Précis of November Session Meeting

Before highlighting our discussions from last evening, please accept my apology for not sending a Precis of the October meeting. I was preoccupied at the time around the death of my mother, and many things slipped my attention.

Of course, the really big news is that, at our October meeting, Session accepted the recommendation of the Search Committee to invite The Reverend Sarina Meyer to preach for the call to be the next Minister of Briarwood. Much of our meeting last evening focused on discussion of the process that will occur over the next week. Nancy will be sending you a separate email with all those details, and I strongly encourage you to take a look at it.

Sharon W. has agreed to chair the Human Resources Committee, Jim M. will chair the Communications Committee, and Francois dP. will be the Worship Band Leader on the Worship and Music Committee, Stevie P-T has joined the Outreach Committee, and Ruth T. has joined the Human Resources Committee. Thanks to each of them for their willingness to take on these extra responsibilities. Also thanks to Judy P. and Liz K. and Heather A. for their work on these committees.

In response to the request from the congregation, the Board and Session are exploring ways to better inform people about financial stewardship of our congregation.

Session approved two recommendations from the Outreach Committee.

• We will raise funds for Christmas Baskets, with a target of at least $2000 by Dec 4th.

• The Special Christmas Offering will be given to AMCAL Family Services in Pointe Claire. They work with vulnerable youth and their families through a residential program for adolescents facing challenges, family counselling for parents with school-aged children experiencing difficulties in school, supervised parent-child visitations designed to strengthen relationship, drop-in program for young, vulnerable parents of children 5 and under, classroom programs, and skill building workshops for children and adults dealing with issues such as anger management and divorce. (www.amcal.ca/). We are aware of at least two youth associated with Briarwood who have benefitted from AMCAL.

Given that Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both fall on a Sunday, we decided to have a single Blended Service at 10:30 am on both Dec 25 and Jan 1.

We will also have a Blended Service on February 19th, the date of our Annual Congregational meeting.

We welcomed Stevie P-T who spoke to us about her plans for children and youth. She returned from her maternity leave as Child and Youth Director on October 23rd. Among the many upcoming things, she is especially excited about the Christmas pageant scheduled for the Blended Service on Dec 18th.

We will be updating our “yellow” congregational list soon, so this is the time to let our Administrator (Nancy W.) know of any changes to your address, phone number, email, or additional children!