Author: the Rev. E. Suzanne Wille

Dear Friends,  I am writing this on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and have a jumble of thoughts in my head:  Perhaps you, too, know what it is to be in a “jumble”—of experiences, of emotions. When I feel like that, well, the best thing I know to do is to gather with others at church.  […]Read more “See you in church”

Dear Friends, I begin my letter this week with a note of caution: someone has been impersonating me and texting members of the church saying I have a favor to ask. Luckily, the people who alerted me to this text understood it was fake.  While I do text to communicate with folks, I will never send […]Read more “Caution & Gratitude”

Dear Friends, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to pledge and to give to one’s parish. As I’ve told many of you and even preached last fall, I learned what it means to be generous right here at All Saints. It was here that another parishioner told me just to tithe and […]Read more “Commitment Sunday”

Dear Friends, I already waxed poetic in last week’s letter about the beauty and meaning of the feasts of All Saints and All Souls, so I won’t go on again about that, but I WILL encourage you to come by tonight to help hang flags. This is such a special moment: touching each flag, reading […]Read more “We’re All Saints”

Dear Friends, This weekend, we enter the end of October and begin one of the holiest and best times of year: the Fall Triduum, the three days of All Hallows’ Eve, The Feast of All Saints, and the Feast of All Souls. The first day we all know popularly as Halloween, and I hope you and […]Read more “Living in the Thin Place”

Dear Friends Last Saturday, I took my own advice, given in last week’s Dear Friends letter, to take some time away from the busyness treadmill, and Tracey and I explored places on the Open House Chicago Tour. We spent time downtown and in Humboldt Park, returning to All Saints in the afternoon. We knew we […]Read more “Spreading the Good News of Joy”

Dear Friends After Colin’s beautiful letter last week, I’m newly aware of how busy we can get in our jobs, with our families, and here at All Saints! I have a predilection towards busyness, feeling like I’m “Getting Things Done,” checking off boxes on my to-do list. I’m not proud of this tendency, though I […]Read more “We are more than getting things done”

Dear Friends,  Sunday, October 2 is one of our “signature Sundays” at All Saints: the Pet Blessing!  On this Sunday, we remember and honor St. Francis of Assisi, that holy one who sought to follow Jesus by embracing poverty and the way of humility. Along the way, he became the patron saints of animals and […]Read more “Signature Sunday: Pet Blessing!”

Dear Friends,  This Sunday our children return for church school and now it feels like all the puzzle pieces for a great program year at church are falling into place! I have high hopes of a noisy 9 am service with crying babies, toddlers breaking loose, and toy cars and crayons being deployed in the […]Read more “The Great Stampede”

Dear Friends,  What a gorgeous Celebration of Ministry / Renewal of Ministry with Welcoming of a New Rector we had last week! The music was fabulous, the gifts touching, and the dance party afterwards was off the hook (yes, there WAS dancing in the streets)! I wondered if we needed such a thing after a […]Read more “Dancing in the Streets”

Dear Friends,  I write this letter in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth, after watching the news coverage of the reaction in Britain and around the world, and I am surprisingly sad and moved.  I am no lover of monarchy, and the past few decades certainly revealed that the royal family has all the […]Read more “News for the Week of September 11, 2022”

Dear Friends,  As we approach Labor Day and the start of our program year, I want to give a shout out to my great colleagues, all of whom are creative, fun, and “all in.” There’s been a lot of change in staff at All Saints this year: new Rector, new Associate Rector, and new Director […]Read more “News from the Week of September 4, 2022”