So after all of that, we literally cast ballots (polished stones) into 4 baskets with 4 possible names:

Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd

St Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church

One Bread One Body Episcopal Church

and a late contender, which wasn’t even considered as a choice before a “straw poll” last week

St Nicholas (with or without “Holy Innocents” added to the name). Previously, there had been a lot of sentiment towards a completely new name, especially (and surprisingly) from the former St Nicholas people. The former Holy Innocents people were all for a completely new identity, or almost all of us were.

Over the course of the summer, we thought about the choices and got through the very successful rummage sale, where for the first time some of us started working together and relating as one community without bothering to remember who was previously a St Nick’s person and who was previously from the closed Holy Innocents building. We were all in it together.

When the straw poll indicated, out of the blue, a strong preference for some form of the St Nicholas/Holy Innocents name to be retained after all, Father Steve decided we’d better be given a fourth choice, and then decide if we were going “short form” or “long form” on the name if the basket with St Nick/Holy Innocents held the most votes.

We even had a polling booth – a little bamboo screen that looked like it had been liberated from a sushi joint. Before coffee hour, we lined up and were offered a basket of polished stones to cast as our ballot into one of the four voting baskets, behind the screen. I voted for my previous first choice, because I had some affection for the “One Bread, One Body” name, which also was the name of the new combined website.

We came back after about 10 minutes of coffee and visiting to get the preliminary results, and what a surprise they were – the St Nicholas/Holy Innocents basket held far more stones than the other three choices combined.

After some discussion from the floor – the Holy Innocents people were polled on whether the name needed to include the name of the former community. “Not really,” was the consensus – and it was pretty strongly stated by several of us that “St Nicholas” was who we felt we were now, with a couple of people who weren’t ready to lose the former name entirely.

I was thinking “But we’re building the addition – that could be named ‘Holy Innocents Hall’ or something…” at the same time Ethan had raised his hand and Patty had obtained the floor. “Why can’t we name the new addition ‘Holy Innocents Hall’ or dedicate it in the name of the Holy Innocents?”

I  was dumbfounded. Ethan looked like he’d had the rug pulled out from under him – he’d had the exact same thought. And there was an undercurrent of “yes…yes…yes, that could work.” There was more discussion from a couple of people, who stated that they either thought we should just be “St Nicholas” or were reluctant to say goodbye to old name, but they were fine with the idea of dedicating the addition. Steve thought that artistically, an icon or something (that didn’t emphasise the slaughter-and-sword imagery somehow) would be needed in the new building if we dedicated it that way.

And we voted, and the consensus was definitely “We are St Nicholas Episcopal Church.”

This means we can go forward and get some things done that we’ve held off on doing while waiting to see if we were going to change our name, our identity and our focus.

It was an interesting process but it served to crystallize for us who we are and what we’re about – like our patron St Nicholas, we’re working to feed the hungry, support the poor, and help children (yes, even me, the curmudgeonly childfree person).

There was a lot of discussion afterwards, but there was also a lot of excitement – and now we go forward.

[tags]St Nicholas Episcopal Church[/tags]

Via: Flickr Title: The name remains the same By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 26 Aug ’07, 12.30pm CDT PST