Dear Saints,
It may be “summer” as we tend to define it (beginning with the Memorial Day weekend), but there is much going on both at All Saints and in the world around us. Many of us are looking forward to weekends away, and perhaps longer vacations as well. I hope, however, that even if you and your family tend not to attend church as often in summer for these reasons, you’ll still stay engaged here. This is an important time in the life of our parish.
About forty of you have engaged with the two-part process of learning and listening and sharing in order to put aside old hurts, disappointments, and grudges/grievances that, if not addressed and laid aside, erode the health of the parish. It is vitally important to attend to congregational health, especially in times of transition, so that former relationships (and sometimes their attendant frustrations) can be let go of and not inadvertently brought forward to threaten to damage new relationships. We do not want to invite a new rector into a community that feels as if it is still in conflict about things that happened in the past. We do want to invite a new rector to lead a healthy parish, and it is our work together - me and you - to improve and maintain congregational health and vitality. The folks who have worked through this process report it to be truly transformative. Our last small group session will be held this Saturday - but some have asked if we can perhaps have another session or two in the fall for those who were unable to participate this spring. We’ll consider doing this again if there are those who want to.
Meanwhile, the discernment committee has been hard at work behind the scenes, meeting weekly and gathering and putting together information that will eventually be included in the portfolio that will be posted in all sorts of locations inviting interested clergy to consider exploring the possibility of becoming the next rector of All Saints. They will be offering opportunities for more small group discussions and you’ll be hearing from them about details soon.
One thing that came through loud and clear from the CAT survey was that you all wish for more opportunities for fellowship and learning and to be able to offer yourselves for ministry here. The staff, vestry, and parish life folks have been putting together all sorts of opportunities for these things, so please keep reading your emails, come to church (or watch the livestream) and read/listen to the announcements, and check the website for regular gatherings of all ages, beginning with a Ladies’ Lunch Out this Saturday at Fine Creek Brewery at noon.
We also really need folks to become more engaged in caring for one another through volunteering to take flowers to homebound parishioners and to join the ranks of those who make phone calls, write cards, or visit (and even take communion) to our senior saints. Please consider signing on for one of these ministries. Contact the office if you are interested.
We also need more of you to serve as readers/eucharistic ministers on Sunday mornings. And more to host the cookies/lemonade fellowship time after church (and more of you to attend that social time as well!). Please take some time today, tomorrow, this week to consider how you will become more engaged or re-engage in the life of the parish and let us know how we can plug you in.
Another thing we heard from you through the CAT survey was how much you enjoyed our outdoor services last year. So, we’ll be offering one service outdoors at 10:30 on the First Sunday of each month, beginning this Sunday and going into the fall. During these times of heightened (again) COVID transmission, outdoor worship will be safer, and many of our young families have expressed appreciation for offering this kind of casual summer worship. Don’t forget to bring a chair or blanket on those Sundays - and don’t forget that we also will NOT have an 8:00 a.m. service on those Sundays so that we all can be one parish worshipping together.
Finally, this Saturday three of us (lay delegates Betsy Cockriel and Mark Wilcox as well as I as your clergy delegate) will go to Alexandria to elect a new Diocesan Bishop. The convention begins at 10:00 a.m. and will conclude with worship after the election is completed. We’ll post the results on social media at that time. If you’d like to follow along in real time via the livestream, you can access that here. Once the new Bishop is elected, a transition committee will begin working with him (all the candidates are male) to determine the details about when the bishop-elect will come on board. The actual ordination/consecration of the new bishop will take place here in Richmond at St. Paul’s Baptist Church on Creighton Road in eastern Henrico on Saturday, December 3, 2022, but the bishop-elect will join the staff before then. Our Bishop Suffragan and Ecclesiastical Authority (in the absence of a diocesan bishop), Susan Goff, is planning to retire December 31, 2022. Assisting Bishop Porter Taylor retired this week. Assistant Bishop Jennifer Brooke-Davidson remains in place.
So, as you see, we are busy here at All Saints and around the wider church, and we hope that the more relaxed time of summer spurs you to become more engaged in the life of our parish. Call or email us with your questions or concerns and to sign up for activities and ministries that will enliven our congregational health and vitality. My door is always open.
Blessings,
Penny+
