Church Polity - Rector's Rambling for September 27, 2026

     For many years we had an Adult Education class between the 8 and 10 AM Services, which went on hiatus when Sunday School was moved out of the same time slot and into the 10 AM Service.  We began having classes after the 10 AM Service, but that meant an 8 AM Mass attender had to come back to participate.

Since Sunday School is back to in between Services at 9:15 AM we have restarted the Adult Education Series at the same hour and last week was our first class.  We had 16 people participating!  That’s a great start.  The series from now until Thanksgiving is Comparative Denominations - why do we believe as we do, and what to other believe.  Even if you missed the class last week and this, you can still jump in at any time.

Recently a question was asked about church polity.  Here is a basic summary for St. John’s.

St. John’s was founded in 1858 as a parish of the Diocese of Michigan.  They and our national church have Canons that govern operations, and they meet in Convention every year at the diocesan level, and nationally every three years. Legislation is passed at both levels by a bi-cameral house model based loosely on our US constitution.  Nationally there is a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies which is made up of clergy and lay members of each diocese.   At the Diocesan level the clergy comprise one House, and parish lay delegates the other.  In addition to the bishop there is a Standing Committee elected at Convention and governs between conventions.

Here at St. John’s we have a Rector who is a priest elected by the vestry and approved by the bishop, and serves according to the canons as the head of the parish with tenure.

The vestry is the elected board of the parish.  Ours has nine members so three rotate off every year and three new ones elected each year.  After a three year term you have to be off the vestry for a year before being re-elected for another term. This is quite different from the early years of the parish where vestry members served in some cases for decades, such as Henry Porter Baldwin from 1858 to 1892.

That Vestry then elects a Senior Warden who has charge of the parish in the absence of a priest, a junior warden who is usually head of the property committee, a secretary to record minutes and sign documents, and a treasurer. Those four are unpaid volunteer positions.  The Vestry then approves the hiring of an outside professional accountant to help with bookkeeping and preparation for reports and audits, which are done by yet another outside firm.  The vestry nominates candidates for the vestry and presents a slate to the Annual Parish Meeting in January. If you are interested in serving contact the office for information. The vestry does the business of the parish in accordance with Church Canons and State Corporation laws.

Vestry meetings generally occur on the 3rd Wednesday of the month but sometimes have to be moved to another date due to schedule conflicts.  The parish office has that schedule.