Vestry Candidates

Vestry candidates? What Vestry candidates? This week’s e-mail newsletter from St. Paul’s includes the following:

2013 Vestry Candidate Forum and Budget Presentation
Please join us this Sunday, February 3 at 9:40 a.m. to meet the Vestry candidates for 2013, and to hear a presentation on the 2013 budget. There will also be an opportunity to meet the candidates after the 10:45 Service.

Not so many years ago, advertising for Vestry candidates began at least by December. Candidate names were announced weeks before the Annual Meeting, and parishioners were provided with a brochure containing names, photos, and biographies to study. At times, we have held a candidate forum at which candidates spoke in support of their candidacy and answered questions from parishioners. This year’s “Vestry Candidate Forum and Budget Presentation” is clearly going to be rather perfunctory. A truly adequate discussion of the budget alone would likely take up considerably more than the allotted hour. Note that we are told only that we will have an opportunity “to meet the Vestry candidates for 2013,” not hear them or quiz them.

Why has the schedule slipped so much? The Annual meeting is on February 10, and parishioners have no idea who the candidates are. Very likely, there are only four candidates for four positions, so I suppose it really doesn’t matter, but it certainly doesn’t appear that our church leaders are taking the process of electing what amounts to St. Paul’s’ board of directors very seriously.

As I am writing this, it is Thursday. The announced event is on Sunday. Is there a reason the names of the candidates were not announced in today’s newsletter? Do we actually have four candidates yet? Will we by Sunday?