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Over the last few months, the Vestry has been prayerfully exploring how to best proceed with the development of our property. Typically, churches form an oversight committee that bears the full responsibility of the project from start to finish. However, the more the Vestry investigated the kinds of skills and gifts that will be required along the way, the more they began to realize that a more flexible approach was needed.

Beginning on February 18, All Saints will be participating in the 2018 Bishop's Well Project. For forty days during Lent, we are encouraging everyone to save their spare change to help save lives in Africa. At the end of the project, money collected will be sent to help dig wells for children and families in Africa who lack clean water.

The Way of the Cross, or traditionally, the Stations of the Cross, is a spiritual practice of the worship and adoration of Jesus as we contemplate his journey to the Cross. The prophet Isaiah cried out, “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Is. 53:5). It is a pilgrimage into the sufferings of Jesus as we recall the scenes of his life prior to his death on the Cross.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. That is the theme of Advent, as we reflect together upon our call to wait patiently for the light of Christ. Of course, we know that, for the children in our Church, waiting is no easy thing. They wait for Christmas with a type of ravenous expectation that is hard to find anywhere else, any time else. Indeed, is there any moment that we await as eagerly as do children await Christmas morning?

Advent begins every year at the same time: the Sunday four weeks before Christmas, as it has since the 700s. Each year, I feel His Spirit among us as we anticipate the great feast of the Incarnation, Christmas. I feel like a little kid again except that my anticipation for Christmas gifts is replaced with the wonder of Christ’s Incarnation.

All that we have is a gift from God: creation, His Word, the air that we breathe, our skills, our possessions, and our time. He places these gifts in our open and humble hands and calls us to be faithful stewards and caretakers of His kingdom. He trusts us.

If you happened to miss our Parish Forum on Wednesday, August 23, allow me to recap for you the high points of what was shared and discussed. The purpose of this forum was threefold: to inform the parish of the process by which we as a Vestry are moving forward in stewarding our growth; to call the church to make this pivotal season we share a matter of prayer; and to solicit the wisdom of the parish about the process and our priorities.

Yes, you’ve heard it correctly: All Saints was the largest church represented at the ACNA’s Provincial Assembly this past June! Absolutely incredible! But even more importantly, together we were exposed to and inspired by the missional impulse that is alive and well in the Anglican Communion worldwide. Anglicanism, at its best, strives to reach the world with the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

I find it hard to believe it’s been one year since we took the leap into two Sunday services. If you recall, this decision was the culmination of an eight-month-long process where we as a parish reconnected with our mission and rearticulated those aspects of our personality we wanted to stay alive to especially as our family continues to grow in number. As our Vestry facilitated this process, you played an integral role in helping us identify, articulate, and flesh out these defining aspects of our church.

This past Lenten season, I walked with a group of people through a 40- Day Stay-At-Home Retreat. We based our experience on St. Ignatius of Loyola's The Spiritual Exercises. Simply put, it is a series of meditations on the life of Jesus: his Incarnation, teaching, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, reign in glory, gift of the Holy Spirit, and bodily return.