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 [email protected] 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?

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:
 

1. Masking is required of everyone at all sung/musical services (Sunday 10:30 a.m.).
   
   
2. Congregational singing is now allowed at musical services (Sunday 10:30 a.m.) with masking being required.
   
   
3. Masking is now optional for spoken services (Sunday 8:30 a.m. and Wednesday 6:30 p.m.) with six feet of social distance between household/family units; All Saints will continue to be “mask friendly” and strongly to encourage anyone who wishes to mask to feel comfortable and welcome to do so.
   
   
4. Air purifiers will continue to be run during all in-person church functions.
   
   
5. Masking is still required, for now, for in-person meetings of small groups within the church building.
   
   
6. Maintaining 6+ feet of social distance between household/family units during in-person gatherings is still required.
   
   
7. Extended in-person conversation and fellowship between and/or after services are still at this time strongly discouraged inside the building.
   
   
8. If you experience any symptoms of infection (Covid or otherwise), or if you suspect you might be coming down with something, or especially if there is a chance you might have been exposed to infection, please stay home and take advantage of our online offerings.

 
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+

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+

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+

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected]. 
 
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 [email protected] for more info. 

My dear friends in Christ,
 
Our Annual Meeting (January 30 @ 2:00 via Zoom) is nearly upon us once again!  An appropriate moment to pause for a bit of reflection and, perhaps, a bit of intention as we get set to move forward into this new year together.
 
One thing I hope to see this year is the formation of a number of new Ministry Teams to manage and steward the important ministries of All Saints.  The stellar work of the longstanding Finance Ministry Team and of the nascent Online Ministry Team have given us examples and models of how this type of parish organization works well both to sustain ongoing ministries and also to respond to new (and unexpected) needs with new and exciting ministries.  The financial challenges of the pandemic have been, as you might imagine, not insignificant, and the fact that we’re entering 2022 is such comparatively good shape is down to remarkable leadership from our Finance Team.  And as for the Online Ministry Team, well, we didn’t have an online ministry when the pandemic hit ~ now we do.  Can I get an “amen”?
 
Our Pastoral Care and Music Ministry Teams are the latest to come together … or rather, to come back together.  Now, Covid has once again, thanks to Omicron, curtailed for the moment our ability to do home visits safely and to sing together as a congregation.  I’m delighted to say, nevertheless, that both these ministry teams are doing remarkable things despite the ongoing pandemic.  The Pastoral Care Team is off to a fantastic start, reaching out to folks in the parish, making sure that I as rector and other church leaders are made aware of people’s pastoral needs, preparing training sessions for lay Eucharistic visitors, rekindling our Stephen Ministry, and revitalizing (or re-starting, in some cases) the kinds of pastoral care that have been a hallmark of this parish community.  And the Music Ministry Team has worked incredibly hard to incorporate both pre-recorded and live, in-person music back into our shared worship in spite of the extreme difficulty imposed by Covid safety protocols.
 
None of that should be surprising, of course.  I’m told that All Saints has a long and wonderful history before my time here of vital and effective teams (“committees” is the term that’s been commonly used in the past).  But a stretch of time without a rector followed by a global pandemic would take a toll on any parish.  Feels like it’s been a few years now of operating in “emergency mode.”  Now that it’s become more or less clear that the pandemic isn’t so much an emergency we’re going to get through as it is simply a newly redefined reality that’s here to stay, we’ve got to shift our orientation a bit.  We still have the (ongoing) emergency to deal with, but we must at the same time get back to the deeper work of laying the foundations for our future.  In short, we’ve got other ministerial needs that must be met.
 
In particular, I’d like to see ministry teams come together to oversee Worship Support, Christian Formation, Missions, Communications, and … something along the lines of Community Engagement or Presence.  (What we really need is a team to focus on marketing and branding, but it often feels distasteful in Episcopal circles to use such terminology when talking about our churches.  It need not be so, however, if we remember that we are commanded by Christ in the Holy Scriptures to go out into the world to spread the Good News ~ to preach, teach, heal, and make disciples.  Hard to do that if nobody out there can see or hear you, y’know?)
 
There’s a lot to do in the coming year.  If you have any questions about or interest in any of the areas I just named ~ or, perhaps more importantly, if you have an idea for a ministry team that All Saints needs ~ please send me an email ([email protected]) or shoot me a text or voicemail (920.266.9262).  I would LOVE to hear from you!
 
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. CLICK HERE to sign up for the Youth Ministry email list.
 
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 [email protected] 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. 
 
RESOURCES: A reminder that we have a resources page on the Youth Ministry website for those families wishing to find more ways to pray, learn, and more at home. CLICK HERE to explore options, and if you have a great resource you'd like to share, simply reply to this email so I can check it out and add it to the list!
 
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 [email protected]. 
 
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 [email protected] for more info.

My dear friends in Christ,
 
By now many of you have seen the recent recommendations put out by the Wisconsin Council of Churches.  But whether you’ve seen that document or not, you’ve likely been keeping track of current Covid trends, especially in terms of Omicron, the latest variant of the virus that’s been causing infection rates and hospitalizations to spike yet again.  Questions arise (also yet again) about whether we should modify or revise our Covid mitigation protocols and procedures.  With such questions in mind, the Covid Task Force appointed by Bishop Matt in 2020 met again this week.  Here is a summary of where we are at the moment.
 
Both the bishop and the task force agree that decisions about in-person worship, congregational singing, et al., are best handled at the parish level.  Bishop Matt has not at this time issued any further diocese-wide directives.  That said, some parishes are considering returning to all-virtual worship, suspending in-person services until the current spikes in the numbers start to come back down.  Some parishes are not.  Infection rates, death rates, and hospitalization rates are some of the metrics being used to make those decisions; for my part, one metric that weighs very heavily on me is the saturation of our hospitals and healthcare infrastructure.  While it is true that Omicron ~ in most cases ~ does not seem to result in as severe an illness as Delta or earlier strains of Covid, it is also true that, in our area, hospitalization rates are high ~ back up in the summer 2020 ranges.
 
That’s a real problem, because it means that even if you don’t get Covid, you’ll likely run into difficulty gaining access to the medical care you might need for other illnesses and issues.  People’s chemo treatments, for example, have had to be rescheduled, and hospital beds are not available for other emergencies because they’ve been filled by Covid patients.  One of the reasons we shut down in-person worship in the first place was to give our healthcare infrastructure time and space to “catch up” and not be so over-saturated.
 
All that said, I do not believe that we need to shut down in-person worship at All Saints at this time.  The Covid Task Force agrees:  an hour, more or less, of worship ~ as long as we are absolutely diligent about masking and about maintaining at least six feet of social distance between households/family groups ~ is probably not any more risky than anything else that we’re all having to do to get by these days.  Moreover, I believe that the emotional, psychological, and pastoral risks of shutting down and going all-virtual again, after we’d finally gotten back into our beautiful church and after we’ve worked so hard to be able to worship together safely, are equal to or greater than the risks posed by worshipping together for an hour once a week, masked and socially distanced.
 
There is something that we do need to change, however:  we cannot continue to be as lax as we have been before and after each service.  We’re not holding any coffee hour gatherings for fellowship because of Covid … so we’ve slowly developed a habit over the past several months of congregating in the aisles and hallways after church to fellowship, to reconnect, to see each other and to be seen.  My friends, I know how hungry we are for that contact with other human beings, with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  But these are exactly the kinds of activities that contribute the most to the spread of Covid, and Omicron is more highly contagious than anything we’ve seen so far. 
 
So I am going to have to be much more diligent and consistent than I have been, of late, to remind everyone at the end of the service that, as the famous pop/rock song from the ’90s goes, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”  It’s particularly hard now that we’ve gotten into proper Wisconsin winter (that 20 degree stuff weren’t nothin’, am I right?) because we also can’t gather in the parking lots to fellowship there ~ not when it’s 3 degrees or colder outside.  Other than simply holding out till the weather breaks towards spring, I’m not sure what we can do.  But what we cannot do is continue to clump together after the Sunday services and spend another half hour close together, talking and breathing each other’s air.  It breaks my heart, but we can’t keep doing that, y’all.  Not right now, with the numbers being what they are.  We have to love each other by doing our best to keep each other as safe as possible.
 
Otherwise, unless things take a sudden turn for the even-worse, we don’t need to change anything else about what we’re doing.  We will continue to hold two in-person services on Sundays, live-streaming the later service, which will also include limited choir singing (though still no congregational singing just yet) and music.  We will continue to share Communion in one kind (bread only).  As for other business beyond worship, most of our committees and ministry teams ~ including the Vestry ~ have been meeting virtually all this time, anyway, but I strongly encourage all of our church groups to meet via Zoom for the duration.  The more we can keep the foot-traffic in the building down during the week, the better.
 
None of this news, of course, is what we want to hear.  We want to hear that the pandemic is just about over, that a combination of masking, distancing, immunization/vaccination, and other protocols have gotten us through the worst of it, and that any day now, we’ll be able to get back to life as “normal.”  And, two years in, we are weary, weary to the depths of our bones. More than merely tired, it’s an ongoing, constant fatigue that saps a little more of our strength each month, each week, each day.  But we are just not there yet.  So we must endure.  And we will, with God’s continual help.
 
If you have questions or concerns about All Saints’ Covid policies, or if you just need to vent your weariness and frustration with the whole, entire thing, please send me an email or give me a call.  I’m more than glad to listen and talk.  So are your wardens and your Vestry members.  Let us know how you feel and what you’re thinking.  We’ll do the same.  After all, we’re all in this together.  Always have been.  Always will be.
 
Peace & blessings, y’all,
 
Christopher+

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, everyone!
 
Today marks the “Twelfth Night” or final day of the Christmas season. Tomorrow, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, the time when the Wisemen finally arrived to visit and celebrate the birth of Jesus. And while it’s tempting to hit that point of, “Welp, that’s done, now what?”, especially on days like today that are grey, snowy, and cold, I encourage you to keep in mind the words of the late theologian, Howard Thurman, from his writing, The Work of Christmas:
 
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
 
YOUTH GROUP will be re-gathering VIRTUALLY tonight from 7:00-8:00pm via Zoom. The link will be sent out via the Weekly Update email. This is an added precaution following the holidays. Please stay tuned for next week’s gathering information.
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL will resume this Sunday, Jan. 9 via Zoom from 9:30-10:00am and will continue to meet virtually for the time being. The link will also be in the Weekly Update email.
 
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 [email protected] for more info. Thank you!
 
BISHOP VISIT: Bishop Matt Gunter will be at All Saints on Sunday, January 9, 2022 for both services. Folk can join in-person (masked) or via the livestream on Facebook or YouTube.
 
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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected] for more info.

My dear friends in Christ,
 
Our secular calendar has now caught up with our sacred one, so for the second time in as many months, I say to you:  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  And, as I said in my 2021 rector’s report for our last Annual Parish Meeting, WE’RE STILL HERE!
 
I do not mean to be coy; to the contrary, I begin with these two particular observations because I sincerely believe they are worth celebrating, and I wish for us to enter into this new year from a place, from a foundation, of celebration.
 
Because, let’s be honest, 2021 was a tough one, in so many ways.  Especially in its final few weeks.  Many of us, myself certainly included, are still reeling from sudden loss upon sudden loss.  Many of us, as well, are still facing difficult and painful challenges right now and in the months to come.  It’s especially important ~ crucial, even ~ at such times as these that we take time and care to center ourselves in God’s overwhelming love, mercy, grace, and peace.
 
I know.  So very much easier said than done.
 
It might even seem somehow inappropriate to spend time reflecting upon such “abstract” pleasantries, when there is so much pain and hurt, so much loss, so much violence and injustice and evil to deal with here in the “real” world.
 
Well, as fate would have it, even as I was in the midst of composing this message, our good bishop just happened to forward to me some passages of C. S. Lewis’s writings, and this one struck me as especially timely for our world, and for that matter our own parish family:
 
“A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.
 
“It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.
 
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.
 
“The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.
 
“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
 
“Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
 
– from Mere Christianity
 
As with so many of the deep truths of our faith, the point seems at first glance to be counterintuitive, if not outright contradictory.  And yet I believe that Lewis is one hundred percent correct here.  What’s more ~ forget about leaving our mark on history in this mortal life; I would argue that we can scarcely bear the hardships and pains of this life if we do not keep at least one eye focused on the life to come that is promised us in God’s gift of Jesus Christ, and him crucified and resurrected.
 
The Christian hope … in point of fact, the Christian experience as lived by countless generations of the faithful for two millennia … has never consisted in the wishful notion that baptism would somehow magically prevent us from ever again experiencing pain or suffering.  The stories of the martyrs put the lie to that very idea. 
 
No, the Christian hope is never so fanciful or deluded as all that.  Our hope rests in the fact, the concrete reality, that this mortal life, even unto death, is not the sum total of our existence.  This mortal life, for us Christians, can never be the whole story.  And, as Lewis points out, focusing our minds and hearts on the life to come, the reality of God’s heavenly, peaceable kingdom of which we get a taste each time we share the sacrament of Holy Communion together, is not escapism.  For escapism relies on fantasy, on denying or ignoring actual reality.  But for the Christian, life everlasting in God’s kingdom is reality, the ultimate, absolute reality, the foundation of all being.
 
So.  Where does that leave us, here at the brink of a brand new year, still here, living our real lives in the real world, with all the real hurts and real burdens we have to carry?  How do we live our real lives from the belief ~ from the knowledge ~ that the kingdom of God is real and had indeed come near to us in Christ?
 
We should recognize, I think, that our answers to those questions may well change from day to day, or even hour to hour, as the circumstances around us change.  By now, maybe we’re beginning to get used to the fact that reality changes more frequently than we’d like.  What doesn’t change is God’s enduring presence with us, in both our joys and our sorrows, and God’s unfailing, overwhelming love for us, each and every one of us.  Meanwhile, we do what Christians have always done:  we pray; we worship; we love each other; we forgive each other; we do what we can to help carry the burdens of those around us, making the load each one of us must bear just a little lighter.  And we look, and expect to find, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the people in our lives, every single day.
 
I realize that this message tends rather strongly in the direction of abstract language and poetic theology ~ well and good, I think, for the start of a new year.  Subsequent columns will get a little more concrete and specific, as the opportunities arise.  But for now, at this time of beginning, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to lift our minds, our hearts, and our spirits to things eternal, to set aside just briefly the thousand specific, pressing, practical concerns of this particular day and center our souls in the unchanging vastness of a loving God who has wonderfully created, and more wonderfully redeemed, each one of us … to catch a breath of Spirit before we start off again on the next leg of our journey.
 
Peace & blessings,
Christopher+

Advent greetings to all!
 
YOUTH GROUP FOR TODAY, 12/8, is canceled. We will meet again next Wednesday, 12/15 at 6:30pm in the Undercroft.
 
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 to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at [email protected] for more info. Thank you!
 
ADVENTWORD: For those wishing to still participate in an online Advent calendar with an international community, consider following AdventWord, a ministry of Forward Movement. CLICK HERE to sign up for daily email devotionals or to find information on how to connect via social media. Daily posts are shared to the All Saints Instagram account for those who follow it.
 
St. Nicholas Visit & Gift Giving: St. Nicholas will be coming to All Saints on Sunday, December 12! Weather permitting (forecast is looking good!), we will have a short in-person gathering on the North Lawn (corner of Drew & Washington Streets) immediately following the 10:30am service – around 11:45am.
 
Thank you to those who have already started to bring gifts for our annual toy/book drive for Harbor House Shelter here in Appleton. All gifts should be new and unwrapped - CLICK HERE to access the Harbor House Holiday Needs List.
 
You may bring your gift to church on Sunday to put in the baskets in the choir area when coming up for communion. If you are unable to attend in-person, you may either leave gifts in the office, or contact Erin Wolf at [email protected] to make other arrangements. All gifts will be delivered Tuesday, Dec. 14.
 
Thank you for your time and consideration in bringing some holiday cheer to the families of Harbor House!
 
Winter Break: We will be taking some time off around the holidays to rest, enjoy our loved ones, and celebrate the Christmas season!
 
Sunday School will NOT meet Sunday, Dec. 26 or Sunday, Jan. 2. Classes will resume on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022 with format (online vs in-person) be announced before Christmas.
 
Youth Group will NOT meet Wednesday, Dec. 29. Gatherings will resume on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022 in-person (we will continue to mask at this time).

Greetings to all!
 
Thanksgiving Break – There will be no Youth Group tonight, Wednesday, nor Sunday School on Sunday, Nov. 28 due to the holiday weekend. Our gatherings will resume next Wednesday, Dec. 1 and Sunday, Dec. 5.
 
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 to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at [email protected] for more info. Thank you!
 
ADVENTWORD: The liturgical season of Advent begins this Sunday, November 28. For those wishing to participate in an online Advent calendar with an international community, consider following AdventWord, a ministry of Forward Movement. CLICK HERE to sign up for daily email devotionals or to find information on how to connect via social media. Updates will be shared to the All Saints Instagram account for those who follow it.
 
St. Nicholas Visit & Gift Giving: St. Nicholas will be coming to All Saints on Sunday, December 5! Weather permitting, we will have a short in-person visit OUTSIDE on the North Lawn immediately following the 10:30am service at 11:45am.
 
In order to prepare for his arrival, we are getting word out about our annual toy/book drive for Harbor House Shelter here in Appleton. All gifts should be new and unwrapped - CLICK HERE to access the Harbor House Holiday Needs List.
 
You may bring your gift to church on Dec. 5 to put in a box or basket in the choir area when coming up for communion. If you are unable to attend in-person, you may either leave gifts in the office, bring them to services on Dec. 12, or contact Erin Wolf at [email protected] to make other arrangements.
 
Thank you for your time and consideration in bringing some holiday cheer to the families of Harbor House!
 
Finally, a collect for Thanksgiving from The Book of Common Prayer:
 
Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
 
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday, y’all!

My dear friends in Christ,
 
If I remember correctly, I’ve joked with y’all once or twice about the ancient curse that says:  “May you live in interesting times.”  The joke being, of course, that in your average history class, the “interesting” parts of the textbook are the chapters covering dire, cataclysmic events—wars, plagues, famines, the collapse of empires, et al.  Interesting to read about … but not so much from the perspective of anyone who has to live through such times.
 
That latter perspective is better expressed by the protagonist, Frodo, in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, when it sinks in that he has been fated to play a critical role in what might actually be the end of the world:  “I wish the ring had never come to me.  I wish that none of this had happened.”
 
The wizard Gandalf—the embodiment of wisdom in the tale—responds to Frodo’s lament with words that might just resonate with us today:  “So do I.  And so do all who live to see such times.  But that is not for them to decide.  All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
 
His answer doesn’t solve the problem, of course.  It doesn’t resolve much of anything.  Yet, it does manage to reframe Frodo’s (and our) perspective, and perhaps to reorient our priorities.
 
My friends, I love this parish.  I love being part of it, and I love that God called me and my family here to be among you.  It’s not really possible to express in words the gratitude that I feel that this is the parish I get to serve as your priest.  Your faith, as a Christian community, is so deep, and your grace so freely shared, that it is truly a joy to be here.
 
That said, we have been living in “interesting times” for a long while, now.  As many of you know, I arrived at All Saints on the first of December (Advent 1), 2019, and it felt like I was here for about twenty minutes before Covid hit and the whole world came crashing down.
 
I exaggerate, of course.  A preacher’s prerogative … or at least, a preacher’s typical bad habit.  Even so, the year and a half that I should have—would have—spent visiting with you, sharing meals, enjoying with you the sights & sounds of Appleton, and just generally building relationships, we instead had to spend scrambling, together, to figure out how even to do church at all in the depths of a global pandemic.  Everything had to be re-visioned, re-imagined.  The word “daunting” hardly covers it, yes?
 
But this amazing parish did so much more that merely weather the hardships.  This congregation, from what I saw, basically said:  “Okay, another crisis.  Guess we’d better get on with it.” : )  I cannot tell you how utterly inspiring it has been to watch the way all of you came together in order to make sure that we stayed together as a parish family.  To say “thank you” hardly covers it, indeed.
 
That said, I have to admit that, as inspiring and uplifting as it has been to be with you all through these interesting times, as your brand new rector (can I still say that after almost two years?), I have also found it extremely challenging.  And lately I’ve begun to notice some signs of burnout.  And a burnt-out priest is neither good nor healthy for any congregation.
 
So, despite the fact that it is an absolutely terrible time to do so … and despite the fact that I was only just able, last Sunday, to be back with you after having to quarantine for ten days prior … and at the urging of our Wardens and Vestry (and especially my wife, Anne!) … I have realized that I need to go ahead and take the rest of my allotted vacation time for 2021 now.
 
I will be “gone” for the next two Sundays, as I go on retreat in order to recharge, refresh, and reorient myself in order to be stronger, healthier, and better prepared to serve this wonderful faith community into the new liturgical year.  It had been my hope to do that prior to the start of Advent, but those ten days of Covid lockdown threw a spanner into those works, unfortunately.  As always, in the event of any serious emergency, I will be reachable, and I will not be too far away to get back if anything major happens.  But I’ve hit a point where I just don’t have a whole lot left in the tank, as we say down South. 
 
It is my deep desire—and indeed, at my installation I swore a solemn oath before God and all of you—to serve you as diligently and as faithfully and as fully as I can, offering you everything I’ve got as your priest and rector.  To be able to do that, I need to take this time of retreat and restoration.  My heartfelt thanks to the Wardens and the Vestry leadership of this parish for your support and encouragement in making sure that I do what I need to in order to be healthy and strong for all of you.  And my thanks to all of you, who make All Saints the incredible home that it is for us.  I very much look forward to completing the journey of Advent with you in a couple weeks, and moving together into the blessed season of Christmas.
 
See you soon! 
 
Peace & blessings,
Christopher+

Greetings to all!
 
Update on Youth Ministry: Sunday School (ages 4 and up) will continue to meet Sundays from 9:30-10:00am via Zoom. We anticipate meeting virtually with this age group at least through the end of the calendar year, at which time we will re-evaluate and see where families are at. The pending news of a possible vaccine for children ages 5-11 is encouraging and exciting, and with that, we still want to be safe and intentional as we continue to resume in-person classes.
 
Youth Group (grades 5-12) will resume in-person gatherings on Wednesday, Nov. 3 and will meet Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00pm. We do have students who are still happy to also meet virtually for any families not yet comfortable with in-person meetings. If your family wishes to remain virtual, please contact me immediately at [email protected] so we may set-up a time to meet. Masks are required for all in-person participants at this time when indoors.
 
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 to meet our safeguarding guidelines. If you are able to help out, please contact me at the above email address for more info. Thank you!
 
Please also be sure to fill-out and return 2021-2022 Registration and Media Release Form – you can either fill out digitally and email back to me or drop off a hard copy at All Saints. These are helpful to keep track of students & families and grant us permission to use your child(ren)’s photo for All Saints/Youth Ministry purposes. Thank you for helping keep our records current!
 
Those seeking Confirmation/Reception have until this Sunday, Oct. 31, to express your interest. Preparation coursework will begin next week in order to be ready for Bishop Matt Gunter’s visit to All Saints on January 2, 2022.
 
Thank you all for your continued patience and flexibility as we keep wading through this phase of the pandemic.