From the Rector

My dear family in Christ,
 
As we continue to gear up for the launch of our 2024 Fall Program Year, I continue to be encouraged by your enthusiasm and deep commitment to the ministries of All Saints.  Our weekday Eucharists (Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m.) have each developed into intimate communities around their respective services ~ come try one out to see what I mean.  Meanwhile, our newest program, Living Christianity on Monday nights, has been well attended thus far, both for our first series (on theological reflection) and our second (on Christian meditation).  A third series in the program is now about to begin ~ see the announcement elsewhere in this newsletter.  Our sidewalk ministry during the Farmers’ Market is a great success, and our weekly Zoom offerings (Bible study on Mondays at 11:30 and Faith Talk on Thursdays at 12:30) are still going strong after more than two years now.  But perhaps most importantly, a parishioner recently shared with me her impression that our parish feels “spiritually alive” (her words) now, and what an amazing testament to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit amongst us that is!
 
Our principal worship on Sundays must have something to do with that feeling, I think.  Since I came back from my vacation in July, it’s been a pleasure, a delight, and a privilege to move back into our time-honored liturgies with all of you.  Our Sunday morning gatherings have felt, to me, truly life-giving.  I hope that’s been y’all’s experience, as well.  And I truly hope that at least some of that feeling comes through in our livestream for everyone who participates in worship with us from afar.  In fact, aside from some technological issues that we’ve struggled with (the hearing aid loop suddenly not working & sound issues with the livestream, both of which I hope are now resolved), Sundays have been so good that I hate to bring it up, but Sundays are about to change a little bit.
 
On September 22, we return to our familiar two-service schedule:  a Rite I spoken service at 8:30 a.m., and a Rite II service with choir & music at 10:30 a.m.  That was the schedule we used prior to going to a single service at 9:30 this past June, as an experimental “summer schedule.”  The experiment, I think, has been overall a success.  A number of folks have gone out of their way to tell me how much they’ve appreciated seeing so many more people in the pews with them, not to mention reconnecting with long-time members of our congregation whom they had not seen for so long because they went to different services on Sundays.  On the other hand, a number of folks have shared with me that the summer schedule did bring some hardships, as well, and did prevent some folks from being able to attend worship in person.
 
This is a perennial tension in any parish ~ the attempt to find the “perfect” service time that works for every person in the parish and creates hardships for none.  I bring it up now for our parish because I want to invite you to notice what, if anything, changes as we go back to the two-service schedule:  notice how the services you attend feel.  Notice who’s there in the pews around you.  Try to see our church as though you were a stranger visiting All Saints for the first time.  How does it strike you to see how many pews are filled?  Or how many aren’t?  How does the liturgy of whichever service you attend speak to you as a long-time member of the parish?  How, on the other hand, would that same liturgy feel to a new visitor who just walked in off the street?
 
I invite you to reflect on these questions in part because the fall is a time when we’re likely to get more visitors coming to check us out than we might at other times of the year.  Because we are making (and need to make) a concerted effort to start growing our parish.  And because, as I mentioned before, we are in a real moment of spiritual alive-ness here!  We want to do everything we can to feed that energy and give the Holy Spirit as much to work with as we can.
 
So what I’m really inviting you to do is to hold on somewhat loosely to our “regular” service schedule, and let’s see how well it works moving forward.  There are all sorts of approaches to arranging services that we have not tried yet (or at least recently, since I’ve been here).  We’ll be on this two-service schedule for the foreseeable future ~ let’s go into it with a “let’s see how it works” frame of mind.  It may well be that by doubling our Sunday services, we’ll end up doubling our attendance at worship.  Wouldn’t that be amazing?
 
On that note, I’ll leave off with this reminder:  when studies have been done, the statistics have shown that when folks are asked what got them to start attending whatever church they attend, the most common answer is “A friend invited me to come.”  That’s the main reason, by an overwhelming margin.  So as we change to our Fall service times, don’t forget to invite people to come to church with you, to whichever service you’ll attend.  It will make a huge difference.
 
Thank you all ~ each of you ~ for everything you do to make All Saints the incredible spiritual community that it is.  Your faith is inspiring!  Now, in the words of the song that Anne and I once sang to you:  “Go tell somebody!” : )
 
Peace & blessings,
Christopher+

---