May 2003
Dear All Saints Family,
Happy Easter! First, I would
like to thank everyone for making Holy Week and Easter so wonderful. Our
services all week were glorious and without so many of you (too many to
name), we could not possibly have done it. Easter is always a very special
time for us and I thank God that Easter Sunday was sunny and warm, The
open house was great with over 100 folks dropping by for food and fun.
Again, thank you all.
We enter this spring with
excitement about the future of All Saints' We closed on the property next
to the church and will be doing some fixing up in the next weeks. In the
short term we hope to use the property to house our anticipated assistant
priest. Our property committee will begin meeting soon under the direction
of Erik Ewertz, Capital Projects Warden, to make plans for the long-term
growth of All Saints'. We have grown tremendously over the past few years
and in many ways have outgrown our parking, classroom and meeting space.
Please pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we plan for the future
of our parish.
We are in the process of
interviewing people for the position of curate, or assistant priest. Two
years ago the vestry made a commitment to hire staff to better serve our
congregation. At first we were thinking of a lay person to oversee
education and programs, but recently we have been moved through prayer to
seek an ordained person. We thank God for the ministry of our Deacon, Gina
Arents, but must remember that she is non-paid and only committed to 10
hours per week here. With the number of members we have, we are grossly
understaffed. The person we seek is not necessarily going to lighten my
load, but instead will enhance our common life with closer oversight of
programs, education, and pastoral care. My days are increasingly filled
with administrative duties and teaching opportunities. A second priest
will give us the ability and stability to meet the growing needs of our
congregation.
A person has pledged to match
any funds we raise outside of our current budget to pay for an assistant
for about two years. What an opportunity and blessing. I ask everyone to
pray about giving to this fund. In May there will be envelopes available
for this purpose. We also will have envelopes available for those who wish
to contribute to our capital fund. Thanks be to God our finance committee
cashed in some stock when it was at its peak two years ago. This made
funds available for the purchase of the property We would like to replace
thee funds, just as we did when we repaired the roof of the Church, with
donations to the capital fund. Out hope is to replace the $150,000 before
we look to future projects.
God has truly blessed us, and
with your prayers and support we will continue to be faithful to our
Lord's call to ministry in the years to come.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The
Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Fr. David
top
|
