P a r i s h P r o f i l e

The Church of the Messiah6436 Montgomery Street, Rhinebeck, NY 12572

(845) 876-3533

All are welcome at our table

C o n t e n t s

with gladnessOur Profile ......................2

Who We Have Been........3

Who We Are Now ..........4

Demographic Profile......4

Worship at Our Church..5

Committees and Program Highlights....5

Education ........................6

Communications ............7

Church Property ............7

Staff ..................................7

Strengths and Areasof Concern ..................8

Who We Wish to Become ....................9

Our Next Rector ............10

Our Community ............11

welcomeWe at Messiah are called to share the joy in our hearts. We seek to live in the power of the Spirit, welcoming all into our parish family. We strive to be a people who are both comforted by God’s love and challenged to live lives of service to the world. The Church of the Messiah, located in the historic village of Rhinebeck, NY, 80 miles north ofManhattan, is seeking a rector with a passion for pastoral care and service who willhelp us to find our identity and build on our spirit in the coming years.

O u r P r o f i l eIn an effort to make sure our entire congregation is part of the search process for a new rector and what we wish to become as a parish, the Search Committee developed and distributed a questionnaire to the 274 households in the congregation. We had a 40% return rate. The committee then invited the congregation to participate in one of two “World Café” events (www.theworldcafe.com). Using the responses to thequestionnaire as a guide, World Café participants were asked to discuss in more detail four topics: 1) what the Church of the Messiah means to them, 2) what they wish it tobecome, 3) what the most pressing needs of the church are and 4) what they are lookingfor in a new rector.

Our profile is a compilation of these discussions, supplemented with an overviewof church activities and our outreach programs, history and community information.

The Search Committee consists of 11 parishioners—Kris Perry (Chairman), MarleneAlexander, John Austrian, Bob Burns, Michele Fox (vestry member), Tom Heller, Mel Ickes,Leanora Kovacs (vestry member), Josette Lee, Joy Lee Packert and Susan Rohrmeier. We have attempted to represent the full spectrum of our congregation.

If, after reviewing our parish profile, you wish to be considered for the rector’s position, please submit:

• Your resume• Your updated Church Deployment Office (CDO) Profile• A cover letter indicating the best and most confidential ways to

contact you. Please be assured that any materials you submit will be treated with respect and confidentiality.

Please submit the above information to:Church of the MessiahP.O. Box 428Rhinebeck, NY 12572Attn: Kris PerryKcperry@aol.com

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our parish. Whether you decide to apply or not, we wish you well and will keep you in our prayers.

page 2

W h o W e H a v e B e e nFrom a church with fixed pew rents of $8 to $20, depending on the location of the pew, to offering a “Mad Dash,” an annual road race, and various outreach programs, the Church of the Messiah has grown and transformed with the Rhinebeck community.

The first Episcopal worship service in Rhinebeck was held on February 13, 1831. On August 8, 1852, the Church of the Messiah was organized and incorporated. The cornerstone of the original building was laid on September 16, 1852 and the structure was completed and occupied the following year.

By the early 1890’s, the congre-gation had grown in numbers, andthe existing church building neededextensive renovations. The archi-tects Hoppin & Koen from New YorkCity designed the new church in theGothic Revival style; the corner-stone of the present Church of theMessiah was laid July 7, 1897.

Douglas Merritt donated a bellto the church as a thank offering for the safe return of his daughterwho served as a nurse with theFrench army during World War I.The pipe organ was built speciallyfor the church by E.M. Skinner anddonated by Captain Vincent Astorin 1921.

In the 1990’s, three new memorial stained glass windows were installed to go along with the historic stained glass windows that had been donated over the years by parishioners. New protective glazing was installed over all the stained glasswindows, and the Susan Watts Street Memorial window by LaFarge was restored.

In 2002, as a thank offering for our first 150 years as a parish, carillons wereinstalled. They proclaim our faith and unity as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to the village and to all who pass through.

For a detailed history of the Church of Messiah, its organization, past rectors, architecture, the stained glass windows, the organ and the carillons, please go to www.rhinebeck-episcopal.org.

page 3

Lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God

—Colossians 1

W h o W e A r e N o wWe are a congregation that believes in expressing its love of our Lord Jesus Christ through worship, personal prayer and action. The services are open and inviting with a relaxed atmosphere while maintaining the majesty and decorum of the Episcopal traditions. Members of the congregation approach tasks and challenges in a prayerful manner asking the Lord to lead us, protect us and guide us. The congregation takes action when needs arise whether through established outreach programs or by immediatedirect response.

There are varied social activities in which all parishioners can participate including:progressive dinners, movie nights, lectures, game nights, picnics, an annual flea marketand other special events.

Messiah is a very welcoming congregation. Our fervent wish is that all individualsare accepted for who they are and the talents they bring.

D e m o g r a p h i c P r o f i l e

Total communicants in good standing (Parochial Report)..............620

Communicants in good standing under age 16....................122

Sunday School enrollment ........................................................78

Average Sunday attendance (2 services) ............................ 216

Easter attendance ....................................................................349

Baptisms ......................................................................................29

Confirmations older than 16 ....................................................12

Confirmations under age 16......................................................19

page 4

Let us alwaysmake a joyfulnoise to theLord, all theearth. Worshipthe Lord withgladness

—Psalm 100

W o r s h i p a t o u r c h u r c hServices are held Sunday morningsat 8:00 and 10:00. The 8:00 servicefollows the Rite I tradition, while the 10:00 service follows Rite II.Sunday School begins at 9:45, withthe children joining the servicearound 10:30. The choir sings at the10:00 service. Holy Communionservices are held in Tyler ChapelThursday mornings at 9:00.

During Holy Week, there is a Maundy Thursday service at9:00 a.m. followed by a reverentFoot Washing at 7:00 p.m. On Good Friday a 3:00 service is held. For the Easter Vigil onSaturday, there is an evening service at 7:00. Two services, one at 8:00 and one at 10:00 are celebrated on Easter Sunday.

Committees & Program HighlightsThe Church of the Messiah has many of the traditional committees found at most Episcopal churches: Altar Guild, Vestry, Stewardship, Chaplaincy, Acolytes and Spirit and Community.

Spirit and Community includes a number, but not all, of the activities that connectthe our church to the larger community. There are five programs that epitomize the spirit ofthis church. There are many activities that are part of our outreach, but the following exam-ples distinguish the congregation in their purpose, generosity, ecumenical nature and impact.

Mad Dash—Held on Labor Day, the Mad Dash is an annual road race with over 600runners participating from throughout the Northeast. In 2008, the Mad Dash raised over$11,000 for outreach programs at the Church of the Messiah. Funds from the Mad Dash andthe ECW enable us to support two Nicaraguan ministries (including the Mid-Hudson SisterCity Project), the Dutchess Coalitionfor the Homeless, Food for the Poor, a special prison ministry forwomen, the Today Group of FamilyServices, the Northern DutchessCaregivers, the Rural and MigrantMinistry and the Crop Walk.

Cuddle Blanket—Each yearsince 2001, members of the parishand several non-members, createblankets for every child attendingRamapo for Children in Rhinebeck.Camp Ramapo serves more than400 children with special needs with a focus on the development of positive social andlearning skills. The project is combined effort with other local churches and to date, over2,700 blankets have been distributed. In 2008, the Cuddle Blanket project was recognized by the United Way.

page 5

Third Thursday Lunch—This group has been operating for the past two years. On every third Thursday from October to May, lunch is held to benefit a local charitableorganization. Recipients are generally underfunded groups that have been nominated by a parish member involved with the group. The $5.00 lunch has become a local socialevent, providing senior citizens a chance to go out, have lunch, socialize and to help someone else. To date, over $7,500 has been raised for local causes.

Food Pantry—The Food Pantry serves approximately 30 families each month. The volunteers who run the pantry are an ecumenical group consisting of parish members,as well as non-members. This year, a garden has been planted to provide fresh, organicvegetables each week.

ESL—the English as a Second Language group is another example of an ecumenicalactivity sponsored by Church of the Messiah. It began in 2006 when the church agreed to provide space for classes supported the Latino ministry program of St. Margaret’s inStaatsburg. Seven tutors instruct students twice a week. Most of the current enrollment is Latino with one Vietnamese student. The teachers are parish members and other volunteers, including a high school student and a college student.

E d u c a t i o nThere are 78 children enrolled inSunday School, which has five agegroups. The K-1, Grades 2-3, andGrades 3-4 follow the Godly Playcurriculum. The Pre-K class andthe middle school group follow the more traditional Episcopal curriculum. The teachers are adedicated group of volunteers. Inaddition to teaching classes, theSunday School does two children’sservices and a Christmas pageant.

In the summertime, theChurch of the Messiah partici-pates in Vacation Bible School with Third Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church inRhinebeck. Each year, the location rotates among the churches. There are 40-60 childrenattending the program, which is centered around a Bible verse theme. There are stories,games, crafts and songs centered on the reinforced Bible point.

Adult Education consists of a Monday evening Bible study group and a forum heldbetween services every Sunday. The forum is an open discussion session with faith-basedtopics as suggested by the participants.

page 6

C o m m u n i c a t i o n sOur basic sources of communication are the Sunday church bulletin, our periodic newsletter “Messiah Matters,” and the Church of the Messiah website located atwww.rhinebeck-episcopal.org. The bulletin guides us through the service and highlightsupcoming events. “Messiah Matters” also announces upcoming events, provides a calendarand more in-depth reports from the various committees. Sunday services are rebroadcaston the local public access television channel PANDA. The Search Committee has begun aneffort to gather e-mail addresses from all parishioners to facilitate better communicationthroughout the parish family.

C h u r c h P r o p e r t yThe Church of the Messiah is located near the center of the Village of Rhinebeck at the corner of Montgomery Street and Chestnut Street. The church building consists of a sanc-tuary, the Tyler Chapel with a columbarium, and a choir room. Adjacent to the church is a memorial garden. The parish hall is located behind the church and has an occupancycapacity of 160. It includes a kitchen with commercial grade appliances, is air conditioned,has a hardwood floor and a stage. The hall was recently renovated, and is the center of thechurch’s social activities, and one of the few facilities in the area of its size and is frequentlyrented out. Behind the parish hall is Donegan Hall which is home to the church offices,Sunday School classrooms, the food pantry, the Cuddle Blanket Project and a meeting area.Weigel Hall is the newest addition to the structure and houses classrooms. The rectory isadjacent to the church property facing Chestnut Street. It is a four-bedroom, two-storywhite colonial with a fenced yard. The church also owns a commercial property onMontgomery Street which is rented to a dry cleaner. This property is a reliable source of income for the church.

S t a f fIn addition to our interim rector, ourchurch has a part timeadministrative assistantwho is in the officeMonday through Fridaymornings, a sexton forthe church building andan organist/choirmaster.

page 7

Strengths and Areas of ConcernProviding a Sense of Community and WelcomeChurch of the Messiah wants to make sure everyone feels welcome at our table whilemaking sure no one feels unengaged, pressured or unrecognized. As a church we want tofind that fine line between treating members, new and old, with a warm embrace withoutoverwhelming them.

Children and FamiliesYoung families with children are animportant part of our parish. Whileour Sunday school engages many of the younger children, we havefound it increasingly difficult toretain these same children whenthey become young adults. We havealso found it difficult to attract families with older children to ourparish. We would like to strengthenour programs for children of allages in order to keep the youngerones interested in Sunday school asthey grow, and to offer stimulatingspiritual programs for older children

and teenagers. We understand that parents are much more likely to attend church and tobecome involved with youth programs when their children are enthusiastic about thechurch’s programs. We want all parishioners, regardless of their age, to feel they are a vital part of the church.

OutreachThrough a variety of programs, our parishioners have shown that they wish to make a difference locally and globally. While we want to keep these good works going, we knowthat we need to increase our outreach and involve more parishioners in projects. Thechurch needs to find new ways to communicate with our parishioners so they feelinvolved and connected.

Spiritual and Personal GrowthParishioners want to know more about their faith, themselves and one another. We are looking for spiritual paths to improvement and shared experiences to help us grow as individuals and as a parish. Whether it is Bible study, adult education or casualdiscussions, we want to foster more opportunities that will help to guide us in God’s love.

For this is the message that yeheard from the beginning, thatwe should love one another…

—1 John 3:11

page 8

Who We Wish to BecomeWe are thankful to have a strong, growing and loving parish family. The parish hasincreased steadily over the past 10 years. We have had an increase in membership, anincrease in our outreach efforts, more Sunday School enrollments and increased financialsupport. Our parish survey showed that the majority of our members are very satisfiedwith many aspects of our parish—they wish to see the existing worship services and outreach missions continue.

This ten years of growth has allowed us to increase our ability to serve the community. We have many hopes to make Messiah even better in the future. Our parish-ioners have voiced their hopes and aspirations for the parish over the next five years:

Increase our ability to serve our community—We would like to inspire people to develop a deep understanding of the Gospel teachings and to live their lives in harmonywith them.

Become even more welcoming—Everyone who walks through our doors should be greeted with a warm welcome and feel immediately at home. We hope to support eachother in prayer, love and companionship as friends sharing a journey.

Encourage diversity—We want a congregation that reflects the diversity of our community.

Greatly expand our communications—We would like to build upon our excellentparish newsletter and website. We hope to communicate better with parishioners and thecommunity at large.

Increase our programs for older teens and young adults—Our teenage members would benefit from additional activities that provide them opportunities for fellowship and learning. We have a lively Sunday School program with dedicated teachers.We would like increase the number of teachers and see a larger number of parishionershelping in many different ways.

Strengthen our financial position—We would like to maintain and increase ourcurrent level of activities and services. Our goal is to have yearly pledges adequately coveroperating expenses, plus additional ability to fund capital improvements.

page 9

O u r N e x t R e c t o r

The Church of the Messiah is a caring and spiritual community. To help us achieve our goals, we are looking for a rector with the following abilities and characteristics:

We seek a spiritual leader who believes in a loving God. We hope to find a rectorwho can inspire us and help us grow more deeply in our faith.

We seek a pastor who sees Christ in everyone. This person should be comfortablewith and skilled at ministering to the emotional and spiritual needs of the parish and community in times of joy andcrisis. We seek someone whocan listen with compassion,counsel with tender care and discretion, behave with grace, humility, gentle humor anddeep respect for others.

We seek a preacherwho engages us with sermonsthat are thought-provoking,pastoral and scripture-based.We look for this minister todraw compelling connectionsbetween the teachings of theBible in a way that not onlyreaches people in their daily lives, but also challenges us to examine those lives.

We seek an administrative leader who can help envision and support the develop-ment and growth of programs, particularly for children, youth and teens with an emphasison faith development and community service. This person should be a team builder whocan identify and develop lay leadership with the goal of expanding involvement of parish-ioners in opportunities of participation and outreach.

We seek a stewardship leader who can impart to us a deeper understanding ofstewardship and help us integrate it into every aspect of our financial planning, fund raising and resource management. We seek a leader who possesses a working knowledgeof budgets and finance, an ability to delegate effectively and to rely on the vestry for additional expertise and direction.

In sum, we seek a joyful person who will appreciate and forgive our foibles, senseour potential, appreciate our accomplishments, and support us on our individual journeys,at the same time encouraging us to connect more lovingly to each other. We look forwardto welcoming our new rector into our midst with warm affection. I

With grateful appreciation to William Lee for all photographs herein save one. Blanket photo page 5 by Lisa Heller.

page 10

O u r C o m m u n i t yA Brief History of Rhinebeck: Nestled in the lush, rolling hills of Dutchess County, in the scenic Hudson River Valley, the picture book village of Rhinebeck has been calledthe "The Jewel of the Hudson."

With 437 sites listed on the National Historic Register, Rhinebeck comprises one of the largest historic districts in the United States. Rhinebeck boasts eight miles of anarea known as The Sixteen Mile Historic District composed of thirty contiguous riverfrontestates associated with the landed aristocracy in the Hudson Valley during the eighteenth,nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Rhinebeck was founded in 1686 as a result of a significant land transaction of 2,200 acres between four Dutchmen and six Indians of the Esopus and Sepasco tribes. The Dutch settlers called their community Kipsbergen and it was not until 1713 that thename "Ryn Beck" appeared as a result of the area's Judge Henry Beekman's reference to his accumulating landholdings.

The Beekman Arms, a charming country inn and restaurant, that has been welcoming travelers since it opened in 1766, is considered the oldest inn in America. "The Arms" retains a great deal of its eighteenth - and nineteenth-century character inside,where some original structural features can still be seen.

Rhinebeck has exciting year-round events and recreational opportunities. The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is famous worldwide for its daredevil sky show and vintageWorld War I planes and museum. One can even take a ride in a biplane! The DutchessCounty Fairgrounds host the county Fair, craft and antique shows and many other eventsfrom spring through the fall season. The Center for Performing Arts, which includes theRhinebeck Theatre Society, plus the Bard College Music Festival, offer a wide variety ofintellectual stimulation and entertainment through the seasons. Upstate Films shows thefinest of international cinema.

Rhinebeck and its surrounding area are endowed with an array of places to bike,hike, fish, horseback ride, sail, boat, camp, golf, swim, cross-country and alpine ski, or just relax and enjoy the peaceful scenery.

The Rhinebeck Town Landing in Rhinecliff provides waterfront views and a boat launch.

The Rhinebeck Community Center houses the Starr Library and a recreational complex consisting of a swimming pool, tennis courts, playground and ball field.

Wilderstein is an 1888 Queen Anne country home and 40 acres on the banks of the Hudson River. The house and trails are open to the public from May through October,Thanksgiving weekend and weekends in December.

With a history dating back over 300 years, year-round activities, shops restaurantsand a style of casual elegance, all only ninety minutes outside Manhattan, Rhinebeck trulyis the “Jewel of the Hudson.”

For up-to-date, detailed information, see Rhinebeckchamber.com.

page 11