Rector's Message
Children's Corner
EYC News
Annual Meeting
Sacramental Online Giving /
Epiphany Evensong
Talk About Death
Conversations that Matter
MLK Prayer Breakfast
All Saints Calendar
Rector's Message
It Comes at a Cost... Church and our Mission, That Is
By Kit Carlson
All Saints Rector
It's a new year, and time for a new church budget!
I don't hear shouts of excitement and applause...
But there should be, because the funding of the work of this community is a shared effort. It begins with the pledges and financial gifts from you—the All Saints community. Our estimate for 2016 is that your pledged gifts will amount to$420,000.
That's amazing! You all are so generous and supportive of this church!
And that is the primary source of our funding for the year ahead. But it's not enough. Because to meet the expenses of this faith community, we need an estimated total of $529,351.81 in order to serve our members, our community, and God's wider world in 2016. The difference in revenue is made up from renting out space in the building and parking lot, and from transfers in from other funds that the church holds.
"I had no idea what it cost to run the church until I got onto the vestry," one of our newer vestry members said at the December meeting, where the vestry passed a budget for 2016. "I think more people in the parish should know just how much it costs us to keep the doors open."
And you may wonder why it costs so much. Here are some significant parts of our budget:
Staff Compensation and Benefitsfor one full-time priest, a part-time associate pastor, two full-time lay staff and five part-time lay staff:$337,494.32
(Note: Pastor Laura receives housing in the rectory for her compensation—not a paid salary—along with some very limited benefits)
Building Costs and Maintenancefor the church building and the rectory next door:$81,000
Tithe to the Diocese(the Episcopal Church does not give us money; we are required to send money UP to forward the mission of the diocese and wider church):$50,857
General Parish Programs(education, worship, parish life, newcomers, etc.):$28,500
Outreach to the Community:$11,650
Keeping all this in balance is an important job, carried out by some very committed All Saints members. The Finance Committee meets monthly to make sure we are managing the budget in the very best way possible. Hank Mayers chairs that committee, and Mike Lashbrook serves as the treasurer of the church. Bob Kilbridge tracks your gifts as the Pledge Secretary. And your Vestry oversees all the financial and material business of this church. These folks work very hard to keep our ministry and mission responsibly funded and supported, in a sustainable manner.
Each year, we have an annual meeting to report on the budget and to elect new members to the Vestry to carry out this important work. I hope you will be there, after the10 a.m. service, onSunday, January 24, to vote for new Vestry members and to hear a presentation on the budget. It's important for you to know how our church works, and how much your support of this work is valued and appreciated.
I thank God for each one of you and the love, and time, and energy, and support that you give to All Saints.
In gratitude,
Kit
Children's Corner
By Becky Beauregard
Merry Christmas! If you are looking for ways to celebrate all twelve days of Christmas with your family please contact me! I am looking forward to another fun Epiphany Pageant.If your child would like to participate and you have not yet been in contact with me or Jen Shaw please contact me . We will have a dress rehearsal at10 a.m.onSaturday, January 2nd.The Epiphany Pageant will be held during the10 a.m.service onSunday, January 3rd.
Sunday school will resumeSunday, January 10thwhen we will begin our Episcopal 101 Unit.The children will learn about the church service, the clergy, the books we use and the church year. Pastor Kit will stop by onSunday January 10thto visit the classes!
Our next family fun day will be ice skating at Munn ArenaSaturday, January 16thfrom9:30-11 a.m. The cost will be $4 per person and $2 for skate rental.You can pay individually at the Pro Shop and meet us on the ice.Please let me know if you are planning on coming so I can watch for you!
Lent is on the early side this year.I'm planning some really exciting programs for our Wednesday night classes.If you would like to help out, please contact me!
EYC News
By Laura Kuntz
EYC is meeting all 5 weeks in January!Jan 3rd,10th, 17th,24th, and 31st
Youth in grades 6-12 gather in the Undercroftfrom 6-8 p.m.
The 31st is an extra day for confirmation outside of our usual 1st and 3rd Sunday time. We will take time to do something different based on feedback from the 3rd and 17th. Look for an email update from Pastor Laura about what we will be doing and special instructions for meeting that day.
Save the dateto help serve lunch at the Advent house—March 5th. We will be helping from approximately 10:00 a.m.-noon. If you’re unable to make it that morning, consider making cookies that we can serve for dessert.
Camp Compassion:A Summer Mission Trip Experience for High School Youth and Young Adults
This summer the Diocese of Michigan will be heading to the Dominican Republic and doing constructions work around Puerto Plata. Puerto Plata is on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic and we’ve been helping to build a church in San Marcos for the past four years. The main church building was completed in the summer of 2015, but there is still work to be done. Additionally, we will be working at Christo Rey in Puerto Plata and building a clinic in Mosovi.
The Diocese is offering two separate weeks for Camp Compassion this year. Week one is June 27-July 4, 2016 and week two is July 4-11, 2016. Interested youth from All Saintsyouth and their parents will meet at a convenient date in January to talk about which dates work best and plans for fundraising. We will make sure that all interested youth will be able to participate! There are limited spaces available for this trip so we need to register, start planning and work on fundraising soon. Contact Pastor Laura if this is something you are interested in.
Teen After School Center
With the complete closing of the East Lansing Public Library, the church has welcomed new youth into our space and strengthened our relationship with the library. We continue to meet monthly with a joint Teen Advisory board to empower teens as they offer their leadership in both programs. The teens will continue to gather in the Undercroft at All Saints until the remodeling project is complete.
This fall we welcomed 11 service-learning students from MSU to help with our program. Students participated in TASC activities one day a week and spent time investing in the lives of the youth who see our church as their second home. Each student led an intentional activity to engage youth and each brought exciting energy, new ideas and were sad when their semester was over because they found their time volunteering to make a difference in their week. I asked one MSU student, Kiera if she could share a reflection of here time here:
Dear All Saints Church Community,
My name is Kiera and I am a sophomore at Michigan State University studying human development and family studies. I recently had the privilege of being a volunteer program assistant at the Teen After School Center (TASC) for the past semester. Here I will be reflecting on my experience working with TASC for the past months; it is my hope that through reading this you will be able to gain some more personal perspective on the positive programs hosted throughout All Saints, and the individuals that work hard to facilitate them.
As someone who was in high school not too long ago myself, I understand the importance of having a beneficial and constructive environment during after-school times. Surrounding adolescents with an enriching, educational, and fun environment is key for attracting students to positive and constructive activities and experiences. TASC fosters this environment through working in an open space, integrating students of all ages to socialize together, and by having multiple college volunteers daily to organize activities and promote interaction. Students come to eat, socialize, play games, and consistently count on seeing a smiling face to great them at the door.
I constantly see students grow and expand their social comfort zone in TASC. One of my favorite memories from the semester was when a volunteer organized a karaoke day and encouraged all students to try it out. You could tell everyone was nervous at first, but after many silly songs the entire crowd of the TASC room was cheering on each singer that stepped up to perform, regardless of their talent or skill. Similarly, I organized a tie-dye day for students to participate in, and it was a huge hit. Many students were hesitant to try and tie-dye a t-shirt because they had never done it before, but after some encouragement and instruction you could see their creativity become sparked.
Students from many different schools, backgrounds, and religions are welcomed and regularly attend the Teen After School Center, and I believe this program has successfully established itself as a fun, safe, and enriching environment for students to hang-out at after school.
Thank you,
Kiera
Annual Meeting January 24
We will celebrate another year at All Saints with the parish annual meeting at11:30 a.m.on Sunday, January 24. At this meeting we elect new vestry members and diocesan delegates, hear about the parish's financial status and also celebrate the year past and look to the year ahead. This is an important day in the life of our community and everyone who cares about All Saints should be there!
Standing for vestry are Terri Poxon-Pearson (for a two-year term), Vic Rauch, Don Hoopingarner, and Sara Miller.For diocesan delegate: Shannon Fineout. The biographical information of the candidates can be found on the bulletin boards around church and also on the website.
Making "Online Giving" a Sacramental Act
When we worship together, there is an offering time during the midpoint of the service. Plates are passed, people drop in money, or checks, or their offering envelopes. The plates are then carried forward and set on the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer.
Is this just a simple way for the church to collect contributions? It's much more than that. As the plates go forward, so we go forward too. The offering is a symbolic action of the offering of ourselves, our lives, our work and efforts, as a gift to God. And the plates with those offerings of ourselves, our souls and bodies, sit upon the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer, and so our lives are symbolically blessed and consecrated along with the bread and wine.
But if we give online, that symbolic action gets lost. Yes, we've made a gift, but there is no symbol of that gift on the altar to symbolize our life and labor being blessed by God.
So we're bringing symbolism back to the offertory!
Beginning this month, you'll find laminated cards in the pew racks that say "I gave online." If you are an online giver, you can put one of those cards into the plate as it passes by. That way you can make the symbolic gesture of offering, and your gesture will be part of the offering that gets blessed upon the altar during the Eucharist. After the service, the cards will be returned to the pew racks, for people to use again the following week.
So grab an "I gave online" card, say a prayer of thanksgiving and offering, and drop the card in the plate. Your life and labor and gift will be blessed each week upon the altar.
Epiphany Evensong
The Feast of the Epiphany ends the Christmas season and ushers in the season of light and awareness as a New Year begins. The All Saints Choir offers a service of Choral Evensong with Eucharist at7 p.m.onWednesday, January 6to celebrate this great feast of the church. The Rev. Sara Cogsil of University Lutheran Church will preach, as we welcome our friends from ULC to worship with us this night.
The evening begins with supper at6 p.m.in the Undercroft. Sub sandwiches and drinks are provided by Parish Life, and the side dishes and desserts are provided by you. After the service, we will "de-green" the church, and put Christmas away.
Come celebrate the dawning of light into our lives this Epiphany.
Let's Talk About Death, "The Elephant in the Church"
Join us for a five-week series of facilitated conversations about death, Sundays fromnoon to 1:30 p.m., startingJanuary 10, led by All Saints member Mary Sharp, M.D.
If we are truly Christian, why is death so hard? To help us answer this question we hope to create a safe, yet challenging environment where individuals can explore their assumptions and projections about death.
Participants will meet in the whole, where a series of questions about death and the complex process surrounding it will be posed. Some reading material will be sent ahead of time to fertilize the big picture and explore intellectual ideas about death. Participants will be broken up into small groups to discuss these questions, with new groupings for each question. The group will meet in the whole at the end to share any particularly potent thoughts or stories that emerged from small group conversations and “homework” assigned.
Participants should come prepared to be respectful of each other, with generous listening skills and empathy. There is really no such thing as a theoretical and/or intellectual discussion about death.
Sessions will last 90 minutes, and lunch will be catered by Woody’s Oasis. Sign up on the website ( beforeJanuary 10thso day care can be made available if needed and prudent amounts of food purchased. Estimated cost of lunch $5.00. If lunch costs pose a financial barrier, please speak to Pastor Kit. For more information .
"Conversations that Matter" set for January 31 at All Saints
By Gretchen Smith
All Saints is planning the first of several small dinners—the first will be 6:15-8:15 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31. This soup, salad and dessert supper is limited to 48 individuals, 21 and up. Childcare and dinner will be provided to youth.
This series of conversations followsPhilippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”All Saints is eager to build stronger bonds with our faith family, both in connecting members with one another, and discussing one’s faith experience, service to organizations external to All Saints. We’ll look at potential community projects and how we can enable one another to claim and use our unique talents. Anne Porter Day is organizing the evening timeline. If you are interested in being one of the first 48 to gather for fellowship and sharing, register your interest through the All Saints website. Others assisting with this event include Melissa DeRosia, Toni Dennis and Gretchen Smith.
Faith in Action Theme of February 6 MLK Prayer Breakfast
By Gretchen Smith
This prayer breakfast from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at Union Missionary Baptist Church echoes the “pray and do” message of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cost is $10 and tickets can be purchased from Janet Chegwidden. Keynote speaker will be The Rev. B. DeNeice Welch, pastor of Bidwell United Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA.
The event celebrates the 2015 accomplishments of ACTION of Greater Lansing, of which All Saints is a member congregation. An outline for 2016 projects will be offered at the breakfast.
Sun / Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri / Sat
31
8a Holy Eucharist, Rite 1
8:50a Bells Rehearsal
9a Choir Rehearsal
10a Holy Eucharist, Rite 2
10a Sunday School
12p Adult Ed
5p Vespers Service
6p EYC - Confirmation
6p Progressive Dinner / 1 New Year's Day / 2
10a AA Saturday
10a Advent House
3p Organist Practice
3
8a Holy Eucharist, Rite 1
8:50a Bells Rehearsal
9a Choir Rehearsal
10a Holy Eucharist, Rite 2
10a Pageant
11:30a Adult Forum
5p Vespers Service
6p EYC - Confirmation / 4
1p Staff Meeting
3p TASC
5:30p TASC Advisory Board
6p Efm
7p Prayer and Study Group
7:30p AA Monday / 5
9a Pastor Kit's Coffee Hours
10:30a Toddlertime (1)
12:30p Prayer & Bible Study