On behalf of the vestry members, I want to thank everyone for their response to our request to identify and either donate or remove their personal possessions they had loaned to All Saints Church over the years. We want to make sure that everyone has received notice so we are extending the removal deadline until May 15^th, 2007. At that time we will assume that everything that is left in the church, parish house, and office belongs to All Saints. Again thank you for your cooperation and generosity.

For the past few months members of All Saints have gone through tremendous changes: in leadership, in the way we feel about All Saints, in the way we feel about the national Episcopal Church, and changes in the way we feel about our brothers and sisters. New ideas, lifestyles, and world issues have affected the national church but the majority of our members currently remain cohesive and loyal to All Saints’ and its mission statement. It is now time to move forward and focus our energies on how we can improve All Saints church. Your vestry is doing all we can to expedite the procedure for finding a new rector. We hope this will be accomplished very soon. We want to thank all of our parishioners who have supported All Saints in many ways through this difficult period. We truly appreciate those of you who have worked so hard in your efforts to keep All Saints unified and to strengthen its Christian values.

We are aware that there may be some misinformation regarding information discussed during vestry meetings. All vestry meetings, with the exception of Executive Sessions, are open to all church members and for the last few months we have published in the Messenger minutes of our meetings. If you would like to address the vestry with a specific concern, then please contact our parish administrator, Vickie Irby, at 252-537-3610, with this request so your concern (s) may be added to our agenda.

Thank you and let’s all keep All Saints and its future in our thoughts and prayers.

In His name,
Robert J. Burke
Senior Warden

As a kid, I hated cabbage. I hated it in all forms--boiled, steamed, raw, pickled-- except drowned in mayonnaise and pickle juice as slaw (and if I’d have known slaw was cabbage, I would have violated North Carolinas law and eaten my hamburgers, hot dogs, and barbecue sandwiches without it). When my mom prepared cabbage once a month as a favor to my dad, I refused to come to the table and found some sugary cereal to eat for supper.

One night when I was twelve, I was invited to eat dinner with a football teammate and his family. They served ham and potatoes (which I greedily accepted) and boiled cabbage which I (to my shame) less than politely declined. I did not find it odd that I was not invited back to their house for another meal. But a few years later, I had dinner with a girl I had a crush on, and her mother served boiled cabbage. Perhaps I was more mature, or perhaps I was determined not to look bad, but I ate the boiled cabbage with a minimum of nose crinkling. To my astonishment, I found I liked it. I just had to get past the odor or the mushy presentation, it seems, to realize that I had been missing something I liked.

In my three years at All Saints’, I have served up a smorgasbord of music. Like cabbage, church music comes in many forms and textures, and I have tried to give you a sampling of many kinds both as congregational hymns and choral anthems. This is especially true of music of the seasons of the church year. For example, there are 40 hymns designated as “Easter” hymns, and I have introduced perhaps five or six of them in addition to programming the 10 or 12 that this congregation knew before I came. I have peppered these hymns into services where the texts were especially meaningful to the readings, psalms, and prayers in the service; we have to remember that Easter didn’t end on Easter morning.

Unfamiliar hymns may make you uncomfortable at first, but eventually the good ones expand your comfort zone. I don’t give you more than I am confident you can digest, and sometimes I get overconfident (and you rightfully let me know). But just as if you only eat the cabbage drowned in mayonnaise and pickle juice, you miss out on the tart sauerkraut, if you only sing the hymns you know, you may miss out on the experience of singing a hymn that may become one you look forward to each year. And I will try to make sure we have a healthy dose of ham and potatoes as well. As we complete the Easter season and approach the Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday, open your mind and your heart to all of the music of the church, both the familiar and less familiar.

The Reverend Canon Michael Hunn
Canon to the Ordinary for Program and Pastoral Ministry
will be at All Saints’ on Sunday, May 6 2007.
Rev. Hunn will preach at our 11 am service
followed by a COVERED DISH
and a short program/open forum.

On Monday, April 30^th the locks on the Church, Parish House, and Office Building were changed. This was done to improve security and also because several of the locks are difficult to open. Keys are available in the Parish Office, if you need one, please contact Vickie. Keys will be numbered so the Church will have a record of who has that key. These keys will be restricted so that they cannot be copied. Should we need more keys made, the locksmith will be able to provide them. SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS please keep your keys, the Sunday School room locks will remain the same.

Hot Dogs, hamburgers and drinks will be provided
Please prepare your favorite side dish or dessert to share
Don’t forget your swimsuit, towel, sunscreen etc..
336 Windsong Drive 535-5357
Take Thelma Road, turn right onto Edgewater Drive,
go to the end of Edgewater and turn left onto Windsong Drive
If you would be interested in car pooling contact the parish office.
In case of rain, services will be held at the Church.

Church Periodical Club & Untied Thank Offering

If there are any other graduates High School or College
please contact the parish office so we can acknowledge
them in our June Messenger.

This article was written by a good friend of mine and he suggested I use it to enlighten you as to the issues in our larger Episcopal Church. So, while I have edited this, the majority of the information comes from another source. Margie +

That the church refrain from consecrating any other gay bishops (despite the fact that they might be duly elected by that diocese); and

That a majority of the Primates appoint a “Pastoral Vicar” – this would be a bishop outside the communion of the Episcopal Church USA. The Pastoral Vicar would step in to care for congregations in the United States that might be unhappy with their bishop.

The House of Bishops, meeting in Texas, rejected both of these proposals for several very good reasons:

There is not canonical authority or historical precedent to appoint someone from another nation church (Church of England, for example) to supervise congregations outside their dioceses. (We did fight the Revolutionary War, and the Church of England is a branch of the English Government).

There is no precedent for not allowing a diocese in this country to elect the bishop they want. (By analogy, imagine the government of England telling U.S. citizens of a state that they could not elect someone as governor.)

The Episcopal Church is governed by the General Convention which includes a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies. So, lay people are included in any major decision making process. The House of Bishops says that it lacks the authority to accept such a proposal without consulting the other clergy and lay deputies.

The entire House of Bishops also invited the Archbishop of Canterbury to meet with them to a special meeting to set before him these issues. He has agreed to meet with then sometime in September.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams has stated, “These are complicated days for our Church internationally, and it’s all the more important to keep up personal relationships and conversations. My aim is to try and keep people around the table for as long as possible on this, to understand one another, and to encourage local churches.”

There is more about this subject, just visit the Episcopal News Service on the web.

Anglicans -- also known in some places as Episcopalians -- are Christians who practice their faith in the context of the 38 autonomous member churches, or provinces, of the Anglican Communion, which spans 164 countries worldwide with 77 million members. One of these provinces is the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, with 2.4 million members in 112 dioceses, or geographic regions. Anglicans and Episcopalians are persons of many ethnic and cultural heritages. Anglicans are known for welcoming diversity of opinion and inquiry.

Clergy within the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion are men and women who are ordained as bishops (after being elected in local dioceses), priests and deacons. Clergy often have spouses while others are single.

Many church members, or laity, hold various leadership positions that range from election to local parish vestries (or boards of directors) or as deputies to General Convention, the Episcopal Church's bicameral legislative structure.

Anglicans and Episcopalians practice a faith that is liturgically and theologically a bridge between Catholicism and Protestant traditions. Anglicans and Episcopalians value a balance of scripture, reason and tradition as set forth by 16th-century English theologian Richard Hooker.