LETTER UPDATE FROM THE SEARCH COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Dear St. Luke's Family,

HOLY COW! Was this a beautiful fall or what?! I hope all of you are well and have been able to enjoy one of God’s finest creations, the Wasatch Mountains, this fall! We wanted to update you on the second Search process and assure you that we are moving forward in a positive direction. The vestry approved a contract for us to work with Rev. Luke Jernagen in the capacity of a consultant. He is a colleague of Peter’s and was instrumental in Peter’s Aspen church finding a huge slate of qualified candidates. We have already met three times in the last few weeks, and he’s helping us to complete the revised profile and the Office of Transition Ministry (OTM) to post on the Utah website as soon as possible. A big part of his proposal is to help with the recruiting piece. He told us he believes St. Luke’s is a healthy congregation in a beautiful town and ready to embrace a new rector. We couldn’t agree more! He will get the word out on our behalf!

This past week we created a letter for Luke to send to his contacts in ski communities similar to Park City to entice some mountain lovers to consider applying for our new rector. Wendy Broadbent has diligently followed up with possible leads from our congregation. Unfortunately, this effort has not yielded any results as yet. Thank you all for helping to spread the word. Keep up the excellent work.

The Diocese has organized a series of meetings for those churches that do not have a rector. The first meeting was last week via Zoom, with 20 people in attendance, including Dyan. The most significant focus in the meeting was that the bishop has recognized our need for a lot of support from the Diocese that was unavailable to us during the past 12 months. Bishop Spiegel has told us, and other Utah churches that are also searching for a rector, that this is one of her top priorities.

They are committed to supporting us in the process of the search, interviews, and visits to St. Luke’s. We did not have this type of enthusiastic support from the diocesan office the first go-round, so we feel like our prayers have been answered!

A bit about the revised profile—most of the profile you have already seen remains the same. We added information and photos about the newly energized Sunday school program and highlighted the proximity of Salt Lake City, with its many facilities, to Park City. The last page links important non-profits and organizations in Park City and Salt Lake. We also beefed up the section on Mission involvement. We will have some hard copies to share at Sunday worship soon. New photos were also added. We are pleased with the changes. We are now waiting on a letter from Bishop Spiegel to include in our profile to provide more information about the Diocese of Utah. She is naming it “Life in the Diocese of Utah.” We are still hoping to be able to post our job in the next few weeks.

Thanks to Jill Thomas for getting our Facebook and Instagram accounts up and working! If you are a member of either group, please consider posting positive thoughts about St. Luke’s or fun photos you have taken with other members. Luke Jernagen emphasized how vital active social media is to our recruitment efforts. Please take note that our webpage address has changed. It is now www.stlukesparkcity.com (not.org)

We feel strongly that the last 12 months have taught us many good lessons, and our church is better prepared to move forward in our second search. Luke reminded us that there is holiness in this process, and we must continue to pray for our new rector to find the way to St. Luke’s. Thanks to everyone for “hanging in” with us and being patient with the process. We are grateful to have Bishop Spiegel’s support and expertise as we post the job. Please feel free to call or email us with any comments or questions.  

Peace to all of you,  

Linda ldugins@gmail.com 

Dyan jpig@mindspring.com

The quote below was a margin note in the Geneva Bible from the 1500s.  Some of the people that wrote in the margins included John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale and other reformation leaders.

"God will have us to continue in prayer, not to worry us, but to exercise us; therefore we must fight against impatience so that a long delay does not cause us to continue in prayer, not to worry us, but to exercise us; therefore we must fight against impatience so that a long delay does not cause us to quit our praying."