From the Rector

My dear family in Christ,
 
I had intended to begin my first message of 2025 by simply wishing everyone a happy new year … but even before I got the chance to do so, 2025 has already been marred by outbreaks of violence in New Orleans and Las Vegas (as well as around the world, of course). Wouldn’t it be truly lovely if we could simply bid adieu to the fears and troubles and sorrows of an outgoing year, turn the pages of our lives as we turn the pages of our calendars, and start afresh with a slate wiped completely clean of everything that has troubled us in the past twelve months?

Alas, that just doesn’t seem to be the way things work in this world. The past continually informs and influences our present, even as that present becomes woven into the future as it unfolds before us.  There is a continuity of human experience, as one moment flows into the next and the choices we have the freedom to make today become the unchangeable past of tomorrow.

Forgive me -- I did not intend to get so abstruse and poetical today. But milestones in time tend to get me thinking philosophically, as well as pragmatically. Frank Herbert, in his famous science fiction novel Dune, wrote that “A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.” So as we begin a new calendar year*, it seems like a good idea to try to strike a balance between past, present, and future; between fears and hopes; between challenges and opportunities. It’s important to acknowledge that in many ways, 2024 was a tough year … and that many of the things that made it a tough year are still present in 2025, and will likely continue to be with us for some time. But it’s also important to acknowledge that a new year can truly be a fresh start, if we choose to make it one.

So much for the philosophy! Now, let’s be a bit more pragmatic. One of the great blessings we have inherited, here in 2025, from our past is an All Saints family that is deeply loving, staunchly faithful (to each other and to God), and richly blessed with talents and gifts and resources. One challenge that we (along with all mainline churches in America) have likewise inherited is a declining membership compared to where we were several years ago. We have recently been blessed to add a number of new people to our community, but also lost a lot of folks over the past few years.

Thus, here is a very practical idea for starting the new year off right. Let’s all commit to this pledge: “Between now and December 31, I will personally invite at least five new people to come to church with me at All Saints.” It’s an easy, simple, very basic thing that each one of us can do this year that will, all at once, help us to remember and appreciate the amazing community that we have and help us to grow that community by inviting others to come experience it with us. We have something here that so many people in Appleton & the Fox Valley need. Let’s tell ’em about it and invite them to come see for themselves!

Yours always in Christ,
Christopher+

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