Important News about His Provision Too

After careful deliberation following a meeting with Team Leaders of His Provision Too (HPT), Fr. Nathan and the Vestry have decided that the HPT meal program will be taking a break, at least for the summer. The last meal will be served on Sat. July 4th, and the break will begin after that.

Just as His Provision Too began five years ago out of a time of prayer, the decision to take a break this summer comes from the same heart of prayer. We want you to know the key background of that decision and ask you to pray and talk with us as we seek to make the most of this break.

As you know, our faithful Program Director, Kathy Jennell, prayerfully decided to step down from that role attheend ofFebruary while continuing to serve as a Team Leader. Since March,Joan McKean has been serving effectively as Interim Program Director andcompletes her commitment at the end of June.

Joan worked closely with Kathy and with Fr. Nathan, leading up to the March hand-off, to clarify and define the current responsibilities of the Program Director. The hand-off process helped us recognize more clearly just how much responsibility was being carried by the Program Director.

We also recognized that we needed to figure out the role of Buyer and plan for that transition. We’d hoped to do that this coming summer. This role was fulfilled for several years by Patty Champion and has been being done for the past several years by David Jennell. The Buyer’s work of keeping each breakfast crew fully supplied for each week involves a significant time-investment. For the Buyer to shop frugally—as it’s been done brilliantly—takes even more care and time.

All the work done behind-the-scenes by the Program Director and the Buyer made it possible for the five Saturday volunteer teams essentially to walk in on Saturdays and be ready to cook and serve. The fact that we’ve had gifted and committed people serving so consistently over the past five years allowed us to do this ministry program even though the organizational structures and practices of the program had never been clearly worked out.

So Fr. Nathan, Joan, Kathy, and others already recognized how important it was to create patterns for key leadership hand-offs and to explore possible ways to reorganize some of what we currently do in HPT.

During that same time period (Feb.—May), Fr. Nathan and the Vestry began exploring possible directions we might take with HPT in light of the disciple-development vision that is taking shape for our church ministries. We’d hoped to keep our current patterns of service on Saturday mornings unchanged while we discerned next steps for HPT in light of our developing ministry plans.

Fr. Nathan and Joan scheduled a meeting for June 24th to talk with the five HPT Team Leaders to see how things had been going this past year, and to begin thinking with them about ways to adjust our patterns.

Then, on Memorial Day, as most of you know, David and Kathy were in an auto accident. We’re profoundly grateful that both David and Kathy are recovering well. It’s clear, though, that it’s physically impossible for David to continue serving as the key Buyer for food and supplies. This unexpected turn of events placed time-pressure on a discernment and assessment process we’d hoped we could do over the summer without significantly changing our HPT service.

Lacking leadership in just one of the key background roles might have been sustainable through the summer, but lacking both Program Director and Buyer means that we have to figure out practical next steps for the immediate-future, not just the longer-range future.

After considering several potential short-term solutions to this background leadership dilemma, we recognized that it would be very difficult to create and implement any of them before the end of June when Joan was already scheduled to step down. So we moved the Team Leaders meeting forward to this past Wed (6/17) so that we could take counsel with HPT Team Leaders about the comparative wisdom of either taking a break or of trying to piece something together to keep going.

On Wed. June 17, Fr. Nathan, Joan McKean, Alan Carter (Junior Warden), and Elizabeth Doyle (Clerk) met with Team Leaders Chris McVey, Patty Champion, Jeff Bullis, and Kathy Jennell (with email contributions from Jeff Meisner, who couldn’t attend due to a prior obligation). We spent some fruitful time on our original purpose of considering how things had been going for the past year in HPT, and then turned attention to the immediate challenges. Consensus emerged that taking a break would be better for all involved.

The main benefits of taking a break include:

  • Allowing us the time both to assess how HPT might be structured and led in the future, and also to explore other ways to serve our community
  • Offering rest for our volunteers, many of whom have served continually since HPT’s inception 5 years ago
  • Providing the least problematic interruption of routines for our guests

The biggest downside of a break is that we won’t be serving our guests during this time. For some of the guests, a break could be a setback in the trust we’ve developed with them.

Having weighed the difficulties, this Team Leader group made the following recommendations for the Vestry to deliberate and decide:

  • That we place HPT on a hiatus/break for a period of time (time-frame left unspecified so that we don’t make promises that can’t be kept)
  • That we communicate clear and gracious messages to the various groups that will be affected by the decision
  • That we communicate in a manner that preserves as much trust with our guests and our teams as possible

Since timely decisions were necessary, Vestry deliberated via email on Thursday and Friday, and decided to act on all three recommendations, approving the following motions:

Motion #1: that weplace HPT on break/hiatus for an indeterminate timeframein order to discern the feasibility of restarting HPT with stronger leadership and goals

Motion #2: that wedelegate responsibility for communicating this decision to Fr. Nathan and the Officers so that all the stakeholders in the ministry—guests, teams, former team-members, program developers, congregation, and community-at-large—receive timely and consistent information

Motion #3: that we commit ourselves todiligently seeking answers to the feasibility questionsin Motion #1, and that ifvestry has not come to a conclusionby the end of September,then HPT will remain on hiatus for the rest of the ministry year (Fall and Spring) while vestry continues its discernment for the future of HPT

Vestry then approved the following motion:

Motion A: that we delegate to Fr. Nathan and the officers the responsibility for setting the dates of the final HPT breakfast and the start of the break.

Fr. Nathan and the Vestry Officers weighed the difficulties involved in earlier and later timelines, and developed a communication plan. This special announcement is one of the messages that they put together.

We are getting word out to our guests, all the team members and leaders, former HPT volunteers and developers, other food-assistance programs, and to the community at large.

Please pray for each member of the Vestry, and for all who are affected by the difficult decision that the Vestry made.

Please pray that we will be willing and able to consider options and take actions in a manner that cultivates trust and trustworthiness, and “pursues the things that make for peace and the building up of one another in love” (Rom. 14:19).

We’ve already been actively asking how best to commit ourselves to“Grow in the Way of Jesus” in the days ahead. This challenging situation in HPT is an opportunity to deepen our commitment to that hope-filled though difficult pathway.

Anyone interested—and especially anyone who has participated in HPT over the past several years—is welcome to participate in a brief meeting downstairs following the service. We will start at 11:10 and finish no later than 11:45.

Please pray and stay involved in the many discussions and ideas that will be considered over the summer as we develop plans for pursuing our particular calling as a church in Amesbury.

Grace and Peace,

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June 21, 2015

Fr. Nathan, Rector

Rick Brown, Senior Warden

Alan Carter, Junior Warden

Tom Champion, Treasurer

Elizabeth Doyle, Clerk

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June 21, 2015