The St. Luke’s Annual Meeting will be held Sunday after worship, January 21, 2024 in person and online with Zoom.
For online participants:
– Please mute your sound upon entering the room.
– Please mute your video if you need to step away, or are in a distracting environment.
– Use the “raise hand” and/or chat functions when you would like to speak.
– Let us know you can bring a potluck item to share using this signup genius. (Thank you!)
Join using this link: Zoom link for Annual Meeting.
Our four candidates for this year
Hello, my name is Susan Ledger Edwards. I actually live in the tiny mountain community of Lebec in Southern California though I did grow up in Washington State. I was raised in a close family, and my father was actually an Episcopal priest. I am currently retired after teaching elementary school in Southern CA for 37 years, a job I truly loved.
I have been so blessed in my life. I have a family that I adore, including my husband and two beautiful children. I did attend an Epicopal church in Bakersfield, CA for many years. Then, the diocese of San Joaquin seceded from the Episcopal church over two issues I could not ignore, LGBTQ people and women priests (since I’m here, you can imagine that I could not support this succession.)
To make a long story short, becoming a member of St. Luke’s was an accident. My beautiful sister, Karen, signed up for the On Sacred Ground online course. I joined the course as much to connect with her every week as to learn, but I liked the class and the people. Later that spring, we both signed up for the Spiritual Pilgrimage without really understanding what it was about just because we loved the community we met from the class. Well, after the Pilgrimage, we were hooked. Karen ended up sponsoring me as a member of the church, and it was a lifeline for both of us this past year, especially since Karen passed away last June.
I have been a member of St. Luke’s for over a year and have now been asked to take on a new challenge, the Bishop’s Committee. I hope to bring the perspective of an online member to this committee. More importantly, by being on the committee, I can do my small part to support this church so it can continue to do the work Jesus asked us to do: caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and reaching out to the stranger, including this one from southern CA.
Hello St Luke’s! My name is Gil Greenman, and I’m coming to you from the classy long term care at the Ballard Landmark in the heart of old Ballard. I am full time in a cool electric wheelchair as a result of multiple sclerosis. I retired in 2010 from the partnership of one of the best law firms in the country. In my twenty year career I worked on historic cases like the Clinton Impeachment trial and the Bush v. Gore election crisis. I have seven children ages 20 to 27.
My hope for St. Luke’s is that it remain a unicorn, a precious gem of openness and warmth and fun and deep faith. Our shared mission to feed and house as many as we can will stand as a model of what can be done by even a modest congregation. Onward!
Judy Heinrich : I was born and raised Roman Catholic and was active in the Catholic church for much of my adult life; I left the church several years ago because I could not support many of their beliefs and practices. I joined St. Luke’s and have been a member for 4 years. I truly feel that I’ve found a spiritual home and am so grateful for that. I’m looking forward to contributing to the work of the Bishop’s Committee, especially during this amazing time in St. Luke’s history.
I spent most of my professional life in human relations. I hold master’s degrees in religious education (Ft. Wright College) and Applied Behavioral Science (Whitworth College) plus a Doctorate in Communication from the University of Washington. I taught in a graduate program in Applied Behavioral Science for 20 years (The Leadership Institute of Seattle, LIOS) and served as the Academic Dean for 2 years. I also founded and led a consulting firm of 14 consultants (LIOS Consulting) focusing on leadership development, conflict management and organizational change. When I retired from LIOS I continued that work through my own consulting firm, The Whidbey Group.
Although I’ve had a long and fulfilling career, the part of my life of which I’m most proud is the family that my husband Mike and I have created. We have four adult children and six grandchildren (ages 11, 13, 14, 15, 28 and 33). Since we both retired 12 years ago, we have had time to spend with all of them and it has brought us a lot of joy. I have been blessed in many ways, but the most important is having these precious souls in my life.
Jane Silzer : After growing up on the south side of Chicago, Jane lived as an adult in Seattle, St. Louis, Baltimore and Detroit before moving back to Seattle in 1991. She and her husband Bill were married in 1996 and have lived in the same (now) 106-year-old house in Wallingford ever since. Her education includes a Masters in Adult Education, and she has had her own consulting and grant writing business for nonprofits since 2013 called The Art of the Nonprofit. Specializing in supporting nonprofits run by people of color, she currently serves local nonprofits focused on low-income African Americans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Tigrayans, Ukrainians, and Russians. Prior to starting her business, she worked for a variety of nonprofits as a Grants Manager/Grant Writer, Trainer, Curriculum Developer, Program Manager, Learning Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. She also served as the head of the Urban Ministries program at University Presbyterian for several years. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren (ages 9-16), walking her dog Cosmo, gardening, and reading. She’s also trying to learn the mandolin and the art of bonsai. Jane and her husband Bill are new to St. Luke’s as of this past October but feel like they have found their long-term church home here. She is excited to find ways to serve St. Luke’s through the Bishop’s Committee at this pivotal time – using her experience working on other nonprofit capital campaigns and serving as an elder in previous congregations.
