St. John’s Episcopal Church held its annual parish meeting on Sunday, January 27, 2008.  The theme of this years meeting was “Growing” and Fr. David Houk, Rector of St. John’s, was proud to point out that our parish is indeed, growing.  Efforts to attract visitors and newcomers to St. John’s have been quite successful this past year but there is plenty of room for more.  Plans are underway to improve the narthex of the church to become more user and visitor friendly and a new team is being formed to focus on the needs and comforts of our visitors.  St. John’s has grown in other ways during the past year also.  The number of youth attending weekly Sunday School classes and Godly Play classes have increased, as have the number of youth participating in EYC, our group for junior and senior high kids.  St. John’s has also grown the amount of funds going towards programs supported by our outreach budget.  The annual parish meeting was a great time to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year as well as to look toward the future of our parish and its many ministries.  Elections took place to fill the seats coming open on this years Vestry.  New Vestry members include Pat Hadawi, Michael Jones and Tom Switser.  Jay Patterson will remain as the parish’s Senior Warden and Bill Rayburn was elected as Junior Warden.  The clergy and vestry of St. John’s are looking forward to another year of hard work to continue the growth of this vibrant East Dallas parish.