Responding to God's Call

A Narrative Budget for 2004

This narrative budget is a tool to allow the Vestry to be accountable to you, the people of God gathered as St. Ann's, for the ways we have organized our collective time and talent in the service of God's mission in the world. This year the Vestry focused our resources on continuing to build bridges in our community and in the Church.

Responding to God's Call to Love

A fundamental dimension of God's call is love. At St. Ann's this year we have tried to cooperate with God's mission in the world by loving - both within the Church and extending that love to others. We have responded in a variety of ways:

Collaborated on Vacation Bible School with Eastwood Christian Church and East End United Methodist Church. This ministry served 42 children and was led by 9 volunteers from St. Ann's who gave a total of 93 hours of time.
Trained two seminarians from Vanderbilt Divinity School. We provided 63 hours of supervision.
Created a Choir Camp for the children of St. Ann's, Eastwood Christian, East End United Methodist and the East Nashville Hope Exchange. This year 27 children participated in this three-day program.
Sponsored four young choristers to the Royal School of Church Music summer camp in St. Louis.
Funded a youth mission trip to the Kentucky Small Farms Project. Five of our young people were supported in their Christian formation through this mission effort; they returned having grown in their love for one another and Christ.
Offered Companions in Christ groups to 14 adult parishioners to deepen lives of prayer. This represents 804 hours of prayer.
Planned and hosted fundraisers for East Nashville Hope Exchange. Over 100 parishioners gave of their resources to offer this summer school for 40 children from our neighborhood. Over 700 hours of volunteer time made this ministry possible.
Parked our neighbors. On the surface this is a money-generating scheme, but if you look deeper our parking volunteers have forged friendships with one another throughout the Titans season. We offered over 600 total hours to raise over $35,000 to pay our note on the property.
Served our homeless brothers and sisters through ministering with Room in the Inn. We housed over 176 people with 45 people volunteering.
Taught our children and youth. Passing the faith from one generation to another is critical in Christianity. We have offered 105 hours of Christian education and served 36 children. We have sought to love their parents too by offering time to nurture their relationships on Super Saturdays.
Offered healing through 12 step programs. St. Ann's is once more hosting an AA group once a week. We have also drawn over 30 participants to our Adult Forum on Christianity and the 12 steps.
Sustained folks in recovery by providing hot Sunday lunches. Thirty five St. Ann's volunteers fed over 200 people who are in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, having lived on the streets of Nashville.

Responding to God's Call to be Hospitable

Each week we respond to God's call by creating meaningful worship. St. Ann's folks know how to host a great party. We also know that all that we are and all that we have comes from God and so we share hospitality with others. This year our hospitality has taken the following forms:

Offered 110 Eucharists using the gifts of over 50 volunteers and over 800 hours of preparation.
Expanded our e-mail communications to offer updates on news which concerns us as Episcopalians.
Hosted 52 hospitality events following Sunday Eucharists.
Organized work days to spruce up our building and grounds, thereby communicating our love of the Creator. So far this year 25 volunteers have given over 300 hours to this effort. This does not include the mulchers who are secretive of their time contributions!
Provided food, transportation, visits, calls and other acts of loving-kindness to persons in life transitions within our community. Caring for the sick, the bereaved, the newborn are all parts of our mission.
Maintained an excellent website that is informative and welcoming. Marsha Williams has donated over 75 hours of her time to update our site.
Recorded our sermons for the enjoyment of shut-ins and those who request them. Bill Patrick has organized this ministry and has been faithful week in and week out documenting the preached Word in our parish.

Offering our space for community service. The following groups have used our building over the course of the year. The number in parentheses represents the number of times a group has used our building.

Group	Times
Stonewall Church	(52)
Rediscover East	(32)
Catholic Charities	(26)
Room In The Room	(22)
Mediation Works	(20)
ROVER	(19)
Women's Group	(18)
Tennesseans for Fair Taxation	(10)
Attachment Parenting	(8)
One-N-Teens	(8)
Interplay	(8)
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance	(6)
Alcoholic Anonymous	(6)
Girl Scout Leaders	(5)
Dancing Lessons	(3)
Overnight Youth Groups	(3)
East Bank Planning Commission	(2)
Renewal House	(1)
Community Shares	(10)
Tying Nashville Together	(1)
TN VALS Remembrance	(1)
Music City Marathon Stage	(1)
TN Coalition to Abolish Killing	(1)
Iris Club Meeting	(1)

Responding to God's Call to Take Risks for the Kingdom

The Vestry recognizes that responding to God's call often means going into unknown territory and risking change and failure. The risks this year have included:

Creating a new staff position, the Director of Children and Youth Ministry. This staff person will oversee and co-ordinate all of our ministries with and to young people. In addition, this person will seek out grants for our East Nashville Hope Exchange.
Launching the East Nashville Hope Exchange. Having successfully hosted two Freedom Schools, a program held in conjunction with the Children's Defense Fund, St. Ann's branched out on its own in 2004. We executed a five-week summer program with curriculum of our own creation, serving 40 children from our community. This effort meant that we learned how to write grants, mobilize volunteers, both within the parish and beyond it, hired and trained staff, and served parents of the children as well. We raised $40,000 for this mission effort. We also collaborated with Community Impact! to further youth development in our area. We are now working to discern whether this ministry will form the locus of a new non-profit corporation related to the parish or will remain connected totally to St. Ann's.
Studying restructuring parish ministry. We are looking at different ways of organizing our parish life to increase our ability to care for one another. We are looking at a model from our partners at Eastwood and a new structure to ensure relationships are strengthened within the parish.
Reaching out to other Episcopal congregations so that reconciliation and justice can be offered through our diocese. This year has been contentious in our denomination and in our diocese. The Vestry has sought to involve the parish in constructive ways that seek peace and justice.

As you can see, St. Ann's has sought this year to engage our community, both within and beyond the parish. We have made deliberate efforts to encourage all communicants in the faith development process and to be faithful stewards of our all the rich gifts in our congregation.