Parish Profile

Our Search is Over -- Our Profile Remains as a Statement of Who We Are

One of the most important tools developed in the course of conducting the search for our rector, Melinda Archer, was our Parish Profile. It reflected the combined efforts of the Congregation, a Profile Committee made up of a cross-section of members of both the congregation and the vestry, a Search Committee made up of members of the vestry, and the vestry itself. Although our search is over, culminating in calling our present rector to St. Andrew's, the profile remains as the product of the most recent in-depth self-evaluation and self-discovery we've undertaken as a congregation.

Developing the profile began with a comprehensive Parish Survey that helped us learn more about ourselves -- who we are, what is important in our lives, and how we see ourselves within the context of the congregation, the community, and the world. The analysis of the survey data showed us some things about ourselves that we didn't realize, and sharpened our understanding of the vision of our role within the community. The Profile Committee compiled a wide variety of demographic, educational, real-estate, governmental, employment, and other data used to define the environment in which St. Andrew's lives. From the aggregate of the analysis of the parish survey, the demographic and other studies, and other input, the Profile Committee crafted the body of the Parish Profile.

To augment the written profile and highlight St. Andrew's in a more active way, a talented cinematographer in our midst produced a DVD that provides a glimpse of our services and parish life. It is a wonderful visual and auditory insight into who we are and what we do.

The Search Committee then embarked on the task of following up on the work of the Profile Committee by developing all the supplementary information required for submission of the full profile and information package to the Church Deployment Office in New York. Among other things, this entailed weeks of meetings to distill everything down to satisfy the format and criteria for computer entry into the national database. The end result is a Parish Profile that reflects the diverse congregation of St. Andrew's, and of which every member of the parish can be proud.

The completed profile package was reviewed and approved by the vestry, subsequently approved by the Diocesan Canon for Deployment, and used as part of our most recent search.