Vestry Elections and Vestry Ministry

At the Annual Parish Meeting, the parish elected from an incredibly strong slate of candidates Chris Liddicoat, Will Perschau, and Yvonne Petitmaire to serve on the Vestry. Chris, Will, and Yvonne will serve for three years, starting in April 2025.

The Vestry at St. Matthew’s, as at all Episcopal parishes, serves as the lay leadership of the parish, leading in collaboration with the clergy. The Senior Warden of the Vestry has special oversight of finances, administration, and personnel, while the Junior Warden has oversight of buildings and grounds maintenance. The other seven members of the Vestry each take on special liaison roles in the parish as deternmined by the Vestry, meeting the needs of the time. For example, one may be assigned to work with Newcomers’ initiatives, while another may be assigned to the Pledge Campaign, and another to Racial Justice and Reconciliation.

Canonically, the Vestry bears legal and fiduciary responsibility for the parish, and at St. Matthew’s, they do do much more. They discern top-level priorities for the parish, every few years creating a strategic plan and tracking its implementation. They assist the clergy in thinking through difficult matters, communicate the overall priorities within the parish, reach out to parish members in need, and represent the leadership of the parish at parish and community-wide events. The Committees of the parish, such as the Newcomer Committee or Racial Justice and Reconciliation Committee, are given autonomy in developing their ministries, though the Vestry from time to time will ask for special collaboration on parish initiatives.

At St. Matthew’s we consciously strive for each Vestry to have a mixture of three types of people: people skilled in business and finance, people given to prayer and the arts, and people with engineering, design, computers or other practical backgrounds. Often, one vestry member will bring 2 of these sets of skills! Some are more about people, some are more about projects. All are committed to the Christian life of faith and prayer and discernment of God’s will for this place.

To read about currrent vestry members, click here.