“Where do we go from here?”
 
My dear friends in Christ,
 
Not much has changed since I last sat down to write to you all.  Covid-19 rages on around us.  The numbers in our town, our region, our state, continue to increase.  As a worshipping community, we have been forced to pivot from an approach to pandemic response that might be described as saying, “let’s ride it out,” to one that requires us to ask, “so, how do we live like this long-term?”  Which, of course, reminds me of a song.
 
In August of 1973, English singer David Essex released a quirky little tune called “Rock On.”  In it, he asks (perhaps rhetorically), “Where do we go from here? / Which is the way that’s clear?”  In October of 2020, that lyric pretty much covers it for All Saints Episcopal Church, doesn’t it? 
 
The long-term answer to both those questions is … we don’t know.  The variables with which we’re all dealing are changing so continuously that it’s all but impossible to map out, with any certainty, where we can expect to go and how we can expect to get there over the long haul.  What we can do, though, is identify which things to prioritize, both in the short-term and as part of a longer-range vision for our parish.  We can decide what will be important to us and for us, regardless of any changes in our circumstances.
 
Framed in that way, I think the questions become pretty simple.  There are three things which we, as the Body of Christ in Appleton, WI, need to make our principal concerns:  worship of God in Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, pastoral care of our members and our community, and stewardship of the resources that have been entrusted to us by God.
 
Other folks will be communicating with you very soon about the way we’ll be handling stewardship for this year and over the next three years ~ please be on the lookout for those announcements, and please be ready to respond faithfully to support the ongoing mission and ministries of All Saints.  In the meantime, let me offer a few words about worship and pastoral care:
 
The big-ticket item immediately before us in terms of worship is the resuming of Holy Eucharist as our principal act of worship.  As you may remember, a few weeks back I announced that we would be resuming in-person Communion this month; almost immediately after that announcement went out, the Covid numbers in Appleton and throughout Wisconsin skyrocketed.  Bishop Matt and the diocesan Covid-19 Task Force felt constrained to tighten the restrictions on in-person gatherings, and rightly so.  Unfortunately, that change forced me to scrap my initial plan for how we would resume Communion services.
 
I had planned for us to have an 8 A.M. in-person Communion service, followed by our regular live-streamed Spiritual Communion service at 9:30.  Although we do not at present have the ability to film and stream a multi-person service from our Sanctuary space, it wouldn’t have been a problem, because prior to the new restrictions, we could have had up to about twenty people in the building, and with a sign-up system we could have ensured that everyone who wanted to come to Communion would be able to do so at least every few weeks.
 
Under the new restrictions, we can have no more than four people in the building together for worship, including the priest.  And that creates a very different situation.  A limit of four means that, after the priest, a lector/intercessor, and perhaps an acolyte or server, each service could have basically one single participant in addition to the altar party.  A service that small simply doesn’t allow for any real participation in-person on the part of the parish. 
 
Now, let me be clear:  I truly believe ~ I know ~ that Jesus Christ is truly, really present in the sacrament of Holy Communion; any Mass that is celebrated, therefore, offers incalculable mystical benefits for the spiritual health not only of our parish but also of the whole world.  In terms of pastoral benefits, however, I’m not sure that it would do much good, pastorally and emotionally, for our parish to have a small handful of people celebrating a Eucharist that so few could attend in person and that no one could even watch online.
 
So here’s what we’re doing:  I am working at this moment with the incredible folks of the Online Ministry Team to figure out how we can set up our live-streaming to broadcast a 4-person Eucharist service from our worship space in the church.  As soon as we get that worked out, we will change our primary Sunday worship from the current Spiritual Communion service we’ve been doing so far over to a live-streamed Communion service. 
 
I realize it will continue to be very, very difficult for us as a parish to be unable to gather in any numbers at all and to participate fully, together, in the sacrament of Communion.  But I do not believe we can continue to try to “ride it out” with this virus, waiting to celebrate Mass until the numbers come down enough to make that safe for us to do.  It has become clear that the numbers aren’t going to fall significantly any time soon ~ perhaps not for another year or more from this point, today.  So our initial approach of fasting temporarily for a season has to give way to a longer-term strategy.  We now have to find ways to resume the regular life of the parish as safely as possible.
 
Besides, a very strong argument can be made that, during times of great suffering and plague, we ought to be saying more Masses, not fewer.  The Blessed Sacrament is, after all, one of the foremost ministries that we as Christians offer to a wounded, weary, and broken world.
 
I’ll be sending out more information about how we’ll be handling this restricted Eucharist service as we get the logistics worked out, so stay tuned!
 
In terms of pastoral care, what we must do in the immediate future is put together a Pastoral Care Team to organize and oversee the care of people within the parish.  A number of incredible folks have done amazing work individually to minister to the needs of various members of this congregation for many years.  But between the current size of the parish, the hardships of the pandemic, and the importance of sharing the load so that one or two people don’t end up carrying more weight than they should, we need to be a bit more collectively organized and a bit more methodical as a parish in our approach to pastoral care.
 
I’m imagining a setup similar to that of the Online Ministry Team, which has made phenomenal strides since forming a few months ago in terms of creating the vibrant and still growing online ministry we now enjoy at All Saints.  We need a team of five or six people ~ not to take on all the duties of pastoral care themselves, but rather to envision what pastoral care as a ministry will be for this parish, to identify the specific pastoral needs that require our attention, to create specific goals for how to meet those needs, and to call and organize volunteers to work on those specific goals.
 
If you feel the Holy Spirit nudging you at all in the direction of pastoral care in our parish, or even if you’re just curious as to how you might be able to help, please email me at fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com as soon as you can.  We need to get this team up and running as quickly as possible.
 
And as always, I have to thank you all for the depth and strength of your faith in Jesus Christ and your commitment to All Saints through these very trying times.  You remain a true inspiration to me, and I am deeply grateful to God Almighty for calling and leading me here to be part of this remarkable community of Christians.
 
Peace and blessings be with you all,
Christopher+

Hello, friends and families of All Saints!
 
I hope this find everyone enjoying the gorgeous colors of autumn. Here are some updates and reminders for Sunday School & Youth Group families!
 
Youth Group: Students in grades 5-12 are invited to join our weekly gatherings on Wednesdays from 7:00-7:45pm (Compline will still be offered via the All Saints Church Facebook page at 7:45pm for any students wishing to help lead). Zoom links will be sent out ahead of time via the Weekly Update email list each Wednesday. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the email list, please contact me, Erin Wolf, at asygappleton@gmail.com for assistance.
 
Sunday School: For those in grades 4K and up, you’re welcome to join in for virtual Sunday School gatherings via Zoom Sundays from 9:00-9:25am (as we don’t want to be late for worship at 9:30am). Zoom links will be sent out ahead of time via the Weekly Update email list each Wednesday. As mentioned above, contact me for further assistance.
 
Adult Chaperones Needed: Parents and adults of All Saints: I need at least ONE other adult (though TWO are preferred) to assist me with virtual gatherings as we maintain Safeguarding guidelines in digital spaces. If you are interested in helping, please contact me via email or call/text for more information.
 
Diocesan Fall Lock-In: Due to changes in the current recommendations and guidelines set-out for diocesan gatherings, the annual Youth Fall Lock-In has been postponed. However, there will still be a virtual offering that Friday night, Oct. 16, open to all ages! Read below for more information.
 
Upcoming Diocesan Events
Oct. 16: Virtual Camp Fire Sing-along at 7:00pm via the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac YouTube page. Join live for an evening of some of your favorite camp songs and a time of prayer. You may submit requests for songs, and we will try to fit in as many as possible. We will wrap up our evening by 8:30pm, and the broadcast will be available to watch on the YouTube channel after. Questions? Contact Erin Wolf at ewolf@diofdl.org.
 
Oct. 24: Diocesan Convention beginning at 9:00am via the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac YouTube page. Join delegates and leaders from around the diocese for a virtual convention! Learn about the life, ministries, and business of the diocese while also engaging in worship. Bishop Matt Gunter will be offering a pastoral address to the convention as well. For more information, go to diofdl.org/convention.

“But when are we going to get back to the way things were?”
 
My dear friends in Christ,
 
Not quite two weeks ago, I wrote these words to you all:
 
“The truth is that we will never get back to the way things were.  We won’t.  Because we can’t.  Our world is changed, and it cannot be un-changed.”
 
I was talking about the prospect of our resuming some form of in-person worship at All Saints—in particular, of resuming the celebration of Holy Eucharist.
 
As if to drive home the point, as soon as my last message was published announcing that we would be resuming in-person worship in the month of October, the rates of Covid infection in Appleton, in the Fox Cities, in Wisconsin overall, skyrocketed.  This latest spike in the numbers, significant by any measure, was the sole subject of the latest meeting of the diocesan Covid-19 Task Force.  I’m not sure if the decisions made in that meeting will have been published by the time you’re reading this message, but if not then they very shortly will be.
 
The good news is that the Task Force did not recommend totally suspending all in-person worship until further notice.  The not-bad-but-perhaps-not-wonderful news is that the Task Force did recommend, and the bishop has now directed, that in-person worship services be restricted to no more than four people in the building at one time (including priest & servers), masked and spaced at least six feet apart.  These stricter regulations are temporary measures, but they will remain in place until further notice from the bishop.
 
What that means for us … is a bit up in the air at the moment.  We do not, at present, have the capability to live stream from our worship space a Communion service that involves more than one person.  One priest, one lector/intercessor, and one server leaves room for only one participant in a Communion service that’s restricted to four people, total.  Given that we cannot at the moment broadcast such a service, I imagine some folks might feel there wouldn’t be much point in even holding that service at all.  If so few people could actually participate, and nobody else could see it, what’s the point?
 
On the other hand, it has been weighing heavily on my heart and my soul since the shutdown in March that, for spiritual and theological and pastoral reasons, we should be saying more Masses during a time of great plague, not fewer.  That even if nobody’s there to see such Masses, they still ought to be prayed and celebrated on behalf of—and for the spiritual benefit of—the whole parish, our whole community, our state, our nation, and our world.  After all, if we really believe what we claim to believe, theologically, about what happens in the Eucharist, then isn’t it our bounden duty as faithful followers and disciples of Jesus Christ to celebrate and enact his life, death, and resurrection, until his coming again?
 
All of which is to say, the announcement I made in the last newsletter must now be modified somewhat in light of the recent surge in Covid cases—and we know from watching this same thing happen in other states that a surge in Covid deaths will inevitably follow—and that our exact plans for how we will move forward with in-person worship are today a bit more up-in-the-air than they were two weeks ago.  I will continue to be conversing with our wardens and vestry, and together we will shape our plans both to conform to diocesan policy and to meet the needs of this parish.
 
In the meantime, I really would love to hear directly from you all.  Let me know your thoughts, hopes, fears, and concerns regarding worshipping together in-person and about celebrating Communion whilst managing the very present risks of Covid-19.  Drop me a line at fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com.  And thank you all for your continued grace, devotion, faithfulness, and commitment to this blessed parish of All Saints.  Even in the midst of crisis, it is an absolute blessing to get to be part of your church and share this journey (however difficult this present stretch of road may be) with you all.
 
Blessings,
Christopher+

Hello, friends and families of All Saints!
 
I hope this finds you all well as we continue to move forward in the 2020-2021 school year. We are finally on the edge of our own program year beginning! At this time, our gatherings will continue to be offered virtually to abide by the recommendations and guidelines set out by Bishop Matt Gunter, with assistance and advice from the Diocesan COVID-19 Task Force. While I understand this may not be ideal or probable for some families, we do want to still offer modified ways to gather until it is safe for larger groups to congregate again in the future.
 
Youth Group Kick-Off: For those families with students in grades 5-12, we will start up virtual Youth Group gatherings via Zoom beginning Wednesday, October 7 from 7:00-7:45pm (Compline will still be offered via the All Saints Church Facebook page at 7:45pm for any students wishing to help lead). Zoom links will be sent out ahead of time via the Weekly Update email list each Wednesday. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the email list, please contact me, Erin Wolf, at asygappleton@gmail.com for assistance.
 
Sunday School Kick-Off: For those in grades 4K and up, you’re welcome to join in for virtual Sunday School gatherings via Zoom beginning Sunday, October 11 from 9:00-9:25am (as we don’t want to be late for worship at 9:30am). Zoom links will be sent out ahead of time via the Weekly Update email list each Wednesday. As mentioned above, contact me for further assistance.
 
Adult Chaperones Needed: Parents and adults of All Saints: I need at least ONE other adult (though TWO are preferred) to assist me with virtual gatherings as we maintain Safeguarding guidelines in digital spaces. If you are interested in helping, please contact me via email or call/text for more information.
 
Diocesan Fall Lock-In: Due to changes in the current recommendations and guidelines set-out for diocesan gatherings, the annual Youth Fall Lock-In has been postponed. However, there will still be a virtual offering that Friday night, Oct. 16, open to all ages! Read below for more information.
 
Upcoming Diocesan Events
Oct. 16: Virtual Camp Fire Sing-along at 7:00pm via the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac YouTube page. Join live for an evening of some of your favorite camp songs and a time of prayer. You may submit requests for songs, and we will try to fit in as many as possible. We will wrap up our evening by 8:30pm, and the broadcast will be available to watch on the YouTube channel after. Questions? Contact Erin Wolf at ewolf@diofdl.org.
 
Oct. 24: Diocesan Convention beginning at 9:00am via the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac YouTube page. Join delegates and leaders from around the diocese for a virtual convention! Learn about the life, ministries, and business of the diocese while also engaging in worship. Bishop Matt Gunter will be offering a pastoral address to the convention as well. For more information, go to diofdl.org/convention.

“Staying Connected”
 
My dear friends in Christ,
 
When I initially sat down and began to write these words ~ upstairs in a corner “nook” that’s been retrofitted into a makeshift office ~ it was a cold, wet, rainy, rather dismal Wednesday afternoon.  Unseasonably so, I was reassured by a number of long-time locals.  Nevertheless, it was one of those afternoons in which there are so very many things that need doing that you really have no idea where to begin.  How to prioritize, when everything is critically important?  An impossible task, of course.  Okay, I told myself ~ so pick one thing, just one thing, that is critically important for All Saints. 

Quick, I said to myself—what’s the first one that comes to mind?
 
Staying connected.  That was my first thought.
 
It’s been more than half a year, now, since the great plague of our time swept through our country and turned our everyday lives and habits and patterns and rituals and comforts and expectations … and connections … upside down.  We made it through the first three months or so on adrenaline, and the next month or two were a white-knuckled affair as we gritted our teeth and endured with a sort of a siege-mentality, convinced we could outlast the virus. 
 
And now here we are, six months and change into what is no longer a “new” normal and realizing that there will be no outlasting it.  At least, not in the way that we had expected or hoped.
 
For various reasons—and it is neither my inclination nor my intention to be sidetracked here into dissecting those reasons and their causes—the virus has not been contained.  In fact, I awoke that morning last week to read of the frightening if not the least bit surprising spike in Covid cases right here in Appleton in the wake of the Labor Day holiday weekend.  Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon.  And so our approach to dealing with it has got to change. 
 
Hopefully, most (if not all) of you who are reading this message have noticed one important change:  our recently expanded Sunday worship.  For months now, our principal Sunday worship has been a service of Spiritual Communion, which we’ve offered in lieu of Holy Eucharist because we cannot celebrate Communion without gathering together in person.  Thanks to the recently formed but already super busy Online Ministry Team, we have expanded our main Sunday worship to include lectors, intercessors, and psalmists.  You are no longer stuck having to look at nothing more interesting than the priest’s face for the entire service! 
As of this writing, we are also  exploring ways to incorporate some kinds of music into our online worship, as well.  Meanwhile, Wednesday morning Spiritual Communion services, as well as Daily Offices (Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Compline) continue to be live streamed throughout the week.  If you have not been tuning in to these services, I strongly encourage you to click on over and check them out. 
 
For the time being, we are using All Saints Church’s Facebook page as our platform for streaming.  You don’t have to have a Facebook account to access the live streamed services, but our church’s Facebook page serves as the host for the videos, basically.  The OMT is, however, exploring other platforms for streaming our worship, so that eventually you won’t need to deal with Facebook at all to access our services.  We’ll keep you posted as other options become available.
 
And for the time ahead when we are eventually able to return to in-person worship in whatever form (more on that in a moment), the OMT is already working out the logistics of how to capture and live stream (and record) worship services that involve more than one person in the sanctuary at one time.  To be honest, that’s a much more complicated and daunting enterprise than it is just to stream an entire virtual service.  But we realized early on that, having expanded All Saints’ worship and ministry into the online environment, we cannot then let these new forms of ministry die out just because we happen to resume in-person worship.  No, these new ways of ministering are here for good.  And I mean that in both senses of the word ~ both “permanently” and “to our benefit and that of the community.”
 
That’s what’s going on with our online worship services.  But that’s not all that All Saints is doing to help us all stay connected during the pandemic.  I want to make sure that all of you know about the two weekly Zoom gatherings that All Saints offers and that are open to everyone who wishes to take part:
 
On Mondays at 11 a.m., I host a Bible study.  We begin by reading the Scriptures appointed in the Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday service, and with those Scriptures as our starting point, we explore the Bible, the Christian tradition, where we are in our spiritual lives, and how to make connections between how we worship, what we believe, who we are, and how we live.  It’s a chance for us to learn from each other, to find out more about what the Bible is, where it comes from, and how it can shape our lives to conform ever more fully to the life of Jesus Christ.  It’s a little bit academic, a little bit theological, and a whole lot of sharing different perspectives, views, thoughts, and ideas.
 
And on Thursdays at 12 noon, I host a less formal, more open-ended conversation under the broad heading of “Faith Talk.”  Most weeks, I will offer a topic as a launching point for conversation, but some weeks we start with whatever is on our minds and hearts.  This session is an opportunity to go where the Spirit leads us and, again, to make deeper connections between the teachings of our faith, the words of Scripture, and the truth of Jesus Christ, on one hand, and the messy details of our real, lived experiences on the other.  What does it mean to be Christian?  How does resurrection work?  What really happens at Communion?  Does any of this stuff even really matter?  If so, how so?  These kinds of questions and more are what Faith Talk is all about. 
 
I post the Zoom links on the All Saints Facebook page each Monday and Thursday morning.  There is also an email list to which I send the links ~ if you’d like to be added to that email list, please shoot me a quick message at fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com.
 
As with our online worship opportunities, I strongly encourage you to get involved in these Zoom communities.  Doing so is one of the best, most effective ways to combat the isolation and desolation of the Covid pandemic and to share some real connection and interaction with your All Saints family.  Plus, they’re a lot of fun!
 
So.  Lots of incredibly wonderful things happening in the online environment. 
 
But when are we going to get back to the way things were?
 
It’s been several days now since I first sat down to work on this message for all of you.  I’m no longer hidden away in a corner of the upstairs, huddling with chilled fingers over an aging laptop and listening to the soft static of what South Carolinians would consider a “wintry rain.”  The sun is out.  I’m in the All Saints office after live streaming a worship service.  There is construction work going on across the street.  The mood is completely different, today … and yet the truth that was hitting home so hard in that tiny, second-floor room on that cold, rainy afternoon hits home even harder now.
 
The truth is that we will never get back to the way things were.  We won’t.  Because we can’t.  Our world is changed, and it cannot be un-changed.
 
Oh, we will resume gathering in person to worship God in Christ with the Holy Spirit.  We will celebrate and share the Holy Sacrament.  God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church shall endure, she shall live, and she shall continue to grow.
 
But things are not going to look like they used to.  Things are not going to sound like the used to.  Hardest of all, things are not going to feel like they used to.  And that will make returning to in-person worship in some ways even harder than it has been for us to learn all-new ways to worship in the online world.  It’s going to be hard, but it will be harder if we don’t prepare ourselves.  It will be harder if we let our longing for what we remember overpower our expectations of what it will be like when we reopen our church building. 
 
We need to see the resuming of in-person worship as a new thing, just like learning to live stream worship was a new thing.  Because for the foreseeable future, in-person worship is going to be a different proposition than it was before the shutdown.  We will all be masked.  We will be separated from each other by uncomfortable amounts of physical distance.  There will be fewer people in the church at a time, and to begin with, fewer services.  We will not be singing.  We will have to handle and distribute Communion differently.  All of these things will be strange and uncomfortable ~ certainly, they will be for me.  I can only imagine they will be uncomfortable for y’all, too.
 
But underneath the discomfort, there will also be something familiar, something timeless and eternal, something precious, of inestimable value:  the Body and Blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  And we will experience again the way that our Lord’s Body and Blood make us into one people, into the Body of Christ in this world.
 
So when’s that going to happen?  Right now, we’re looking at offering a limited in-person service of Holy Eucharist, under strict pandemic restrictions, starting in October.  Many more details to come in terms of logistics and specifics.  But please know that in-person worship and celebration of Eucharist will be returning to All Saints very, very soon. 
 
Meanwhile, let’s do everything we can to stay connected.
 
As always, pleas reach out to me if you have questions, comments, concerns, interests, fears, or just an interest in chatting a bit:  fatherchristopherallsaints@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing from you … and to seeing you soon, both virtually and face to (distanced) face.
 
Grace and peace be with you in our Lord Jesus Christ,
C+

Greetings, All Saints families and friends!
 
I hope this finds you all well and healthy as school is underway for everyone now.  
 
2020-2021 Program Year: Reminder: The All Saints program year for 2020-2021 will begin in early October. Details are still being worked out, so please stay tuned! Thank you for your patience.
 
Youth Group Reminder: For those families with students in grades 5-12, your students are welcome to participate in All Saints Youth Group activities. Some 5th grade students are ready to jump in fully with Youth Group activities, while others use 5th-6th grades to test the waters out. Both are okay ways to participate!
 
While there are some activities not available to 5th graders (some diocesan events and other local youth events with other churches), parents, if your student wants to give Youth Group a try at any point this year, they are welcome to do so for All Saints specific events. If you have any questions, please contact Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com for more information.
 
Diocesan Events this fall/winter: At this time, there are a couple of diocesan youth offerings that will tentatively be offered in fall/winter of 2020-2021. However, as with any other event at this time, we will be making final calls about the nature of the event and announcing them within two weeks of the event start. Some of these events may be offered in person with reduced capacity or alternative arrangements, they may take place virtually, or we may postpone them until the spring. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we make decisions that will hopefully best serve and honor the families of the Diocese of Fond du Lac. 
 
Upcoming Events
Oct. 16-17 (TENTATIVE): Youth Fall Lock-In (grades 6-12) While this event has traditionally been an in-person, overnight experience, there will be no overnight component to the weekend for 2020. Details are still being worked out, and more information will be available soon.

My dear friends in Christ,
 
There is an old joke about a supposedly ancient curse, which says, “May you live in interesting times.”  The joke is that it doesn’t really sound all that bad, the prospect of living in interesting times.  It sounds, in fact, rather interesting.  At least, until one remembers that the most interesting, the most gripping, the most riveting times to read about in history books are times that were full of great strife, upheaval, chaos, conflict, even violence—all the things that also make for interesting and exciting movies and television shows. 
 
That’s just it, though.  The exciting events and situations that make all those stories from history or Hollywood really interesting … those are generally not the sorts of experiences that any sane person would ever want actually to live through in real life.
 
My friends, it would appear that we are, right now, living in interesting times.
 
I won’t rehearse and rehash the details of the violence and chaos that has been recently and still is being experienced by our neighbors in Kenosha.  By now, I’m sure we’ve all seen too many details, too many times.  Our own Bishop Matt last Friday issued a powerful and uplifting pastoral letter to the diocese.  I commend it to your reading and consideration.  I cannot improve upon any of the things that +Matt has said so eloquently, speaking into this deeply troubling moment in our lives together.
 
I can say, though, with some confidence that the shock and horror of these particular incidents on our doorstep will begin to fade, sooner or later.  The 24-hour news cycle will rush to latch onto the next shocking and horrifying headline, in the next town or city, and those of us who have the privilege of being able to do so will start to return to life as normal (“normal” itself, these days, being something of a different concept than it used to be). 
 
But issues of race and racism, of police and policing, of deep, seemingly intractable divisions in our society—divisions that often render us incapable of agreeing upon even a shared set of facts, much less what to do about them—are not going to go away any time soon.
 
So what do we do?  How do we find God in this?  How do we find each other?  How do we do any of that when we’ve been physically separated from each other, from our church building, from the worship that comforts and sustains us in deeply familiar ways, for half a year?
 
There are, of course, no simple or easy answers to any of those questions.  I do invite us all, however, to borrow an idea from our Pentecostal cousins in the Christian faith:  the idea of holy chaos.
 
Now, that’s a term that takes some unpacking.  Let me begin by clarifying what I don’t mean by it.  I don’t mean that the shooting of Jacob Blake was in any way, shape, or form a “holy” thing.  I do not mean that a teenager’s choice to carry a rifle across state lines and to murder two protestors and wound a third was in any way, shape, or form “holy.”  When I call chaos “holy,” I do not intend to imply that God wills the chaos or inflicts it upon us.  As the saying goes, God is good—all the time!  No, what I mean by “holy chaos” is that God finds ways to sanctify even the darkest, most evil events and acts and circumstances, turning them always to the greatest possible good and the highest possible purpose in the unfolding of God’s will in God’s creation.
 
This holy work that God constantly does throughout creation is most perfectly demonstrated and exemplified in the broken body of Jesus Christ on the cross, and by the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection.  It was not God’s desire that Jesus suffer and die, but suffer and die for us Jesus did, and through his suffering and sacrifice God worked the miracle and the mystery of Salvation.
 
We should note that it took centuries for Christians to work out the meaning of everything that happened on that cross.  That is not to say we should expect it to take centuries to find God in the midst of our present chaos.  The earliest Christians recognized God’s presence in their midst, even in their experiences of persecution, violence, and death.  What I’m saying, rather, is that we must be gentle with ourselves, and we must accept whatever grace we can offer each other, as we all struggle to make sense out of this moment in our shared history and to discern God’s will for us in the midst of chaos.
 
For grace abounds, and it will continue to abound.  God is yet with us.  That is the promise God made to us in Jesus Christ—that he will be with us, even to the end of the age.  The age is not yet ended, though some days it may appear that we are at the end of all things.  Let us lean on each other, carry each other, lift each other up.  For whatever divisions may stand between us, we are united by something greater.  We are all bound together by God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.  Let us remember that, always, and be faithful to God and to each other.  Amen.
 
Christopher+

Greetings, All Saints families and friends!
 
I hope this finds you all well as school has been and is getting underway for the new school year in all its different forms.
 
2020-2021 Program Year: For anyone who may have missed the unofficial announcement, we will be pushing back the official start of the 2020-2021 school year from mid-September to early October.
 
Youth Group Reminder: For those families with students in grades 5-12, your students are welcome to participate in All Saints Youth Group activities. Some 5th grade students are ready to jump in fully with Youth Group activities, while others use 5th-6th grades to test the waters out. Both are okay ways to participate!
 
While there are some activities not available to 5th graders (some diocesan events and other local youth events with other churches), parents, if your student wants to give Youth Group a try at any point this year, they are welcome to do so for All Saints specific events. If you have any questions, please contact Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com for more information.
 
Vacation Note: Erin will be on vacation September 8-14, 2020 and can be reached by phone in the event of an emergency. For other non-emergency related inquiries, please contact either Fr. Christopher or Emily in the office.

Greetings, All Saints families and friends!
 
I hope this finds you all well as we move into the late summer. Here are some reminders for families of All Saints.
 
The Eucharistic Festival will be held virtually on August 29, 2020 beginning at 11:00am. 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.
 
2020-2021 Program Year: For anyone who may have missed the unofficial announcement, we will be pushing back the official start of the 2020-2021 school year from mid-September to early October. We hope this allows families time they need to adjust to whatever school might look like for them. A more official announcement will come soon.
 
Youth Group Reminder: For those families with students in grades 5-12, your students are welcome to participate in All Saints Youth Group activities. Some 5th grade students are ready to jump in fully with Youth Group activities, while others use 5th-6th grades to test the waters out. Both are okay ways to participate! While there are some activities not available to 5th graders (some diocesan events and other local youth events with other churches), parents, if your student wants to give Youth Group a try at any point this year, they are welcome to do so for All Saints specific events.
 
That said, we hope to also include those students in grades 4 and under from time to time. Obviously, Youth Group will look very different in this time of COVID, and some of our usual offerings will be on hold for the time being. However, we still wish to continue building up the students of All Saints, pandemic aside, so they may continue to engage in their growing faith journeys. If you have any questions, please contact Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com for more information.

Greetings, All Saints families and friends!
 
We offered our first week of “Prayer @ Home” the first week of July. This was an exercise to encourage everyone to continue to intentionally build prayer time into their every day while also exploring some potentially new and/or engaging ways to pray. Prompts for July included 1. Engaging in daily worship through the Daily Offices; 2. Praying with the 5 Finger Prayer & a Prayer Board; and 3. Diving deeper into the questions found within our Baptismal Covenant.
 
The second week of Prayer @ Home will take place Aug. 2-8, and the three daily prompts will include: 1. Engage in daily worship with the Daily Offices; 2. Exploring the Lord’s Prayer; and 3. Practicing sharing pieces of our faith stories with others (also known as evangelism). There will also be a mid-week check in on Wednesday, Aug. 5 from 6:45-7:30pm via Zoom.
 
The daily prompts may be found on the All Saints Youth Ministry website, the All Saints Youth Ministry Facebook group, and the All Saints parish Instagram account. Zoom call details may be found HERE or via the Youth Ministry Weekly Update email (CLICK HERE to sign up).
 
The Eucharistic Festival date has moved to August 29, 2020 and will be held virtually beginning at 11:00am. 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 reminder that 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.
 
Looking ahead to the 2020-2021 program year: In the coming weeks, there will be opportunities for parents to provide feedback on their thoughts for the year (with particular emphasis on the fall), and we will also continue keeping an eye on what local school districts are announcing. We thank you in advance for your patience and willingness to help us best navigate what the beginning of this new school year might look like and how we can best serve the families and youth of All Saints.

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