Session Notes: July 2022

Your Session sat, by Zoom, for its regular monthly meeting this week.

As Pastor Laura said in her note last week, “no matter what we do, Sunday mornings of the future will look different from Sunday mornings of the past.” This meeting was devoted to what we need to do to create, in Laura’s words, a new familiar Sunday experience. 

In-person attendance is essential to our health as a vital community of faith, so we’re planning a Sunday morning “Come and See WPC” experience this fall. We will focus on several constituencies that might be drawn to Western – neighbors, GWU students, former members – and tailor a worship experience for them over several weeks. 

There’s already appetite to return to community. Again last week, we welcomed three walk-in visitors. Thanks to summer intern Grace Gardella’s leadership, we have an active young adult program this summer. 

To create more room for hospitality after worship, we’re changing worship to its traditional time of 11:00am (from 10:00am) effective September 11. The Free Inquiry class and choir practice will revert to 10:00am. 

We also began a process, initiated by the Personnel Ministry Team, to transparently and equitably determine our staffing requirements moving forward. This is driven less by money than by mission, and by the changes in how we worship and organize ourselves as a congregation. It starts with a prefatory congregational conversation in August.

Please see Laura’s letter this week for more on the subject. 

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and enjoy your summer.