Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Where are the Chapel of Awareness ministers?

A couple of tips came to Chapel Guardian recently after the Guardians' post about the Chapel of Awareness calendar.

Regarding one tip, Guardian appreciate that the Friends of Chapel leadership took note and chose to follow the spirit of church bylaws by adding monthly board meetings to the calendar. Until Guardian brought up the issue, board meetings had stopped being placed on the calendar. Keeping the meetings on the calendar keeps the Friends of Chapel leadership in line with the bylaws, which state that members of the congregation can attend the board at meetings. That is difficult to do when no one knows the meeting dates. So kudos for making that change.

But the calendar now seems to indicate that ministers are stepping away from their active participation in Sunday services (a familiar tone when these same ministers became inactive in Chapel starting in 2006 ... are we seeing a repeat of that?). The new calendar (as of April 26th) shows only four Chapel minister-led Sunday lectures for the entire spring and summer seasons. All the rest (between May 1st and September 11th) are listed with semi-anonymous first names like "Lecture by Bill", followed by "Lecture by To Be Announced" starting September 18th.

Why would someone curious about Chapel of Awareness be inclined to make the choice to attend a Sunday service for the first time with a "Lecture by Bill"? Or a "Lecture by Helene"? etc. What kind of message does that send? The Chapel of Awareness web site is a window into the church for those potentially interested in finding out more. A "Lecture by Bill" is not the way to do that, as far as Chapel Guardian are concerned.

So where are the ministers?? More importantly, where is the Pastor??

They and the Pastor are supposed to be leading Sunday services, and leading the lectures. Turning this responsibility over to no-name mysteries sends a murky message.

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