Weekly Message

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 Each Liturgical Year, rather than focusing on a particular Feast or Festive Season, the church in her wisdom gives us two liturgical seasons to focus on the stories of our faith, the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays After Pentecost, the latter being our current liturgical season.  Some churches refer to these seasons as […]Read more “Community of Saints”

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”

Dear Friends, We are about to enter the hinge of the Christian year: Holy Week. This is the week when we slow down to follow the steps of Jesus day by day from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through the the mandatum that we love one another and the institution of the Last Supper […]Read more “Holy Week Schedule 2022”

Rejoice! The Vestry of All Saints’ Episcopal Church is overjoyed to announce that The Rev. E. Suzanne Wille has accepted the call to be our XIII Rector. After over a year of extensive and prayerful work, the Search Committee finished their discernment in early June, presenting Suzanne to the Vestry as the candidate the Holy […]Read more “Announcing our XIII Rector”

Dear Friends, Sometimes it is hard to believe that 15 months have passed since our former Bishop, Jeff Lee, suspended in-person worship and other gatherings in our churches. During this time, we have discovered new ways to maintain community virtually. We have prayed, laughed, cried, and sung together on Facebook. And we gradually gathered in-person […]Read more “June 20, 2021”

Dear Friends, We are thrilled to let you know that we have called All Saints’ XIII Rector! The Search Committee finished their discernment and presented to the Vestry the candidate the Holy Spirit has called to All Saints’. The Vestry then met and elected All Saints’ XIII Rector. To our great joy and delight, the […]Read more “June 13, 2021”

Dear Friends, Last Sunday we heard John’s account of the resurrection. We heard of Mary Magdalene seeing the empty tomb and seeing Jesus in the garden, but it wasn’t until Jesus said her name, “Mary,” that she knew it was Jesus standing right in front of her. Knowing someone’s name is a powerful thing. A […]Read more “April 11, 2021”

Dear Friends, Easter Day is this Sunday, April 4. The date of Easter moves around a lot, since its timing is determined by the phases of the moon and the Spring equinox.  April 4 is a significant day for another reason. On this day in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis, Tennessee, to […]Read more “April 4, 2021”

Dear Friends, In this season of preparation, we have arrived at what we have been preparing for: Holy Week. This most solemn and holy of weeks in our tradition continues to prepare us for those days leading up to, during, and after Christ’s death and resurrection. We pray that you take a close look at […]Read more “Holy Week Schedule 2021”