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Did you know that diamonds aren’t rare? Last year, MIT produced a report estimating that there are about one quadrillion tons of diamonds hidden in the planet’s crust. That’s enough for every person currently alive to have over 130,000 tons of diamonds. Of course, it’s not in the interest of diamond mining companies to make diamonds so common because diamond companies operate according the same principle as the rest of the world, which is that scarcity increases value.

All of life is bittersweet. I write to you all with a balance of sadness and hopefulness for the future. Over the last month, I received a call to the care of souls and to serve as the Rector of Church of the Holy Trinity in North Augusta, SC. The sad part is leaving All Saints. We are a parish of people marked by peace, stability, good leadership, financial stability, and most of all, love for one another and those outside of our community. It’s hard to leave such a people.

For the last few years, our bishop would make his annual episcopal visit to our church for confirmations around All Saints’ Day, and so we would include among our Fall Pastorates an Inquirers’ Pastorate for those interested in preparing for confirmation. But over the last couple of years, your clergy has realized that we need to “bulk up” our confirmation process by including more time for catechesis. So after speaking with our bishop, we have decided to change our confirmation process.

We are not building a Mission Abbey so that we can become something we have not already been, but so we can grow into more of what God has already created us to be. To say we hope to build a Mission Abbey is to say that our intention is to develop our property as an outgrowth of the mission we currently live out: “to share in the life of God for the life of the world.”

Simple Christian hospitality is a natural and effective way of building relationships in Christ. Our Summer Suppers will, once again, be an opportunity to practice and discover the riches of Christian hospitality.

Bless the Lord! It’s been almost a year since Fr. Wes called me into his office and asked if I would be willing to lead a team of parishioners with the goal of creating a “culture of church planting” at All Saints. I never could have imagined where we would be as a church moving into the summer of 2019.

Praise God for his work among us during our recent Season of Discernment! These past months have simply been an intensification of what All Saints always strives to be—a people marked by prayer who listen to and are guided by the Holy Spirit in all things. Our desire for this season was to engage the entire parish to ensure that our journey toward building a Mission Abbey was a shared one, unified and in step with the Spirit.

The mandate for All Saints is to build a church, but that doesn’t mean what you might think. Yes, together we are working toward the development of our property, but that is not our ultimate aim. As Christians, we are instead forever called to build, not a building, but a community who shares in the life of God for the life of the world.

Since our Parish Forum on Church Planting on January 16, the Church Planting Catalyst Team has been developing a strategy and a timeline for some initial efforts directed toward reaching out to the unchurched. Be on the lookout for more updates and various opportunities for you to get involved.

For several years now, the increasing need for space has become more and more evident. The strain of our current building and the possibilities of the property on which it rests have become topics of conversation. The need to build a building has seemed an easy and obvious next step.