This past Saturday, the Parish Council met in the home of Sara Miller for our annual Council Retreat.

Each year, we gather together for a morning to think about all that we have done together at St. Anne's in the past year and to create some working goals for the year ahead.

We told stories, assessed our accomplishments, and discussed things we wished we had done better, and we closed out our time with lunch.

It was a great day, and I left feeling very glad to work with this fine group.

I want to share with you the goals that will guide our work for this year, and in the coming weeks, the champions for each of these goals will use this space to tell you more about what they hope to do and how you can get involved.

This year, we are orienting our work towards:

1) Financial Stability - and other areas are two specific areas that we will focus our attention on to achieve this, and they are: Stewardship and Fundraising

2) Inviting and Welcoming new people to St. Anne's and we will work at this by continuing to find ways to tell the story of who we are and how our lives are impacted by Jesus (Evangelism) and through continuing the work of making our building more accessible so that anyone who wants to come here can get into our building and fully participate in our church.

3) Outreach - we want to be more connected to our surrounding neighbourhood beyond the backpacks, so we will be paying attention to the celebrations and community gatherings that happen in Richmond and looking for people to go and to participate as representatives of St. Anne's.

We will also be continuing our support for PWRDF which is now called 'Alongside Hope' 

So watch this space for more information on each of these goals and you might even consider how you can get involved.

See you on Sunday.

With gratitude for our ministry together.

Marnie

Readings for next Sunday include:

Isaiah 53:1-6 ; PSALM 23; REVELATION 7:9-17; JOHN 10:22-30

You can see the full readings here

Chris begins his placement with us this coming Sunday, and I know that you will make him feel welcome.

He has been working hard to create a summer program focused on the Mystics, and you can find more information on that here

Wan Li Zhang, a member of our 10am and Zoom congregations, has an art show in West Vancouver.

The second meeting of the Liturgy Guild is happening on Sunday, May 18 at 11:30am 

This meeting is open to all who are interested in liturgy and would like to be a part of planning what we will do and how we will celebrate the following Feast days:

Ascension (June 1)

Pentecost (June 8)

National Indigenous Day of Prayer (June 22)

As we get closer to summer and people begin heading out on adventures and we are looking for some more people to help out with the sandwich ministry.

If you think you might be interested, please speak to Sharmila Lakhani