When our Rector, the Rev. Jeff Miller, opened Sunday’s annual meeting, he surveyed the packed Parish Hall, the paper plates balanced on laps and the people without seats propped against the walls, and said, “Look around the room. This is why we need to expand the Parish Hall.”

Our thriving and vibrant congregation is not the only reason our Shine the Light campaign is vital, though. “The whole world is coming to Charleston,” Fr. Jeff said a few minutes later. That may frustratingly feel like only a slightly exaggeration, but as he pointed out, the popularity of our city gives St. Philip’s an enormous opportunity to share the Gospel with the entire world.

Throughout the finance portion of the meeting, we heard about how the generosity of our parishioners is making this mission possible. Todd Brown, Chairman of the Finance Committe, gave the first financial update, one that he decided needed jazzing up with trivia (such as “What does Maundy mean?”)––because he loves numbers and even he would be bored without it. (Thank goodness he thought better of tossing bags of chocolate “shekels” to those who answered correctly––that would have been a little too exciting.)

Jim Stelling, Chair of Building Restoration Projects, successfully gave a brief construction update (despite the fact that “brevity is not [his] gift”), sharing that St. Philip’s Academy is on target for its August 2025 opening and that the Parish Hall expansion would include beautiful ironwork and a patio space below. Maybank Hagood, Co-Chair of the Shine the Light campaign, pointed out that counting all pledges and donations, we are 95% of the way to our $21.5 MM goal less than 2/3 of the way through the campaign’s three-year-run, and because of the funds we’ve already collected, we are already into Phase II of our restoration––without a penny of construction debt. What’s particularly exciting isn’t simply that we are preparing this campus, this Gospel asset for the next generation––we are leading them to Christ, and in turn they will be leading others to Christ, and leading people to Christ makes a difference for an eternity. Praise the Lord!

One of the main purposes of the parish meeting is voting in a new class of Vestry members, and we voted in by acclamation the four people prayerfully chosen by the Nominating Committee, narrowed down from the 26 names offered for consideration by the congregation: Amanda Ayers, Harry Gregorie, Lowell Gross, and Alan Runyan. And with the Class of 2028 voted in, we say goodbye and offer our heartfelt thanks to the Class of 2025 Vestry members for their years of faithful service: Senior Warden Foster Gaillard, Junior Warden Penn Hagood, Langdon Hartsock, and Jill Settle).

Saying goodbye to the Senior Warden is always a difficult point of the afternoon for our Rector, who recently has been meeting with the wardens almost daily, but he and his Senior Associate, the Rev. Andrew O’Dell, defused what is often a tearfully emotional few minutes, presenting Mr. Gaillard with a snapshot of the two of them in short-sleeved shirts, bucket hats, and shorts, goofily grinning beside the Sea of Galilee. (Those in attendance got to share in the gag when the picture got displayed on the big screen.) And when Fr. Jeff presented Mr. Gaillard with his actual gift, a giclee print of the church, he joked that the underneath the wrapping was a blown-up version of the first picture.

If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, or if you didn’t go home with a copy of the annual report, please stop by the church office to pick one up. You’ll see all the details of the financial updates (including the Elizabeth Battle Trust, which will be helping support our ministries until at least 2073), plus get a year in review and 2025-2026 plans from our clergy and program heads. Now, how do we thank God for all he’s done? Consider the words of Psalm 100:

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.