Greetings from
Darlene Meloche, Senior Warden
and
Mother Bonnie, Priest-in-Charge
June 17, 2020
Dear All Saints Family,
This has been a difficult time for all of us: a time of being socially-distant; of being unable to attend in-person worship; of many lamenting our social turmoil and unrest. But there’s always hope, for God is with us and we are excited to share some good news for us here at All Saints.
First of all, Mother Bonnie and Jess will be staying with us here at All Saints, as your Vestry has worked with the Diocese to extend Mother Bonnie’s letter of agreement. And they have already started the process of moving permanently to Warner Robins this summer! We are so blessed.
And our Food Pantry has been amazing, thanks to our wonderful volunteers who have been here every week and the continuing generous donations from so many, both within and outside of All Saints. Do know, however, we can always use more volunteers for helping on pantry days, as well as for packing. With the warmer weather and summer vacations, we’re working on reimagining our distribution, while both ensuring best-practices in social distancing and striving to keep the pantry volunteers “relatively cool,” with the opportunity for plenty of breaks, in all our Middle Georgia summer heat. If you’re able, we can use more assistance. Please contact the office.
Much has been accomplished on our church grounds while we have been apart, as we’ve used this time of the buildings being closed as an opportunity to take care of much-needed maintenance. The Education Building has been painted and looks amazing. Lighting fixtures have been cleaned and also brightened with new LEDs. Several doors on the campus have been replaced and our new Sanctuary double doors look particularly wonderful. Repairs have been made to our outdoor campus lighting with great results and we’ve been able to economically add a new security light close to the Parish Hall. A good portion of our Sacristy area has been repainted and reconfigured, enhancing both the beauty and the usability of this sacred space, and we’ve repaired and repainted our Sanctuary transepts from past water damage. We owe lots of thanks to Jimmy Eubanks, Junior Warden, and to so many others who have worked so hard on both coordinating and completing our campus improvements. Do know that all this work was done under the oversight of the Vestry and following the sound financial practices of the Finance Committee.
We’re also happy to report that our parish finances are strong. Through May, we are on-budget for revenue and expenses. Thank you for your continuing attention to the needs of the church. So much can be accomplished through your generous contributions and our All Saints community has been fantastic about stepping up in these challenging times!
While we all continue to long to begin worshipping together again, we are hopeful that you have been able to stay engaged with us as a worshiping community. Sunday worship continues through pre-recorded services, as well as weekday services of Morning Prayer and Compline on Facebook Live. We continue to creatively listen and learn and build community through virtual book studies, Bible studies, and even social times with a virtual coffee hour. And do know that we’re also working towards the capability to live stream Sunday church services, recognizing that even when we do come back together for in-person worship, there will be a continued need for many to participate virtually, as not all will be comfortable coming back, even with social distancing. Thanks to the work already done with our sound system enhancements, plus some additional technical assistance from Pierce Christie and Eddie Henning, we expect to be able to live stream relatively soon. And we will keep you posted of our phased re-opening plan, once we are given that guidance from the Diocese.
May God continue to bless us and keep us, as we seek to love God by loving our neighbors. And thanks be to Almighty God for the Holy Spirit’s continual nudging, guiding us all to walk in Jesus’ way of love.
Blessings,
Darlene Meloche
Senior Warden
The Reverend Bonnie Underwood
Priest-in-Charge