Christ Church New Brighton
You are here: Home > Committees
Christ Church New Brighton
Tower Chimes Newsletter
Staten Island Churches
Fr. Chuck's Sermons
Committees
Sunday School
Christ Church Choir
Our Windows
Our History
Adult Education
Contact Us and Related Links
Christ Church New Brighton
Christ Church New Brighton
Christ Church Community Outreach
Evangelism
Finance
Fundraising
Investment
Liturgy & Worship
Nominating
Plant & Equipment
Serendipity
Vestry
Worship & Liturgy
Christ Church Committees

There are several permanent committees within Christ Church that deal with the day-to-day activities necessary to keep the entity that is Christ Church alive and well. Just like in your own home, decisions must be made concerning feeding people, paying the bills, keeping the buildings and grounds in usable condition, and making sure funds are available to accomplish all of those things.

The committees may be permanent, but the people on those committees come and go.

 

Christ Church Community Outreach

The Christ Church Community Outreach (CCCO) Program is not a standing committee of the church. Membership on this committee is totally voluntary and is not limited to anyone. In fact, several members of this committee are not even Christ Church parishioners.

The CCCO Program has four main functions:

  1. Collect and distribute food from Christ Church parishioners to anyone who needs it.
  2. Help fund the various and sundry lunchrooms, soup kitchens and food distribution points in Staten Island as best we can.
  3. Provide nourishing meals in conjunction with Project Hospitality and Trinity Lutheran Church as part of the Second Saturday feeding program.
  4. Provide food baskets for needy families and indivudals during holiday seasons.

Every member of Christ Church is a contributing part of the CCCO Program whether it be by actually cooking a meal, delivering a meal, or serving a meal to a hungry person. The semi-official board members are as follows:

The CCCO Program Board:
Fr. Chuck Willie Black, Jr. David Holt
Fr. Chuck Willie Black, Jr. David Holt
     
Ali Mitchell The Rev. Deacon Beverly Neuhaus Victor Stanwick
Ali Mitchell Beverly Neuhaus Victor Stanwick
     
Geri Swanson John deMott Watson Roy G. Biv
Geri Swanson John Watson Everybody Else

Our goal is to have every Christ Church parishioner do something, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, to keep this program moving forward.

The meeting dates of the CCCO Program are set during each meeting. Meeting notices appear in the Sunday bulletins and on the Christ Church bulleting board.

Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Evangelism

The Evangelism Committee is not a standing committee of the church. Membership on this committee is entirely voluntary. This committee meets on a relatively loose schedule, usually about once every two months in the Vestry room on a Thursday evening. The committee is responsible for the church's web site, any printed matter (brochures, service-related bulletins, etc.) and generally letting the community know exactly what it is that Christ Church has to offer.

As of December, 2007, the committee members are as follows:

Robert Mantz Nancy Reiersen Trevor Mills
Bob Mantz Nancy Reiersen Trevor Mills
Kristin Reiersen The Reverend Charles Howell Victor Stanwick
Kristin Reiersen Fr. Chuck Victor Stanwick
Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Finance

The Finance Committee is one of the standing committees of Christ Church. Its chairperson and members are appointed by the rector with the approval of the vestry.

The Committee meets monthly to review the parish's financial statements; hear requests for expenditures; make recommendations to the vestry; and advise and consult with the vestry as to the fiscal policies of the parish. The Finance Committee also creates a draft budget for the review and approval of the vestry.

The Finance Committee meets on the first Thursday of each month.

Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Fundraising
Oh, if only Ali Mitchell would send me some information about the Fundraising committee. That would be swell.
Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Investment

The Investment Committee was established by the Vestry to focus on the future oversight and establishment of investment policies and guidelines to meet Christ Church's needs and objectives over the near and long-term. The Committee has and continues to evaluate our existing policies and programs to ensure that the long-term requests of fund donors are honored and the programmatic goals of the Church are supported.

The Investment Committee:
David Nygard Mark Gherzo The Reverend Charles Howell
David Nygard
Co-Chair
Mark Gherzo
Co-Chair
Fr. Chuck
     
Ron Mazzucco   Sheila Swigert
Ron Mazzucco Nick Lettiere Sheila Swigert
     
Barnett Shepherd Dorothy Thompson Nick Dowen
Barnett Shepherd Dorothy Thompson Nick Dowen
Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Worship & Liturgy

The Worship & Liturgy committee is not a standing committee of Christ Church. Membership is entirely voluntary. The Worship & Liturgy committee determines the style of worship at Christ Church. Will we sing the Lord's Prayer? Will announcements come at the end of the service, or after we pass the Lord's peace? What time will services be held? These are the sort of questions answered by the Worship and Liturgy committee.

The members of the Worship & Liturgy committee are as follows:

Willie Black, Jr.
Fr. Chuck Willie Black, Jr. Beth Johanning-Hayes Beth McLean
 
Trevor Mills Nancy Reiersen-Scromo Joan Rock Tom Sarff
 
   
Paul Smith Victor Stanwick David Wood Dan Wood

 

Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Nominating

The Nominating Committee is one of the standing committees of Christ Church. Its chairperson and members are appointed by the rector with the approval of the vestry. The Committee is composed of at least five members and usually includes the retiring warden and vestry members with a few additional members appointed from the parish at large.

The Nominating Committee solicits names from the congregation and then creates a slate of candidates to present to the annual meeting. The Committee endeavors to create a slate which reflects the diversity of the parish and whose members have a variety of gifts.

Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Plant & Equipment

Susan L. FowlerThe Plant & Equipment committee is a standing committee of the church. Its chairperson is appointed by the Rector, though the rest of the committee is voluntary. P&E has the responsibility of keeping the buildings and grounds of Christ Church in good, workable, and usable order. Susan L. Fowler has been the chair of this committee since 2001.

Susan has supervised the installation of a chair lift in the cloister to make thePeter Raff church more accessible, the replacement of the entire south side of the nave roof, the installation of a lightning protection system, new electrical services for the parish house, the church and the rectory, the renovation of the exterior of the rectory, and the purchase of a new lawn maintenance and snow removal tractor for the church. She is currently (December 2007) facing the rebuilding of the interior support and exterior surface of the roof on the tower. Susan is also creating a maintenance plan designed to undo many years of deferred and neglected maintenance.

For an overview of the work done at Christ Church, as well as the help given to us by the Episcopal Diocese of New York's Property Support Committee, see this article from the September/October Episcopal New Yorker (in PDF format).

Sheila SwigertPeter Raff, a member of the P&E committee, is a private contractor who has graciously donated much of his time to the "Hands to Work, Hearts to God" program, a sub-committee of P&E. Modeled on programs that originated in the Shaker community, this sub-committee meets on the fourth Saturday of each month to tackle small jobs around the church such as raking leaves, cleaning out storerooms, painting basement classrooms, and other chores that in the long run save the church a small fortune in contractor's fees.

Sheila Swigert is in charge of the stained-glass restoration projects and has overseen repairs to the Nativity window, Christ Stilling the Storm, Christ Among the Doctors, and four windows in the stairway down to the choir room. There is still an estimated $100,000 worth of repairs to be done.

Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Serendipity

Serendipity was founded by Judy Lefebvre, the wife of a fonner rector, around 1966-67. Originally Judy announced that the organization was a social group for single persons and married couples, but within a comparatively short time, the group began to raise money for a great variety of projects for the church.

Of the hundreds of thousands of dollars Serendipity has raised, the only monies not given to Christ Church are annual grants made to Staten Island Food Pantries for the needy, a one-time grant was made to a parish whose church was burned down, and a special lunch that was held for the victims of the awful Tsunami in 2006, The musical group Serenade has also benefited for several years, as has Episcopal Relief Services. For a long time it has been our custom to spend $250 for toys for the children of the Seamens Institute.

Serendipity organizes soup and sandwich lunches, pizza, salad and wine parties, pasta dinners, chicken pot pie dinners, quiche lunches, Italian, German and British meals, Texas-style barbeques with line dancing, pancake suppers, fish fries, bagel brunches, St. Patrick's Day lunches, full English breakfasts prior to trips, free August ice cream socials, Octoberfests, prefair dinners (including the Salad Bowl of 2007) and soup & sandwich lunches. Serendipity always takes a very active role in the Spring and Christmas Fair activites, and for fun and fellowship has organized bus trips to the Cloisters, St. John's Cathedral, the Vanderbilt and Rockefeller Mansions in New York, the Culinary Institute, Flemington, Hope, Edison Museum, Lambertville, Peddlar's Village and Hunterdon Hills, theatre visits to a repertory company in New Jersey, and each year for the last eight has organized its largest profit­making event, the May Ham Dinner which is usually attended by almost one hundred people.

Serendipity has paid for a band to accompany some of our dining events, sold tee shirts, bought new commercial refrigerators for the parish kitchen, and allocated $1,200 for new flooring in the nursery. We.made grants for the prison ministry of a former priest, and we always give our rectors discretionary funds to distribute to the needy at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or at any other time. For several years members of Serendipity have run the holiday fairs for the church's benefit, organized a parish cookbook, and annual parish directories. In 2004 Serendipity created and sold a popular three-year calendar including a new history of Christ Church and a humor section. It has held Talent No-Talent nights, and film shows like Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg. Serendipity sponsors the sales of pickled onions, mint sauce, mango and other chutneys and marmalades and jams throughout the year. It sells greetings cards for every holiday, and has made grants to church publications. In 2006-2007 it raised money through the sale of candles. Large sums have been given to the Vestry for the improvement of lighting and power outlets in the Guild Room and it has also provided fans for that area. Serendipity has purchased many card and long tables for the use of the parish and each year rarely gives less than $1,000 and sometimes more ($1,500 in 2007) to help the Vestry balance its budget.

Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page

Serendipity's expenses for paper and other supplies are borne by members as a gift to the church. Any copying not done on members' home copiers is done at their expense at Staples rather than in the church office. The church does bear the cost of bulk mailings of under $40 a year.

Informal monthly meetings are open to everyone in the parish. Meetings are held from September to June, usually in a member's home and happily close with refreshments. Transportation is always available. On the day after each meeting a brief summary appears in the Staten Island Advance. Minutes of meetings are circulated to both Wardens, the Parish Treasurer, our Rector, and those who chair the Fund Raising, and Buildings and Grounds committees. Minutes from January 2003 to the present day are available in the parish office.

Serendipity
  Marlene Elia Martha Keucher Colin Reed  
  Marlene Elia
President
Martha Keucher
Treasurer
Colin Reed
Secretary
 
         
Carol Brown Laura Graig Judy Davis Ed Craig Paul Smith
Carol Brown Laura Craig Judy Davis Ed Craig Paul Smith
Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
Vestry

The vestry is a standing committee formed under the direction of the bylaws of the corporation of Christ Church New Brighton and is subject to all applicable canon laws and laws of New York State. The Vestry is comprised of 12 regular members and two churchwardens, elected by the congregation of the church at its annual meeting. One sitting Vestry person serves as Clerk of the Vestry and records the minutes of each meeting, which are then posted on the church's public bulletin board in the parish house hallway and also published in the Tower Chimes, the monthly newsletter of Christ Church.

Vestrymen are elected to a three-year term in a majority vote by the congregation during the annual meeting. Churchwardens are elected to a two-year term at the same meeting. To be eligible to sit on the vestry a person must have been a contributing member for at least one year prior to being elected and be eighteen years of age or older. Seats on the Vestry are not limited by sex, race or national origin.

Churchwardens
  Lisa Rhoades Nygard  
  Lisa Rhoades
2007-2009
Victor Stanwick
2008-2010
 
Vestry Persons 2006-2009
Ali Mitchell Victor Stanwick George Smith Richard Zayzay
Alieda Mitchell Trevor Mills George Smith Richard Zayzay
Vestry Persons 2007-2010
Brenda Baskerville Judy Davis Andrea McIntosh Paul Smith
Brenda Baskerville Judith Davis Andrea McIntosh Paul Smith
Vestry Persons 2008-2011
Bill Brown Beth Johanniing-Hayes Barnett Shepherd Nancy Lettiere
Bill Brown Beth Johanning-Hayes Barnett Shepherd Nancy Lettiere
       
Click here to go to the top of the pageTop of Page
 
 

 

Tower Chimes | Churches | Sermons | Committees | Sunday School | Christ Church Choir | Windows | History | Adult Education | Contact Us | Site Map
© 2008 Christ Church New Brighton All Rights Reserved