Dear saints,

On Sunday, we had our final of four town hall meetings in Ellis Hall. It has been wonderful to hear an array of parishioners share their insights and visions for our block. We have recorded each of the sessions, and you can catch up on last Sunday's and the preceding sessions on our website via the links below. 

Things now move to a smaller scale as we begin home gatherings across ten homes in the metro-Atlanta area over the next several weeks. If you heaven't already, please sign up below. Early next month we will also send out the parish-wide survey that will ask each of us to share our individual aspirations for the block. One-on-one conversations will also continue, and if you would like to have one of those please do reach out.

I hope by now you have got the message we are trying to convey: we want to hear from you. 

"Though we are many, we are one body in Christ," is how Paul describes the nature of Christian community in his letter to the Romans. Unlike the community constituted by Caesar where oneness was assured by the power of the sword, oneness in Christ is assured by our love for one another grounded as it is in God's love for us all. Our oneness in this season of discernment about our future is predicated on our love for one another, as well as for this place. To undertake such discernment work is to trust one another with something very dear in our lives - our church. My prayer for us all throughout this process is that we might learn to love and trust one another even more deeply than we already do. Whatever we discern God to call us to be and do on this city block, if our love and trust grows we will have succeeded. 

So, in that spirit of the love and care we share here, I wonder if I might ask you to do some ecclesiastical "homework"? Perhaps there is someone you love and trust at All Saints' whom you have not seen in recent months. I'd like to invite you to reach out to them and draw them back into this fellowship. Ask what they hope for All Saints' in the future. We need to hear their voices too, perhaps especially so. 

We will only see the whole picture of God's vision for this parish and our block if we can hear from enough of the people whom God has called into community here. Help us hear all of our voices, starting with your own.