Greetings to all! FAMILY FUN NIGHTS continue TONIGHT, Wednesday, July 20. We’ll gather on the North Lawn at 6:30pm for a Prayer Walk around the neighborhood. Upon our return to church, we’ll enjoy cool treats on the lawn! Dress accordingly and bring your own water bottle. Mask optional outdoors, though still asking folks to mask indoors. Here's what we'll be up to for our remaining gatherings: Wednesday, August 10, 6:30-8:00pm: CHANGE IN PLANS – As Fr. Christopher will be on vacation, we’re switching up our plans a little bit to still provide an opportunity for Wednesday night worship. We will have interactive prayer stations in the church for folks of varying ages to engage with, and we will end our evening together with Compline from the Book of Common Prayer. As a precaution, we are asking participants to mask for this service, as we will include music with our Compline service. Wednesday, August 24 (times/details to be announced): Parish Potluck & Blessing of the Backpacks – Keep an eye out for sign-ups and more information! MISSION TRIP PRAYER REQUEST: Abby Wolf, a member of the All Saints Youth Group, is in Salyersville, Kentucky this week with a crew from around the diocese, sponsored by St. Thomas, Menasha. The crew is partnering with Appalachia Service Project to do house repair projects at local homes. Please continue to keep their team in your prayers. Thank you! LET’S CELEBRATE! Be sure to check out this month’s edition of "Let's Celebrate!" For those wishing to participate in August's edition, please send in your moments of joy and celebration to Erin at asygappleton@gmail.com by Tuesday, August 16. FALL 2022 YOUTH MINISTRY SCHEDULE: Schedules for varying Youth Ministry gatherings for the Fall 2022 semester will be available in August. Some events of note, including the Diocesan Youth Fall Lock-In (see below) are currently available on the Calendars page of the youth ministry website. More details to come – thank you for your patience! Sunday School classes will resume Sunday, September 11 from 9:30-10:15am, and based on feedback from families, we are planning to offer options both in-person & via Zoom. Youth Group gatherings will resume Wednesday, September 14 from 6:30-8:00pm, and based on feedback, are planning to gather in-person. SAVE THE DATE: After a three year hiatus due to the pandemic, it’s thrilling to announce that the Diocesan Youth Fall Lock-In is set to return in 2022. This overnight retreat-type event is open to students who will be in grades 6-12 for the 2022-2023 academic year. This year’s Lock-In will be held November 18-20 at Waypost Camp (weekend before Thanksgiving). Space will be limited – stay tuned for more information. WHAT DO WE BELIEVE? Continued… My dear friends in Christ, Continuing our journey through our Episcopal Catechism (which begins on page 845 of the Book of Common Prayer), we move from human nature to the nature of the divine ~ the nature of God. As Christians, we (the Church) believe that there is one God whose nature we understand to be triune (three-fold). We speak, thus, of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit … yet we are not polytheists but monotheists. In keeping with the ancient Councils of the Universal Church (the Church before the split between East and West) which gave us the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, we affirm one, single God, existing as an eternal Trinity. In the words of the Athanasian Creed (the third creed in our BCP, found in the “Historical Documents” section): “. . . we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance (p. 864). A few thoughts on gendered language, before we proceed further: the Catechism refers to the Persons of the Holy Trinity using the traditional terminology that derives directly from the Bible and has been established by centuries of use in Christian worship and practice. This usage may well be problematic for some Christians in the modern era; along with centuries of tradition, women have also experienced centuries of exclusion, exploitation, and abuse at the hands of men empowered by patriarchal power structures in many cultures where Christianity took hold ~ and often the Church itself has been the patriarchal power structure that enabled and even encouraged such toxic behavior. These historical facts must be acknowledged. Not everyone, moreover, has had positive, nurturing, healthy experience with human fathers in this mortal life, and that fact absolutely affects the impact of the term “father” in a religious context, no matter how hard we try to separate theology from individual experiences. We ought also to acknowledge the numerous examples in both Testaments of the Bible of feminine language, imagery, and terminology used for, of, and about God. Jesus even paints a picture of himself as a “mother hen,” spreading her wings over Jerusalem to gather God’s people to “her breast” like a “brood.” It’s important, likewise, to note that the Church Fathers and Mothers were adamant, in antiquity, that the use of the term “Father” for the First Person of the Trinity must only be understood in its relational sense, and that in no wise could any concept of gender be applied or ascribed to God. Lastly, our Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly refers to God as his “Father” (abba, in Aramaic; ho pater, in Greek). So whilst we have rich, biblical material from which to expand our vocabulary for talking about (and praying to) God, we can’t really ever get fully away from the so-called traditional terminology, either. That said, our Catechism introduces us to the First Person of the One, Undivided Godhead thus: God the Father Q. What do we learn about God as creator from the revelation to Israel? A. We learn that there is one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. Q. What does this mean? A. This means that the universe is good, that it is the work of a single loving God who creates, sustains, and directs it. Q. What does this mean about our place in the universe? A. It means that the world belongs to its creator; and that we are called to enjoy it and to care for it in accordance with God's purposes. Q. What does this mean about human life? A. It means that all people are worthy of respect and honor, because all are created in the image of God, and all can respond to the love of God. Q. How was this revelation handed down to us? A. This revelation was handed down to us through a community created by a covenant with God. Notice that there is a subtle but extremely significant point that is implied, rather than stated outright, in the first question and answer. The section is labeled with the heading “God the Father,” but the first question asks “What do we learn about God as creator …?” The substitution of “creator” for “father” might seem like mere poetic license; it might even seem like an error of sloppiness. But I contend that it is actually telling us something important about the First Person of the Holy Trinity: namely that “father,” in this usage, primarily means “creator.” That is not at all to say that the act of creating is solely or even primarily the provenance of the male gender (an absurd proposition!). It is, rather, to say again that the emphasis we are supposed to take from the term, and thus to associate with the First Person of the Trinity, is the nature of God as Creator, and the Will and Love and Intelligence by which and through which and because of which all of Creation comes into being and has reality and existence. We also learn from the first question and answer that we have this understanding of God because it was revealed by God directly to the people of Israel (into whose family we as Christians are adopted through the sacrament of Holy Baptism). Our understanding of God, then, comes not only from our own thinking and theorizing, our own attempts at theology and/or philosophy, but also (and primarily) from direct revelation as experienced by people just like us: God revealed Godself to God’s people. The revelation to Israel makes it clear that God created not only the entire Cosmos, but humanity in particular, out of sheer love. In that act of loving creation and even more loving sustaining, by which God made all things and keeps them (and us) in existence, we discover the basis for a proper understanding of who and what we are, and of our proper relationship to God, to God’s Creation, and to each other. Lastly, from this section of the Catechism, we learn that this ancient revelation has come down to us through the medium of community. It is in community that we first learn about God, and it is through community that we continue to experience God’s presence, grace, and power. That is not, of course, to deny that each of us individually has a personal relationship with our Creator ~ obviously, we do. But we do not experience God, relate to and with God, worship God, serve God, or seek after God alone, in the isolated vacuum of our own, individual, subjective experiences. We do all of those things as individuals living together in community. Our individual experiences inform and shape the community, and the community in turn informs and shapes our individual spiritual lives and journeys. In the Christian tradition (and in the Jewish tradition out of which Christianity arose), it has ever been so. God created community in order for us to receive, and then to guard, preserve, and transmit to future generations, God’s revelation of Godself. The very nature of God as revealed to us therefore calls us again and again into loving community with God and with each other. And the way that God does these things is through covenanting with us. What is a covenant? Excellent question ~ one that we’ll take up next time! As always, if this column sparks any questions, concerns, ideas, curiosities, or any other kind of response in your hearts and minds, please reach out to me via email or phone—let’s talk about it! And if you’d like to explore these things in a safe and engaging group setting, please consider joining our Faith Talk formation series on Thursdays on Zoom. Peace & blessings, Christopher+ Greetings to all! EPISCOPAL DIOCESAN SUMMER CAMP (aka Episco Wisco Camp) has wrapped for 2022! Thank you to all the families and campers of All Saints who were able to participate this year and thank you to those who served as volunteer staffers! Thank you to everyone who held camp in your prayers - every little bit of support is greatly appreciated! Please be sure to ask our campers about their experience: Mallory, Jorden, Duncan, Abby, Elena, Emily, Martin, Fletcher, Charlie, and Jonah. FAMILY FUN NIGHTS will resume TONIGHT, Wednesday, July 6, and we are planning to again gather on the North Lawn from 6:30-8:00pm (rain location: Kemper Hall). Remember, we are mask optional outdoors presently, though still asking folks to mask indoors. Here's what we'll be up to for our remaining gatherings: Wednesday, July 6, 6:30-8:00pm: Creation Stations - As the wonderful fictitious science teacher Ms. Frizzle (from the Magic Schoolbus series) always said, "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" There will be a selection of stations for participants to get creative in different ways - please dress in clothes that could potentially come home with a little extra on them, and BRING YOUR OWN WATER BOTTLES! Wednesday, July 20, 6:30-8:00pm: Prayer Walk & Cool Treats - Weather pending, we will take a walk as a group with sidewalk chalk and pray for our literal neighbors and community! We will enjoy cool treats upon our return. Wednesday, August 10, 6:30-8:00pm: Game Night 2.0 - Another night of silly games to keep us moving! Wednesday, August 24 (times/details to be announced): Parish Potluck & Blessing of the Backpacks – Keep an eye out for sign-ups and more information! MISSION TRIP PRAYER REQUEST: Abby Wolf, a member of the All Saints Youth Group, will be going on her first mission trip July 16-24 to Kentucky. She’s joining a crew going from around the diocese, sponsored by St. Thomas, Menasha, and they will be working with Appalachia Service Project to do house repair projects at local homes. Please keep Abby and the team in your prayers. Thank you! LET’S CELEBRATE! I hope y'all were able to catch the June edition of "Let's Celebrate!" For those wishing to participate in July's edition, please send in your moments of joy and celebration to Erin at asygappleton@gmail.com by Tuesday, July 19. Thank you! Greetings from Episcopal Diocesan Summer Camp! We covet your prayers for our campers & staff, as well as the staff at Waypost Camp, during our remaining time here. Campers: Mallory, Jorden, Duncan, Abby, Martin, Fletcher, Elena, Emily, Charlie, Jonah, Ann Staff: Brad, Mallory, Erin LET’S CELEBRATE: Please be sure to check out our latest segment of “Let’s Celebrate!” in the newsletter! FAMILY FUN NIGHTS: Dates for our remaining Family Fun Nights: July 6 & 20 and August 10 & 24 (we’re taking June off for Summer Camp). Activities for the events will be announced closer to the actual dates. The Episcopal Church, as part of the Anglican Communion and tradition, has historically emphasized our common worship as one of our most important defining characteristics. We do not, as a rule, require people to sign their names and give their formal assent to a long list of doctrinal statements in order to join our Church. Rather, we invite everyone to come pray and worship with us, for we pray our beliefs.
But that raises a crucial question: what exactly do we believe? It is fairly well known that, generally speaking, if you ask five Episcopalians to give their views on a particular theological topic, you’ll likely get seven or eight different answers. In many ways, that is a great strength of our tradition—we create room and space, within our fellowship, for a range of perspectives, interpretations, and beliefs. We have, over the years, focused so much on the idea that Anglicanism is a “big tent” that it sometimes surprises people, both inside and outside of The Episcopal Church, to discover that there are a few specific things that the Church claims and believes and teaches as being true. Although it’s not necessarily our defining characteristic, we do have doctrines; we even have a small handful of dogmas. The dogmas are pretty basic—Christianity 101, if you will. (There is one God known to us in Three Persons; Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, both fully human and fully divine; Jesus became incarnate in the flesh, lived and died as one of us, and was raised from the dead to save us and make atonement for our sins … basically the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds—that’s our dogma.) Our doctrines are only slightly more involved. In many ways, our doctrines are simply interpretations of and commentaries on the Creeds. The Creeds are the distilled statements of what we believe; the Catechism explains how we hold, understand, and practice those beliefs. For the next several months, we’ll be taking a look at the various parts of the Catechism in order to explore what it is we, as a Church, actually believe. With that goal in mind, let’s begin at the beginning. From An Outline of the Faith, commonly called the Catechism (BCP 845 ff) Human Nature Q. What are we by nature? A. We are part of God's creation, made in the image of God. Q. What does it mean to be created in the image of God? A. It means that we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God. Q. Why then do we live apart from God and out of harmony with creation? A. From the beginning, human beings have misused their freedom and made wrong choices. Q. Why do we not use our freedom as we should? A. Because we rebel against God, and we put ourselves in the place of God. Q, What help is there for us? A. Our help is in God. Q. How did God first help us? A. God first helped us by revealing himself and his will, through nature and history, through many seers and saints, and especially the prophets of Israel. This first section of our catechism might seem a bit out of order. Why are we talking about human beings before we talk about God? But upon reflection, I think it makes the most sense to start here. How can we talk about our faith if we don’t first figure out who we are? Or, as Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3: if I’ve told you about earthly things and you don’t understand, how can I tell you about heavenly things? So we begin by asking that most primordial of questions: who are we? And the most immediate answer is that we are creatures (creations) of God, not only part of God’s entire Creation but also especially created “in God’s image.” As the outline goes on to explain, that doesn’t mean that we look like God (ceilings of certain Italian chapels notwithstanding!). Being made in God’s image has little to do with appearance, because we’re not talking about something so superficial. We’re talking about nature, or better yet, essence. Who and what are we, on the inside? It is inside, in our essential natures, that we bear the stamp and imprint of our Creator. As the outline says, it is the fact that our natures reflect and bear the image of God’s nature that we are able to love, to be creative, to use reason. Perhaps most importantly, because our natures are images of God’s nature, we do have the capacity to live in harmony with God and each other. Why don’t we, then? The Catechism says that we have misused our freedom and made wrong choices. But that is, I think, the result, rather than the cause. What this part of the outline is telling us is that, as part of the inherent nature God gave us in creating us, we bear the gift and the curse of free will. This trait distinguishes humanity from the rest of the created order that we can observe. We are not animals, merely acting on instinct; we are not plants, growing according to environmental conditions; we are not minerals or chemical compounds, reacting mindless according to the laws of physics and chemistry. We have the capacity to love … but we don’t have to. We can create … but what we choose to create is up to us. We can choose to live in harmony … or we can choose to live in strife, conflict, and disharmony. And for so much of human history, we’ve chosen the latter. The last part of this first section of the Catechism offers us hope in the face of that history. God, our Creator, is neither neutral nor ambivalent towards God’s wayward creations. God loves us—always has, and always will. So God has never left us orphaned, has never merely abandoned us to our bad choices. God yearns after us and sends us help, specifically in the forms named in the outline. And that tells us something about the nature of God. Which is a good segue, because that’s the part of the Catechism we’ll be exploring next time! As always, if this column sparks any questions, concerns, ideas, curiosities, or any other kind of response in your hearts and minds, please reach out to me via email or phone—let’s talk about it! And if you’d like to explore these things in a safe and engaging group setting, please consider joining our Faith Talk formation series on Thursdays on Zoom. Peace & blessings, Christopher+ My dear friends in Christ, Last Sunday, I announced that we’d be making an adjustment to weekly practice: namely, that instead of alternating between using Rite I for both services one week and using Rite II for both services the next week, for the next little bit we’ll be using Rite I consistently for the 8:30 service and Rite II consistently for the 10:30 service. At the time, I did not provide any additional information about this change, so I’d like to correct that omission now and let y’all know “what’s up.” The decision to make this change had come from our brand new Worship Support Ministry Team, which had just met the previous Thursday. I wanted to update folks on the activities of this new ministry team as quickly as possible, partly to keep everyone informed, but also because we’ve been working hard to put together all of the various ministry teams I pitched the parish back in January at our Annual Meeting. So I wanted y’all to know about the progress we’re making towards getting these new ministry teams up and running. Worship Support had a productive and engaging initial meeting, and I think the work of this team will be good for us in both the short and the long term. Unfortunately, the docket for Pentecost Sunday was already overfilled not only with announcements, but with music and liturgy and a sermon that probably went on a little too long as it was, and a very important pause to recognize the gifts and extraordinary contributions of Matt K. and Carol J. to our music ministry and to the overall quality of our worship, as we’ve worked to recover from the worst of the pandemic shutdown. I didn’t go into any detail about the liturgical change because I was trying desperately to get everything in that needed to be gotten in ~ it was already a long service, and I didn't perceive that there was time for an in-depth explanation for the change, beyond mentioning that what we had been doing (alternating between both rites) was "experimental" from the beginning, and that there was an established practice of different rites for each service on Sunday, going back to before I got here. So, that raises the questions: why make this change? What’s the reasoning behind it? And is Fr. Christopher trying to blame the new ministry team, in case the change is unpopular? :p Well, no, to that last. To be clear, the responsibility and ultimately the blame for any aspect of our liturgy and worship must fall on me and me alone. According to the canons of the diocese (and of TEC), the rector or priest-in-charge is the “chief liturgist of the parish” and is the arbiter and overseer of all worship services within the parish. But even more to the point, I was the one who suggested the ministry team consider making this change. So much for blame; what about the thought process behind the change? There are several reasons for now experimenting (and this next phase will be every bit as experimental as alternating rites has been) with different rites for different services. For one, I have received some complaints about using Rite I at 10:30 ... and about using Rite II at 8:30. It's quite symmetrical, actually: as soon as I made the previous change, I immediately got complaints. As soon as I made this change, I immediately got complaints. And that’s perfectly okay in both cases, by the way! It’s the nature of living in community together with each other. In both cases, I have to say, the complaints have come from folks who care deeply and passionately not only about their own experiences in worshipping at All Saints, but also and I think even more so about the overall life and health and vitality of this parish (and The Episcopal Church on the whole). For my part, I find it deeply inspiring to see so many people taking their faith lives, and the faith of their church, so very seriously. I hope y'all really hear me when I say that, because I mean it with the utmost sincerity. So, yes, I've had complaints in both directions, both founded on solid, valid arguments & rationales. But that's not the only, or even the primary, reason for experimenting now with discrete rites for each service. One other reason is a concern about accessibility for newcomers who walk in off the street, largely without prior experience with liturgical worship at all, much less the long and rich heritage of the Anglican tradition. Even in the comparatively short time we've been reopened for in-person worship, we've actually had a number of visitors of just such backgrounds (or lack thereof), for whom this whole way of doing things is very new and strange, even in Rite II. Add in the beautiful but less-immediately-accessible language of Rite I, and the learning curve becomes steeper. Most of these visitors (though notably not all) have visited the 10:30 service. There have also been logistical concerns to arise from our experiment with alternating rites. It's made for more work during the already busy week, in terms of preparing bulletins for each service, because of having to shuffle back & forth between different templates every single week. Concerns have also been raised about the length of the 10:30 service, when Rite I liturgy is combined with service music, anthems, and hymns. (I'll add on a personal note that doing two Rite I services back to back does take more stamina on the part of the Celebrant than I'd anticipated, but that was *not* a factor in this decision! Just something I've noticed.) All that said, please let me offer all of you what I hope will be some assurances... First, as I said on Sunday and as I've said frequently in this letter, this change is just as experimental/temporary as the previous change was. We, collectively, are learning what works, and what works best, for us as a worshipping community. And I am still very much learning & getting to know this community, having lost nearly 2.5 years of time that I'd otherwise have spent doing just that. So, in my mind at least, nothing is etched in stone at this point. Any change we make must be made and held lightly, seen as experimental, and understood to be subject to further change subsequently. In other words, this change (no change, really) is "for all time"; rather, it is "for the time being." Second, I still want to integrate the two services more fully ~ or rather, the two communities that organize themselves around the two service times. My sense is that, before Covid, All Saints had been, in this regard, like many other Episcopal parishes, with two pretty distinct worshipping communities (the Early Folks and the Later Folks), with not a whole lot of overlap or cross-pollination happening between the two Sunday services. Getting these two groups to integrate a bit more with each other was one of the reasons for alternating rites week to week, to begin with. I’d be very curious to hear from y’all as to whether, and to what degree if at all, that has happened over the past several months. Third, I'm open to the idea of using Rite I for both services during specific seasons; I understand that that has been a practice here in times past. While I am reticent to use it for Lent and Advent (I'm aware that that's been done here before, and it's not an uncommon practice in our denomination), I am open to experimenting with that, too. I say I'm reticent only because I don't believe that Rite I is inherently "more penitential" than Rite II ~ I think that's a misreading of both rites, actually. (Yes, Rite I has the Prayer of Humble Access, but just look at all that stuff about sin and the need for a Redeemer in Prayers A, B, and C.) But again, I remain open to experimentation. Let's see what works, "boots on the ground," yes? Fourth, I have some more or less ambitious notions about what we might eventually be able to do with our Sunday mornings, especially if we do find ways to invite more new folks into our parish community. I would love, down the road, for instance, to have two full-blown, full-choir, fully-sung services each Sunday ~ one Rite I and one Rite II ~ and not have the Rite I service be relegated to a small, spoken service always. I think the opportunities that doing so would open up for us would be truly astonishing. I have some notions about those opportunities and possibilities, but I’ll save them for later columns … I don’t want anyone to get too worried just yet! :) Fifth, as I hope I've made clear with the above, Rite I is NOT going away or being removed from the liturgical practice of All Saints! Not on my watch. Lastly, I want all of you to know that the full range of Episcopal worship is dearly important to me, and it always will be. We are the inheritors of a glorious tradition, and I want to ensure that All Saints offers everybody as many ways to connect and engage with, and to experience first hand, our sacred tradition as possible. Yours always in Christ, Christopher+ Greetings, families and friends of All Saints! EPISCOPAL DIOCESAN SUMMER CAMP, aka #EpiscoWiscoDisco2022, will be kicking off on Sunday, June 12! We covet your prayers for our campers & staff, as well as the staff at Waypost Camp, during the two weeks we will be there. All Saints will be sending 10 campers and 3 staff members with all four age groups represented. Please keep the following folks in your prayers: Campers: Mallory, Jorden, Duncan, Abby, Martin, Fletcher, Elena, Emily, Charlie, Jonah, Ann Staff: Brad, Mallory, Erin CAMP MAIL: Want to send campers and/or staffers some snail mail at camp? Allow 3-4 days for mail to arrive to Waypost. Contact the parish office for assistance as needed. Camper/Staffer Name Episcopal Diocesan Summer Camp c/o Waypost Camp 210608 Crooked Lake Dr. Hatley, WI 54440 LET’S CELEBRATE: Please send in your celebratory moments for the June edition of “Let’s Celebrate!” to Erin (asygappleton@gmail.com) by Sunday, June 19. FAMILY FUN NIGHTS: Here are dates for our remaining Family Fun Nights: July 6 & 20 and August 10 & 24 (we’re taking June off for Summer Camp). My dear friends in Christ, Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Kyrie eléison. Lord, have mercy. Christe eléison. Christ, have mercy. Kyrie eléison. Lord, have mercy. Amen. This is not the column I intended to write for our newsletter today. Then, yesterday, Uvalde happened. What more can we say? There are no words to name the depths of violence, tragedy, and loss that, once again, darken our world. That, perhaps, have come to define our world. It is difficult not to yield to such a conclusion. Once again. That little phrase multiplies the horror of yesterday’s attack. For we now live in a society ~ and have for some long years now ~ in which, if I were to refer to “the mass shooting at that school,” you would have to ask me to clarify exactly which mass school shooting I was talking about. We have been accustomed for far too long to having to say “In the most recent school shooting…” After the unspeakable horror of the Sandy Hook massacre, things were supposed to change. Nothing has changed. So what more can we say? And yet … we cannot remain silent. No faithful follower of Jesus Christ can remain silent, inert, passive, in the face of such evil. But what, then, do we say? What, then, do we do? Last night, I saw a post on social media in which the commenter was demanding to know “CLERGY WHERE ARE YOU?” [all-caps in the original] and informing all priests and ministry leaders that “WE’RE ALL HURTING,” so “SPEAK TO US AND GIVE US COMFORT!” Of course, I cannot speak for all clergy and all ministers, but I can tell you where this priest is: I’m hurting, too. I’m terrified, also ~ for my own children, and for yours and everyone else’s. And I’m angry. I am angry beyond the capacity of the English language to communicate. Nineteen more children slain in Uvalde. Two more teachers killed. The worst school shooting since Sandy Hook. Sandy Hook was supposed to be the turning point. It was supposed to be the moment when things changed. When we decided to change things, so that these atrocities stop happening every other week. (We’ve had, what, upwards of 30 mass shootings thus far this year, alone?) So, yes, I’m angry. I’m angry that so many other things seem to be so much more important to so many other people in this society than making sure that the scariest thing our children have to face at school is a pop test. I’m angry that so many people seem to be so willing to throw hands up in the air and say, “Well, what’re ya gonna do? It is what it is. It’s not like it’s ever gonna change.” Well, why not? People used to say the same thing about slavery in this country, about Apartheid in South Africa, about the Berlin Wall and the Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe, etc., etc. But slavery ended, Apartheid was abolished and destroyed, the Berlin Wall came down. The question isn’t whether or not we can do anything to change this evil. The question isn’t whether we should ~ we are absolutely obligated and commanded so by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as expressed in our Baptismal Covenant. The question, again, is not whether we can do anything. The question is: what are we going to do? Greetings, families and friends of All Saints, Even as we are still in Eastertide, we have been reminded several times in the last two weeks that we still live in dangerous times. As such, I’d like to share excerpts of a Litany in the Wake of a Mass Shooting from “Bishops Against Gun Violence”, as shared by Bishop Doug Sparks of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana. Let us pray… God of peace, we remember all those who have died in incidents of mass gun violence in this nation’s public and private places… Eleven dead in Sacramento, California; Ten dead at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York; Twenty-one dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Give to the departed eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them … For survivors of gun violence. Grant them comfort and healing. Hear us, Lord. For those who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Grant them peace. Hear us, Lord. For those first responders who care for victims of gun violence. Protect and strengthen them. Hear us, Lord. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. FAMILY FUN NIGHTS: TONIGHT, we are continuing our Family Fun Nights for the month of May. Future dates: July 6 & 20 and August 10 & 24 (taking June off for Summer Camp). TONIGHT, May 25: Camp Night – We will meet from 6:30-8:00pm in Kemper Hall. Please wear masks and bring your own water bottle – snacks will be provided. Prayer, fellowship, crafts, and more – open to all ages. SUMMER CAMP CAMPER REGISTRATION is still open, and we have suspended late fees through Memorial Day weekend! Head to diofdl.org/camp. Anyone needing scholarship assistance should contact either Fr. Christopher or our parish treasurer, Tina Wilfer. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8): June 19-23, 2022 Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 CAMP MAIL: Want to send your camper(s) and/or staffer(s) some snail mail at camp? Camper/Staffer Name Episcopal Diocesan Summer Camp c/o Waypost Camp 210608 Crooked Lake Dr. Hatley, WI 54440 My dear friends in Christ, Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Happy Easter, y’all! The Great Fifty Days continues, and I hope that this Eastertide has brought you all many blessings and at least a little peace in the midst of these continually “interesting” times in which we live. I hope that you all were able to connect in some way or another with at least some of our Easter liturgies, and that you experienced our shared worship to be as comforting, as rejuvenating, as inspiring as I did. If so, then ALLELUIA, indeed! It’s “been a minute,” as we say down South, since I had a chance to connect with y’all via this Newsletter column. My apologies! The first part of the calendar year, from a church & ministry perspective, always seems to be pretty intense. We come off the high of the twelve days of Christmas, and we immediately encounter the Feast of the Epiphany. For us, just after Epiphany comes our annual parish meeting. From there, it’s never very long until Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season which brings its own particular kind of spiritual intensity to all the other intensities we already have been experiencing. Then, before you know it, it’s Holy Week, and then Easter, and it hain’t gwine be (oh, excuse me ~ that’s Southern for “it is not going to be”) long at all before we’re at Pentecost and are celebrating the birthday of God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church! Whew! So in the midst of all that ~ not to mention the complex lives we’re all leading and the intricate web of relationships that tie us all together as a parish family ~ it’s good to pause for a moment and reconnect. And before too long, we will have more tangible ways to do just that. There’s already a team of folks planning and organizing a renewed coffee hour for Sunday mornings, to be held outdoors to take advantage of the long-awaited change in the weather and allow us to fellowship more safely, even as the Covid pandemic still refuses to set us completely free. Our Youth Minister, Erin Wolf, is already planning a number of parish events to bring us together over the summer. And I will continue to expand our mid-week worship offerings, continuing (and growing) our Wednesday evening healing Eucharist and also (very soon) adding a Tuesday morning Eucharist, as well. It’s an exciting time for All Saints. If you feel the Spirit moving you perhaps to get more directly involved in this renewing and reinvigorating of our parish life, please reach out to me, directly, or contact the church office ~ several existing Ministry Teams would love to have your ideas, energy, enthusiasm, and service … and there are a number of Ministry Teams that don’t exist yet but very much need to! There are more ways than ever to get involved now, so let’s do it, y’all! Here’s to a blessed and beautiful summer ahead. Peace & blessings to you all, C+ Happy Easter (yes, we’re still in Eastertide)! YOUTH FELLOWSHIP: We are still offering 30 minutes of free time following the 10:30am service. As the weather allows, we may move outside to the North Lawn. When inside, though, we ask those ages 3 and up to please continue masking until parish leadership advises otherwise. FAMILY FUN NIGHTS: TONIGHT, we are kicking off Family Fun Nights for the parish for the months of May, July, and August (taking June off for Summer Camp). May Schedule: Tonight, May 11: Game Night – We will meet 6:30-8:00pm on the North Lawn for games, cool treats, and prayer. Holy Eucharist will also be offered inside with Fr. Christopher for anyone wishing to participate that way. Wednesday, May 25: Camp Night – We will meet from 6:30-8:00pm (North Lawn for nice weather, Kemper Hall if too wet) for camp crafts, silly songs, treats, prayer, and more. Holy Eucharist will also be offered inside with Fr. Christopher. CELEBRATION SUNDAY: We will be celebrating both Youth Ministry partners and high school and college graduates this Sunday, May 15 at the 10:30am service. Graduate names and “next steps” will be shared in the next newsletter. LET’S CELEBRATE! For our second edition of this new segment, we’d love to hear moments folks are celebrating in this Eastertide! For those wishing to contribute a story or two, please send to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com by Sunday, May 22. Thank you! SUMMER CAMP CAMPER REGISTRATION is still open, though you only have until Friday, May 13 to sign-up for the lowest prices! Head to diofdl.org/camp. Anyone needing scholarship assistance should contact either Tina Wilfer or Fr. Christopher. SUMMER CAMP STAFF APPLICATIONS: For those interested in serving on Camp Staff, you must be at least a current high school freshman or older and complete a Volunteer Staff Application at diofdl.org/campstaff. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8): June 19-23, 2022 Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 CAMP MAIL: Want to send your camper(s) and/or staffer(s) some snail mail at camp? Camper/Staffer Name Episcopal Diocesan Summer Camp c/o Waypost Camp 210608 Crooked Lake Dr. Hatley, WI 54440 A blessed Eastertide to families and friends of All Saints! YOUTH GROUP will have their final formal gathering for the 2021-2022 academic year. We will meet in Kemper Hall from 6:30-8:00pm. *Please continue to mask and bring your own water bottle until parish leadership advises otherwise. SUNDAY SCHOOL had their final formal gathering this past Sunday, April 24. Thank you to those families who were able to attend and who made our Zoom gatherings such a great experience! YOUTH FELLOWSHIP: We are still offering 30 minutes of free time in Kemper Hall following the 10:30am service to kids present for worship. For those ages 3 and up, please continue to mask until parish leadership advises otherwise. FAMILY FUN NIGHTS: We are looking to offer some informal Family Fun Nights for the parish in the months of May, July, and August (taking June off for Episcopal Diocesan Summer Camp). Stay tuned for more details! CELEBRATION SUNDAY: We will be celebrating both Youth Ministry partners and high school and college graduates on Sunday, May 15 at the 10:30am service. If you and/or your student has graduated (or will graduate) within the 2021-2022 academic year, we'd love to include them! Please contact Erin Wolf for more information. LET’S CELEBRATE! Please be sure to check out our very first edition of the “Let’s Celebrate” segment of the newsletter! This month’s collection features things that members of All Saints celebrated and/or are celebrating through the Lenten season and the start of the Easter season. For those wishing to contribute moments they’d like to share, send your stories to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com anytime. The deadline for May’s edition is Sunday, May 22. SUMMER CAMP CAMPER REGISTRATION is OPEN!!! Head to diofdl.org/camp for more details & sign-up. Anyone needing scholarship assistance should contact either Fr. Christopher or Erin. Cost should not be a reason to miss camp! SUMMER CAMP STAFF APPLICATIONS: For those interested in serving on Camp Staff, you must be at least a current high school freshman or older and complete a Volunteer Staff Application. Applications are now LIVE at diofdl.org/campstaff. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8): June 19-23, 2022 Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 My Dear Friends in Christ, Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Happy Eastertide to you all! Well, I suppose that technically that’s a tad premature. We’re at the moment in the midst of Holy Week. Even so, as the bearers of Christ and as the embodiment of two thousand years’ worth of witness to the resurrection of Jesus, we know that the victory is already won! That it has been won for all time by the One who lived and died and rose again for us. The past few days have offered us a welcome respite from what has been, thus far, a rather windy, chilly, rainy, and ~ just to make sure I don’t forget that it’s Wisconsin ~ snowy springtime. Bright sun, blue skies, temperate weather … even when the next snow hits, which it is sure to do at least once more before finally receding for spring & summer, I will remember feeling, in a day like this, the promise of new life to come. And it will. It is absolutely inevitable. That fact is as true for the changing of the earthly seasons as it is for the eternal promise of God Almighty that, having died with Christ in our baptism, we are raised to new life with him in his resurrection. This time last year, I was reflecting on where we were, as a parish, after “13 months of Coronatide.” Guess we need to update that to read “the first 13 months of Coronatide,” huh? I went on to write: “Indeed, in many ways, it still feels like Lent began in March of 2020 and still hasn’t quite ended. The pandemic is still with us, and it will take time, perhaps years, to recover fully. Even then, things will never be quite the same as they were before.” Unfortunately, that observation continues to hit very close to home, even another year further along. But so does the next thing I wrote last year: “And yet … “And yet there is light. There is hope.” We’ve come a long way from our first Easter Sunday together, when I packed up my ancient MacBook Pro laptop (vintage 2013 technology!), drove over to the empty church building, set up my computer on a stack of prayer books on the altar, and livestreamed a service of Spiritual Communion in celebration of the holiest day in the Christian year … mainly because I couldn’t stand the thought of trying to livestream anything for Easter from my dining room table at home. It just didn’t feel right. Truth be told, our celebrations this year may still not feel entirely right. Covid, after all, is still with us, requiring us to continue to modify our shared worship in order to mitigate as much risk as we can. But we are together, both online and in person. We are singing together again, as a congregation. And, as of Easter, I’m delighted to announce that we will once again have the option of sharing the common cup as part of our celebration of Holy Eucharist. Yes, the wine is coming back! Of course, it will be optional ~ no one who is uncomfortable with the small but not non-existent bit of extra risk will need to drink from the cup. Remember that for nearly two millennia, the Church has understood that the blood is inherent in the flesh, so that to receive only the bread in Communion is to receive Communion fully. But for those who wish to drink, the cup will be available, at last, this Easter. And so life returns, in ways small and great. Life in Christ is renewed, rekindled, reborn, as Creation itself is made anew through the Mystery of the Cross, by the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What that means for All Saints Church, as indeed what it will mean for each one of us in our individual lives and spiritual journeys, will unfold before us over the coming weeks, months, and years. This time last year, it was difficult for me to imagine that we would be where we are now, this Easter. I don’t know what awaits us over the next horizon, but I feel renewed and re-energized … and I hope y’all are as eager as I am to see where our Risen Lord will lead us next! Have a happy and most blessed Easter this year, y’all! God has blessed us richly, for the Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia! Christopher+ Greetings, families & friends of All Saints! YOUTH GROUP Schedule for the rest of the program year: TONIGHT, April 13 – No gathering – Holy Week/Easter Break Wednesday, April 20 – Gathering in Kemper Hall, 6:30-8:00pm Wednesday, April 27 – Final Gathering for the program year, 6:30-8:00pm *Please continue to mask and bring your own water bottle until parish leadership advises otherwise. SUNDAY SCHOOL Schedule for the rest of the program year: Sunday, April 17 – No Gathering – Easter Sunday Sunday, April 24 – Final Gathering for the program year via Zoom, 9:30-10:00am We will continue to offer 30 minutes of free time in Kemper Hall following the 10:30am service to kids present for worship. For those ages 3 and up, please continue to mask until parish leadership advises otherwise. EASTER EGG HUNT RETURNS! The Easter Egg Hunt will be for all students grades 4 and younger following the 10:30am service on Easter Sunday, April 17. All students in grades 5 and older are welcome to assist through Youth Group. If weather is amicable, we will be outside on the North Lawn (mask optional with some distancing). If weather is less friendly, we will be in the Undercroft, masks required for all ages 3 & up. LET’S CELEBRATE! Beginning in the Easter season (late April), we will start to include a new segment in the newsletter called, “Let’s Celebrate!” Our first edition (on or around April 27) will highlight joyful news that happened during the Lenten season (because joy shows up even in our penitent and contemplative times). Sunday School & Youth Group students are already sharing some great moments, and remember: ALL AGES are welcome & encouraged to participate! You can start sending your stories in to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com anytime, and the deadline for the first edition will be Sunday, April 24. Summer Camp camper registration is now OPEN for 2022 sessions! Head to diofdl.org/camp for more info. Staff Applications are also OPEN at diofdl.org/campstaff. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8) Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 My dear friends in Christ, As y’all know, with the beginning of Lent this year, we have added a service of Holy Eucharist with healing on Wednesday evenings at 6:30, with an opportunity for anyone who wants to make an individual confession to do so in the hour beforehand. These services have, thus far, been small, quiet, contemplative, and ~ as far as I can tell ~ especially meaningful to the folks who’ve been able to come out and take part. Thanks to all of you who’ve helped us get this new worship time going … and for those who haven’t come by yet to check it out, here is your renewed invitation to do so, if you’re able. There has, however, been some confusion about the new service, and so I wanted to offer a few words of clarification in this week’s newsletter, in hopes of clearing things up a bit. So, the question I’ve heard the most over the past few weeks is: “Why did you replace the Wednesday morning service we used to have with an evening service that the folks who used to come on Wednesday mornings cannot attend?” Well, the short answer is: “We didn’t.” Please forgive me … I do not in any way intend that answer to sound flippant or dismissive. But it is important, I think, to be clear that the evening service that we’ve added this Lent was never, ever intended to be a “replacement” for the morning service that we used to hold in the chapel prior to the Covid pandemic and shutdown. Replacing that service was never, ever the purpose of adding the service we’ve recently added. The new Lenten service was added because I was going to be here at that time, anyway, in case anyone wanted me to hear a Confession (a wonderful Lenten practice, by the way!), because it wasn’t going to require any extra work from anybody else but me, and because between the ongoing Covid situation, the ongoing strife in our society and in our lives, and the now-ongoing violence and open warfare in our world, a little extra healing during Lent is especially appropriate. The added benefit of the service time’s coinciding with the in-person weekly meeting of our Youth Group was exactly that ~ an added benefit, ensuring that there are enough adults in the building whilst children are present to satisfy our Safe Church requirements. Plus, an invitation to Eucharist is an incredible gift to be able to offer to someone who has just been through the Rite of the Reconciliation of a Penitent. Again, there was never the least thought of “replacing” the pre-Covid morning service with an evening one “instead.” In hindsight, however, it is very easy to understand why a number of folks thought otherwise. After all, the new services began at the same time that the morning livestream of Spiritual Communion on Wednesdays went away. But that wasn’t because the one replaced the other. It was simply because, with the extra time commitment required on Wednesday evenings, I had to let the Wednesday morning livestream service go. A tough call to make, but when we’ve only got one priest, we sometimes have to make choices like that. (The best I had been able to tell, not that many people had been tuning in to those Wednesday livestreams ~ although since I stopped doing them, I have had to wonder if perhaps a lot more people were tuning in than were showing up either in the comments or the Facebook metrics that I could see.) So since I stopped the Spiritual Communion service in the morning at the same time as I started the evening Lenten service, it’s easy to see why it seemed as though the latter was designed to “replace” the former. It wasn’t ~ I just wasn’t able to do both in the same day. That was the initial thinking behind the recent schedule changes. I do sincerely apologize for not doing a better job of sharing all of that information with all of you more clearly and more thoroughly beforehand. I could have done much better about that ~ and I should have. It likely would have cut down on some of the confusion. Another objection I’ve heard lately to the Wednesday evening service is that it’s a problem to have the service in the evening because many of the folks who used to attend the previous Wednesday morning service either can’t or don’t go out in the evenings at all. This objection is also based on the idea that the new evening service was meant to be a replacement for the old morning service, which it wasn’t. But it also raises a separate point that I think we all ought to think about: There are some folks who are part of our parish family who cannot attend evening services. We cannot ever forget that fact. We have to make sure that we make worship available to everybody in the parish, one way or the other. Let’s not ever forget that fact. But let’s also consider the fact that there are folks who are part of our parish family who cannot attend mid-week services in the morning or at noon. So we’ve also got to make such worship available to these folks, as well. We must not forget that fact, either. Now, here’s the really tricky question: which group is more important to All Saints? Well, “tricky” isn’t really the right word. I should rather say: “here’s the trick question…” Because it is a trick question: Which group is more important to our parish? The answer is a resounding “yes!” The goal is, and always has been, to get to a point where we’ve got two mid-week Eucharist services going every week ~ one in the morning and, on a different day, one in the evening. (And eventually, we will need to arrange to have both of those services livestreamed, as well.) Unfortunately, again with just the one priest here, the process of reopening and moving towards a post-Covid “new normal” (including adding extra services like these) has to be a matter of increments, baby steps, rather than our being able to do everything all at once. For the reasons I mentioned above, it made sense to add the evening service when we did. That does not mean that the morning service isn’t important, or that the people who would attend a morning service don’t matter. Everybody here matters! As soon as I’m able to add a morning service, we’ll get one up and running. My hope is to get one going later in the spring or over the summer, so that both services are well established by the time our fall program year gears up to start in September. So stay tuned for more news and announcements about that in the hopefully-not-too-distant future! And thank you for everything y’all do to support our shared worship at All Saints. In the meantime, please do continue to contact me directly with any questions, concerns, fears, hopes, delights, or any other sorts of thoughts and feelings you have ~ let me know what’s on your minds and on your hearts. Peace & blessings, Christopher+ What is Church? … to me? … for me? … without me?
Recently, the Vestry and I met together on a Saturday for a retreat, the purpose of which was to begin a process of discernment and visioning that will continue throughout this year and beyond. With a little bit of luck, and a lot of grace from God, All Saints will continue to move towards a post-Covid “new normal,” and now is the time to be asking what that will mean for us as a parish community. To be asking: what will All Saints be in the next three years, five years, ten years, twenty years? And to be listening faithfully and prayerfully for God’s answers to those questions. It’s an exciting time, to be sure! Especially on the heels of two-plus years of pandemic shutdown, when we’ve had to focus almost exclusively on what we couldn’t do. And when we’ve had to work so hard just to hold onto the present and preserve as much as we could of our past. Now, at last, we get to begin looking ahead, towards what’s to come, towards what we might become. Towards what God has in mind for our future. Exciting, indeed! Folks, I’m happy to report that your Vestry is dedicated to this discernment process, is motivated by a deep love for God and for All Saints Church and you, its people, and is filled with fantastic ideas and great energy for moving All Saints enthusiastically into the next chapter of our lives together in our shared walk with God. The whole retreat was incredibly inspiring to me, and I am eager to continue this work of discernment, not only with our Vestry folk, but also with all of you. I have to say, it feels wonderful to be looking ahead. As a way of bringing us all to a common foundation and starting point, one of the questions I posed at the retreat was: “What is church?” We filled and erased and refilled several chalkboards’ worth of ideas from our brainstorming in response to such a seemingly simple question. I’m attaching a photo as a small taste of just one tiny piece of those conversations, to give you a sense of what it was like. But my main reason for mentioning this part of our retreat to you is to invite you all to explore this same question, both for yourselves individually and also in conversation with your fellow parishioners. What do you say church is? As the Vestry and I explored that question, we discovered something that I’d like to share with you all. In asking the question over and over again, we realized that, at different times, we actually heard different questions, even though the words didn’t change. Sometimes, we heard “What is church … to me?” Sometimes, it was “What is church … for me?” And at times, it was even “What is church … without me?” I draw your attention particularly to that last question, because it’s one we absolutely need to face together. Intellectually, we all realize that growth means change. Emotionally, however, we usually experience some sense of fear at the prospect of change. That can be true even if, at the very same time, we also feel excited about the opportunities! This fear can be even more powerful when it comes up in a parish setting. Why is that? I suspect it’s because we all, at one time or another, have likely worried about whether or not there is, or there will be, truly a place and a home for us in a shifting and changing parish community. “I’m all for growth and trying new things,” we might say, “but what about the things that I need from my church, to feed my soul?” It’s a very important question. One that we need, I believe, to explore together as a church family. Because we probably will not all answer that question exactly the same way. That’s perfectly natural ~ we don’t all need exactly the same things. But we need to be able to name the things we need … and we need to be able to talk about such things with each other (and to feel safe enough in our community to do so). Because on the one hand, if we can’t figure out what we need and what our fellow parishioners need, it’s going to be hard to build a thriving future for our parish where we all feel truly nourished by our shared church. That would make evangelism tough, because “you can’t share what you don’t have,” and if we’re going to invite people to our church, it would be good to have an uplifting answer when they reply, “But why should I come to your church?” And on the other hand, if we can and do experience our needs being met here in the abundance of God’s grace, then we will feel freed and empowered to go out and see to the needs of the people in the communities around us ~ which is the work of the Gospel. So, what is church, to you? What is church, for you? What do you fear might become church, without you? And perhaps most importantly, how does church transform you, empower you, equip you, and send you out into the world to seek and serve Christ in others? Greetings, families & friends of All Saints! YOUTH GROUP Schedule for the rest of the program year: TONIGHT, March 30 – No gathering – Spring Break Wednesday, April 6 – Gathering in Kemper Hall, 6:30-8:00pm Wednesday, April 13 – No gathering – Holy Week/Easter Break Wednesday, April 20 – Gathering in Kemper Hall, 6:30-8:00pm Wednesday, April 27 – Final Gathering for the program year, 6:30-8:00pm *Please continue to mask and bring your own water bottle until parish leadership advises otherwise. SUNDAY SCHOOL Schedule for the rest of the program year: Sunday, April 3 – Gathering via Zoom, 9:30-10:00am Sunday, April 10 – Gathering via Zoom, 9:30-10:00am – Palm Sunday Sunday, April 17 – No Gathering – Easter Sunday Sunday, April 24 – Final Gathering for the program year via Zoom, 9:30-10:00am We will continue to offer 30 minutes of free time in Kemper Hall following the 10:30am service to kids present for worship. For those ages 3 and up, please continue to mask until parish leadership advises otherwise. EASTER EGG HUNT RETURNS! The Easter Egg Hunt will be for all students grades 4 and younger following the 10:30am service on Easter Sunday, April 17. All students in grades 5 and older are welcome to assist through Youth Group. If weather is amicable, we will be outside on the North Lawn (mask optional with some distancing). If weather is less friendly, we will be in the Undercroft, masks required for all ages 3 & up. LET’S CELEBRATE! Beginning in the Easter season (late April), we will start to include a new segment in the newsletter called, “Let’s Celebrate!” Our first edition (on or around April 27) will highlight joyful news that happened during the Lenten season (because joy shows up even in our penitent and contemplative times). Sunday School & Youth Group students are already sharing some great moments, and remember: ALL AGES are welcome & encouraged to participate! You can start sending your stories in to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com anytime, and the deadline for the first edition will be Sunday, April 24. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8) Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 Camper Registration is now OPEN for 2022 sessions! Head to diofdl.org/camp for more info. Staff Applications are also OPEN at diofdl.org/campstaff. For all other questions, please contact Erin “Erni” Wolf, Camp Director, at ewolf@diofdl.org. UPDATE TO ALL SAINTS COVID POLICIES as of 15 MARCH 2022 My dear friends in Christ, Little did we know, at this point two years ago, that we had just experienced our last normal week. It was the middle of March, 2020, when the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic came to Appleton. In those early days, there were no vaccines and no hope of developing usable vaccines for more than a year, at the soonest. Between that fact, and the fact that large portions of our society (both within and beyond the Church) openly opposed some or all of the protocols recommended by experts in the science of infectious disease control in order to contain (or at least slow down) the spread of the virus, and given the risks especially to the most vulnerable members of our community (children, the elderly, the chronically ill, the immuno-compromised), the institution of the church had no choice but to take the burden upon itself to craft policies to protect everybody. We were forced to shut down all in-person worship and gatherings at All Saints, closing our treasured church building for, at the time, the foreseeable future. To say that doing so was hard would, of course, be the understatement of the decade. But nothing stays the same forever. On Palm Sunday of 2021, we were able to return to in-person worship, albeit under a number of restrictions and regulations, some set by the Diocese of Fond du Lac, and others that we set for ourselves. Both the diocese and our local parish have, since the outbreak of the pandemic, sought to be guided in our responses and policies by the best available data and the consensus of the scientific community. Recently, both the CDC and the Diocesan Task Force on Covid-19 have updated their recommendations. In response, your Vestry and I have spent the past two weeks in close conversation, exploring whether it might be time for us to revise our policies for All Saints, as well … and, if so, in what ways. Since the beginning of “Corona-tide,” we have taken a cautious and conservative approach to Covid safety policies, and we shall continue to do so, going forward. The Covid pandemic, after all, is most certainly not over. At this point, however, I believe we can make the following small adjustments to our Covid protocols. As of now ~ and for the time being, presuming that current trends in the data continue:
We are also fully committed to expanding our online/hybrid offerings until we reach the goal of simultaneously live-streaming any and all services that we hold in-person. In other words, we will work to provide as many options and alternatives as possible for folks to engage not only with our worship but also with our community of faith in ways that feel comfortable, welcoming, inclusive, and safe. Finally, we must continue for now to distribute Communion only in one kind (bread). At present, the diocese does not allow the sharing of the common cup, so we don’t have any choice on this one for the time being, y’all. Please understand that these policies are, as they always have been, provisional. As the situation around us continues to change and evolve, we will continue to review our policies and protocols and to make adjustments as new information comes to light. All Covid protocols are thus temporary and for the present moment; they remain subject to change as needed. Hopefully, we will continue to be able to expand the ways that we can be together at church, but should the numbers spike again as they did in 2021, we may well have to return to a stricter set of policies again. If you have any questions or concerns about these adjustments to our policies, please contact me via phone or email, or through the church office ~ I will be more than happy to converse with you, and I most certainly want to hear your thoughts as we work together to chart a way forward for All Saints Episcopal Church. Peace & blessings, Christopher+ Greetings, families & friends of All Saints! LENTEN SCRATCH-OFF PRAYERS: We still have extra scratch-off prayer sheets in the back of the church for anyone wanting to add in some more prayer during their Lenten season. If your family would like to have one dropped off or mailed out, contact Erin Wolf via call or text at 920-918-4007. YOUTH GROUP: Youth Group has resumed in-person gatherings on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:00pm. We are currently meeting in Kemper Hall for space and to cut down on noise for those attending the Wednesday night Eucharist (notice I said, “cut down” and not, “avoid” – if our noises are heard, they will likely be goofy and joyful). Still plan to mask and bring your own water bottle until advised otherwise by parish leadership. ADULTS: We need your help with supervision – while adult leaders are welcome to participate fully in Youth Group, we need other adults in the building/online to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com for more info. Thank you! SUNDAY SCHOOL will continue to gather Sundays from 9:30-10:00am via Zoom until the end of April (links can be found in the Weekly Update email). For those in-person time to gather, we are opening up Kemper Hall for kids to run around and hang out for about 30 minutes. SPRING BREAK/EASTER BREAK: There will be no Sunday School on March 27 or Youth Group on March 30 due to Spring Break. Similarly, there will be no Youth Group on April 13 or Sunday School on April 17 due to Holy Week/Easter activities. LET’S CELEBRATE! Beginning in the Easter season (late April), we will start to include a new segment in the newsletter called, “Let’s Celebrate!” This will be an opportunity for children, youth, families, and adults to share some of the good that’s happening. Whether it be a lost tooth, report card, passing a test, achieving a goal, having a performance or game, overcoming an obstacle, etc. – if it’s something folks are celebrating, we want to celebrate with you! Our first edition of “Let’s Celebrate!” (on or around April 27) will highlight joyful news that happened during the Lenten season (because sometimes, joy shows up even in our penitent and contemplative times). Sunday School & Youth Group students are already sharing some great moments, and remember: ALL AGES are welcome & encouraged to participate! You can start sending your stories in to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com anytime, and the deadline for the first edition will be Sunday, April 24. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8) & Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 More info will be coming soon at diofdl.org/camp! And if you’re interested in volunteering at camp as a part of our staff as a counselor, musician, story-teller, etc, keep an eye on our Camp Staff page at diofdl.org/campstaff. Continuing my series of messages about ministry teams, in this column I hope to begin providing some slightly more concrete details about what I have in mind. In the first two installments, my goal was to express the overall concept and to define some important terms, as well as to give a broad, general description of what I think this system of ministry teams can do for our parish. Today, I invite you to dig in a little deeper with me—below, I have drafted Vision and Mission Statements for teams to oversee each of what I’m calling the “Principal Ministries” of the Church. The idea here is that a vision statement describes what a particular ministry will (with God’s help) “look like” when it’s fully up and running and functioning in a healthy, sustainable manner; a mission statement, on the other hand, denotes the specific work the team will do in order to bring about that vision. That said, one more note about Principal Ministries: Principal Ministries ~ To Preach, Teach, Heal, and Make Disciples I am labeling the ministries of worship, Christian formation, pastoral care, and missions as “principal” because these ministries must be first and foremost in priority for us ~ not so much for us as All Saints Episcopal Church, specifically, but for us as baptized Christians. These ministries comprise the “Gospel imperatives” of preaching, teaching, healing, and making disciples. They encapsulate and embody the very essence of our baptismal covenant, the disciplined work (i.e., discipleship) to which each and every baptized Christian is called when sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own, forever. To be clear, these ministries are not things we are commanded to do in order that we be saved. That is not how grace works! No, these ministries are the specific ways we are both inwardly compelled and outwardly called to express our overwhelming gratitude for the grace that God has freely given us in baptism. These four ministry areas, thus, represent the core ~ the very heart and soul ~ of what it means to be Christian. To the extent that any committed community is actively doing these four things, that community is a church, an assembly of the Body of Christ. If ever a church ceases to do these things, it ceases to be a church at that point, no matter what other good works it might support. In other words, these are the ministries that are, for the Christian, not negotiable. These are the “must haves” and “gotta do’s.” That’s why I’m writing about these four first. It’s not that other ministries are not extremely important; it’s that these four are foundational, making all the others possible. To help kickstart this process of (re)organizing ourselves along the lines of the ministry team model, I’m proposing the following vision and mission statements for each of our ministry teams. As a reminder of the difference between the two, a vision statement is oriented towards the future ~ what we would like to see the ministry in question grow into ~ whereas a mission statement seeks to capture what the team in question actually does in the present moment. Put another way, our vision expresses our hopes and aspirations, while our mission defines our work and activities. WORSHIP Vision: Worship at All Saints will be a lively, welcoming, engaging, and communal experience of prayer, praise, and sacraments, rooted in the tradition of the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church as expressed in the Book of Common Prayer. Mission: The Worship Ministry Team shall work with and assist the clergy of All Saints in their work of planning services and of deciding the details of weekly, monthly, and seasonal observances for the shared worship of the parish. CHRISTIAN FORMATION Vision: Christian formation at All Saints will provide an integrated program of instruction in the Christian faith, across all age groups, as understood in the Anglican tradition and received by The Episcopal Church, including Scripture and catechism as well as Christian discipleship. Mission: The Christian Formation Ministry Team will work with the clergy and staff of All Saints, under the direction of the rector, to plan and implement Christian education curricula and formation opportunities for the parish, recruit and oversee volunteers for Sunday School and Youth Group classes and events, and foster inter-generational educational and formational activities for the parish. PASTORAL CARE Vision: Pastoral care at All Saints will embody the healing, nurturing, and nourishing presence of Jesus Christ in the lives of our parishioners in times of joy and celebration as well as in times of loss and suffering, in response to Jesus’s call to “feed my sheep” and to “love one another as I have loved you.” Mission: The Pastoral Care Ministry Team will coordinate with the rector/clergy of All Saints to discover and assess the pastoral needs of the congregation, to determine appropriate responses to those needs (i.e., to discern opportunities for lay ministry and specific needs for pastoral care from clergy), to implement those responses, and to recruit, train, organize, and oversee volunteer providers of pastoral care within the congregation. MISSIONS Vision: All Saints Episcopal Church will strive to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Jesus Christ, embodying both within our congregation and in the larger community around us the healing and teaching ministries of Jesus, in order to proclaim the Gospel, to bring others to Christ and make disciples, and to promote truth-telling, justice, and reconciliation amongst everyone. Mission: The Missions Ministry Team will seek out and create opportunities for evangelism within the parish and especially within the larger community, coordinating All Saints Church’s efforts to proclaim and demonstrate, in word and action, the Good News of Jesus Christ. Working with the clergy and staff of All Saints, the team will identify and respond to the needs of the community through events, programs, workshops, etc., that call and invite people to new life in Christ. To conclude for today, if you feel any curiosity about or interest in any of these four major ministry areas, please contact the church office or contact me, directly, and let’s talk about it. We need to recruit members especially for Worship, Christian Formation, and Missions as quickly as we can; Pastoral Care is already up and running, and we need to get the other three going soon, as well. Remember, no particular expertise is required ~ just a sincere desire to live out your baptismal covenant and to grow in your walk with Jesus Christ. I look forward to hearing from y’all! Peace & blessings, Christopher+ Greetings, families & friends of All Saints! LENTEN DISCIPLINE: SCRATCH-OFF PRAYERS: Youth & families are welcome to join a simple prayer discipline for Lent this year: scratch-off prayers! Each day for 40 days, scratch off a circle to find out which new group of people, places, or parts of creation need prayer for that day. Copies will be available at both the Noon & 6:30pm services for Ash Wednesday. If your family would like to have one dropped off or mailed out, contact Erin Wolf via call or text at 920-918-4007. ASH WEDNESDAY NOTE: Youth Group will be joining the 6:30pm Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, March 2. If there is time remaining after the service, we will meet in Kemper Hall until 8pm (parents are welcome to join). Masks required. YOUTH GROUP: Starting on Wednesday, March 9, Youth Group will resume in-person gatherings on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:00pm. We will continue to work between the Undercroft & Kemper Hall areas for space. Still plan to mask until advised otherwise by parish leadership. ADULTS: We need your help with supervision – while adult leaders are welcome to participate fully in Youth Group, we need other adults in the building/online to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com for more info. Thank you! SUNDAY SCHOOL will continue to gather Sundays from 9:30-10:00am via Zoom until the end of April (links can be found in the Weekly Update email). For those who are ready for an in-person time to gather, starting this Sunday, March 6 following the 10:30am service, we will open up Kemper Hall for kids to run around and hang out for 30 minutes. Contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com to sign-up for the Youth Ministry email list. LET’S CELEBRATE! Beginning in the Easter season (late April), we will start to include a new segment in the newsletter called, “Let’s Celebrate!” This will be an opportunity for children, youth, families, and adults to share some of the good that’s happening. Whether it be a lost tooth, report card, passing a test, achieving a goal, having a performance or game, overcoming an obstacle, etc. – if it’s something folks are celebrating, we want to celebrate with you! Reminders will go out during the Lenten season, and you’ll be able to send your stories in to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8) & Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 MORE ABOUT MINISTRY TEAMS My dear friends in Christ, In the last newsletter, I began to elaborate on the Ministry Team model for parish organization that I originally pitched to you all at our Annual Meeting in January. Over the next few newsletter columns, I will continue to expand on the basic concept. Hopefully, what will come out will offer a clear and at least somewhat coherent proposal for helping our parish to thrive and grow into the future. In this column, I share with you the overall outline I have in mind for a network of ministry teams at All Saints, along with some explanation of how we might want to organize and prioritize the various teams according to the types of ministries involved. In future columns, I will offer more details about each individual team, including Vision and Mission statements for each team. But first, one additional bit of explanation about what I’m envisioning these ministry teams will be and how they ought to function: The members of any given ministry team will not necessarily be the same people who are called to perform the duties of the ministry in question. Rather, the ministry team exists to make sure that a particular ministry of the church gets done. Sometimes, that might mean the members of the team do some of that work; other times, the team’s job will be to bring specific ministerial or pastoral needs to the priest’s attention; and in other cases, the ministry team may be responsible for recruiting volunteers from the parish (or experts from the larger community outside the parish) to handle a particular task or help with a particular project. The ministry team is about oversight, management, and coordination; the team is not meant to bear the entire burden for performing its assigned ministry all by itself. A Proposed Outline of Ministry Teams at All Saints Episcopal Church “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.” (2 Cor. 13:14) I suggest we organize our parish’s ministry teams according to the types of ministries these teams will oversee. First priority are our Gospel imperatives ~ those ministries which, as a parish in God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, and as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, we must make central to our lives, as they are the very reasons for our existence as a faith community. These are our Principal Ministries. In order to be able to maintain those ministries on an ongoing basis, however, we must also provide for a number of supporting ministries ~ I am calling these our Administrative and Organizational Ministries. In addition to creating a support network for our Principal Ministries, we need also to provide ongoing support for one another as individuals and as a parish family. I propose we think of these as our Christian Life Ministries. Here is the arrangement I am proposing: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ … Principal Ministries ~ To Preach, Teach, Heal, and Make Disciples WORSHIP CHRISTIAN FORMATION PASTORAL CARE MISSIONS Please note that each of these Principal Ministries corresponds directly to each of the four imperatives from the Prayer for Spiritual Growth that we prayed at our Annual Meeting: WORSHIP ~ preaching; CHRISTIAN FORMATION ~ teaching; PASTORAL CARE ~ healing; and MISSIONS ~ making disciples. These are the big ones, folks. The “must haves” for any group that would call itself a “church.” These ministries aren’t just good ideas or things to aspire towards; these are the things we have to do because they are rooted in our identity as Christians and baked into our baptismal covenant. … and the love of God … Administrative & Organizational Ministries ~ For the Good of the Order Vision & Planning Finance & Resources Stewardship Communications All Saints Tech Crew While it would be a bit of a stretch to characterize these ministries as “Gospel imperatives,” a quick glance at the names of these teams makes it apparent that if we don’t provide for these ministries, then we will not be capable of doing the big four Principal Ministries. If we don’t plan a coherent vision for the parish, if we don’t practice stewardship and diligent custody of the resources God gives us, if we have no reliable way to communicate with each other or the outside world, and ~ especially in this day and age ~ we don’t master and maintain our technology, then we cannot reliably preach, teach, heal, or make disciples. … and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, … Christian Life Ministries ~ That We Might Have Life and Have it More Abundantly Parish Life & Fellowship Hospitality, Welcome, & Newcomers Community Engagement Discernment & Vocation Jesus tells us in the Gospel that he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. These ministries have as their purpose the creation and nurturing of a flourishing, abundant life together, both within our parish, and for our parish as part and parcel of the larger community around us. In the same way that the Administrative and Organizational Ministries are absolutely essential to the healthy functioning of the Principal Ministries, these Christian Life Ministries are absolutely essential to the healthy functioning of both individuals and interrelationships within our church family. As such, they are particularly important as we look to growing and expanding our church family ~ the most powerful tool in the evangelism toolkit is a vibrant, life-giving, engaged church community. These ministries are essential to fostering such a community, one that people will want to belong to. That’s it for this installment, folks. As always, please let me know your thoughts, questions, concerns, and ideas about this approach to parish ministry ~ I want to hear from you! More to come in the next column… Peace & blessings, Christopher+ Greetings, families & friends of All Saints! YOUTH GROUP will continue to gather Wednesdays from 7:00-8:00pm via Zoom, and SUNDAY SCHOOL will continue to gather Sundays from 9:30-10:00am via Zoom. Whenever we are able to resume in-person gatherings, families will be notified. Links can be found in the Weekly Update email. Contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com to sign-up for the Youth Ministry email list. *Please copy & paste email addresses as needed. ASH WEDNESDAY NOTE: Youth Group will be joining the 6:30pm Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, March 2. If there is time remaining after the service, we will meet in Kemper Hall until 8pm (parents are welcome to join). Masks required. ADULTS: We need your help with supervision – while adult leaders are welcome to participate fully in Youth Group, we need other adults in the building/online to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com for more info. Thank you! BLACK HISTORY MONTH RESOURCES: If you and your student are looking for Black History Month resources within the church, CLICK HERE for a list to get you started. You can also check out the ministry and resources from the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in the Diocese of Atlanta (CLICK HERE). Finally, you can learn more about the Dismantling Racism network here within Province V, the Episcopal Church of the Upper Midwest, which our Diocese of Fond du Lac is a part of. CLICK HERE for more information. LET’S CELEBRATE! Beginning in the Easter season (late April), we will start to include a new segment in the newsletter called, “Let’s Celebrate!” This will be an opportunity for children, youth, families, and adults to share some of the good that’s happening. Whether it be a lost tooth, report card, passing a test, achieving a goal, having a performance or game, overcoming an obstacle, etc. – if it’s something folks are celebrating, we want to celebrate with you! Reminders will go out during the Lenten season, and you’ll be able to send your stories in to Erin Wolf at asygappleton@gmail.com. ACOLYTES/TECH SUPPORT: If you are a student interested in re-joining the acolyte roster or learning how to become an acolyte, please contact Emily Gilbert in the parish office at allsaintsappleton@gmail.com. If you’re a high school student or young adult interested in learning how to help run the livestream for worship services, contact Brad Retzlaff at allsaintsappletononline@gmail.com for more info. CAMP 2022 Dates: All sessions will be held at Waypost Camp in Hatley, WI. Senior (completed grades 9-12): June 12-18, 2022 Middler (completed grades 6-8) & Junior (completed grades 2-5): June 19-23, 2022 Kinder Camp (ages 4-7 & adult): June 23-25, 2022 My dear friends in Christ, At our Annual Meeting this past Sunday, I spoke to you about the importance of putting together small groups called “ministry teams” to organize and oversee the ministries of All Saints Episcopal Church. For the next several weeks, I hope to use my allotted space in our parish newsletter to expound and expand upon the ideas that I tried to articulate at the Annual Meeting … and to respond to questions, concerns, and interests that y’all may have as we seek to put these concepts into practice. So, please stay tuned to this newsletter (and other parish communications), and be sure to contact the church office or me, directly, with any comments, questions, suggestions, and/or ideas that come to you as we go along. To begin, you may have noticed I added an extra prayer in to the beginning of our Annual Meeting this year, a prayer for spiritual growth: Gracious Father, we ask spiritual growth for ourselves, our families and friends, and especially for our family of All Saints. Grant us growth in understanding and willingness to be your Body in this world. Empower us to live the mission of Christ: to preach, teach, heal, and make disciples. In joyful thanksgiving for the blessing of your presence in our lives, compel us to share you with everyone we meet. May our numbers increase, our commitment deepen, our lives be joyfully yours. Make us a God-centered people. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Personally, I love this prayer. One of the reasons I love it is that in each and every line, it calls us back to the center of who we are, and whose we are, as Christians. Each sentence in this prayer reiterates a portion of what we become, and what we promise, when we receive the sacrament of baptism. And perhaps most importantly, this prayer makes it very clear that spiritual growth is not only something that happens in the mind or even the heart; it is that, but it is also thoroughly tied up in the activities of being the Body of Christ in the world. Spiritual growth isn’t mere philosophical enlightenment … it is a call to new life that requires the total transformation of the self, making us into more useful servants of God. Now, what does that have to do with this ministry team thing I keep talking about? Well, I’m glad you asked! : ) But before I answer that question, let me once again see if I can’t explain what a ministry team is, and why it’s different from a committee… What Is a “Ministry Team”? Why am I making such a big deal out of using the term “ministry team” instead of “committee”? What difference does it make? After all, no matter what we call it, we are talking about small groups of parishioners who volunteer to help do the work and conduct the business of the church. That pretty much matches the official definition of “committee,” per dictionary.com: “a person or group of persons elected or appointed to perform some service or function, as to investigate, report on, or act upon a particular matter.” But All Saints is ~ primarily ~ neither an institution nor an organization; whatever else All Saints may be, it is, first and foremost, a church. Likewise, a ministry team is more than a mere committee, and serving on a ministry team is both more demanding and more rewarding than simply performing some service or function for the institution or organization of All Saints Episcopal Church. More important than functions or services are the ministries of the people of All Saints. So what is a ministry team, then? A ministry team is a small group of people who offer their time and energy to make sure that one particular ministry of the parish gets done. Each team comprises a chairperson (someone to “take point” and get things organized), a Vestry liaison (a member of the Vestry who is a member of the team and so can actively report back to the Vestry on the team’s needs and activities), and three to five team members. Note that the ministry team is responsible for overseeing that ministry, not necessarily for doing that ministry. The team identifies the needs related to that ministry, and the team members then recruit folks from the parish to help do the work that needs doing. Now, why is that important, and what does it have to do with spiritual growth? Simple. All Christians are called at baptism into the role and identity of being ministers and we are charged with the responsibility of ministering to each other and to the world. As expressed in the Outline of the Faith, or Catechism, found in the Book of Common Prayer: Q: Who are the ministers of the Church? A: The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons. Q: What is the ministry of the laity? A: The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church. (p. 855) Serving as a member of a ministry team is an outstanding way to live into your baptismal vocation as a lay minister in God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. It is a wonderful way to offer the specific skills and gifts God has given each of us to the use and service of God’s purposes, to respond to God’s invitation to take up your part in the work of establishing God’s kingdom in our part of God’s world. However mundane a particular task might seem to be, doing that task as a member of a ministry team is a powerful reminder that each of us is not just a volunteer, but a servant … and not just a servant, but a minister, and that our work in the Church ~ no matter the job or service ~ is meant to be sacramental: an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace with which God has blessed us here at All Saints. Again, the members of any given ministry team are not necessarily the same people who are called to perform the duties of the ministry in question. Rather, the ministry team exists to make sure that a particular ministry of the church gets done. Sometimes, that might mean the members of the team do some of that work; other times, the team’s job will be to bring specific ministerial or pastoral needs to the priest’s attention; and in other cases, the ministry team may be responsible for recruiting volunteers from the parish (or experts from the larger community outside the parish) to handle a particular task or help with a particular project. The ministry team is about oversight, management, and coordination, not bearing the entire burden for performing its assigned ministry all by itself. In this way, a parish organized around ministry teams continually creates new opportunities to invite individual members of the congregation into the hands-on ministries of the church, yes, but also into networks of relationship that keep the people in our parish family actively connected with each other. As we live out our baptismal covenant together, in community, not only are we more likely to find our prayers for spiritual growth answered, but we are also more likely to find ourselves seeking and serving Christ in each other and our community, to find ourselves in deeper Communion with each other and with our Lord Jesus, and in that way to be ever more deeply conformed to Christ ~ the very definition of discipleship. Words matter, and names are particularly important. What we call something becomes, often, what that thing is. So I believe it is important that we leave the term “committee” behind and commit ourselves to organizing our parish into ministry teams whose work will be to oversee and supervise the important ministries that, taken together, define the mission of All Saints Episcopal Church. Greetings, families & friends of All Saints! YOUTH GROUP will continue to gather Wednesdays from 7:00-8:00pm via Zoom, and SUNDAY SCHOOL will continue to gather Sundays from 9:30-10:00am via Zoom. Whenever we are able to resume in-person gatherings, families will be notified. Links can be found in the Weekly Update email. Contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com to sign-up for the Youth Ministry email list. *Please copy & paste email addresses as needed. ADULTS: We need your help with supervision – while adult leaders are welcome to participate fully in Youth Group, we need other adults in the building/online to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at asygappleton@gmail.com for more info. Thank you! CALENDARS: You can find updated calendars for Winter/Spring 2022 SS & YG classes - CLICK HERE. Diocesan summer camp dates for June 2022 are also listed on the main calendar page for families that are starting to plan ahead. BLACK HISTORY MONTH RESOURCES: If you and your student are looking for Black History Month resources within the church, CLICK HERE for a list to get you started. Another great resource for on-going learning and conversation is the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta (CLICK HERE). The center is named for the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church, Absalom Jones, ordained in 1805. Their mission (from the website), “…is to provide tools and experiences that allow faith communities – and the larger community of individuals – to engage in dismantling racism through education, prayer, dialogue, pilgrimage, and spiritual formation.” I have had the chance to work with the Absalom Jones Center in completing trainings within their Dismantling Racism curriculums for youth and adults, as well as following some of their discussion series via YouTube. I’ve also had the chance to meet and learn from their Executive Director, Dr. Catherine Meeks, who has been doing this work for over 40 years. For those interested in learning more, I highly recommend exploring the website and YouTube channel and welcome further questions and conversation for those interested in this work and/or learning. Finally, you can learn more about the Dismantling Racism network here within Province V, the Episcopal Church of the Upper Midwest, which our Diocese of Fond du Lac is a part of. CLICK HERE for more information. ACOLYTES/TECH SUPPORT: If you are a student interested in re-joining the acolyte roster or learning how to become an acolyte, please contact Emily Gilbert in the parish office at allsaintsappleton@gmail.com. If you’re a high school student or young adult interested in learning how to help run the livestream for worship services, contact Brad Retzlaff at allsaintsappletononline@gmail.com for more info. |
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