Vestry members approved a $178,810 budget for the coming year at a long work session after worship on Sunday, Jan. 12th. Expanding investment in-come is helping substantially reduce but does not end a string of deficit budgets. The vestry received news of re-ceipt of a $101,000 gift from the Jaax trust and approved the fi-nance com-mittee‘s recommen-dation to invest $90,000 immedi-ately in the pooled investment fund to boost interest income. The balance will be retained and the finance committee charged with how to use this or other funds for adding some part-time ad-ministrative support for the coming year. The long work session was filled with extensive discussion of all of the committee recommendations for the coming year. There was some resolve to begin a ministry review and long range planning effort in Eastertide. One of the projected goals of the ministry review is to discover a direction for St. John‘s ministry and then to work to get all of the groups working toward that end. In other business the vestry moved to pursue money offered from the Bishop‘s Circle for Campus minis-try, forwarded a slate of candidates for election at the annual meeting, recognized out going vestry mem-bers for their service, and heard ideas on reducing printing and mailing costs, going green, and ex-tending welcome to guests. The next meeting is set for 7 PM on Tuesday, Feb. 12th. The newly constituted vestry will decide on future meeting times to maximize everyone‘s ability to participate.