Dear saints,

This past week our architects, Perkins and Will, held its first listening sessions with the church staff and representatives of our core ministries. Among the many things that I marvel at about All Saints’ is the sheer volume of activity that happens on our block every week. While our staff were describing to Perkins and Will their workplace needs and imaginations, our calendar tallied 47 different scheduled meetings or other activities in our spaces between Monday and Saturday, not counting what happened through the life of our core ministries and of course the hive of activity that makes up a Sunday at All Saints’. We are a densely packed, vibrantly active city block.

At the heart of so much of that activity is the incredible staff of our parish. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been meeting with them one-on-one to reflect on the previous year and to gain a sense of how, to quote Frederick Buechner, their "deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" through the ministries of this church. What was so fulfilling and humbling about that experience was to see in quick succession how thoroughly and at what depth the staff of this church see their vocational lives finding expression here.

Those vocational lives, as rich and varied as they are, share a common denominator: that our vocation as the staff of this church is to draw out and nurture your vocation as a parish, and in doing so, open doors for the city beyond us to see God at work within their own lives. Church ministry - whether that be through music, spiritual formation, works of service or hospitality - is always oriented to the other. It is a working life that continuously learns how to see the world through other’s eyes and points to the innumerable ways by which God is visible from that place.

"Seeing the world through other’s eyes" is very much the order of the day at this stage of our work with our architects, Perkins and Will. Over the next few weeks, we will be working hard to draw near to our staff and our core ministries so that we can see and hear as fully as possible how they imagine living out their vocation as Christ’s hands and feet over the years ahead. The Midtown Assistance Center and Covenant Community will gather board members, staff, residents and clients, volunteers and donors, so that they can share with our architects how their vision for their futures might be expressed through the Egleston Ministry Center. A similar exercise will happen with our Threads team of volunteers, staff and supporters, as indeed it will for our garden guild, and our music ministries here at All Saints’.

At the core of all of this listening is our parish, the beating heart of All Saints’. Later in the spring there will be opportunities for larger gatherings of the saints to be convened so that we continue to listen well to one another throughout this work. In the meantime, I continue to enjoy listening to your priorities for our church’s life as we work to execute the first phase of our master plan for the block. I welcome any of you to be in touch however you prefer to do so.

This is an exciting time in the life of our church. As one of our post-communion prayers encourages, let us ask God to ‘keep us firm in the hope you have set before us’. The church on this block is our particular beacon of that hope. Thanks be to God that we have the privilege now to keep that beacon well-lit for the decades to come.

Peace,