Brotherhood of St. Andrew
Dallas Assembly
Episcopal Diocese of Dallas

2009 ANNUAL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

The Diocesan Assembly met at Saint Michaels and All Angeles, Saturday, December 5. Opening Eucharist was, celebrated by the Rt. Reverend Bruce McPherson, National Chaplain of the Brotherhood and Bishop of Western Louisiana. Preacher was the Reverend Robert Dannals, Rector of St. Michaels.

Following Eucharist, Bishop McPherson gave the keynote address in which he focused on the mission of the Brotherhood. He spoke movingly about the need for persistence and personal witness in order to bring men and boys to Christ. This was well illustrated by his personal story of being finally persuaded to join the Brotherhood while an executive with Time Warner. It had taken patient persistence on the behalf of several Brothers to get him to join. Once a member, he took on successive leadership roles, then entered the Priesthood. The Bishop also described how a 16 year old boy in his Diocese has been responsible for bringing more than a dozen people into his small parish merely by inviting one family. That family came, and then invited others who, in turn, invited others. The Bishop's point is, that each of us can do this. It's not hard.

Robby Gerber, President of the Assembly reviewed the progress over the past year. He stressed the worth of the meetings of Chapter Directors with officers of the Diocesan Assembly. These meetings provide opportunities to enhance communication, to learn from each other, and to plan and coordinate activities. We will have quarterly meetings in 2010.. Robby stressed the importance of attendance.

Larry Maxwell discussed our Habitat for Humanity commitment. Our 14th house in 14 years will be dedicated that afternoon. The family was introduced and expressed their gratitude. Larry noted that fund raising to fulfill our $40,000 obligation is still short by more than $9,000.

Jim Vineyard talked about fund raising in 2009, both the failed raffle of the Cadillac and the Golf Tournament at Canyon Creek. The Golf Tournament was successful in term of funds raised from entries and individual hole sponsors, but the lack of corporate sponsors hurt overall results. The Golf Tournament will be repeated at Canyon Creek on June 2. Jim urged us to provide him the names of potential corporate sponsors he could contact.

Fred Manget spoke briefly about recruiting both new members and new chapters. He was filling in for Don Candy who was hospitalized with an infection.

Bruce Blais. Our webmaster, spoke about new content on the website and it's value as an information and communication tool. He ask each chapter to provide information on upcoming and activities and news/photos of completed projects.

Fr. Don Spafford was installed as our new Assembly chaplain succeeding Fr. Bill Cavanaugh whose service was gratefully acknowledged.

Version 1.0, January 23, 2010