Dear People of St. James’,
The Vestry Nominations Committee (Natalie Adelaja, Riley Carruthers, Pat Liston, Teresa Chang, and Rudy Green) are pleased to submit the following slate for Vestry and the St. James’ Diocesan Council Delegation. The Spirit has been at work in this process, leading us to identify five candidates for vestry, four delegates for Council, and one alternate for council, who are uniquely gifted for the work and enthusiastic to serve. One of the candidates for Vestry is running for a one-year term to fulfill Jason Myers’ unfinished term.
In developing this Vestry slate, the Vestry Nominations Committee took a careful look at our three-year goals and sought out individuals with the passion, experience, and skills needed to help us realize those goals. We are delighted to present you with a slate of proven leaders, committed to the St. James’ ethos of radical hospitality and representative of various diversities of our congregation. We are particularly pleased to once again have an individual who is part of the 1 pm Proyecto Santiago worshipping community on the Vestry.
Vestries always work hard and listen hard, and they frequently have to make difficult decisions for the life of the congregation. The nominees on this slate offer their names without reticence, but with a clear-eyed view of challenges we must tackle in our multicultural community’s life together as we continue to struggle with the pandemic.
In developing the Diocesan Council slate, the Vestry Nominations Committee thought about what will be going on at Diocesan Council 2021 and who needs to be there [online] representing St. James’ in order for our delegation to be an effective voice and presence, alongside our clergy.
The Rev. Eileen O’Brien
Vestry Slate
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Dulce Aguilar-Garcia (3 yr term)
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Dulce Citlalie Aguilar-Garcia has been with St. James’ Episcopal Church since a very young age. As a member of the Spanish Service/Proyecto Santiago, she uses her voice both in the choir and to share the Latinx culture and customs in the community. She’s currently taking a break from teaching with Austin Independent School District (where she has been employed for the past 10 years), and is currently a student at the University of Texas at Austin, in the evenings, while working for the University Co-Op Book Store during the day.
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Jim Crosby has recently retired after teaching Theology to high school seniors at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School for 27 years. He was on the St. James’ Bishop’s Committee for a term back in the early 1980s before it was a vestry, while St. James’ was a “mission church.” He served on the board of St. James’ School. He is an Episcopal Third Order Franciscan. In the fall of 2018, he founded Nonviolent Austin, a local branch of the national Campaign Nonviolence, which seeks to bring the methods of Gandhi and King into the mainstream of society. His great loves include reading pretty much anything, pre-electric country blues guitar (especially Mississippi John Hurt and Rev. Gary Davis), and the films of Terrence Malick.
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Martin Jolivet (3 yr term)
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Martin Jolivet has worked in the software field for over thirty years. He is currently a senior software engineering manager at Applied Materials, where he leads teams that write the software that controls the tools that make the semiconductor chips found in most every device we use. Martin manages a diverse global team of engineers with members as far away as Bangalore, India.
Martin and Toni Jolivet have been married for 33 years. They have two sons, Christian and Justin. Martin and Toni joined St. James’ in November of 2018. He served on the 2019 and 2020 stewardship committees, and is currently serving on the VFC. Martin is interested in everything that flies, and his main hobby is radio controlled airplanes.
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Suzy is a wife, mother, grandmother; a licensed professional counselor in private practice; a fourth-year student in EfM
(Education for Ministry); a dedicated tennis player and reader. She and her husband Tom have been at St. James’ for 25 years. She feels honored to have the opportunity to serve on the Vestry for a second time.
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Simone Talma Flowers (1 yr term)
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Simone Talma Flowers, a member of St. James’ for over 26 years. St. James’ is home to her, it’s the place she finds solace, friendship, and love. Simone has served St. James throughout the years in many ministries – Altar Guild, Stewardship, Phenomenal Woman, Hospitality, Treasurer, Vestry, Senior Warden, Lector, Usher and many more. Simone serves as the Executive Director of Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT) and actively participates in the community by serving on numerous Boards.
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Diocesan Council Slate
Delegates to Diocesan Council commit to attending the entirety of the first ever Online Council meeting in 2021 and being a part of the preparation for the work of Council alongside clergy delegates.
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Lora J. Livingston has been a member of St. James’ for approximately 25 years. She has served on the Vestry and as Senior Warden. She has happily served as an usher and a lector and she loves serving communion. When it comes to St. James’, there is no job she won’t tackle (if the timing is right!). Lora has served as a Delegate and as an Alternate at a few Diocesan Council meetings and is looking forward to serving again in 2021.
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Eric Kennedy is a member of St. James’ Episcopal Church and has been very involved in a number of ministries including Welcome Table, the Vestry Finance Committee, UBE and the Commission on Black Ministry. Eric is married to Lora Livingston and has two children, Emily and Jonathan, and one grandchild, Jaidon.
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Scott Madison has attended St. James’ Austin since 2004 and has been involved in various ministries and leadership positions. He has served on the Vestry at St. James’, as clerk, Junior Warden, and Senior Warden, and was chair of our most recent rector search committee. He also served as Vice Chair for the Diocesan Host Committee for General Convention in 2018 and will represent the Diocese of Texas as a Lay Deputy at the next General Convention.
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Roger Williams, and his wife Norma, joined St. James’ when Bill Miller was rector, and their children Joseph and Rachel were baptized at St. James’ on MLK. Roger has served St. James on the Vestry, the Finance Committee, and the Children’s Ministry, is a Lector at the 10:15 and 5:30 services, and has represented St. James’ at three previous Diocesan Councils. Roger was confirmed at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and attended St. Andrews and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Schools. He is an intellectual property lawyer in private practice in Austin.
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Lizzie Cain Clark‘s home away from home throughout childhood was St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, AL, where she was baptized, confirmed, and married. Since the late 1990s, she has been a parishioner at St. James’ Austin where she has served on the finance committee, stewardship committee, lay ministries committee, vestry, and as senior warden. She has also coordinated outreach activities at St. James’, volunteered with St. James’ Welcome Table, served as a lay chaplain with the Community of Hope, and is currently in year 4 of Education for Ministry (EfM).
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About the Online Parish Meeting
The Parish Meeting for voting on the slate will take place online at 12:30 pm through Zoom on Sunday, December 20. If you have a phone or a computer, you can participate.
We will not receive nominations from the floor at the time of the meeting. However, we will have a week-long petition period ending on December 16. If you would like to petition to be added to the slate, please fill out this online form by 9 am on December 16, 2020. Petitioners must meet the same canonical qualifications as other candidates, and they must make themselves available for an interview with the rector and a member of the nominations committee between December 16 and December 18. If petition candidates are added to the slate by the nominations committee, that will be announced on December 19. Please note that filling out the petition form does not guarantee you will be added to the slate. If we add petition candidates to the slate, we will hold a competitive election. If not, we will vote for the slate by affirmation, which doesn’t sound exciting but there will be other fun announcements and goings-on at this brief meeting.
or using a phone, dial:
1 346 248 7799
and enter the following when you hear the cue:
Meeting ID: 832 9522 0359
Passcode: 876533
We will be sure to give good instructions about how to vote on whatever device you may be using.
At the end of January, we will hold the big Annual Parish Meeting to celebrate all that has been done in the past year together. That meeting will include reports from ministries and a vote on the 2021 budget and other big fun.
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