Walker Church Council
January 25, 2007

Present: Julia Philips, K.C. Bretzke, Walter Lockhart, Jennifer Gahnstrom, Bonnie Beckel, Nancy Larsen, James Livingston, Janet Court, Jim Feldman, Mary Parker, Joe Hesla.

Bonnie led the opening exercise.

The agenda was finalized. The minutes were approved as read.

Bonnie discussed the Alternatives to Violence Workshop in terms of how many Walker participants have signed up. We are hoping for more attendance.

MSP that Walker Church serve as fiscal agent for James’ project, Mind Arts.

MSP that we accept the members of the new Church Council, Including new volunteers Janet Court, who will be outreach chair, and Dianne O’Donnell, who will be membership chair.

We visioned the futre together. As part of this discussion,Walter talked about the possibility that we could have a Wednesday night celebration which would be a soup supper followed by small group discussions ending with communion. This could begin in September. Julia said we should provide child care, so families could participate. Bonnie said she wants to see topics which would enable us to be more effective as world changers.

We discussed Mary’s work with the Sunday School. Right now she is teaching Pilgrim’s Progress to the children and that will last the rest of the school year. This topic was raised in connection with Walter’s discussion of the challenge of being diverse theologically at Walker, an urban church. We also discussed how to support Mary in this regard. She said she is receiving a tremendous response from the parents.

K.C. talked about the Membership Committee’s ideas for making visitors at Walker feel more welcome.

Walter passed around samples of the Walker brochures he has been designing. MSP that we print 1000 black and white brochures and 200 color brochures for our use.

Wayne Bailey was ill, so Jim delivered the Trustee’s report. No news from the parsonage, which is good. Ricardo Morales is doing snow removal, which good because the Trustees have not provided for that.

Julia, as Stewardship chair, reported that we have paid our 2006 apportionments and we are doing fine financially.

Joe reported for the Peace with Justice Committee. They are sponsoring a door knocking event the afternoon of Sunday, February 11, to gather signatures on a petition to support the workers at Walker Methodist Home in their efforts to form a union. Walter added that the janitors of SEIU plan to strike and may need our support in the form of soup kitchens, etc.

Karen Lyu has sent out am e-mail to Walker members suggesting that we create videos memorializing fallen soldiers in the Iraq war and either post them on our web side or provide links on our web site to places where those videos would be posted. Jim was delegated to discuss this with her to determine exactly what she has in mind. Concerns were raised about band width and how many hits on our web site would result.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Larsen
Church Council secretary