by
Mother Tracy
The
office is working hard to get membership records in order, and we're finding
that we don't have paperwork for many people who are active in the community at
St. John's. Over time and changes of priest and staff, records can get
incredibly out of date and inaccurate.
If
you have been a member of another Episcopal church in the past, and never
officially transferred to St. John's, technically you are still a member of the
other church and not of St. John's.
The transfer process is very simple.
Contact (by phone or email) the last Episcopal church in another city, town, or
state you were a member of and request that they mail a Letter of Transfer for you to
The
Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist
P.O. Box 188, Aptos CA 95001
When
you make this request, the staff and priest at your old church fill out an
official form to certify that you were a member on their books. They mail this
form to us at St. John's. I sign it and send it back to them, certifying that
we have received you as an official member here. You're then added officially
to our membership rolls and deleted from the rolls of your old church.
Why worry about it?
It is easy for folks to skip this technicality when moving from parish to
parish, and many priests don’t follow up and encourage them to do it. Taking
care of this official paperwork is important for the record-keeping process of
the church. If not followed, we wind up with inaccurate membership numbers on a
denomination-wide level as people are counted as members in more than one
parish when each parish does its annual parochial report.
There is another unfortunate side to not taking care
of official paperwork. Sometimes no one pays attention until there is a
“problem” during a Vestry election. Then concern is raised that someone does
not have their paperwork and they may be excluded from voting or serving
because they aren't officially a member. Others may have served without the
proper paperwork, but since all was running smoothly the clergy and church leadership
turned a blind eye.
This,
to me, is unethical. If there are going to be rules, they need to apply equally
to everyone. I might come across as a "stickler for the rules" causing
some frustration or hassles, but please know that my motivation is to ensure
that everyone is treated equally.
What if you were baptized or confirmed in another Christian
denomination?
If
you were baptized Methodist or Presbyterian or Catholic or Baptist and were
confirmed in another church, or were baptized as an adult in another church,
but have never officially joined the Episcopal Church, there is a formal
process to be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church in order to be an
official member of St. John's.
I will start a new program at St. John's (in the past called RCIA) after the first of the year for adults seeking to
join the Episcopal Church through confirmation or reception, and also for
adults just becoming Christians for the first time through baptism. When Bishop
Mary makes her annual visitation to St. John's on April 15, 2018 (save the
date!), the people who have gone through that class can be officially received
into the Episcopal Church through being baptized or confirmed or making a
reaffirmation of their baptismal vows.
As
we look through our records, if we find that we have no record of your having
officially joined the Episcopal Church, we will reach out to you and invite you
to be part of that class so that you can officially join, if you would like to
do so.
