4512 College Avenue 
College Park, Maryland 20740-3302
Office: 301-864-8880, Standrews1@comcast.net
Priest-in-Charge: The Rev. Bruce McPherson
Home
Welcome
Parish Calendar
Location
Accessibility
Priest-in-Charge
Office & Staff
Vestry
Rector Search
Worship Services
Music
Giving
Outreach
Christian Formation
Environment
Collegia
The Celtic
Photo Gallery
Parish History
Links
St. Andrew's Home > Rector Search > Search Updates Rector Search UpdatesWednesday, August 27, 2008The Search Committee met on Monday evening, August 25. We decided to ask the Diocese to send us resumes as they get them, rather than wait until they've collected a batch of 20 or so. We took care of some administrative details, and are ready to start reviewing applicants. Our next meeting is tentatively set for Monday, September 8. We're encouraging members of the congregation to read the profile online if possible. It looks beautiful, and the design by Bob and Jim Walker makes it very readable. Parishioners without Internet access can call the church office and a copy will be sent to them. We're trying to save trees and money! Once the new rector is in place, we hope to use parts of the profile to create a new St. Andrew's history and information brochure that we can share with newcomers, visitors, etc. We will also have one or two copies of the profile attached to the bulletin board in the parish hall for review during coffee hour. For the Search Committee, Tuesday, August 19, 2008Hooray, the parish profile is now posted on the St. Andrew's website! We have notified the Diocesan Deployment Office that it's up, and they will now send us resumes from candidates who have already expressed interest in our position. The Rev. Mary Sulerud, Canon for Deployment and Vocational Ministry, plans to present our profile at a national meeting of diocesan deployment officers in September, so we expect lots of applicants. We'll do our best to keep you informed through bulletin announcements, Celtic articles, etc. Please continue to pray for us as we begin to compare the qualifications of candidates with our needs and aspirations as a parish. The next meeting of the Search Committee will be Monday, August 25. For the Search Committee, Wednesday, July 23, 2008The Search Committee met on Monday, July 21, to approve final tweaks to the more focused, slightly shorter parish profile as recommended by the Bishop. We all agreed it gives a very clear and positive picture of who we are as a parish and what we're looking for in our new rector. We hope to have the completed profile with pictures online and in print by August 10th. We also developed a standard evaluation form that we will use to rate the different candidates and to see how their vision and future goals compare with ours. Our next meeting will be July 28. We'll practice using the form to evaluate a "test" candidate, and decide on the process to follow so that each candidate is carefully, prayerfully and thoroughly considered. If all goes well, we will begin reviewing real candidates in early September. Mary Marshall Levy Wednesday, July 16, 2008At our meeting on Monday night, July 14th, we went over the Bishop's suggestions for making the profile easier to read and more focused on our goals for the future. The Bishop went out of his way to meet with our co-chairs, Russ and Chuck, and assure them that he thinks St. Andrew's is a wonderful parish and he wants to help us find another (he knows how much we loved Karla) terrific rector. Chuck volunteered to implement the changes we agreed to in response to the Bishop's comments, Mary Gawlik will again edit the document for us (many thanks, Mary), Vicki will add the pictures, and Elizabeth will add some quotes from parishioners' comments on the survey or at our meetings. Our goal is to have the profile published on our website and some print copies available by August 10th. We're hoping that all applicants and most parishioners will read the profile online, and that we don't have to spend too much on printed copies. We will certainly have printed copies for anyone without access to the web. Mary Marshall Levy Tuesday, July 1, 2008The Search Committee heaved a collective sigh of relief when Elizabeth emailed the text of the parish profile to the bishop on June 20th. It feels wonderful to have this major task almost completed. We didn't know that the bishop was out of the country, and didn't return until this past weekend, so we're still waiting for his comments, but hope to have them very soon. At our meeting on June 30th, we finalized the Parish Search Request form, which the Church Deployment Office uses to match St. Andrew's with clergy who are looking for new ministries. The form is an extremely condensed version of the profile. Finally, the Search Committee is very pleased to announce that Janet Carpenter will be joining us as Vestry liaison, along with Frances Walker. It will be great to have the benefit of Janet's extensive knowledge and involvement at St. Andrew's, as well as the benefit of her presence and opinions as we move into the candidate evaluation phase of the search process. Having two liaisons will also help us keep the Vestry fully in the loop regarding how the search is progressing, so we welcome Janet most warmly to the committee. Our next meeting will be Monday, July 14th. Mary Marshall Levy Tuesday, June 10, 2008The Search Committee and the Vestry had a wonderful retreat on Saturday, June 7 at St. John's in Beltsville. Bunty Ketcham (our search consultant) and Bruce lead the retreat and did a great job of helping us focus on the two remaining parts of the parish profile—our vision for St. Andrew's and what we are looking for in the rector who will lead us there and be our companion and friend on the way. The Vestry and the Search Committee are very much in sync, with a vision of St. Andrew's that includes
Underpinning these goals will be a secure financial base, buildings and grounds that are well maintained, and active, engaged members and lay leaders. We want a rector
It's a tall order, but we have faith that God has a wonderful new rector just waiting to come to St. Andrew's! The parish profile will be sent to the Vestry on June 13th and to the Bishop on June 20th. Then Mary, Jim and Bob will work their magic and the profile should be ready in early July. We expect to start receiving resumes in mid- to late July, and then the hard work really begins! Your prayers mean a lot to us. Please keep them coming! For the Search Committee, Friday, June 6, 2008We met this past Monday night, June 2. The two main orders of business were the parish profile and getting ready for our retreat on June 9 with the Vestry. Elizabeth Bindschadler had done another draft of the profile, and we are on target to send the final text to the Bishop on June 20 for his review. Vicki Cheeseman is selecting pictures to accompany the text, and Mary Gawlik has offered her professional editing services to make the text more polished and reader-friendly. Jim Walker (St. Andrew's in-house graphic artist and publication designer) and son, Bob, who is also a publisher, volunteered their graphic design and layout skills so that the document will be attractive, easy to read, and professional, but still warm and friendly. We are incredibly grateful to Mary, Jim and Bob for their generous gifts of their time and talents! The meeting with the Vestry this coming Saturday will focus on our vision of St. Andrew's in the future, and the characteristics we are looking for in a new rector that will help us achieve this vision. We'll use what we learned from the parish survey and the small groups as basis of the discussion. By the end of the day, we'll be ready to write these last two sections of the profile. For the Search Committee, Tuesday, May 27, 2008The Search Committee did not meet last night — we took the night off to remember and celebrate all those who have given so much over the years to protect and serve our country. Elizabeth Bindschadler, Chuck Jones and I did get together after church on Sunday to go over the draft profile and focus on areas that needed additional information. We will have a final draft ready to share with the entire Search Committee by the coming weekend. That will leave only the future vision and what we're looking for in a new rector sections to be written after our next meeting with the Vestry on Saturday, June 7. For the Search Committee, Monday, May 19, 2008On Saturday, May 17, the Search Committee and the Vestry held a joint meeting to discuss the findings from the survey, the history event and the small group meetings. Members of the Search Committee made presentations on what we learned about our demographics, current ministries, liturgical style, where we want to put our energy in the future and what we want in a new rector. Vestry members asked questions and confirmed their understanding of what we heard from the congregation. The Vestry and the Search Committee will meet again on Saturday, June 7, for a day-long discussion of what our vision is for St. Andrew's and what we are looking for in the new rector who will help us achieve that vision. The vision and what we want in a new rector are the final two pieces of the Parish Profile. We are on target to send the draft profile to the Bishop later in June. For the Search Committee, Wednesday, May 7, 2008The Search Committee didn't meet this Monday, May 5, but we have a meeting scheduled for Monday, May 12 to prepare for a joint session with the Vestry on Saturday, May 17. The purpose is to review with the Vestry the results of the history event, survey, and small group meetings. We'll have another joint meeting on Saturday, June 7 to develop the vision statement for St. Andrew's that will be an important part of the parish profile. For the Search Committee, Tuesday, April 29, 2008The Search Committee met last night, Monday, April 28, to continue discussing what we've learned from the nine small group survey discussion meetings. We were delighted that about 90 parishioners in all attended one (or more) of the meetings. We had tons of notes from the meetings, and one thing we did was to make a list of more immediate items that came up that need to be shared with the Vestry. One example of that is that the EACM students said they wanted to have a stronger connection with St. Andrew's. A tangible expression of that would be to build some sort of sideway directly linking the student center and the church. (Currently, students have to take a more circuitous route.) Overall, we found that the small groups confirmed the results of the survey, with a few additions. For example, we will definitely make sure that Christian education for parishioners of all ages is presented in the parish profile as a high priority for St. Andrew's. By breaking education up into 3 groups in the survey (adult, teen and children), we may have watered down its impact, and nearly all the small groups wanted Christian education emphasized. One other skill set that we want our new rector to have is the ability to encourage and develop strong lay leadership. Although respondents didn't "vote" as strongly for this skill in the survey, it became clear in all of the discussions that the strong lay leaders we currently have (encouraged and developed by Karla) have been crucial to the success of the parish during the past year. We now need to raise up other leaders to help share in the work God will give us to do in the future. These are just two examples of valuable comments from the small groups. The parish profile will give a more complete picture of what we learned from the survey and the small groups. Last night we also discussed the sensitive issue of the open-ended comments that many parishioners provided on the survey. We have read them carefully, and they have been very valuable in rounding out the numerical results of the survey. In some cases these comments helped us formulate questions to explore in the small groups, and sensitized us to listen extra carefully. However, because we promised complete confidentiality and anonymity to those who responded to the survey, it would not be appropriate for us to share these specific comments, even in summary form. All parishioners can rest assured that these comments have been fully considered and incorporated into the survey findings. The next step for the Search Committee is to meet with the Vestry in mid-May to brief them on what we've learned from the history meeting, the survey and the small groups, and to have a joint session on the vision for St. Andrew's in the future. For the Search Committee, Thursday, April 17, 2008We had a great meeting last night with The Rev. Bruce McPherson, our new priest during this time of transition. It was wonderful to have Bruce's perspective on the search process, which is really a time of discernment for us as a congregation. It's our time to figure out who we are as God's people of St. Andrew's and where we're being called to put our energy and resources in the future. Once we know that, we'll know what we're looking for in our new rector. With the completion of the survey and our final small group meeting at St. Andrew's after church on Sunday, April 27th, we will have wrapped up the information gathering phase of the search and are moving on to finish writing the parish profile. Our next meeting will be on Monday, April 28th. For the Search Committee,
|