MINUTES

STANDING COMMITTEE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2008

 

Present: +Bishop Beisner, Susan Trice, Lucinda Ashby+, Kent McNair+, Marcia Engblom+, Jim Jordan, Bill Hamby

 

Absent:  Jan Herbert, Matthew Lawrence+

 

The Rev. Kent McNair opened the meeting at 10:00 with prayer. 

 

There being two new members of the Standing Committee, all members introduced themselves around the table.

 

Minutes from November 19, 2008 were approved (Jordan, Ashby MSC).

 

Kent+ and Bishop Beisner reviewed the role of the Standing Committee and referred members to the Canons of the Episcopal Church for more details.  In general, the role of the Standing Committee is to:

  • Approve the ordination of candidates for Holy Orders
  • Oversee encumbrance of property and finances
  • Serve as the Diocesan Review Committee under Canon IV in cases of clergy discipline
  • Give consent to the election, resignation, removal, etc. of bishops
  • Serve as our Bishop’s Council of Advice

 

Bishop Beisner’s report:

  • The Rev. James Mackenzie has completed his term of suspension from ministry.  The Standing Committee moved to restore him to ministry (Hamby, Engblom MSC).
  • The Bishop has been asked, and has accepted, to serve on the Bishops’ Consent Committee for the Episcopal Church. He will also continue to serve on the Church Deployment Office board.
  • The Bishop will spend three weeks of January in Honduras, visiting our Companion Diocese and undertaking intensive language training.
  • The current status of the lawsuit involving St. John’s Anglican Church in Petaluma was discussed.

 

New Business:

  • Bishop Beisner gave some introductory and background information about the four nominees who will attend the January Discernment Weekend.
  • The Standing Committee consented to the election of the Rev. Herman Hollerith IV as Bishop of Southern Virginia.  (Ashby, Hamby MSC)
  • The Standing Committee consented to an election for a Bishop Suffragen in Rhode Island. ( Trice, Hamby MSC)
  • The Standing Committee elected the Rev. Lucinda Ashby to serve as their Secretary.  (Hamby, Trice MSC)
  • The Standing Committee voted to allow St. Michael’s Day School to encumber themselves to the extent of the loan they are requesting ($300,000).  (Hamby, Ashby MSC)
  • In response to a request by St. Michael’s Episcopal Church of Carmichael, made in connection with the sale of its Wagon Tree Ranch property, to clear that property from the obligations of the Agreement Regarding Restrictions on Real Property and Granting Power of Termination, the following resolution was adopted (Ashby, Trice MSC):

 

Resolved:  that the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California quit claim any interest it has in the property and that the President and Secretary of Standing Committee are authorized to execute a quit claim deed to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church of Carmichael, a California Non-Profit Corporation.

 

  •  Charles R. Mack, Chancellor presented the Policy for Loans Made from Funds Invested in the Endowment and Memorial Trust Fund revised to include both informal suggestions made by this Standing Committee and by the Board of Trustees of the Endowment and Memorial Trust Fund.  It was approved (Ashby, Hamby MSC).

 

The next meeting of the Standing Committee will be on February 20, 2009 at 10:00 a .m. at St. Martin’s Church in Davis.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Jenifer Campo