On Sunday, we sat around table after sharing a meal and had a serious talk about the future. It was one of those difficult discussions that families sometime have to have. In this case, it was with my church family.

For several years, I’ve been attending Grace and St. Peter’s Church in Hamden, CT. I’ve served on the vestry and am now the clerk. At our annual meetings and at our vestry meetings, we’ve talked about how the church is facing a substantial operating deficit. It has been for years, and has had to rely on drawing down the endowment to cover these shortfalls.

Our rector pointed out that the two largest items in the budget is her benefits and maintaining the building, and it is a very lean budget. No one wants to see us move from having a full time rector. No one wants to see us have to give up the building, but we need to do something to address the deficit, and it is better to do it now, than at some point in the future with much more precarious finances.

So, we sat down on as a family, on the day of the bishop’s visit. We discussed how we could move to having a part time rector while continuing to be a growing vibrant parish. The bishop commended our efforts and expressed a desire that more parishes would approach changes that the whole church is confronting the way Grace and St. Peters is.

To me, there are a few things that Grace and St. Peter’s is doing right that other institutions could learn from. First, we are being proactively transparent. Yes, vestry meetings are always open and the minutes are always available, but rarely does anyone not on the vestry attend a meeting or read the minutes. The lunch with the bishop after church was part of the effort to have the whole parish informed about what is going on.

A second thing that Grace and St. Peter’s is doing right is staying focused on our mission. When we talk about our finances, the goal isn’t a balanced budget, a growing endowment, or other financial measures. These are tools to help us achieve the real mission. Borrowing from the Book of Common Prayer, “The mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”

Our vestry meetings are an opportunity to be restored us to unity with God and each other in Christ. So was the lunch we had. So are the many other great things going on at our parish.

Another important aspect of how Grace and St. Peter’s is approaching things is that we are talking about our finances and the changing world we live in well before we get to any crisis.

All of these things come to mind as I read Crisis-hit General Theological Seminary is being 'groomed for failure' because of its real estate value, letter alleges. It comes to mind as I read Sweet Briar says faculty lawsuit is attempt by professors to get a ‘financial windfall’.

We live in a challenging changing time. Boards, whether they be the vestry of local parishes, or boards of institutions of higher education, need to approach these changes, prayerfully, openly, and honestly. I don’t know what is going on at General Theological Seminary, or at Sweet Briar. I don’t know how much property values are getting in the way of institutional values, but it does seem like more openness, more honesty, and especially more prayer is need for these institutions, and I feel very honored to be serving on the board of an institution that currently appears to be approaching these changes in an exemplary manner. The most I can do right now for General Theological Seminary and Sweet Briar is to pray.