All Saints Celebration & Updates

Dear Saints,

This Sunday we will celebrate the feast of All Saints with special prayers, music and the altar/offrenda remembering our loved ones. You can bring a picture of anyone you want to remember and place it on the table in the back/entry of the worship space. There will be a lunch after the 10:15am service. Bring a salad or dessert to share if you are able.

We will also be celebrating the five year anniversary of our time together. Looking back, I am so grateful for all that we have experienced together and the signs God’s faithfulness throughout. What a blessing it is to walk with God and each other in what comes next as we celebrate God’s love, seek Christ in every person, and go forth in the power of the Spirit!

The Woodstock Pantry Update & Friendraiser

Last year during the holiday season, the people of All Saints and Woodstock Pantry volunteers gave over $20,000 to give the Woodstock Pantry a permanent structure and make this a sustainable, reliable food source for our neighbors — an amazing accomplishment and an expression of incredible generosity! Along with the help of grants, it looked as though the project was fully funded. However, through the permitting process and requirements from the City, it has become clear that the original shipping container design will not yield the savings for which we had hoped. We are now pivoting towards a stick frame design that will be more than our original budget, but will ultimately provide a more functional structure for operations.

In this last stretch of fundraising, we are focusing on reaching out to the wider community. You can help us by inviting family and friends to participate. Flyers and posters will be available on Sunday. You can also share the GoFundMe link in an email, text or on social media. We will be sending a separate email with all of that info early next week. The Woodstock Pantry Community Engagement Committee will be posting signs and posters around the neighborhood and surrounding area. If you have a good location (business or home) for a yard sign or poster, please let us know. We have a few local media interviews coming up to help get the word out, as well.

Many people already plan to give around the holidays. This is a wonderful, local opportunity to ensure our neighbors have access to food at the holidays and year round.

Diocesan Convention

As I mentioned on Sunday, we had a good Diocesan Convention last week. Thank you to all who participated. You can read more about it here. Our Sr. Warden, Sonja Miller, was voted to serve on the the Board of Trustees, and I was appointed Dean of the Metro East Convocation. I am thankful so have Sonja’s leadership in this important area, and I am looking forward to serving in this capacity, especially in this time when it is so important for churches to collaborate and pursue our calling as one body in Christ.

I look forward to our All Saints celebration this Sunday and the season of gratitude we enter into this month.

In peace, hope and love,

Andria+

Festival of Lights by John August Swanson

Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash