Dear saints,

Greetings to one and all this Easter Monday. The staff and I are enjoying a few days respite this week following what was a truly wonderful Easter weekend at All Saints' this year.

For my own part, I have jumped across the pond to spend a few days with my mom, who of late has been having her own real estate discernment season. After nearly forty years she is leaving the home I spent most of my later childhood in and all the years since before I emigrated stateside. It was a curious experience to see that home of ours up on the English equivalent of Zillow. What's a picture of my bedroom doing on there? And was that really the color we painted the kitchen? Discombobulating, to be sure. 

The experience has given me a fresh insight into what it might be like for some of you as we have this conversation about the block. I have only been here seven years. I don't have childhood memories of being taught by Barbara Taylor during youth group in what is now the Ross Room, as some of you have. I have not buried a spouse or a parent here, or seen my daughter or son walk down the aisle on their wedding day. I didn't hear Frank Ross preach about Dr. King in the 1960's or Geoffrey invite All Saints' to be 'more the church' following the great recession of 2008.

A rector is called to be a good steward of a past and a future that never truly belongs to them. This is your home, and as much as I find myself feeling deeply at home here, I recognize that you are here to stay in a way that I never can. And so, I empathize if you have felt a little discombobulated yourself now and again as you are asked to imagine a future for our block. 

All the same, imagination is most definitely a core Christian vocation, especially during the Easter season. People come and go, but God's risen life never ends. God is making all things new, all the time, and invites us to enter that newness even as we share some grief about the past we are losing. It is the story of the church and the story of our lives. As the beautiful Good Friday prayer puts it, "let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new", including us.

Our survey's invitation for you to share your vision of our future is closing soon, so please do take a few minutes to lend your voice to this beautiful symphony of the saints. This is home. Tell us what matters most about it to you.