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 name is all that is needed to begin the process of forging a bond—a relationship. Knowing a name is the most basic form of connection, and it is the ultimate sign of welcome and belonging when names are known. In a church setting, when someone says your name, you feel seen and known, and maybe, it inspires you to get to know the names of others.
As members of this community, it is important that you are known and seen, and that you know and see others. Today, we are kicking off the all-exciting, all-important “Church Directory Update!!!!” Now, I know what you’re thinking… “exciting?” “important?” Really? ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Having been gone from our in-person gatherings for over a year, knowing that we have a ton of new people that will begin to sit next to you in the pews soon, and the fact that we are welcoming our new rector this summer—our new spiritual leader—the time has never been more important to update our church directory!!!!!
If you consider All Saints’ to be your spiritual home, we are asking you to update your information / make yourself known to this community!
Here is the goal: for 100% of our members to update their records either by creating an account with our online directory platform and updating their profile, or by completing this form so we can update your profile for you. The most important things to update / complete:
- Upload pictures of yourself and your family
- Make sure to that every person who lives in your household is listed (including all children and significant others). If some people are missing, complete this form.
- Provide key information for each person in the household: Preferred name, pronouns, email address, preferred phone number, mailing address, birthdate (so we can wish you a happy birthday!!!), anniversary date (if applicable).
If you create an online member account, you will see many other profile fields available to fill out, like “occupation” and “when you started coming to All Saints’”. All of the information fields are helpful, especially to our new rector, but at a minimum, we are asking that everyone complete the bulleted items above.
FYI: if you try to create an account to update your profile following our instructions and you get an error message saying “sorry, we were unable to find a profile matching this information” NOT TO WORRY!! Maybe the email you provided is different from the one we already have on file, or maybe we have the incorrect spelling of your name and our system was unable to recognize you…we know this will be an issue for some people, and that is why we have created an easy form to fill out electronically HERE, and we will ensure the info is updated and that you are granted access to your account.
Also, if you are able to create an account and see your profile BUT not every member of your household is listed on your family profile (like if you’ve had a child since our previous directory update), again, NOT TO WORRY. You won’t be able to add a household member to your family profile on your own. Instead, you will need to fill out the same electronic form that was previously mentioned, HERE. If your account is already recognized in our system and you are simply adding a household member, you do not need to complete every field…putting the person’s name, birthdate, and your name at the bottom of the form to associate it with your account is all that is needed.
For complete instructions on how accomplish this very important ask/task, click on the following instructional video:
If you have any questions or are having technical difficulties, please reach out directly to Andrew Freeman, our resident directory expert.
The hope is that by June 2021, our church directory will be fully populated with 100% accurate information that anyone with a church user account can view. So, you have from now until the end of May to update your information!!! Your staff church, your fellow parishioners, and your future rector thanks you very much!
Andrew Rutledge