HEALING LIGHT SPIRITUALIST CHURCH
BOARD MEETING AGENDA
February 11, 2024
Meeting called to order at 1:12pm
Invocation by Rev. Janet Decker
Board Members Roll Call:
President: Rev. Janet Decker - present
Acting Vice President: Rev. Tara Gilmartin - present
Acting Treasurer: Rev. Angel Downing - present
Secretary: Diane Jackman Skolfield - present
Trustee: Terri Kovac - present
Acting Trustee: Rev. Angel Downing - present
Acting Trustee: Tara Gilmartn - present
Guests: Susan Joyce, Randall Downing, Suzanne Delgado, Thoy Conroy, Stephanie Cartwright, Donald Skolfield
January 2024 minutes emailed and approved with one addition
Secretary Report
Ratified email discussion on having Sunday service at 3pm from July 7-August 25th, all voting members of the board were in favor- information was sent to members with email addresses. Secretary will send out zoom link for Special Members’ Meeting for March 10

Correspondence: Annual Chamber of Commerce bill came in and Diane paid, as she has in years past. Hoping to host a Chamber of Commerce meeting in June, July or August

Secretary sent out February Board Meeting Zoom link to all members for February 11, 2024 board meeting

Secretary Webmaster finally figured out how to add Board Meeting Minutes and the link will be included with the next newsletter and here https://www.healinglightspiritualistchurch.org/items-1


Treasurer’s Report - available to members upon request
Committee Reports
Activities Report – We continue to have Mediumship Development Classes every Sunday from 1-3pm, First Thursday Zoom into Akashic Records 6-7:30, First Friday Gallery Readings from 6-8pm, Full Moon Drumming Circle, and Angel is going to see if the Guided Meditation; Meet Your Guides through Shamanic Drumming she holds on Thursday, February 29 at 2pm is well attended. If that is the case then she will hold one in March. Also, the Oracle Card Readings Angel has been doing every other week is going well too.
Chili Cookoff on February 24, 2024, Keeping in house due to death of Carmel native; Kevin Howell
20th Annual Anniversary Party – exciting details about our June 28 through June 30 weekend including Graham MacLauren’s demonstration- or something - on Friday night, Saturday’s 10-3 festival, Diane’s 3pm History Talk, and Dance Party from 7-9pm. Sunday morning service will be the All Healing Service and a few minutes will be dedicated to one of our founding members passing; Nancy Dubois
Beginning of summer line up: Last Saturday each month Dance Party hosted by Diane and Friends from 7-9pm, Last Sunday each month P & P Party at 5pm; Pizza and Performers- Diane will provide pizza for donations to church and Performers will be everything from people reading inspirational words, ukulele players singing songs, people reading poetry, whatever Spirit brings
Stephanie’s Reiki class at the end of the month went well and she has $1000 to give to the Healing Light
Unfinished Business:
-Janet talked to Ken and he cannot commit to help with maintenance or mowing. We need to find someone to do the mowing or buy a mower.

-By-laws - someone on committee will set up a chat to talk about reading the by-laws and understanding them

-Maybe buy a roomba vacuum? Diane purchased and sent to the church
-Roof and Storage Shed- has a hole and a framing board needs to be fixed. Angel will talk to Trey and find out if he can help.
-Safe- Angel purchased one for the office

- Member Application process may be discussed at a later date.
- Talk about the possibility of being able to Zoom the Wednesday night service that begins in April. It was agreed to add this vote of Zoom possibilities for the Wednesday evening service at the special members meeting

New Business:

New Member application from Kelly Thompson was approved.

The Board is proposing to the membership that from July 7-August 25
(8 weeks) we change our Sunday church services to 3pm allowing other churches to come visit us, and us to theirs. Summer visitors will have choices; they/we can experience other places and still come to our Spiritualist Service at 3pm. The Intention is to allow others to go where they choose in the morning just as it was back in the late 1800s. We can promote our church around the state at the summer camps in the morning and encourage year round state residents to come and serve our church during the rest of the year. It will also open us up to bringing in visiting mediums from around the globe at our Sunday 3pm church during summer.


Summer Sundays (July 7-August 25) would look like this:

-Sunday mornings: possible field trips to Temple Heights, Madison Camp and to our neighbors across the street, Camp Etna to name a few
-Mediumship Development Class 1-3
-Church 3-4:30
-Potluck on the first Sunday
-Refreshments on the other Sundays.
-Board meeting from 1-3 on the second Sunday
-Last Sundays each month at 5pm will be Pizza & Performers

This has been discussed among the board members and unanimously approved by the voting members of the board. If no better option is proposed during the February board meeting we will hold a special members’ meeting to vote on this temporary change, March 10 at 1pm.

All members present were able to give their opinion and the discussion was peaceful and went very well. People said more than what I was able to quote here but I believe this is a good representation of what was said.

Stephanie Cartwright voiced her opinion and said she would not be able to do the 3pm services because of family. She wanted the 10:30am service to stay the way it is and she was concerned about the potential loss of income for the church.

Thoy Conroy said she would like to see the services stay the way they are because she is usually busy with family on Sunday afternoons. She also said if she was available to come to a 3pm service she would. She added that she had been given a hard time when she went to a service at Camp Etna instead of the 10:30am service at the Healing Light.

Susan Joyce spoke and said she loved the idea of a 3pm service at the Healing Light because it gave her options of going to other churches. She felt it would be great to network and the have the opportunity for outreach with other Spiritualist Churches.

Randall Downing shared that when he was growing up his family stressed that church was not a place it was the people who came together to raise each other up. He could not see where having a 3pm service took away anything from the Healing Light but it gives our community a chance to connect with others. Supporting and uplifting others inspired by Spirit. Change leads to growth and evolution when Spirit led. A truly Spirit-led decision does not incorporate fear or ego. After everyone had spoken he added that nothing he had heard about this proposal would hurt the Healing Light Church; we will not lose our identity and we would be honoring and respecting our founders. He also added that some people cannot do a morning service and will be speaking at the meeting on March 10.

Don Skolfield said he was in favor of trying the 3pm service for exploration and expansion. In going to other churches we may see things that we can incorporate into our own church.

Suzanne Delgado was in favor of the 3pm service and that it would be fun to meet at the Healing Light and go in vehicles together to various churches. This would not only help us to promote the church and visit but would also help bring our church members together in community.

Rev. Angel Downing was in favor of the 3pm service because it would allow her to bring in mediums and leaders from other churches to serve. Otherwise the July and August services would simply be a rotation of the same people who serve our church year round. She also said that if people love our church they should support our church whether they are attending services or not and that “not coming to church at 3 pm just because they didn’t win their vote to keep the 10:30am service was simply not supportive of the church.”

Terri Kovac said that without change things go stagnant and die. She was in favor of the seasonal change for 8 weeks for all the reasons already mentioned.

Rev. Tara Gilmartin said it wouldn’t hurt to try a 3pm service for the 8 weeks. It would give her an opportunity to visit other churches so she could be a better reverend. It would also bring more local people into our church.

Rev. Janet Decker said she was in favor of keeping the 10:30am service. She was concerned about the potential loss of income. Diane pointed out the deposit numbers we had received for 2023 summer indicated that July and August are not necessarily our biggest months and she went on to compliment Angel and her crew on the attendance of 26 people at church this morning and 22 parishioners at church last Sunday.

Janet asked if we would be okay with just trying the 3pm for 4 weeks instead of 8. Diane Jackman said maybe that would be okay and we could discuss it at the Special Members Meeting. Susan Joyce, Terri Kovac, Angel Downing and Tara Gilmartin all felt we would lose momentum if we only did 4 weeks and set us up for failure and Diane agreed with them. An 8 week seasonal trial this summer is what we will vote on.

Diane said that she would like to try the 3pm service for 8 weeks this summer because of all the reasons everyone else had mentioned. She added that when speaking with Graham MacLauren, a Scottish medium who loves our church and serves it as often as he is able, says the 3pm service idea is a very forward-thinking approach and if we are able to do it, this would make the Healing Light Church a true force to promote Spiritualism. He also added that in Scotland there are very few morning services, they are mostly 3pm or 4pm or a weekday night. Diane added that Sylvia Dean, a Spiritualist since the 1940s, said, “We always went to our own church in the morning (Methodist) and the Spiritualist church in the afternoon.”

So it was agreed that we would vote on this temporary change on March 10. And we will vote on the concept of doing a Zoom for the Wednesday evening service that begins in April.

Benediction given by Rev. Angel Downing
Meeting Adjourned at 2:18pm