The Board of Deacons is an ordained body of 26 officers elected by the congregation to assist in the care of members, family and friends of the church.  In 2001, the board worked closely with the Associate Pastors for Congregational Care, Virginia Brown and Judy Pidcock; the Parish Visitor, Pam Foye; and the Session representative to the Board, Paula Pate.  The work of the Deacons was planned and carried out by subgroups or ministries of the Board.  These included,
 

Prayer and Spiritual Life Ministry– Ann Prince, leader

• Recruited volunteers for the prayer cordon and published Prayer Cordon booklet for 2001-2002
• Organized fall spirituality retreat which featured Amy Stratton-Smith speaking and guiding participants through exercises on the topic of “Listening: The Pulse of Faith”.

Ongoing Care Ministry – Ann Haag, leader

• Arranged and served afternoon teas for residences of Valley Manor, Friendly Home and the Highlands.
• Planned a luncheon and entertainment for older adults.
• Delivered Easter flowers, Christmas pointsettas and gift bags to church members who are mostly confined to home.
• Scheduled periodic visits by volunteers to church members confined to home.
• Planned a luncheon and entertainment for the volunteers who visit senior church members.

Hospital and Crisis Ministsry – Marian Ertsgaard, leader

• Scheduled volunteers to deliver flowers from the Sunday worship services to church members in the hospital, people recovering at home and people who were experiencing a life-changing event.
• Wrote a job description for volunteer coordinator of memorial service receptions. Susie Jacobs volunteered to fill the position.
• Recruited volunteers to setup, serve and cleanup memorial service receptions.

Youth Ministry – Tina Jones, leader

• In June, served breakfast and made presentations to church seniors graduating from high school.
• Built a list of e-mail addresses on a Third Church listserve to facilitate easy communication between youth who have graduated from high school within the past 4 years.
• Initiated a ‘care package’ program for Third Church youth that are freshmen in college.
• In December, organized a youth get-together at a local restaurant during the Christmas holiday.

Neighborhood Care Network Ministry – Sue Lipari, leader

• With the help of NCN coordinators, organized neighborhood parties for John Wilkinson and family.
• Recruited volunteers to provide transportation, deliver dinners and provide other help to church members in need.
• Focused an entire Deacon meeting on ways to help Deacons and NCN Coordinators be more effective in their work within their NCNs.
• Organized and publicized pew seating by NCNs on September Rally Day Sunday.

Other Deacon Business:

• Initiated the Memorial Reception Fund as an ongoing church fund that receives donations and supports expenses for receptions following memorial services.
• Bid farewell to the Rev. Virginia Brown and her daughter Janelle as they left for San Diego.
• With the help of NCN coordinators, recruited volunteers to bake cookies and serve coffee, tea and lemonade during weekly Sunday morning coffee hours.
• Initiated a Sunday worship service tape ministry.
• Sought musical entertainment for Sunday coffee hours.
• Built and maintained a list of e-mail addresses on a listserve to facilitate easy communication between Deacons.  Initiated and maintained a group web page for easy access to Deacon minutes, lists and schedules.
• Maintained the Third Church Deacon web page with descriptions of the subgroups and a list of the NCNs with their zip codes and the Deacons who are assigned to them.