Dear friends in Christ,
 
We are living in strange—which is not to say, “interesting”—times.  The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to force us into unprecedented ways of living, into finding new and different ways to be and do Church.  One of our biggest challenges has been how to stay connected as a church family despite and through our need to remain physically separated from each other in order to slow the spread of the deadly disease.  No one alive today remembers the last global pandemic that struck (back in 1918), and so we’ve largely been “on our own,” so to speak, trying to navigate this new, socially-distanced way of living.
 
Now, in a weird quirk of our modern culture, we are in some ways perhaps better—or at least more frequently—connected with each other than we were before the pandemic.  Communications technologies not available in previous times have offered us the ability to connect with each other “virtually,” if not physically.  While social media, video-conferencing, and other platforms bring their own sets of problems and challenges to the table, we should at least be grateful that we’ve been able to maintain some semblance of corporate worship and study and fellowship during this time.
 
Even so, it’s been hard.  And much of what we as a church have done so far has been to react, as best we could, to circumstances that were suddenly and drastically very different from anything that any of us were familiar with.  (I have joked several times that neither I nor any of my classmates in seminary thought for an instant we might be training to become televangelists, but here we all are. :-) )  But now, it’s becoming clear that it won’t be possible (meaning, it won’t be safe) to return to “normal” anytime soon.  So at my request, we have formed a Digital/Online Ministry Team to oversee and hopefully expand what All Saints is able to offer by way of virtual, live-streamed, online worship, prayer, formation, and fellowship.  Look to hear from this new ministry team over the summer as we prepare for the fall program year.
 
In the meantime, one of the first new ministries we put in place in response to the pandemic was a phone-calling ministry:  members of the Vestry and other parishioners volunteered to make regular phone calls to everyone in our parish directory, as a way of helping us all to stay connected … and to make sure we’d stay in touch with our parishioners who don’t have or are not interested in computers, the internet, social media, etc.  This ministry has by all accounts been a great success and will continue as we go forward.
 
And now that it’s clear the pandemic will not be subsiding for the foreseeable future, I’d like you all to know that I as rector have now begun the process of reaching out personally to everyone in our parish directory, as well.  I am working through the list fairly randomly, so if you’re like me and your last name begins with “W,” don’t worry—that doesn’t mean you’ll be the last to get a call!  I am very much looking forward to talking with you all and getting to hear your stories, as I mentioned when I first arrived.  I had hoped to do so face to face, but as it won’t be safe to do it that way for a while yet, perhaps a phone call will be the next best thing, for now.
 
In the meantime, if you need (or would simply like) to talk to me sooner rather than later, please, please give me a call at 920.266.9262.  I would love to hear from you! 
 
That goes for any pastoral care needs you or your family might have, of course.  But even if you just want to introduce yourself (if we haven’t had a chance to meet in person yet) and/or just chat a bit, you have a standing invitation—please give me a call.
 
Otherwise, look to hear from me over the course of the summer, as I work my way through our directory.  This pandemic may have altered some of our plans and priorities, forced us to shift how we handle things, and put a real strain on our bodies and souls, but it has not undone us or undone God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  It cannot do that.  We are still here.  More importantly, God is still here, with us.  We are still Christ’s Body in this place.  It’s a hard time in the life of the Church, but hard times are nothing new for the followers of Jesus.  Please know that you are all in my prayers.
 
Talk to you soon!
 
Peace & blessings,
Christopher+

My dear friends in Christ,

As we move further into the season of the “long green” after Pentecost, we will find ourselves confronted by a number of difficult and challenging passages from Scripture, as we follow the Lectionary each Sunday morning.  In the world of our society beyond the walls of our church, we are already being confronted by some difficult and challenging tensions in the history of our community, our state, and our nation.  Navigating the Scriptures and navigating the times in which we live both require patience, intentionality, compassion, curiosity, context, vulnerability, and the honesty to be authentic, with ourselves and with each other. 

Above all, making our way through challenging texts and difficult times in history require faith.  Faith that God is truly here, in this place, in these times … and even in the chaos that swirls around us.  Often, the movements of the Holy Spirit seem to human eyes to be chaos, for we do not know yet what wondrous things God might be doing among us.  We know from Scripture that the movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst almost certainly means things are about to change, that something new and different is about to be born.  And we know from human experience that, more often than not, we tend to respond to the prospect of change with fear.  (Is it any wonder that God’s messengers almost always begin by saying “Be not afraid!”?)

But change can potentially be a good thing, and not just a scary one.  As we explore the parts of the Bible that make us, perhaps, a bit uncomfortable, we have an opportunity to dig deeper into the roots of our Christian faith—an opportunity to encounter God in new and unexpected ways, to be shaped and reshaped by God’s Holy Word until we become more fully the “new creation” He calls us to be.

And as we respond to the tensions and chaos swirling in the culture around us, we have opportunities to discover new ways to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ in a world that perpetually cries out for hope, for healing, for reconciliation.  That is, after all, the vocation we received and accepted in baptism, to be Christ’s body in this world, so that through us, all the world might come to know Him and be saved.

As I wrote in my recent pastoral letter to the parish, our contemporary history is—once again—offering us the chance to name, identify, and redress longstanding injustices that have festered in our society for generations.  The chance to begin, at least, the long and likely arduous process of racial healing and racial reconciliation that our society so desperately needs.

Any work at all in the area of racial reconciliation requires introspection and self-examination.  We have to ask ourselves:  what are our basic assumptions?   Why do we see things the way that we see them?  We have to learn to name the specific beliefs, preconceptions, educational experiences, life experiences, assumptions, principles, blind spots, prejudices, fears, needs, and natural tendencies that shape our understanding of what’s real … and none of that is particularly easy to do.
But that is the place we have to start.  That is the place where we make a beginning of it.

Science fiction writer Frank Herbert began his most famous novel, Dune, with this epigraph, from one of the novel’s characters:  “A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.”  In that spirit, I (as a former English teacher) would add that a beginning is also the time for taking the most delicate care that our definitions are correct. 

In other words, before we start talking about issues of race in our culture and the hard work of racial reconciliation, we need to define some of the terms that will appear frequently in these conversations.  The most prominent term we need to define is the very subject of the discussion, itself:  “racism.”

I imagine most of us could agree that being blatantly hostile to strangers who belong to races other than one’s own, that using vulgar slang terms to refer to people in certain groups, that acts of violence perpetrated against people just because they belong to a particular ethnic group, and so forth are all examples of racist behavior.  A white person’s calling an African American the “n” word, for instance, is likely something that most of us would condemn as being racist.

But if our definition of “racism” stops there, using only such blatant and glaring examples as the basis for defining the term, one might get the impression that racism in America only shows up very rarely, and then only on the very fringes of our society.  Unfortunately, however, there is much more to the breadth and scope of racism than that.  The dislike, disrespect, and/or outright hatred of people who belong to groups different or other than one’s own is simply bigotry based on prejudice (“pre-deciding”) against groups of people that one may not know anything about—though a lack of actual knowledge rarely seems to stop anyone from pre-judging…

In his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., distinguishes between “just” and “unjust” laws in a way that helps us get much closer to a real understand of what racism is and how it functions in our society:
 
“Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority …  An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow, and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.”

A note about Dr. King’s use of the term “majority” is also in order:  he allows in his letter that “majority” can denote greater numbers, as in the literal meaning of the term; yet it can also denote greater power within the society, as well.  Consider as an example of the latter the white government of South Africa during the years of Apartheid.  Numerically, the white population there was in the minority, but due to the history and the political power structure of the country, that white numerical minority was, in terms of real power, overwhelmingly in the majority, and that’s how it was able to enforce Apartheid for as long as it did.

And understanding differences in power, both in the present and throughout our history, is the key to understanding the full scale of racism in our society today.

Before I left Clemson, SC, I went through the training to begin working with an initiative called The Clemson Pledge to End Racism, a program of developing anti-racism in communities and congregations that began in Virginia, was developed in Alabama, and then came to Clemson.  It’s a program that was faith-based from its inception—as was MLK’s work during the Civil Rights era.  As defined in the training materials for the Clemson Pledge to End Racism initiative, “racism” is “race bigotry combined with the misuse of power by people and institutions” (Living the Pledge to End Racism:  Workshop Leader & Small Group Facilitators Guide, p. 4, emphasis in the original).

There are two important things to notice in that definition:   First, the difference between mere prejudice and actual racism is the element of power.  Prejudice without power is merely bigotry; prejudice combined with power results in enforced bigotry, which is systemic racism.

Second, such misuses of power can happen without any conscious awareness on the part of the people or the institutions who are in positions of power. 

In other words, an action can be racist regardless of the intentions of the person doing that action.

That means that instances of racism in our society are much harder to spot (for people and institutions in positions of power, and for people who belong to groups that are in positions of power) than such glaring examples as signs in restaurant windows that say “WHITES ONLY.”  If all kinds of racism were that obvious, I think we’d have had the whole thing sorted out generations ago…

So the focus of much of the training that the Clemson Pledge to End Racism program put together involved first learning how to recognize the forms of racism that are typically hard for folks in numerical- or power-majorities to see, and then, secondarily, exploring healthy and constructive ways to respond to these various forms of racism on personal, institutional, and societal levels. 

People who took the Pledge made a covenant to live day-to-day in ways that would actually help to end racism in local neighborhoods and communities … and eventually in our larger society.

Taking the Pledge meant signing onto a statement of principles:

The Pledge to End Racism
I believe that every person has worth as an individual.
I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color.
I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.
Therefore, from this day forward I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions.
I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity.
I will treat all people with dignity and respect;
I will commit to working with others to transform Clemson [or whichever location] into a place that treats people of all races, ethnicities, and cultures with justice, equity, and compassion, and
I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.

I hope you will all notice the similarities between the tenets of this Pledge and our own Baptismal Covenant.  Now, to be clear, the Pledge was not developed by Episcopalians, but the fact remains that we are already, as baptized Christians in the Episcopal/Anglican tradition, committed to these values and this way of living in the world and living with each other.

Next, we’ll define some more terms and go into the history of the Pledge to End Racism—where it came from, and how it got to Clemson.  And then, perhaps, we might discuss what such work might look like here, in Appleton.  I invite you to consider that question, and to spend some time with the Covenant in our Book of Common Prayer (BCP p. 304, or at www.bcponline.org).

As I mentioned at the outset, it’s not easy work, either internally as we work on ourselves, or externally, as we pursue justice and reconciliation in our society.  But as in all things, if we ground ourselves solidly in Holy Scripture and in God’s love for us as shown in Jesus Christ, and trust in the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, we will have the faith we need to go where God calls us to be and do what God calls us to do.

Yours in Christ, always,
Christopher+

Greetings to All Saints family and friends!
 
Thank you to everyone who joined in for any and all of Camp @ Home! All Saints was well represented across the ages, both with campers and staff. It’s always great having shared experiences together, so thank you for your time, dedication, and faithfulness. God sure blessed us even as we gathered while apart!
 
Stay tuned for more information within the next week or two about “A Day at Camp Lakotah” opportunities available later this summer.
 
Anti-racism resources can be found on the All Saints Youth Ministry website under the “Resources” tab (CLICK HERE). This includes recommendations for a wide range of ages for personal study and/or having conversations at home. If anyone has any recommendations that might be beneficial to this list, please contact Erin Wolf or Fr. Christopher.
 
Poll regarding Summer Gatherings (please reply):
 
At this time, we have still not planned any in-person summer Youth Events for All Saints. We need to hear from parents to see what, if anything, you would like to see offered for your students this summer. Your names and votes will be kept private, and I will share results on Wednesday, July 1.
 
It takes less than a minute: Simply enter your name, your vote (you only get one), and you are done. CLICK HERE to complete. Thank you for your help & input!
 
Eucharistic Festival
 
The Eucharistic Festival date has moved to August 29, 2020, and will be held virtually beginning at 11:00am. You can find more information at the diocesan website (CLICK HERE). This year’s preacher is Mother Hilary Crupi, OJN. She is the Guardian of the Order of Julian of Norwich (orderofjulian.org), a contemplative monastic Order of monks and nuns of the Episcopal Church.

A WORD FROM THE RECTOR on the violence that occurred on and around St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 1, 2020.
 
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
 
As many of you I’m sure already know, last Monday, the president of the United States sent militarized police troops in full riot gear to the consecrated grounds of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., and these forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to drive away the clergy and relief workers who’d offered up God’s sacred space as a haven for rest and healing on that turbulent, violent, chaotic day.  To say it was an attack on God’s Church would be an egregious understatement.  It was a physical attack, yes, and that in and of itself is beyond the pale of outrage.  But it was also an attack on everything that Jesus Christ and the Church that is His Body in this world stand for.  It was an attack on the very soul of the Church.  It was an attack on us, on you and me.
 
I worry that some of you will read the preceding paragraph and mistake it for something as crass and paltry—and inappropriate, for a rector of a parish—as secular political partisanship.  It grieves me deeply, in point of fact, to realize that there might be any Episcopalian, any Christian, in the country who would see what I wrote above as some sort of political attack, rooted in the gross and destructive tribalism that has left us all so deeply divided in recent years (decades, really). 
 
So let me be as clear and as plain as I possibly can:  any secular authority who deploys militarized forces to use physical violence against peaceful, unarmed civilians is both ethically and morally wrong, full stop.  It was wrong when the National Guard did it at Kent State University in 1970; it was wrong when the Communist Chinese government did it in Tiananmen Square in 1989; and though—thank God—no one was killed in this specific incident at St. John’s, it was wrong on Monday night.
 
God’s one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church is not a backdrop to be commandeered and perverted to serve the messaging of a secular political agenda of any party or persuasion. 
 
The Bible is not a prop to be waved about as propaganda. 
 
I therefore denounce and condemn these acts in the Name of Jesus Christ.
 
The Episcopal Church welcomes all, and all means all.  Democrat, Republican, Left, Right, Center, black, white, brown, rich, poor, all ~ “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-9).
 
But the kingdom of heaven cannot be taken by force (Matt. 11:12) by anyone.  Please see what Presiding Bishop Michael Curry had to say about the events that occurred at St. John’s on Monday, and let us fervently dedicate ourselves to being a house of prayer and a light to enlighten the nations, as we’ve been called and appointed to be by God.
 
Christopher+
 
Statement from Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry on President Donald Trump's use of a church building and the Holy Bible (from his Facebook page):
 
https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/presiding-bishop-michael-currys-statement-on-president-donald-trumps-use-of-st-johns-holy-bible/

My dear friends,
 
I long to offer you all some word, some bit of Scripture, or some piece of our faith tradition that would ease our collective and individual fears, that would help to make sense out of the chaos we see around us. I so want to say something—anything—that might comfort you at this time. Uncharacteristically for me, and to my chagrin, such words fail me right now. I’ve been trying for the past four days to put some thoughts together and get then down in writing, so I could offer to all of you that word of comfort I would so love to speak.
 
And yet …
 
And yet, perhaps now is not a time for us to seek comfort. 
 
On the Monday before last, May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an African American man, was murdered by a police officer. Another unarmed African American man. Let’s take at least a moment to consider how horrible it is that I have to add that descriptor. How many have there been? How many times have we seen this very pattern play out? How many have we not seen, because there didn’t happen to be any video cameras about at the time?
 
No, I do not think we ought to feel comforted just now. We need, in fact, to be uncomfortable right now.
 
But why? We here at All Saints are a majority white congregation, in a majority white denomination, in a majority white region, in a majority white country. And it is absolutely worth noting that, of all the places that saw massive demonstrations and protests around the state and especially around the country in the past week after the murder of George Floyd, the marches and protests in Appleton have stood out starkly as having been peaceful, truly peaceful, from the outset, and for having remained so thus far. Even in neighboring towns not too far down the road from here, things have tended towards the tense, the confrontational, the violent. Not here, so far.
 
We ourselves are not beating or killing people of color. We ourselves are not rioting in the streets. Why should we have to be uncomfortable right now?
 
Why? Because we have been baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and accepted Him as Our Lord and Savior.
 
In Holy Baptism, we swore oaths before God and in front of witnesses—or else our parents or other representatives swore those oaths on our behalf, and we ourselves took responsibility for fulfilling them at Confirmation. These promises are not the empty phrases of some mere ceremony that got us into some cool or posh club. Not something to which we can just give lip-service and forget about. 
 
On the contrary, these oaths are binding. In them, we renounce evil on the cosmic, the cultural, and the personal levels:

Question
Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces
of wickedness that rebel against God?
Answer
I renounce them.
 
Question
Do you renounce the evil powers of this world
which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Answer
I renounce them.
 
Question
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you
from the love of God?
Answer
I renounce them.

Those renunciations are not one-time things. They require a lifelong commitment continually to repent, continually to resist, continually to renounce evil, whenever and wherever it emerges—in the depths of our own individual hearts, and in our communities and society. At all times and in all places.
 
And in the Baptismal Covenant itself, we reaffirm that lifelong commitment in even more specific terms:
 
Celebrant
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever
you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People
I will, with God's help.

Celebrant
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good
News of God in Christ?
People
I will, with God's help.

Celebrant
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
your neighbor as yourself?
People
I will, with God's help.
 
Celebrant
Will you strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human
being?
People
I will, with God's help.

None of these obligations is optional. These responsibilities are fundamental to our very understanding, as a Church, of what it means to be Christian in the first place. 
 
What’s more, I hope that reacquainting ourselves with the sacrament of Holy Baptism, the sacrament by which each of us was made a Christian, will make it absolutely apparent that our need to address the sin—the evil—of structural, institutional racism in our culture is not in any way, shape, or form a matter of partisan politics. No, my sisters and brothers, it is nothing of that kind. It is, rather, a biblical imperative. It cuts across all lines of political preference or party allegiance. For baptized Christians, it is non-negotiable.
 
It is difficult for us, as 20th and 21st century Americans, reared as we’ve been in a culture that emphasizes “rugged individualism” to a fault, to grasp fully the degree to which the Hebrew and Greek cultures that gave us our sacred Scriptures were communal cultures. The Old Testament is adamant that if anyone in your community is suffering an injustice, then there is injustice in your community, and that’s everybody’s problem. (Go all the way back to the story of Cain and Abel: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer to that question is supposed to be yes!)
 
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously asserted that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”[1] Dr. King and his people were attacked as “outsiders” when they traveled from Atlanta to Birmingham in 1963 to take non-violent action against segregation. They were accused of stirring up trouble and meddling in matters that were none of their business. Dr. King countered that they were “in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”
 
Moreover, he adds, as citizens of the United States, we are all members of one community, anyway, and cannot ignore the suffering of our fellow citizens in other cities or states. The Old Testament, indeed, takes it even further than does Dr. King, going so far as to say that there is no justice in your community at all unless everybody in your community has justice. 
 
The modern translation of that sacred principle in our immediate circumstances today is that no lives matter until black lives matter. Now, it may be tempting to respond to the assertion that “black lives matter” with something like “all lives matter.” Don’t. For one thing, “all lives matter” is a statement that is true but is not helpful. Imagine your house is on fire, and you call the fire department, and they show up and start spraying your neighbor’s house instead of yours. When you politely (or not so politely) ask them to take care of your house, which is actually burning, they tell you coldly that “all houses matter.” True, but not helpful.
 
But more to the point, remember Jesus’s parable in Luke’s Gospel about the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in order to find and retrieve the one sheep who has gotten lost, the one who is in danger. Does Jesus suggest that the good shepherd doesn’t care about the 99 sheep, the vast majority of the flock? Of course not—but the 99 are not in immediate danger. The one is. And if the shepherd is willing to throw that one sheep to the wolves so as not to inconvenience the 99, then how much do the lives of any sheep really matter to that shepherd, after all? Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing for the 99 to be inconvenienced a bit. For them to be made a little less comfortable, in order to save the life of the one.
 
My brothers and sisters, let me say once again that these are not matters of party affiliation or political preference. They are matters of biblical imperative and baptismal promise.  Please do not let anyone suggest to you otherwise. Structural, institutional racism is a sin. It is a collective, communal sin. It affects us all, and it involves us all. As Christians, especially, we are bound by our baptismal vows to repent—and to call our communities to repent—whenever we fall into sin, and to return to the Lord.
 
How exactly we do that, here in this place, at this time, is a multi-faceted question and one not easily or quickly answered. It will require that we work together as a faith community actively to discern God’s will for us as the Body of Christ here in Appleton. Chaos is scary, but it can also sometimes be holy, as the Spirit stirs us up, shakes our foundations, and tears down old structures that have become harmful in order to clear the way to new life, to renewed life, in Christ. 
 
One thing we know: Christ Jesus is with us, in all things, always, even unto the end of the age. So please continue to join me in prayer, lifting each other up to God and encouraging each other to listen for the voice of the Spirit, even as we learn to listen to the anguished voices of those who have gone unheard for far too long. May we seek not so much to be comforted as to comfort, in this time when comfort is so desperately needed by so many.

[1] The quote and the information which follows is from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which you can read in full here:
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Greetings to All Saints family and friends!
 
Here are some reminders & updates for the Youth Ministry at All Saints:
 
Compline: For those who’d like to help lead Compline on Wednesday evenings, youth or adult,  contact me for the link and password. The call will begin at 7:30pm for anyone wanting to join for a brief check-in before we begin. Otherwise, you can join us at 7:45pm via the All Saints Facebook page where we will be livestreaming through Facebook Live.
 
Graduates: Congratulations once again to our graduates!
 
High School: David Kiesnowski, Ellyn Lepisto, Georgia Parnau, Sydney Ring
 
College: Caroline Augustine, Karah Crabb, Erik Lepisto, Gillian Payne
 
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Education, BCP p. 261)
 
Summer Camp: Please continue to keep all involved with Camp @ Home in your prayers. We are hoping to safely offer opportunities for camp friends & family to gather together, in smaller groups, later this summer. Stay tuned for more information. Follow all Camp @ Home updates and other news at diofdl.org/camp!
 
If anyone has additional questions, comments, or if you’d like to support camp through prayers, donations (in-kind or financial), or other means, please contact Erin Wolf at camp@diofdl.org.
 
Senior Camp: June 7-13 | Middler Camp & Junior Camp: June 14-19 | Kinder Camp: June 19-21

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
 
We continue to move further and deeper into our new, digital/virtual age as this season of quarantine (some of my clergy colleagues have dubbed it “Coronatide”) stretches on.  Endurance is never easy; fortunately, we have a Faith that is replete with examples to inspire us—including, of course, Our Lord Jesus Christ, himself.
 
In the midst of our ongoing endurance, I wanted to share a reminder of what we’re now doing and to offer a brief mention of what’s on the horizon. 
 
The previous newsletter introduced our current schedule of livestreamed and Zoom offerings.  So many of you have being tuning in, logging on, and taking advantage of online social media and teleconferencing software to stay connected with each other and with our tradition of worship, prayer, and study!  It has been absolutely delightful to see such robust engagement and participation in these new forms of our traditional ministry.  It’s been hard to figure out how to “do church” when the most basic aspects of “doing church”—gathering together to worship and pray and experience the sacramental presence of Christ—have been taken off the table for the foreseeable future.  Thank you all for your grace and flexibility!
 
It warms my heart more than I can tell to see your comments, prayers, and AMENs pop up on the screen as I’m livestreaming our Spiritual Communion services on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.  It’s very strange, and not at all something I would have expected, but there’s a real kind of intimacy that we’ve been sharing, being so instantly connected during worship, that is the opposite of what I thought would happen with digital, online services.  I hope that y’all have felt it, too.  And I hope that, when we do find a way to reestablish our tradition of face-to-face worship in the shared sacred space of our church building, we will come back to that practice somewhat changed by this time in the desert.  That we’ll bring this newfound connection into the pews and up to the altar with us.
 
I’ve also been delighted to see the enthusiasm with which we as a parish have engaged the practice of praying the Daily Office.  Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury who created the first Book of Common Prayer for the Church of England way back in 1549, always intended the Office to be the daily practice of all baptized Christians, not just the clergy.  I think we’ve gotten closer to achieving that ideal in the past couple of months than perhaps we had for a long time prior.  That’s been truly wonderful to see.
 
So as for what we’re currently doing, our principal worship service (Sunday @ (9:30 a.m.), our midweek service (Wednesday @ 9:30 a.m.), and our Daily Office services (various days throughout the week, depending upon who is available to lead the service; generally 9:30 a.m. for Morning Prayer, 5:30 p.m. for Evening Prayer, and c. 7:30 p.m. for Compline) are being livestreamed via the All Saints Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/AllSaintsEpiscopalChurchAppleton/
 
In addition, we’re using the Zoom platform to host a “virtual coffee hour” at 10:30, after Sunday morning worship; a weekly Bible study (Mondays @ 11 a.m.) based on the Revised Common Lectionary readings for the upcoming Sunday, and a more casual mid-week “Faith Talk” gathering (Thursdays @ 12 noon).
 
The link for virtual coffee hour is: 
 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83904547272
 
The link for Bible study is:
 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83294149828
 
The link for Faith Talk is: 
 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87474797790
 
Theoretically, those links should work on an ongoing basis from week to week.  (We’re crossing our collective fingers!)
 
Please also remember that I am keeping “office hours” during the week to make sure that I am available for any pastoral care needs that you’ve got.  You can reach me (during those hours, or at any time) at 920.266.9262 ~ and there is voicemail if I don’t happen to pick up in time.  Official office hours are Monday, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; and Thursday, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
 
One last reminder:  if you are interested at all in possibly leading some of our livestreamed Daily Office services—which are designed to be lay-led—please contact me at fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com, and we’ll get you connected with this important ministry.
 
As for what’s on the horizon, Bishop Matt, in conjunction with the diocesan Covid-19 Task Force has put out some new rules that allow for parishes that wish to resume a limited celebration of Holy Eucharist to do so.  Details are available on the diocesan website, but the gist of it is that there can be no more than four people involved, including the priest; that all persons must strictly observe the six-foot minimum safe distance from each other at all times; that only the set group of the same four people can be involved from week to week (in other words, having a rotation and taking turns defeats the whole purpose of social distancing).  This restricted worship team would physically and spiritually be “standing in” as representatives present in person on behalf of the whole parish.  
 
As a member of the Task Force myself, I wholeheartedly endorse these restrictions.  The question, however, is … do we as a parish want to pursue adding a service of Holy Eucharist back into our weekly worship at the present time, given the restrictions that we’d have to observe?  The Vestry and I have been discussing the matter, and indeed we are working on mapping out an overall plan for going forward through—and beyond—quarantine.  Bear in mind that our congregation, like that of most Episcopal parishes, is largely made up of folks in the high risk categories as described by the CDC; we will therefore, as my dad would say, “proceed out of an abundance of caution.”  It’s likely that we’ll need to observe stricter precautions than the civil authorities put in place.  It’s also likely that we’re not going to see anything that will seem “normal” to us for another 12 to 18 months, at the earliest.  So the question of resuming Eucharist needs to be placed in that larger context.
 
That said, I would dearly love to hear your thoughts, ideas, feelings, concerns, etc., on the subject.  Please email me (at the address above) and let me know what you think.  Likewise, let me know how our current ministries are working for you, and/or how they could possibly work better.  This whole thing is very new to all of us (the last pandemic in these parts dating back to 1918!), so we’re all in it together.  And we’ll get through it together. 
 
Please know that you’re all in my prayers, and that we can all trust in the Grace of God, the power of Jesus Christ, and the strong, loving arms of God’s Holy Spirit to carry us through any time of trial.
 
Peace & blessings,
Christopher+

Greetings to All Saints family and friends!
 
Here are some reminders & updates for the Youth Ministry at All Saints:
 
Compline: For those who’d like to help lead Compline on Wednesday evenings, youth or adult,  contact me for the link and password. The call will begin at 7:30pm for anyone wanting to join for a brief check-in before we begin. Otherwise, you can join us at 7:45pm via the All Saints Facebook page where we will be livestreaming through Facebook Live.
 
Graduates: We will be honoring and acknowledging graduating seniors for the Class of 2020 this coming Sunday, May 17 during worship. If you or your graduate have not sent in information yet, now is your last chance! Contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com for assistance.
 
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Education, BCP p. 261)
 
Summer Camp: As many of you may already have seen, our diocesan Summer Camp for 2020 is transforming into Camp @ Home, which means that we will not be able to gather at Camp Lakotah this June. The full joint statement from Bishop Matt and Camp Director Erin can be found HERE. While Camp @ Home cannot truly replicate the in-person experiences and community that Summer Camp offers, we in the diocese are truly blessed with a team of volunteer staff who are dedicated to creating opportunities for students to still gather virtually from around the diocese and beyond. Camp @ Home is offered at NO COST to campers, and while we are an Episcopal camp, one does not need to be Episcopalian to attend.
 
The camp dates already announced for 2020 are still the same, and more information is and will be available at diofdl.org/camp. Any students wishing to participate may REGISTER HERE. For those campers signed up by Monday, May 25, camp care packages will be sent home to supplement and add to your Camp @ Home experience (again at no cost to campers). If anyone has additional questions, comments, or if you’d like to support camp through prayers, donations (in-kind or financial), or other means, please contact Erin Wolf at camp@diofdl.org.
 
Senior Camp (completed grades 9-12): June 7-13
Middler Camp (completed grades 6-8): June 14-19
Junior Camp (completed grades 2-5): June 14-19
Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 19-21
 
Summer Youth Ministry events at All Saints: At this time, we are not planning any youth ministry events for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. As in years past, we encourage All Saints students to consider participating in Camp, with this year being Camp @ Home, as they are able and willing. While I cannot yet guarantee opportunities for in-person youth ministry events for July or August, I will continue communicating with families via Weekly Updates and social media. Please contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com with ways that are best to stay connected with your family as we continue to maintain physical distance. Thank you!

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
 
Legend has it that there is an ancient curse which says, "May you live in interesting times.”  One has but to glance through any history textbook to note that the most interesting times to read about are typically ones that would have been most grueling to live through.  Interesting times are only interesting, perhaps, to the extent that they happen to other people.
 
We are certainly living through some interesting times, ourselves, these days.  The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected each and every one of us in ways both large and small.  Our lives, even for those of us who remain relatively comfortable during this crisis, have not been "normal" for some time now.  And some folks are enduring great suffering.  Some folks are dying.  There's nothing about this situation that's easy.
 
Hard as quarantine is for all Americans at this time, it's particularly challenging for Episcopalians.  As Christians in the Anglican tradition, we embrace an incarnational theology, which calls us to worship God in our bodies by gathering together as the Body of Christ and by celebrating the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion.  The experience of that intimate presence of the Divine within the assembly of God's people, in the tangible, physical elements of bread and wine, is central ~ is foundational ~ to our experience of God and our understanding of Jesus Christ's incarnate life, death, and resurrection.  Unable to gather physically, and unable to share the wafer and the cup as we have done (I was tempted to write "as we normally do," but the Eucharist is extraordinary and I hesitate ever to describe it as "normal"), we have had to find other ways in which to experience the incarnate presence of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
 
As a result, All Saints has managed in a few weeks to do something we've been needing to do for some time:  namely, to expand our mission and outreach into the realms of digital technology and social media.  Many of you have joined us from home in saying the prayers and liturgies of the Daily Office ~ a practice that Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1555 who wrote the original Book of Common Prayer, always intended to be the regular discipline not only of the clergy but of every member of the Church.  And I have discovered, and have been delighted to offer, services of ante-Communion (basically, the Liturgy of the Word from our regular Sunday worship, offered as a complete service unto itself) and Spiritual Communion (a liturgy designed for the faithful who find themselves in places or circumstances that prevent them from physically attending Mass) as parts of our tradition I did not know about before this outbreak.
 
Without in any way diminishing the hardships and difficulties we're experiencing because of this viral outbreak, I do have to say that I am excited to see these new forms of ministry take shape and become part of our lives together in Christ.  It is my determined intention that these online services continue even after we are able once again to gather together in person for our traditional forms of worship.
We have also activated, from the start of the outbreak, a telephone ministry in order to reach out to and keep connected with those members of our parish who do not have access to the internet or to electronic means of communication.  The members of our Vestry, in particular, have been extremely generous and diligent in this ministry, regularly reaching out to our parish family to offer prayer, conversation, human connection, and the presence of Christ to everyone.
 
At this point, the novelty of quarantine and "shelter-at-home" is beginning to wear off.  The "new and strange" is perhaps even becoming for us the "new normal."  Prevented from gathering in person to worship, we are (hopefully) becoming accustomed to gathering around our electronic devices, or looking forward to phone calls from fellow church members, to share prayer and worship across the physical distances we must maintain in order to stop the spread of the virus.  I can tell you that neither I nor my seminary classmates at Sewanee imagined that we were training to be televangelists! 
 
The truth is, none of us have prior experience with situations like this one.  But as the novelty wears off, it will become more difficult to maintain the disciplines that are in fact slowing the spread of the virus.  Here is where our ancient tradition of prayer can and will sustain us.  Our ancestors faced hardship, isolation, exile, desolation, anxiety, fear, disease, and death.  One of the things that got them through it all was prayer.  So let us all continue to pray ~ to pray for each other, to pray with each other ~ confident in the knowledge that prayer unites us to God through Jesus Christ and to each other through God's Holy Spirit.
 
Elsewhere in this newsletter, you'll find an updated schedule of online services.  Please join in as you are able, and "like" and "comment" freely as a way for us to stay connected, until such time as we will meet again face to face before God's holy altar.
 
Peace & blessings,
Christopher+

Happy Easter to all! (Yes, we are still in the season of Easter – Alleluia!)
 
Here are some reminders & updates for the Youth Ministry at All Saints:
 
Sunday School and Youth Group will have our last official Zoom gatherings for the 2019-2020 program year this afternoon/evening (Times below). Please contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com for links and passwords if you don’t already have them from previous weeks. They will not be posted publicly for security purposes.
 
Sunday School (grades 5 & under): 4:00-4:30pm | Youth Group (grades 5 & older): 6:30-8:00pm
 
Compline: A reminder that you can join Youth Group tonight (Wednesday) for Compline at 7:45pm. If you want to join the Zoom call, contact me for the link. Otherwise, you can join us via the All Saints Facebook page where we will be livestreaming over Facebook Live.
 
THANK YOU to all our 2019-2020 Youth Ministry Volunteers!! Sunday School, Youth Choir, Confirmation, Youth Group, and all other youth-related groups and activities could not happen without the help of the amazing people who give their time, talents, and energy as part of this team! This year, we give thanks for:
 
Sunday School: Jessica, Brad, Catherine N, Mike (honorary mention: Bishop Matt)
Youth Group: Brad, Mike, Ellen, Ben, Erin D, Ana, Carol, Sarah, Pete, Emily, Tina, Stephanie
Confirmation: Suzanne
Youth Choir: Heidi, Ian (honorary mention: Matt, Catherine W, Carol, Emily, All Saints Choir)
 
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Education, BCP p. 261)
 
Graduates: We know the Class of 2020 has seen quite a lot of disruption and unexpected endings. That said, we would still like to honor all those who are graduating from high school or with a higher education degree (whatever level that might be). To make sure you or your graduate is included in this, please send Erin Wolf the following information by Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10): graduate’s name, school name, degree (if applicable), and “Next Steps” (if known, such as further education, workplace, gap year, internship, etc.).
 
Summer Camp: As many of you may already have seen, our diocesan Summer Camp for 2020 is transforming into Camp @ Home, which means that we will not be able to gather at Camp Lakotah this June. This was a decision that was not made lightly, and you may find the full joint statement from Bishop Matt and Camp Director Erin HERE. While Camp @ Home cannot truly replicate the in-person experiences and community that Summer Camp offers, we in the diocese are truly blessed with a team of volunteer staff who are dedicated to still offering camp in this new way. Camp @ Home is offered at NO COST to campers, and while we are an Episcopal camp, one does not need to be Episcopalian to attend.
 
The camp dates already announced for 2020 are still the same, and more information is and will be available at diofdl.org/camp. If you’d like to support camp through prayers, donations (in-kind or financial), acting as a story-teller for Kinder Camp, or other means, please contact Erin Wolf at camp@diofdl.org.
 
Senior Camp (completed grades 9-12): June 7-13
Middler Camp (completed grades 6-8): June 14-19
Junior Camp (completed grades 2-5): June 14-19
Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 19-21
 
Resources webpage: The COVID-19 Resources pages through the Diocese of Fond du Lac are now up and running. CLICK HERE to see what is all available. You may still also find resources on the All Saints Youth Ministry website (CLICK HERE) or in our Youth Ministry Facebook group (CLICK HERE).

Alleluia! The Lord is risen! Happy Easter to all!
 
Here are some reminders from the Youth Ministry at All Saints:
 
Sunday School and Youth Group will be meeting via Zoom on Wednesdays through April 29. Links for these calls are sent out via the Weekly Update emails and will NOT be posted publicly for security purposes. For those wishing to join us, please contact me for the link. I ask that at least one parent/family be present, if possible, for Sunday School calls. THANK YOU to the adults who have joined me so far to help moderate!
 
Sunday School (grades 5 & under): 4:00-4:30pm | Youth Group (grades 5 & older): 6:30-8:00pm
 
*For those wishing to pray Compline with the Youth Group Wednesday evenings at 7:45pm, please contact me for the Zoom meeting link. Non-Youth Group guests are encouraged to join the call beginning at 7:40pm. Thank you!*
 
Worship Schedule: Remember to keep an eye on the virtual Worship Schedule for All Saints. You can find this on the All Saints and Youth Ministry websites. The majority of these services will be offered via Facebook live through the church’s Facebook page (please follow us if you don’t already to receive notifications). Services marked as Zoom gatherings will take place via Zoom video conference calls. Please contact Fr. Christopher at fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com for Zoom links.

Resources webpage: The COVID-19 Resources pages through the Diocese of Fond du Lac are now up and running. CLICK HERE to see what is all available. You may still also find resources on the All Saints Youth Ministry website (CLICK HERE) or in our Youth Ministry Facebook group (CLICK HERE).
 
Summer Camp is still a go at this time, and conversations are underway with camp leadership to plan for different scenarios. Registration and volunteer staff applications can be found at diofdl.org/camp. All camp sessions will take place at Camp Lakotah, Wautoma.
 
Senior Camp (completed grades 9-12): June 7-13
Middler Camp (completed grades 6-8): June 14-19
Junior Camp (completed grades 2-5): June 14-19
Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 19-21
 
As we were reminded on Sunday by our friend, Fr. Aran Walter, “Even though our churches are empty today, remember… SO. IS. THE. TOMB.” The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Greetings to all. We are still in the midst of strange times, but we are learning to adapt and connect differently while we are apart. To those who have been and are celebrating birthdays, Happy Birthday! We have several students and adults who have been making the best of the current pandemic to still find ways to celebrate and share joy—may God’s blessings be upon you as you begin another year!
 
Here are some updates from the Youth Ministry at All Saints:
 
Sunday School and Youth Group will be meeting via Zoom on Wednesdays for the remainder of the program year. Links for these calls are sent out via the Weekly Update emails and will NOT be posted publicly for security purposes. For those wishing to join us, please contact me for the link. I ask that at least one parent/family be present, if possible, for Sunday School calls. THANK YOU to the adults who have joined me so far to help moderate!
 
Sunday School (grades 5 & under): 4:00-4:30pm | Youth Group (grades 5 & older): 6:30-8:00pm
 
*For those wishing to pray Compline with the Youth Group Wednesday evenings at 7:45pm, please contact me for the Zoom meeting link. Non-Youth Group guests are encouraged to join the call beginning at 7:40pm. Thank you!*
 
Worship Schedule: There is a new working virtual Worship Schedule for All Saints available on the All Saints Facebook page as well as the All Saints and Youth Ministry websites. The majority of these services will be offered via Facebook live through the church’s Facebook page (please follow us if you don’t already to receive notifications). Services marked as Zoom gatherings will take place via Zoom video conference calls. Please contact Fr. Christopher at fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com for Zoom links.

Resources webpage: A webpage dedicated to sharing accurate information regarding COVID-19, as well as resources for formation, worship, pastoral care, etc. will be made available through the Diocese of Fond du Lac within the next week or so. In the meantime, feel free to explore the Resources page on the All Saints Youth Ministry website (CLICK HERE). Some resources are also being shared in the All Saints Youth Ministry Facebook group (CLICK HERE).
 
Summer Camp is still a go at this time, and conversations have begun with camp leadership to plan for a variety of scenarios. Registration and volunteer staff applications can be found at diofdl.org/camp. All camp sessions will take place at Camp Lakotah, Wautoma.
 
Senior Camp (completed grades 9-12): June 7-13
Middler Camp (completed grades 6-8): June 14-19
Junior Camp (completed grades 2-5): June 14-19
Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 19-21
 
Friends, as it’s been said before, please continue to hold one another in prayer as we trek forward. God is greater than anything fearsome thing we face, and as Paul mentions in his writings, nothing can separate us from the love of God. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich)

Greetings Fellow Members,

I hope this message finds many of you tucked in at home enjoying life at a much slower, different pace. Thank you to our healthcare and essential workers who do not have that luxury. As a follow up to Bishop Matt’s latest letter posted yesterday, I wanted to reach out with more details about All Saints. If you haven’t had a chance to read his message it can be found at https://www.diofdl.org/news/a-pastoral-letter-to-the-people-of-the-diocese-of-fond-du-lac

At this time the church is not making any payroll changes, in the interest of helping ensure that our staff can weather the financial impact of the viral outbreak as well — that’s one reason we need your continuing support. The staff are still doing their work to the greatest extent possible whilst working remotely for safety reasons.

After receiving a few questions asking about how All Saints can continue to receive pledges, I wanted to send out a reminder on the current practices we have in place to accept donations outside of Mass.

1.      You can mail your check to the church. The church address is:
 
All Saints Episcopal Church
100 North Drew Street
Appleton, WI 54911
 
All Saints already receives many routine contributions by mail and has a system set up to process the deposits weekly.
 
2.      You can drop off your check or envelope at the church in the church mail slot located at the Drew Street entrance.
 
3.      If you prefer not to mail in or drop off your pledge, another option is PayPal. All Saints is set up to receive PayPal donations. Please visit our website at http://www.allsaintsappleton.org/giving.html. PayPal has the ability to accept debit and credit cards and it is very convenient. They do charge a $0.30 transaction fee plus 1.9% of the total amount contributed. Please note that you will receive a receipt for your donation through PayPal and it will also be added to your annual giving statement.

Finally, if you need to delay paying your pledge due to financial hardship resulting from the COVID-19, please do whatever it takes to get your family through this difficult period. All Saints has emergency cash reserves we can use to weather the quarantine. Please do not put your wellbeing at risk in order to pay your pledge.

Please reach out with questions or if you need help doing a PayPal donation on your computer.

Peace,
Alicia Bayambang, Treasurer
allsaintstreasurerapple@gmail.com
(Please note the Treasurer email address has changed)
920-216-6006

*Note: To reach Fr. Christopher for pastoral care needs, please call 920.266.9262.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

As of this morning, at the directive of The Rt. Rev. Matthew Gunter, Bishop of Fond du Lac, we are suspending all public worship at All Saints Episcopal Church. This change in plans is a new development, and I am currently awaiting further news and instructions from our bishop, but in the meantime we need to get the word out that all services at All Saints have been cancelled until further notice.  

Furthermore, until further notice, I am also closing the church buildings to public/outside use, and I am directing the staff to do as much of their work remotely from home as possible. Any regularly scheduled meetings or gatherings, therefore, that are on the calendar to take place within our building are as of now also cancelled until further notice.

My dear friends, these new developments weigh heavily on my heart--it is a key component of our Anglican identity that we gather together in communal worship. After all, our principal act of worship as Episcopal Christians is Holy Communion. That said, I completely and wholeheartedly concur with Bishop Matt's decision. At this moment, our priority is to demonstrate, to act out, our love for one another by doing everything in our power to keep each other as safe and as healthy as possible.

Moreover, a temporary physical separation from each other is hardly enough even to make a slight dent in the faith and witness of our shared ministry as the Body of Christ in Appleton, WI. "For I am convinced," as St. Paul says, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-9).  Or from each other, I would add.

That said, these next few weeks will indeed be difficult for all of us, but especially for those of us in the "higher risk" category who will feel the worst of the isolation to come. I'm working right now with the staff and Vestry and other lay leaders of All Saints to develop ways that we can all stay as connected as possible during this outbreak, despite our being physically "distanced." In particular, I will be stretching a bit beyond my own comfort zone in order to live-stream prayer services and to share video messages with all of you (details to be announced as they become available). We'll also be putting together a telephone ministry for reaching out to and staying in touch with our parishioners who do not use computers and cannot access social media or the Internet in general. (Again, details will be sent out as that ministry comes together.)

I'm working to set up a special phone number for pastoral care emergencies, so that you'll be able to get in touch with me directly during this separation, and I'll send that number out as soon as I get it set up. In the meantime, please feel free to email me, if you have email access, with questions ... or if you'd be interested in volunteering to work with the telephone ministry or other efforts to help keep us connected. I welcome your ideas! 

Above all else, please know that, as I said on Sunday, God is with us, God will never leave us, and God will carry us through these difficult times. It's perfectly normal and healthy to be anxious just now, even perhaps fearful. And yet, we must also, even in times like these, be prepared to make an account of the hope that is in us, and that hope is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. We may not know at this time what the details of our Easter worship will look like by the time we get to the end of Lent. But we know--we know--that Easter morning will come, that the tomb will be empty, that He will be RISEN! With that knowledge in our minds and that hope in our hearts, let us spend these next few weeks in devotion and prayer, as befits us during the holy season of Lent, and let us look to the Rising of the Son to come.