From the Rector

My dear family in Christ,
 
This past Sunday, 1st December, was Advent 1.  It marked, of course, the beginning of our annual journey through the season of Advent as we make our way towards, and make our souls ready for, the Nativity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ on the 25th.  But it also marked the completion of my fifth full year here with you all as Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church.
 
Advent, like Lent, is a good season for contemplating endings and beginnings, and the connections between the two.  The Anglo-Saxons had a saying:  “The end and the beginning are not always alike”—but they are inextricably linked together.  Every time one thing ends, another thing begins.  And every time a new thing begins, whatever came before either ends … or changes and grows into a new thing, itself.
 
The world looked rather different when I arrived at All Saints in December of 2019.  For one thing, I drove up through a terrible ice storm to begin my time here in a “new world” buried under vast drifts of snow.  It seemed as if Fate had got hold of a book called The Most Predictable Clichés of the Upper Midwest and brought the first few pages to life, just for me, this Southern ex-pat now come to the Frozen North. 🙂 I was quite amazed that Spring, when the sun came out and everything turned green!
 
And then Covid hit us.  Nearly two solid years of being shut out of gathering together to worship … or do anything else.  We responded, as this community always has, with deep faith and a “Well, I guess we’ll have to do a few things different now, so let’s get going…” attitude that helped us weather the global crisis amazingly well, for as excruciatingly hard as it was.  And we launched a dynamic online ministry & kept on going.
 
Reopening to in-person gathering was, as y’all remember, incremental and not easy.  Constantly having to discern what was safe, what wasn’t, and what was “safe enough” was no easy task, and we had a lot of disagreements in lots of different directions.  “Too many restrictions” … “not enough restrictions” … “can’t we just be done with this mess?” … “you do realize that Covid is still happening, right?” … and so it went.  But we managed by the grace of God to stay together, and even to grow our community, during those hard times.
 
But we realized that, upon reopening, really to grow our parish meant inviting more new people to come be part of our community.  And we realized that, in order to do that, we needed to be able to let people know, specifically, what kind of community we were inviting them to join.  We had some serious discernment to do, and we stepped up to and into that challenge just as we had with the challenge of the pandemic shutdown.  Through Zoom discussions and Bible studies and Vestry meetings and parish gatherings, we discerned God’s call for us to become, officially, as fully welcoming, inclusive, and affirming parish, ensuring that, at All Saints, all persons, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc., are truly invited and welcomed into the full communal and sacramental life of this church.  An incredible milestone in the history of All Saints.
 
So we have a little bit better idea, at least, of who we are as a worshipping community now.  And maybe, just maybe, we’ve started to get somewhat accustomed to this crazy Southern ex-pat who’s been sojourning among us for five years and counting.  Or maybe not.  Either way, we’re turning once again to a new set of present challenges … and opportunities.  Being an inclusive and affirming congregation means perhaps a bit more now than it did a year ago, with the recent “climate change” in the larger social and political environment around us.  Our commitment that All Saints is to be a truly safe place for all people, but especially for people who are members of marginalized and/or targeted groups is no longer as abstract and idealistic as it might formerly have seemed.  It has real-world consequences and carries real-world obligations.
 
But it’s also the right thing to do.  The Gospel thing to do.  And if what we’ve seen and experienced and learned of the Holy Spirit over the past two thousand years holds true, it might just be one of the ways that, as the Body of Christ in this place at this time, we help to shine a light in the darkness, that the darkness cannot overcome.  My dear friends, people need the light of Christ now as much as ever.  We need it, ourselves.  Our families, friends, and neighbors, and those who are alone, need it.  The people of Appleton, the Fox Valley, Wisconsin, the U.S., and the whole world need it.
 
From what I’ve seen firsthand in my time here so far, this parish community has always had a deep and abiding love for Jesus Christ.  I haven’t seen that change in five years; I’ve only seen it grow.  And speaking of that, my heart tells me that the deeper and more fully we lean into that love of Christ, and the more courageous we get about showing it do the community & the world around us, the brighter Christ’s light will shine here, and the more our parish will thrive.
 
So let us not merely anticipate with eagerness the coming birth of Our Lord this Christmas; let us yearn after God, let us long for Christ Jesus to be born and nurtured in our hearts, so that we shall be moved to seek and nurture Christ in everyone around us.  Let us find a way to believe in miracles.  And let us be the miracle for all those who are hurt and lost and lonely in our midst.
 
Yours always in Christ,
Christopher+

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