be supporting families through education and nurturing activities in the Sunday School and the strengthening of our youth group. I feel strongly that bridge-building activities such as the Heifer International projects and the potluck suppers, cement relationships between our children and all adults at St. Thomas. These relationships nurture kids of all ages and give them an extended family from which they can navigate their adolescence in an increasingly stressful world.

We have been in Camden for five and a half years, and it is almost difficult to remember a time when we did not live here. Although, my husband Loren still works in Washington DC and Karen and I visit there frequently, all three of us feel at home when we cross that bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire into Kittery, Maine and know that we are on our way back to Camden and our home at St. Thomas Church. My wish is that all of our kids and adults have that same appreciation for the parish life we have and can continue to build.

Barbara Yatsevitch
I have been asked to write my bio and in view of the Lovely, Long, Life God has given me and also in view of Advent being an extraordinarily busy time of year, unless I write in shorthand it’ll be Lent before readers get through this.

No need to tell you I was born. I’m a cradle Episcopalian, born in New York, New York, which is probably the reason I’m definitely a ‘country gal’, and was baptized at St. James. Mother and Dad oft went North two blocks to hear the Rev. Dr. George Buttrick preach at The Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. I grew up, got married and raised three children who attended Sunday School at MAPC. My younger daughter Mary was the first child the Rev. Dr. David H.C. Read baptized when he came to this country. I served on the Board of Deacons at that church.

It was during a Service there I had an amazing encounter with Our Creator. I don’t know whether it was the sermon, the music, prayers or what, but I was on a Spiritual high and prayed a prayer, an extraordinarily arrogant prayer and my Life has not been the same since. “Dear God, I’m a pretty good wife (and I was the best wife I knew how to be) and I’m a pretty good Mum (again, I was the best mother I knew how to be, but that’s not really saying very much) and I have a little time left over and I’d like to give it to You, God.” Is God merciful? You bet He is! He didn’t boot me for my unbelievable arrogance, but I landed in hospital and knew it was His answer to my prayer and He took me on an amazing Journey, which brought me into Hospice work and hasn’t stopped since.

In 1968, the children and I left New York and moved to Pennsylvania to be near my uncle and cousins, and in excellent school districts. (The children’s father became an alcoholic and Life with him became intolerable and somehow I gleaned the courage to leave him I was sure God didn’t believe in divorce It took a tumour in my breast and totaling a car in an accident for me to finally give up my will and follow His and thank God I finally did!.) My uncle subsequently introduced me sailing and then to Gratian, we wed and moved to Camden and became members of St. Thomas’s. We were members for around twenty-five years, I think, and for very painful reasons, when Gratian died, I left St. Thomas’s and joined St. Peter’s in Rockland. If anyone wants to know those reasons, I would tell them, but I shan’t write them here. I subsequently left St. Peter’s, knowing I would never lose Rev. Dr. Ralph Moore who was pastor and friend, and joined the First Congregational Church where I served on their Board of Deacons and on the Membership Committee. Because of The Rev. John Rafter I came home to St. Thomas’s a year or so ago and am very happy I did.

I was so Blessed to be married to Gratian and we traveled to many parts of the world and experienced many other cultures. My own personal belief is that there are many paths to God and probably God has many names. If only ‘we the people’ didn’t feel that everyone should believe the same things we do and worship the same way we do, it would be a far better world, I think. In every religion it’s all about Love, compassion, caring, awareness, Faith and Prayer, and doing unto others, or should be. Prayer is absolutely vital in my Life. My (whoops tilt) OUR Creator is my best friend and I talk with Him daily. I have to remind myself with frequency to be quiet and to listen to Him. He answers our prayers and miracles still happen. One of my favourite quotes is, “I came that ye might have Life and have it more abundantly.” I give thanks daily that I Live right here and not in Iraq or Afghanistan, or even our Southern States or burning California. I’ve no idea why God has been so incredibly good to me for I certainly did nothing to deserve it. His Grace abounds and I give thanks. Now, I think it must be Lent.

I neglected to tell you something you should probably know about me. I have maintained all my Life, ALL my Life that anyone who has more than two dogs who isn’t in the dog business is totally out of their minds. Several weeks ago I drove to Pennsylvania to bring Tori (Victoria) an 11-week-old English Cocker black, white and tan bitch home to join the pack. Simeon is my 4-year-old dog. He’s orange and white and Gillian is nearly 11 months and she’s red. I am thoroughly enjoying my insanity and they get along very well indeed and play and romp and run and I Love them tremendously. In Vermont they say, ” If it’s cold, it’s a one dog night; if it’s really cold it’s a two dog night and if it’s freezing, it’s a three dog night.” My fear of the cost of oil has been alleviated even though I have totally ‘gone to the dogs’!
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