Weekly Message

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”

We learned this past weekend that Scott Weidler, interim Music Director at All Saints’ from June 2015 through November 2016, died on January 23. He’d been under treatment for what began as pancreatic cancer for several years, but had recently been told that there was no further hope. He and his husband Zia Ahmad went […]Read more “Remembering Scott Weidler”

Dear Friends, This Sunday is the last Sunday before Christmas, and at All Saints’ it is: PAGEANT SUNDAY!!!! This is the Sunday when we normally round up grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors, and get to church early to get a good seat.This is the Sunday when normally our children gather in the parish […]Read more “December 20, 2020”

Dear Friends, Tomorrow clergy and lay delegates will gather online via Zoom webinar to elect the 13th Bishop of Chicago. The convention begins at 9:30 am with Morning Prayer and is expected to end by 3:30 pm. All Saints’ Choir and liturgical leaders will be featured during morning worship, so you may want to start […]Read more “December 13, 2020”

Dear Friends, Earlier this week, I read a post on Facebook that went something like this: “Does anyone else feel the urge to call the radio stations that are playing ‘songs of the season’ and ask, “Where are the Advent songs?’” My first impulse was to immediately hit “like” and launch my usual tirade about no […]Read more “December 6, 2020”

Dear Friends, I write this on Thanksgiving Eve, a damp dreary day, but one filled with the expectation of tomorrow’s Thanksgiving meal, even one that will look different from the one we might have imagined for ourselves at the start of this year. On Tuesday, I stopped by a colleague’s house to sign checks. We […]Read more “November 29, 2020”

Dear Friends, Tomorrow is the 183rd Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of the Chicago, and for the first time ever, it will be completely digital. This makes me sad because I am a church geek, and I love diocesan conventions!! For many, it is the one time of year people from all over this large […]Read more “November 22, 2020”

Dear Friends, One of the joys of having grandchildren is that stage when they play pretend. The youngest of our grandkids aren’t toddlers any more – both are four and a half – so some aspects of pretending are starting to fade a little. But their imaginations are still active, for which I am grateful. When […]Read more “November 15, 2020”

Dear Friends, “The kingdom of God is justice and peaceAnd joy in the Holy SpiritCome, Lord, and open in us the gates of your kingdom.” This chant has floated into my memory as I have been watching the historical final results of the 2020 presidential election on this Friday morning.  We have sung this Taizé […]Read more “November 8, 2020”

Dear Friends, This morning, I walked into All Saints’ for the first time since the papel picado and the hundreds of prayer flags had been hung in the sanctuary. Unlike other years when people brought theirs to church on the Sundays leading up to All Saints’ Day, flags were dropped off in one of the bins outside […]Read more “November 1, 2020”

Dear Friends, From a young age, my mom taught and showed me the importance of living out my faith through civic engagement. Whether writing letters to elected officials, visiting legislators when they were in session, testifying at committee hearings, or showing up to march in support of a particular issue, she taught me that my […]Read more “October 25, 2020”

Dear Friends, All Saints’ people take actions for social justice and hold dear our long-term commitments to local and international ministries. Our Mexico Outreach supports two parishes in Cuernavaca – San Pablo and Santísma Trinidad – where we have purchased everything from Bibles to a pick-up truck, and have funded classes and other projects.  Their […]Read more “October 18, 2020”

Dear Friends, This week I am reminded of something my Mimi (my Mom’s mom) used to always to say: “The more important something is, the more you need to prepare.” She would say this in reference to many things—a big exam that was coming up, a public speaking engagement, or a major vacation on the […]Read more “October 11, 2020”

Dear Friends, When I told one of my colleagues recently that I was serving my fourth church in the last four years, she quipped, “Can’t hold a job, huh?” With friends like that, who needs . . . But I take her point. We intentional interim clergy don’t stay in one place for very long. […]Read more “October 4, 2020”

Dear Friends, This coming Sunday, and two Sundays after that (October 4), we will be celebrating two of the All Saints’ “high holy days”—the Backpack Blessing and the Pet Blessing. You may be asking, “but how is this possible if we aren’t all together, in person? It won’t be the same without having someone throwing […]Read more “September 27, 2020”

Dear Friends,  This coming Sunday, and two Sundays after that (October 4), we will be celebrating two of the All Saints’ “high holy days”—the Backpack Blessing and the Pet Blessing. You may be asking, “but how is this possible if we aren’t all together, in person? It won’t be the same without having someone throwing […]Read more “September 20, 2020”

Dear Friends, As I write this on the morning of the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I am struck by how the memory of that terrible day has shifted and evolved. For some, especially those who lost loved ones, who were living in New York or Washington, or whose health has been permanently impacted […]Read more “September 13, 2020”

Dear Friends, Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune reported that 30 million migrating birds were predicted to fly over Illinois on Thursday night, with some 180,000 passing directly over the city. Local birding organizations encouraged us to shut off our lights to keep from disrupting the birds’ migration and to keep cats indoors. I left my windows open to see […]Read more “September 6, 2020”

Dear Friends, This past Ascension Day, I talked about how the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a gift to us so we are enabled and empowered to do God’s work in the world. During the season after Pentecost (the summer and early fall) we hear stories in Scripture of what doing God’s […]Read more “August 30, 2020”