This is the 2026 budget for Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington, as approved by the Vestry.
Income
Account Name
Budget
Totals
Pledge Payments
228,600.00
$236,600.00
Plate Contributions – Operating Fund
8,000.00
Total Pledge and Plate
Rentals
36,000.00
$36,000.00
Total Rent
Gifts – not designated
500.00
$500.00
Total Other Income for Operations
Contributions – Outreach
4,000.00
$4,000.00
Total Contributed to Outreach
Transfer from Endowment
20,000.00
$20,000.00
Total transfer from Endowment
Contributions- Memorial Garden
250.00
$250.00
Total for Memorial Garden
Total Income
$297,350.00
Anticipated income for the 2026 calendar year
Expenses
Account Name
Budget
Totals
Diocesan Assessment
43,116.00
$43,116.00
Total Assessments
Rector’s Disc Fund from Ops
2,652.00
$2,652.00
Rector’s Disc Fund
Priest Base Salary & Housing, Medical Insurance, Pension, Travel Allowance, Conference/Retreat Travel, Priest Travel, Supply Clergy, Music Director, Admin. Salaries
189,954.00
$189,954.00
Total salary expenses
Salary Taxes/Workers Comp
3,300.00
$3,300.00
Salary Taxes & Workers Comp
Sacristans
500.00
$1,875.00
Liturgical Arts
500.00
Other Liturgical Expenses
750.00
Flowers
125.00
Total Liturgical Expense
Music
200.00
$1,150.00
Musicians Hired for Events
200.00
Instrument Tuning
750.00
Total Music/Choir
Adult CE / Catechesis
200.00
$400.00
Children’s Christian Ed
200.00
Total Christian Ed
Fellowship
2,400.00
$3,100.00
Newcomers
700.00
Total Community Fellowship
Mobile Phone Reimbursement
420.00
$10,320.00
Office Supplies
2,100.00
Admin Expense
200.00
Computer-related Expense
1,000.00
MFP Lease and Usage
5,300.00
Communications
1,000.00
Diocesan Convention
300.00
Total Office/Admin Expense
Telephone
6,800.00
$31,750.00
Gas
10,450.00
Electricity
6,000.00
Water/Sewer
4,500.00
Garbage Collection
4,000.00
Total Utilities
Custodian Service
10,500.00
$10,500.00
Total Custodial
Custodial Supplies
1,000.00
$29,300.00
Property Repair/Maintenance
14,000.00
Landscape Services/Maintenance
5,000.00
Pest Control
900.00
Unanticipated Repairs
1,000.00
Contribution to Maint Reserve
0.00
Surface Water Tax1250
7,400.00
Total Property from Operating
Church Insurance
14,260.00
$14,260.00
Church Insurance
Outreach Disbursement
5,000.00
$5,000.00
Total Outreach Disbursements
Tithely Fees
475.00
$475.00
Donation and offering collection expenses
Total Expense
$347,152.00
Anticipated expenses for the 2026 calendar year
Amount needed to balance budget
Description
Amount
Expenses
$347,152.00
Income
$297,350.00
Difference
$49,802.00
Amount needed to balance the 2026 budget
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
The Annual Meeting of the parish for Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Kenmore, Washington, is January 25, 2026, at approximately 10:30-10:45, following worship.
There will be one worship service at 9:30 am. Parking may not be quite as tight as for the Bishop’s visit, but carpooling may still be wise.
After worship we will move to the parish hall for the Annual Meeting.
After the Annual Meeting there will be chili and pie. You may sign up to help and bring food on the sign-up sheet on the coffee table in the nave.
There will be no adult or children’s education that day. Christian education resumes the next Sunday.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
The Rev. Jedediah Fox delivered this address to the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer on January 26, 2025. The text following is primarily AI speech-to-text with light editing. There are probably some transcription errors.
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Fr. Jed Fox: And I would think, I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for it with bated breath, which is the Rector’s Address. Which I will try not to make a second sermon. Though that’s always the trick.
I want to start this address by with a word of thanks. Earlier this year you gave me a wonderful series of gifts to acknowledge for my ten years of work here in the church. I’m very grateful to every one of you, not just for giving me a gift, because I was here today I’m old, but for calling me ten years ago to be to journey alongside you in this journey toward the Kingdom of Heaven that we’ve built. It’s been a wild ten years in a lot of ways but a wonderful ten years that I’ve had the opportunity to think about it.
Ten years ago, when I gave my first Rector’s Address, I had on my mind the Christmas readings, particularly a phrase that was used in the letter to Titus, where Titus describes the followers of Jesus, the people of God, as a peculiar people, zealous for good works. And sometimes we hear that phrase peculiar, and we tend to think of quirky.
But I think that what Titus meant is not just quirky, but people who know themselves and God in Jesus Christ. And that is certainly, I think, who Redeemer is. In the voice of peculiar people who know themselves and who they are in God and Jesus Christ. And what is as true today as it was ten years ago when I gave that first rector’s address is that Church of the Redeemer is a people of worship, of sacrament, of community, and of outreach.
And we were able to live into those values in 2024 in wonderful ways. And one of the things we did is expand our community by welcoming in a new priest of the church. We got to journey alongside Teresa as she completed her transitional diaconate and see her get ordained and begin a new life of ministry as a priest in God’s holy church.
We continued our work with Hopelink and continued learning new ways in which we can be a blessing to them and others in our community. And we’ve begun work with the Kenmore Senior Women’s Shelter. All things that are, we said and we feel, are essential to our mission. You also got a new bishop, and the eagle-eyed ones, you might notice that his portrait finally came out.
So, it’s hanging out there in the narthex. If you want to go and look at it on your way downstairs to chili and pie, you can see Phil, our new bishop watching over us here at the Church of the Redeemer. It was a big process to get our new bishop. There were meetings and interviews and then an ordina…an election, and then an ordination, all of which were joyful and life giving.
And some of you joined with the rest of the diocese, the main family unit of the Episcopal Church, in doing that work of calling Phil to be on the mission. And there was a General Convention and you all, in your grace, lent me to the diocese to be a part of that General Convention, gathering on a larger Episcopal Church, not just a national church, but an international church, with people from Europe and Colombia and Guam and Ecuador and other places, and Taiwan and other places that are a part of this larger Episcopal Church, so that we can discern our way forward, how do we better be a church in a changing the world. How can we better be the body of Christ in a world that keeps changing more rapidly than anything we’d like?
For those of you who like numbers, here are a few numbers that tell us some things about the Church of the Redeemer in 2024. Our average Sunday attendance remained the same at 49 people on a Sunday.
That means that 49 people on any given Sunday will walk through the doors of the Church of try to find God in Jesus Christ, here among us. We had over 200 worship services in the church. of all sorts and kinds, most for Eucharist, but morning prayer as well.
And we continue to learn new ways of worshiping God. We’ve incorporated more of the new expanded language you’ve heard since the way we worship on Sunday morning at 10:30.
And we continue to grow in our ability to sing God’s praises in ways through the efforts of our volunteer organists and all of your efforts to be brave and sing boldly.
Sing boldly.
That breaks the AI to poorly paraphrase Martin Luther.
And I think the question that maybe had been with us subconsciously for the last several years particularly the last two years that we’ve been back in this building. I know it seems hard to imagine we’ve only been back in our building, in this space, for two years. Two years ago, almost to the day, the question that’s maybe been with us the last couple years is there life or would we learn how to cope? Is there a future for the church or would we have to deal with those headwinds?
It’s a question that’s not unique to us. It’s a question that I think every congregation of the Church of Christ, writ large, is honestly asking itself. Is there life after the pandemic? I think that in 2024 we have answered the question definitively, yes, there is. And as we move into a new year of life, worship, and community, and outreach together as the Church of the Redeemer, a peculiar people, zealous for good works.
You’ re faced with a new question. If there is life after COVID, what is it? What does it look like? What does it look like for us to be the Church of the Redeemer, to live into the values that we have in worship and sacrament, and be given an outreach in this new normal that has so firmly planted its better, for the better, in a few ways, but maybe not for the better in a lot of ways.
How do we preach the gospel?
How do we preach Christ crucified and risen?
That’s the work that we have to carry out. To figure that out, then to begin to go do this. It’s a work that I’m looking forward to, in this year, to carrying out with all of you, in many and various ways, to continue ministry with Hopelink, to continue to administration of the sacraments on Sunday, to feed us in our life, so that we may go out and proclaim the Gospel, to have community gathering together.
Hopefully in small groups on weeknights, hopefully in large gatherings around food, which I know is one of the favorite things of Redeemer. And it’s coming soon, I promise. I look forward to doing more of that with you.
And now, with the budget we have approved today, it feels like we’re taking a step back, having a priest who’s only three quarters time, for the first time in decades. I looked it up actually this week, just because I was curious. And the Redeemer has had a, when we had a full time non included priest, a full time priest since the 1950s.
And it might feel like being a three-quarter time priest, having a three-quarter time rector is taking a step backwards, but it’s not. It’s different. It’s a different type of ministry for a different moment of ministry, a moment that I guarantee will change in the next twelve months is the right way for us.
Be discerned, do in this moment to preach the gospel in this moment, in this dear these next 12 months as we discern how God is calling us beyond a COVID soldier into the new life. And I am excited and interested and curious to see what God will do with this new Church of the Redeemer, and I hope that you are as well.
And seeing as one of the principles of this congregation is eating together with Gusto…
Let us pray.
Almighty and ever living God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faith, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life. And bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy church. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Before I declare this Annual Meeting of the Church of the Redeemer in the year 2025 completed. I would ask that those who have been newly elected to the vestry and those who are continuing on the Vestry, if you would please come up here for a very brief meeting before I release you to go enjoy the chili and the pie.
With that, I declare this 2025 Annual Meeting of the Church of the Redeemer ended.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
Grace Pomroy from Relèven spoke to the 2025 Annual Meeting at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. She explained some about the process Redeemer has embarked upon.
Relèven Grace Pomroy from Relèven speaking at the Annual Meeting of Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Kenmore, Washington, on January 26, 2025. She is explaining the process started with the people at Redeemer the previous day when the consultants met with the congregation.
Founded in 2018, Relèven is a charitable organization that was created with the vision of lovingly preserving, restoring, and repurposing underutilized churches into community hubs and affordable housing. Since their founding, they’ve become a leader in church transformation across North-America. Their impact is measured in discounted rent affordability for families and charities.
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
The Rev. Jedediah Fox delivered this address to the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer on January 21, 2024. The text following the video is very slightly edited to improve reading.
The Rev. Jedediah Fox, Rector: Now it’s time for the Rector’s Address. I always try in the Rector’s Address to look back and forward at the same time, or at least one after the other. I haven’t quite managed to be in two places at once, much as my child tries to train me in it.
2023 has been the year that I’ve come to think of as the year of the beginning of the new normal.
After the great upheavals of 2020 and 2021, and the conclusion of those upheavals to a certain extent in 2022, both in the greater societal milieu and in our church, 2023 was, for the most part, a time when we began to sort of try to get our feet under us to understand what it meant to be the church again: a church that gathers as we used to before 2020 in person in a place with heat. But also, that accommodates people who don’t want to be here in person but want to be a part of this community. The church writ larger than it was before the pandemic, but also for us and for many, many churches writ smaller.
In 2023, our average Sunday attendance, the average throughout the year of how many people would come, be a part of Redeemer in our in- person gatherings, was 49 people per Sunday. Put it in context before the pandemic, for many, many years, we averaged 76 people per Sunday.
2023 was the year of living into the new normal.
In March, we had brothers and sisters join us. As the Ethiopian church began to rent space from us across the way, and that again was asked us to live into a new normal, a normal in which much of the building that had been our church home for the Church of the Redeemer in the night throughout the 1950s was no longer used by us. But it was rented out by others who also began to worship God in spirit and in truth alongside us, sometimes literally. And that was both wonderful, if you’ve ever walked in on Sunday and had the smell of injera and curry and chai hit you bodily in the face, it’s a wonderful feeling, but also challenging.
They’re a lovely congregation and they have interesting ideas about what parking looks like, for example. But we have learned to live into a new normal in which we share what the resources we have with people, with God’s people around us.
We lived into a new normal in 2023 of what it meant to have this building. This beloved barn, if you will, that is in many ways the same as it was in 1964 when we opened the doors, and in other ways continues to…
If I say showing its age, it seems pejorative.
…gather patina, some of which is lovely and some of which needs addressing. We replaced the roof over our narthex in the entryway in places where it had issues with water coming in and rotting out the roof. That was fixed and a new roof was put on to make sure that that doesn’t happen again, so that narthex can last for another 60 years, we hope and pray.
And in 2023, we got to have a whole year of having an intern in Teresa Newell. And more than that, at the very end of the year, we got to have her as a deacon. The first time in my time here that we have had a deacon. And I for one, I’m very grateful to have her among us.
If 2023 was the year of living in to the new normal of discerning where God has put us, where God has planted our feet in this moment. I think that 2024 is maybe the year where we must discern where God is then calling us to begin to walk. Redeemer like many, many, many churches in [the Episcopal Diocese of] Olympia, in the Episcopal Church, in the United States, in the world, in all of the body of Christ, is not the same church that it was before the pandemic, but it’s still called by God to faith and to faithful action.
And what that looks like is what we must discern this year.
In the coming year, there will undoubtedly, as there is every year, be challenges that we will have to face. Some of them may come from our beloved but patinaed barn, as they have in past years. Particularly the last three or so. But we have many gifts to exercise as well, many assets to bring to bear many treasures that God has given us for the use of the church in the building up of the body of Christ.
And it is our job to discern how best to use them to tell people the kingdom of God is at hand. Believe in the good news.
One of the ways in which we will do that, I hope, is that—and you those of you who are eagle eyed in looking at the budget will have noticed way down at the bottom of the expenses—is to begin a conversation with some consultants about how we might move forward. We’re hoping to be in contact with the same people we were in contact with as the pandemic began, the Vandersall Collective. For people to help us discern how to use what God has given us to further the mission of God in this place. How do we be God’s hands in this community? How do we use what we have to do that better? That’s what I hope they will help us discern.
I believe that God has a plan, has a, has a need for us, the Church of the Redeemer, in this place, in this time. And our work this year is to discern what that is. And now that we have our feet planted to begin to take the first step toward accomplishing it.
It might be a big step, a giant first step like my kid does when they walk over a crack because they’re afraid it’s going to jump out and swallow them up.
And it might be the kind of step that I first step that I take after I’ve been playing on the floor with my kid for an hour and a half. And my leg is a little bit creaky, and I can manage about four inches in that first step.
It might be somewhere in between those two.
But this year I pray for God’s presence, as I always do, that God might be with us as we discern where we might be with Jesus in this time, in this place, because the kingdom of God is near, right in front of us, and we can be in it.
That’s the first step.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
The 2023 proposed parish budget totals $285,750.49, to be used as budgeted in the following areas of mission and ministry for the building up of God’s Kingdom in our midst.
Worship
Sermon preparation, bulletin preparation, worship planning, Sunday morning worship, special services, scheduling lay liturgical leaders, notifying media of special services.
Compensation
$51,657.55
Operations/Overhead
$7,944.00
Direct Program costs
$6,900.00
Total
$68,901.55
Faith Formation
Christian formation, baptism/confirmation/marriage preparation, newsletter, Safe Church.
Compensation
$33,799.73
Operations/Overhead
$10,592.00
Direct Program costs
$1,200.00
Total
$46,191.73
Outreach
Parish events, ecumenical relationships, service to diocesan committees/programs, publicity for special events, community bulletin board, building usage, web site, food, and clothing ministry.
Compensation
$9,886.86
Operations/Overhead
$5,296.00
Direct Program costs
$1,000.00
Total
$16,782.86
Pastoral Care
Hospital and home visits/communion, individual/crises/grief response pastoral counseling.
Compensation
$31,883.83
Operations/Overhead
$2,648.00
Direct Program costs
$0.00
Total
$34,531.83
Fellowship
Parish suppers, coffee hour, postcards/e-mails/other special notes.
Compensation
$27,744.67
Operations/Overhead
$15,888.00
Direct Program costs
$1,500.00
Total
$45,732.67
Stewardship
Vestry, stewardship planning, office administration, financial administration, record keeping.
While the minutes on this page are copied directly from the PDF file, the PDF file is the official version.
January 23, 2022
The meeting opened with prayer at 11:35 AM
Fr. Jed began the meeting by reviewing the voting process for this meeting.
Vestry nominations
Fr Jed stated that Sam Millbank and Ann Walton are appointees to vestry by the nominations committee and he then nominated Richard McAlister for 3 yr vestry term which he accepted.
Fr. Jed also nominated Tom Byrd for the 1 yr vestry term, which he accepted.
No additional nominations were put forth and Fr Jed moved that the new vestry nominations be elected by acclimation. There being no objections, the motion passed, and the new vestry members were elected.
Music Director’s Report
Sheila said that this has been a particularly challenging year due to COVID. She mentioned that she has enjoyed her time here since she began in 2005, and has very much enjoyed working with staph and parishioners. She recalled all the events she has experienced at Redeemer from changes in clergy, to the remodel of the sanctuary, to the office break-in which caused the storing all the choir music for a long period of time. She mentioned how grateful she was for the addition of a new grand piano, and new handbells, and that she was able to provide the support of several lead singers from outside the parish to help with the music program.
Sheila said that the most important reason she stayed for so long at Redeemer was due to the warmth of the congregation in receiving her and for their strong support of the music program. She is also very grateful to the parish for the help she received from them in supporting the music recitals by attending, by providing food and beverages at these events, and for their support of the music program in general. She said how appreciative she is of the choir, who is like a small family, and she is grateful to receive so much clergy support in allowing her to be creative in providing a strong music program to the parish.
Fr. Jed mentioned that when he came to Redeemer, he quickly noted how wonderful it was to have Sheila as the organist. He valued that he and Sheila immediately got along and noted that she recognized the experience of worship and how music supports that experience. He wishes her all the best in her new endeavors. Fr. Jed hopes to give her a send-off this summer when we can give her going away celebration in person.
Fr. Jed mentioned that the Delegates attend the annual convention that runs over a Friday afternoon and Saturday in November. His hope this year is to help the delegates engage with the parish and share their learnings and ideas from convention, and to help adapt these ideas/learnings within our parish.
Fr. Jed stated that Richard McAllister agreed to be nominated to one of the 2 year positions and asked for nominations from the floor to fill the remaining positions.
Sharon Villa volunteered to be the alternate. Bill McGlinn volunteered to be delegate for the remaining 2-yr term. Bob Chapman volunteered for the 1-yr term. There being no further nominations, Fr. Jed called to accept the slate by acclimation. There being no objections to these nominations, the slate was elected by acclimation.
Budget Presentation
Fr. Jed presented the budget in the form of bar charts that separate parish spending into five basic categories: Worship, Fellowship, Pastoral Care, Faith Formation and Outreach and describe what is included in each of these categories:
Fr. Jed pointed that the variance in spending is related mostly to where Fr. Jed’s time is divided in pursuing all these endeavors
Fr. Jed also presented a graphic showing where the income for mission comes from.
He noted that 90 percent of our income is from pledges, with the remainder much smaller portions coming from plate, grants other income (gifts or grants from individuals and families) rent, and other funding.
Fr, Jed noted that we have a deficit of $36K for 2022, which is the difference between what we feel we are called to do in our mission and what our current in projected income will be. He demonstrated this difference using the following 2 spread sheets:
The above spread sheet shows the $36K deficit if we cannot raise enough money to completely fund 2022 operations.
The second spread sheet below shows a balanced budget using funding from our Endowment to support operations.
The vestry is committed to balance the budget either by additional fund raising or via supplementing it with money from our Endowment Fund. We have over $400,000 in the fund thanks to a gift from Shirly Woods, and the money would come from this fund. The vestry is committed to explore every means possible to make up this $36,000 deficit, but as an absolutely last resort, we will pull from the endowment fund to cover the cost of mission and ministry at Redeemer for 2022.
Fr. Jed called for questions about the budget as presented:
Mark Phillips asked which organizations currently rent space. Fr. Jed said AA wants to return as soon as we open.
Sarah Phillips: do we know who in the parish has left and who are members? Fr. Jed answered that we don’t have a set list of members, though we do know specific parishioners have left, like Deb Randall who has moved. An updated parishioner list is one of the main projects to be addressed as soon as we are back in the building. Fr. Jed mentioned that the parish directory update was on the 2020 plan, but COVID interrupted this process.
Mavis Karalius: does membership mean people who have committed to pledge or to anyone who attends. Fr. Jed stated that a member is a baptized person who has attended church 3 times in past year or who has given financially (undefined – could be pledge or plate or one time gift)
Earl Beede: did vestry use a percentage or a set of commitments on which to spend money? Fr. Jed said that this is a set of commitments on which to spend money.
Bill McGlinn: What is included in outreach? Fr. Jed said that this includes all administrative costs of outreach in all areas. Bill felt that the spread sheet is not too clear in showing the details of outreach spending and suggested that in future we might have more detail relating outreach spending categories. Fr. Jed will look at this for the 2023 budget. Bill applauded Fr. Jed for his work on representing this information.
Mark Phillips: agrees that use of the endowment fund is appropriate use, especially in these challenging times. He feels grateful for the people in the past who have given these gifts and it has given him pause to do the same. Fr. Jed recalled that the endowment was first established from a gift by Earnie Moore in memory of his mother. It has since grown through people who have given these gifts as a faith offering to the church during their lives.
Fr. Jed called for a vote via polling to approve the 2022 budget. The poll shows 40 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstention. The budget passes.
Children and Family Ministry Report
Mary Nilsen began her report by saying that since the last annual meeting, church school met every Sunday. Mary felt strongly that the kids needed this time to meet together. Mary mentioned that church school covers a 100-mile geographic spread of children and herself. Seven children participate, and Mary gave a shout out to parents who have encouraged their kids to meet online and who support their spiritual development. She said that the light of Christ is in each of us to share throughout the world.
Mary strongly felt that the kids need a voice in the church. Zoom has been a gift, allowing a great learning/teaching tool and she can see at a glance who is engaged and actively involved. Mary Includes an active art project each week as a means of fostering this engagement. She sets a focus on prayer where every child shares a prayer, including prayers for vaccine for grandparents, lost pets, new pets etc. She mentioned that children have joined from many places, such as tents, hiking trails, etc and it is always a pleasant surprise to see where they will show up.
The past four years (Mary came on staff 4 yrs ago January) have been amazing. Mary said that this was a new program and she helped build the program, give it structure, and tailor it to each learning development level. This includes making children’s program costumes, props, puzzles, and physical classroom tools. Mary created 6 volumes of Godly Play curriculum programs to save the cost it would have taken to buy the materials pre-made.
She wanted to build an awareness of the entire parish around the importance of children’s part in our parish, to help them grow into faith filled adults. Mary made a plea to us all to give the program more help. She asks us to think of how we can share our gifts with our children. They need, and deserve, a program to teach them about the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ saving grace. They wonder what will happen when Mary leaves and Mary replied to this question by saying that she has no answer but has faith that one will become apparent.
She mentioned that all the material is there, just waiting for someone new to pick it up and move forward with it as is, or even change and grow the program. She thanked Sheila and Fr. Jed and enjoyed working with them, and she said she will miss us all. Mary thanks the families, the children, and their grandparents who have helped, and to all the classroom volunteers.
Mary also recalled the very first class in Easter of 2020. She promised that when we were all together again that there would be an easter egg hunt on the first Sunday back in church and she strongly encouraged someone to step forward and make that happen when we gather in the main building again.
Fr. Jed said that Mary knew him from 8th grade and yet she still agreed to be the program leader. The children she spends Sundays with know that she teaches them to advocate for themselves and for God, helping them to grow in their faith. Mary helped them have a relationship with God that will be different with them for the whole of their lives and is a result of Mary’s help. His offers Mary his sincere thanks for everything she has done for our children.
Mary remembered that she is also grateful to have taught the children to be in church and to be active participants in the church liturgy.
Recognition of outgoing Vestry members
Fr. Jed recognized the outgoing vestry members: Eivind Nilsen as vestry and Sr. Warden and all his incredibly hard work during his one year term. He thanked Lee Darrow for her time as Clerk of the vestry and for serving as delegate to Diocesan Convention. He mentioned that she has served in many capacities at Redeemer and is taking time now to step back. Fr. Jed thanked Peter Donley who stepped into the 2 year vestry term, and Heather Phillips who had clear and decisive insights at vestry meetings. He thanked Elizabeth Russell and will miss her logical, clear ideas and prayerful demeanor. Fr. Jed said that Vestry met via zoom monthly and sometimes more often, and all the members have worked extremely hard during this COVID-tide.
JP thanked Lee Darrow and Liz Mills for their interim bookkeeper work.
Rector’s address
Fr. Je said it is two years since COVID started and it has been a time of upheaval. In addition to COVID, we dealt with the furnace outage, worshiping online, wind storms, roof repairs and other issues.
He recognized Lee Darrow and Liz Mills for stepping up to help with bookkeeping while we find a new bookkeeper. Lee spent much time downloading from Deb Randall’s brain and creating a manual for the bookkeeper, and Liz Mills is now taking Lee’s download and putting it into action and working with JP on finishing year end processes.
Fr. Jed recognized the Donley family (Peter, Chris and Iris). Chris was instrumental in taking worship online, monitoring and technically supporting the online worship every Sunday. Peter and Iris supported the worship liturgy through offering the readings each Sunday. Fr. Jed also thanked Phillip Lineau, our Parish Intern, who assisted in virtual worship and the parking lot/memorial garden outdoor worship. The Donely’s and Phillp have made our worship as close to normal as possible during these times of separation.
He thanked Mary for connecting us by making and delivering “Apostle bean soup” during lent to parishioners and he thanked the Hopelink Kenmore place volunteers for helping make the familys’ journey to better housing more bearable during the holidays and at other times.
Fr. Jed hopes that 2022 will bring an end to the pandemic, and that the furnace will be up and running in the next two weeks. He hopes that we will be back in the church by the time of our 75th anniversary. In any event, we will not be the same as we were prior to covid. We are changed and we now must determine how God’s mission for us will drive us forward. If we are to be faithful to God’s promise, we must stand up and go out into the world. This is the core of who we are in the church, and we must encourage each other in this mission. We are not alone. The Church is the Body which helps us to work together to carry out Christ’s mission in the world. This will be the focus of our year – to go out into the world carrying out Christ’s mission.
He asks us through prayer to discern, pray over, and step out into that part of ministry to which we are called.
Fr Jed closed by saying thank you to Sheila and Mary for everything you have given us. We are better for having you with us and our prayers go with you.
The meeting closed with prayer and blessing at 1:00
These are from each annual meeting of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington. from 2022 through 2026.
These meetings are used to elect members to the Vestry, diocesan convention delegates, report on what happened the previous year, and plan for the new year.
2022 Meeting
The parish held the annual meeting on January 23, 2022, online.
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
