Our meeting was called to order at 7:40 pm in the  C.E. Centre  by our Chairperson,

Carey Wagner  and Marilyn Barros read Scripture from Psalm 139:  verses 1-6;13&14; & 23&24 and Carey spoke on Church Quirks.  He had us all share a quirk or two about our selves. Carey then opened in prayer.  Carey ‘s new objective is still for each meeting to end at 9:00 pm.  

Attendance was taken – And we did not have enough people for a Quorum

(We have 9 Voting Members & we need 50 % + 1) 

*Chairperson – Carey Wagner             Minister – Rev. Robert Gibson (non-voting)

Treasurer –                                                       *Chair of Finance – Bruce Cox

Secretary – Bonnie B. Elliott(non voting)           *M & P– Lola Dudley

*Worship – Marilyn Barros                             

*Property Chair – John Racher            

*Presbytery Rep –                                            *Trustee –

*UCW –                      

*Christian Education –                    Youth Representative  -

                                            * Asterisk states Voting Member

Members sending Regrets:     Joan Williams, Marion Henderson, Barb Guild, Stacey Williams

Therefore it was noted that we could not vote on any issues and decided to carry on the meeting for information purposes only.

No     Motion of Acceptance for  May 21st  2008 Minutes

Moved by   and seconded by    that we accept the Minutes of the  May 21^st 2008 Meeting as printed & circulated..  

Is there any unfinished business found arising from these minutes?.  Only the visioning and we will address it at the end of the meeting.

Correspondence & Office

1. Letter from London Conference Re renewal of Video License –cost of $222.45 Sept 2008 to Aug 2009 – Due Date is August 1, 2008

NO: Motion: in regards to the cost of  payment this $222.45 will be evenly distributed thru the Worship, Christian Education & Library Budgets.

It was decided to follow this thru at this time.

2. We have been experiencing Internet problems and we had to call in Scott Bondy –SDB Tel-com for a service call & some minor repairs. But the Internet is now working but if this doesn’t solve the problem we will have to contact Bell Canada.
3. On Sunday, June 8th the Damar Fire Alarm Box in the furnace room was possibly hit by hydro and a new battery had to be replaced for a cost of $35.90.  They informed us on Tuesday but they knew we were off line since Sunday evening.
4. For EVERYONE’s  Information:  The Church Sanctuary is booked out for the following dates:

Wedding from the Mandaumin Church – September 6^th

Scott Woods Concert on Sunday, September 28

Wedding – VanStraten & Thompson – October 25^th

5. The time change sign out front of Church will need to be installed afer the June 29^th Service.  The Sign insert is in the office.
6. The Petrolia Topic has been informed of the time change & will change the Church ad accordingly.
7. We received a Thank You letter from Habitat for Humanity for our donation of $300.00 – Our

      donation for $150.00 was matched by one of our people.  This was a very kind gesture.

7. The United Church Observer subscription is up for renewal.  The cost this year is $15.00 for

11 issues and this fact will be advertised in the church bulletin this week as well each individual                                  on the list will receive a letter in hopes to meet the  renewal deadline of July 15.

8. I have received a statement of account from Windover Nursery in the amount of $5,166.90

NO Motion:   that we pay the full bill $5,166.90 for Windover’s Nursery .  We have $2,200.00 from the UCW & $442.87 from the Anniverary Memorial Flowers for a total of $2,642.87.  Windover’s have graciously stated that they would donate the balance of $2,524.03.

Discussion:   A nice thank you card should be sent and maybe a plaque put somewhere outside advertising the Windoever’s involvement.

Committee Reports

UCW Report & Lambton United Church Promoter

1. The Ladies of the UCW have donated $2,200.00 towards the lovely new flower beds.
2. The ladies of the church would like the ceiling fans to be left on during the morning worship service.  It is better to have a breeze than no air.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to address this situation BUT do agree with the ladies.

WORSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT by Marilyn Barros, Chairperson

• -meeting was held Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at the Petrolia Discovery
• –We the Worship Committee hereby grant permission to remove Mary Welch from the Historic Roll due to her death on May 29, 2008.    
• -There are a number of individuals on the roll with whom contact has been lost. Marilyn will ask Linda Van Stratten if she would be willing to assist with updating the roll.
• -Penny reported on the flowers for Anniversary Sunday. A total of $685.00 was             received. Expenses were $242.13 leaving a balance of $442.87 which will  be given towards the purchase of trees for the landscaping.
• -Pulpit Supply: July 27-Carey Wagner;

Aug. 3-Jessie Dobbyn;           Aug 17  ~ 

Oct. 19-Tom Saul.                   Nov. 2 ~

• -Marlane has  contacted Erica Warder re her request  to perform. Erica would like to give a 1 hour performance on Sunday, August 24 from 2 to 3 pm in the Church Sanctuary.  She would have the expense of paying her accompanist ($30 per rehearsal (2)& $60 for the performance.   She express a request that a free will offering be given to “Let’s Get Active” a Diabetic program carried out at Kettle Point.   We would need some flyers for advertising, etc. Randy the owner of Streets Eatery might be a source to contact and John Racher volunteered to clean the church sanctuary following the event since Becky MacRobbie, our custodian will be on holidays.  The Worship Committee has been given the conscent to see where this all leads.
• -Rev. Gibson distributed his Sunday schedule to the Worship Committee to Sept. 7.
• -Communion will be distributed on June 29th  
• -Marilyn spoke about the  "Visioning Ideas" she has received.
• -Donna McImmoyle and Carolyn Gould gave the members a tour of the Oil  Discovery grounds and buildings which would be available for use for a   Church service. A tentative date of July 27 was agreed upon. An   invitation will be extended to the Marthaville Sewing Circle.

Since we were unable to vote on this request the group present thought it would be great idea to pursue if it gets advertised correctly.

Here are the details to date: Date:  Sunday, July 27/08 at 10 am Enter by North entry and park near the Marthaville Church.  Carey Wagner will be the guest lay preacher for this event and the church will hold up to 125 people.  We suggest that everyone bring their lawnchairs, sunscreen & sun hats and YOUR OWN Brown Bag Lunch with a drink.

If you wish to tour the Petrolia Discovery following the service & lunch you can purchase your admission ticket at the regualr entrance.  Sounds like a great day in the making.

NO Motion: moved by  and seconded by  that we accept the Worship Report as presented. 

Christian Education Report   ~ Minutes of the June 8, 2008

Attendees:  Barb Guild, Edith Roberts, Carrie Bulgin & Julie Allen  (Bonnie was also in attendance)

 Regrets:  Dawn Fox, Sharon Stonehouse & Dianna Wammes

Barb opened the meeting with prayer.

Sunday School:

• Edith reported that the Planting Sunday at Anne and Andy Gelinas’ has been postponed until June 22^nd due to the wet weather.  The children will be planting their pumpkin seeds between

       2 to 4 pm.

• New Sunday School supplies won’t be purchased until the Fall.  The laminator is broken and Edith will purchase a new one in time for VBS.
• The current teachers have said they will be back next year and Sunday School will commence the 3^rd Sunday in September.
• Volunteers are needed for the summer months and the sign-up sheet can be found on the office door nearest the Library.  All materials and curriculum will be supplied and accessed by asking Edith in advance.  Beginning July 6^th and ending August 31^st church will begin at 10:00 am.

Please Note at this Point in Time:  

Bonnie & Edith have switched work stations.  Therefore, if you are leaving something please be sure to put in on the right desk.  Sometimes someones treasures is another persons junk and things go Bye bye……

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

Outreach:

• Bible Study and UCW have stopped for the summer months.
• The Youth (high school age) continue to meet with Edith on Fridays with one week having a devotional and the next being an outreach of some sort.  Edith is in need of another ADULT Leader. 
• VBS is coming together but we can always use more volunteers. (Contact Edith)  A new event will be a Family Fun Fair held on the Thursday evening.  The Youth Group will be handing our flyers in town advertising the VBS and the banner will be put up on the church very soon.

Other Business:

Visioning for St. Paul’s was discussed and some brainstorming resulted in the following suggestions:

• Adult Sunday School Classes
• Family Friendly Events (car rally, baseball game, picnic, bowling etc.)
• Children participating more in services (like the birthday event Rev. Gibson orchestrated)
• More involvement in the Puppet Ministry – do not want to lose it.
• Some way to contact parents of kids in the nursery if they are needed downstairs (i.e. vibrating units restaurants use)

Thanks for all your help! Have a Great Summer!!

Next CE Meeting:  Sunday September 14th @ 9:30 am. 

NO Motion

NO Trustee Report

 The Finance & Treasurer's Report -  Bruce Cox & Stacey Williams

The Finance committee meet Sunday June 8^th after church.  In attendance was Bruce Cox, Ken Bulgin, Gail Winter, Bonnie Elliott and Stacey Williams.

Visioning Report:

• The visioning committee was first on the agenda.  A summary of our groups thoughts for the visioning committee has been compiled and emailed to Marilyn Barros.

Capital Projects:

• The capital projects ie the “painting of the church sanctuary” was discussed.  On behalf of the church Rev. Dr. Gibson is looking into a possible grant through the MP and MPP to help with this project.  Last talking with him there was no money available through the MP but he was still a little hopeful there may be some through the MP.  I would like to thank Rev. Gibson for taking the initiative and doing this for us.

Brunches: 

• We talked about having 2-3 theme nights throughout the year.  We are hoping this would draw new people into our church.  We are seriously looking for a volunteer or even different groups to organize each of these specialty nights. 

Car Rally:

• A rally will be organized for September sometime.  This rally will either be a car or a walking rally. 
• Possible themes are:

• Victorian, Oil Town, Community in Bloom and Churches

• The goal is it will be kid friendly so the whole family can get involved.

Scott Woods:

• Is booked for Sunday, September 28 @ 7pm.  The tickets are now on sale in the church office.  This event will be limited to 400 tickets.  Cost of a ticket is $20.00

Possible Fund Raisers:

A Wee Competition.

A series of singers.  We were thinking of selling tickets as a series.  We are looking for any suggestion on good possibilities.  To date the suggestions we have are:

            Edward Klassen

            Jason Hales

            The Youth Choir

Financial Overview

The GST  has been deposited for the amount of $1,496.14.  At this point we are at a break even position in the operation of the church.  In my opinion this is not a good position to be at going into summer. 

I am still working on the computerizing the books.  I am handing out a list of all the income and expense categories and I ask all the committees to review this list particularly the list of

expenses under their committee headings.  This list will be the list of expenses that make up your committees budget.  If I have missed anything please add it and please write a brief description beside each expense explaining what it is.  This will greatly help the future treasurer understand where the money is going.  Please return this list to Stacey Williams, thank you.

NO Motion:

Lambton Presbytery Report sent in by Marion Henderson

Next Presbytery Meeting is June 19th.

LONDON CONFERENCE ANNUAL MEETING - MAY 23-25, 2008, Aylmer

Theme - SING YOUR SONG OF FAITH

I began conference weekend by attending a dinner and play in St. Thomas on Thursday evening.

The play was called “Church Union - A Romance of 1924” and was written by Rev. Doug Wright.

To be or not to be; that is the question;  whether Chislehurst Presbyterian Church enters the newly

forming United Church of Canada, or by opposing remains Continuing Presbyterian?  Rev. Clarence Woodside, recently called minister, fresh out of seminary, is thrown into the debate.  Which side should he back?  Will he lose his position?  Will the congregation find him a suitable spouse?  Will she be pro or anti union?  Will there be enough butter tarts?  It was a very enjoyable evening.  (And we even got some butter tarts during intermission!)

Conference opened on Friday morning with a video presentation from the Moderator, Rev. David Guilliano.

Following dinner on Friday night, the jubilands and retirees spoke about ancestors who had influenced them. A table was set like the Last Supper with old chairs and plates used from Churches that had been closed. 

On Saturday morning the candidates spoke.  These included the candidates for commissioning - Wanda  Burse, Diane MacPherson, Debra McGill, Elaine Strawbridge and Krista Vandersar.  The candidate for

commissioning was Kathryn Douglas.  Candidates for recognition were Diana Brown and Paul Vollick.  Debra McGill of Courtright/Sixth Line has been settled in Cookstown.  The celebration of ministry service was held on Saturday evening.

Other speakers during the weekend  were John Young, a teacher at Queen’s Theological College, Armine Yalnizyan, Phil Schuyler, Terence Corkin, Nora Sanders and Rivkah Unland.  Annalee Kerr showed slides and spoke of her trip to Israel, Palestine, the sea of Galilee and the West Bank.    Linda Begley spoke on the compensation project/pastoral charge payroll service and said that it is mandatory and is gradually being set up and everyone will receive packages regarding this.  Rev. Matthew Stevens spoke on our M & S, stating that if everyone gave $2.50 extra each week (the cost of a coffee and 2 donuts from Timmy’s) that we would meet our goal.  It was agreed that our commitment this year would be $3 million. 

Rev. Susan Cameron is the new chair.  Her theme will be The Fabric of Prayer.  “If you are too busy for prayer, you are busier than God wants you to be”.   She told us to find our Bibles, put them where we are and find our prayers.  She also handed out prayer shawls to each presbytery.

Rev. Doug Wright is the new chair-elect of London conference.  Doug said that his grandfather was a minister, his uncle was a moderator and his cousin is a United Methodist minister.  The Church in Exile will be his theme. 

The youth shared with us their time at youth forum which included worship, home groups, music, activities, speakers and body prayer.   The youth are selling t-shirts with the slogans ‘tap water - suck it up’ and ‘water, it’s ours to live’.  These are being made by the company ‘me to we’ and are 100% fair trade, organic and sweat shop free.  The youth gave a presentation on Sunday morning, as did the children at conference which is always a joy to see.  Sunday morning ended with a service which included communion.

PROPOSALS: 

#1 - Creation of an archive capital fund.  The lease on the present building will expire in 2015 and they would like to establish ‘an archive capital fund’ in anticipation of future capital expenses, accumulate 2% of the sale of real property (land, buildings anything affixed and on the land) of  the sale of Churches and manses to build a new facility. This created a lot of discussion about what real property

was but it was eventually carried.

#2 - Education about Darfur (youth forum) - that the United Church become more informed, write letters, make use of resources and convey to the Prime Minister our deep concern about the situation in Darfur and request his support for immediate humanitarian action.  Carried.

#3 - Poverty reduction strategy - to commend the provincial government for its willingness to review poverty issues and barriers and to hold consultations in 13 communities across Ontario, to commit to regular semi-annual meetings that report on how the government is progressing in its commitment to poverty reduction.  Carried.

#4 - Affordable housing - Carried.

#5 - Conference structure  - form a task group  to examine the current structure, monitor the experimental alignments currently being undertaken and report back next year with recommendations - Carried.

#6 - Bullying in schools -  request the government to direct the ministry of education to develop a mandatory  course of study in ethics to be taught in all elementary schools (respect, equality for all people regardless of race, colour, creed, gender, age, sexual orientation and physical, mental and academic abilities.  Defeated.  (It was thought by many teachers that there wasn’t time to add any more courses to their workload and did not want it to be mandatory.  They also thought there were already things in place for bullying)

#7 - Sharbot - mining uranium - Carried.

The 2008 assessment is $6.25 per resident member and will increase to $7.90 in 2009. 

There was a lot of discussion on how congregations should be assessed and that a new system of determining assessments needs to be implemented.  This was not definitely resolved and will probably go back to the executive of London Conference. 

I would like to thank you for sending me once again to conference.  I have gone for a few years now and still get confused a lot of the time on some of the issues but hopefully I have learned a few things.  If anyone would like to read the full proposals as printed in my book I can lend it to you. 

One of the quotes I remember and have sitting in front of me at work is - LET GO AND LET GOD!

Some other quotes I wrote down were;  ‘Taking the best of the past, living it and passing it on’

‘God does not comfort us to make us comfortable but to help us comfort’.

‘Tradition - a living faith for dead people.  Traditionalism - a dead faith for living people.’

Discussion:  We were looking for more information on the highlighted items

Property Committee Report – John Racher

1. ---decided at meeting to approach local paint contractors for quotes on paint sanctuary  saving the high cost of  advertising in local papers,with painting date after September.
2. --- Five contractors where contacted  with three inspections done thus far,with one quote received at $28,321.06 plus our projected cost for scaffold at $30,000.00
3. ---Three floor finishing contractors where phoned, Sherwood Flooring,quote at $.7,656.00 with no GST charge leaving a projected cost of nearing $70,000.00

4. At this point in time we should mention that we are looking at Jan/Feb 2009 for possible painting times and the work would possibly take one whole month to complete so we might need to find alternative places of worship( suggestions:  The Petrolia Community Centre or St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church)
5. ---as you all have noticed the landscaping was completed last week by Windover Nurseries,good work and thanks to Paul and Jean Windover for donating 50% of the cost as well as the UCW donation of $2200,as well as memorial floor donation money ($442.87) from our anniversary service,thanks to Penny Cox for administering  the program
6. ---the front sidewalk to the side door was removed as recommended by property as it was thought to be unnecessary.

NO Motion

M & P Committee –  by Lola Dudley Reporting

1.Lola will provide last months report & this month report in September.

2.Lola is working on the issue of Pastoral Care while Rev. Gibson is on holidays or study leave.

3.Meeting with Staff on Thursday, June 19^th  at 6:00 pm in the Lounge                               

Minister’s Report for June - Rev. Bob Gibson  

Funerals 

Funerals conducted  

• Mary Christina Welch , May 31, 2008        
• Jean Eleanor Maniuk,  June 14, 2008        

Meetings attended

• London Conference of United Church  May 23-25
• Victoria Petrolia Playhouse   June 03
• Petrolia and Area Ministerial  June 05
• John Howard Society Annual Meeting  June 12

Preaching 

• Meetings with a lay preacher to critique and practice sermon delivery 

Visitations

  Variety of visitations       

• Responded to  requests for visitations to members of St. Paul’s (4)
• Preparations for funerals
• Hospital visitation when made aware of persons in hospital (2)

Weddings 

Weddings performed:

• Nathan Paul Zimmerman & Teresa Johanna Dobbin June 14^th
• Carrie Leanne Hunking & Brandon Marcel Elliott  June 21^st

Final arrangements for upcoming wedding in October

• Information session for potential couple from another United Church, seeking St. Paul’s because of its space.   

Worship: Memorial Service at Fiddicks

As chaplain to Fiddicks Nursing and Retirement home, conducted a memorial service for those residents who passed away from May 2007-June 2008 

 New Business

 Next Official Board meeting is called for Wednesday, September 17^th at 7:30 pm

Other Business

1. The next meal of the Inn of the Good Shepherd is Saturday, June 28th .  Volunteers are needed as well as food preparers.   Menu:  Hamburgers, Potato Salad & Cole Slaw
2. Vision Committee  Carey stated that he has 4 very interest people in starting to form this group and we thought we might wait till the fall for the Official Board to come up with or create  a mandate by using the new picture directory as a profile  for this group to start working with.  In the meantime, we will still be wanting lots of ideas to come in.   We will have some displays that are upstairs & downstairs  for the gathering of ideas & points.

We closed in Prayer by Rev. Gibson

We adjourned at 9:10 pm by consent