E Pluribus Unim is the Latin term for Out of Many Come One.  What it really means is that we are all in this together.  Bishop Curry said the greatest challenge today in this county and in our churches is E Pluribus Unim.  The most critical issue facing our church today is embracing our differences and respecting one another.  It is sexism, racism, and other prejudices that continue to bring divisions.  When we focus on these issues we are not bringing anything healthy to the table.  This only helps us to stand divided and apart in our own perceived righteousness.

Later this month, we will begin the season of Lent with two services (at noon and 6:00pm) on Ash Wednesday.  Even though we are barely into the new year of 2009, we can see that already it has been a historic year.  This has occurred in both the church and politics.  In the church, we have been called to focus on outreach and global needs.  In politics, we have new leadership and fresh ideas.

When we focus on loving our neighbors we find that we are living out Jesus’s request of making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:1-9).  In order to do this, we need to leave our comfort zones and dare to reach out, toward the other, toward those who are different.  Those are our deep roots as Episcopalians.

Sometimes we don’t feel that we can make much of a difference in Roanoke Rapids.  After all, we are just one little church way out here on the fringes of the diocese.  Well, I want to tell you that we can make a difference and, more importantly, we have made a difference.  We have been reaching out on local and global levels.  We have been living the life that imitates that of Christ.

A community of faith that is formed on the imitation of Christ will by definition be an inclusive and accepting community.  Our call is to be Chris-like.  It doesn’t mean that anything goes.  It means that we are a community of people who make disciples of all nations.  When that happens, we find that all sorts of people show up.  As this unfolds, we find that our old focus changes and a new vision is formed and  developed.

When we leave our comfort zones and move out, we are empowered to reach out, toward others, toward those who are different.  Reaching beyond brings us great risk.  It is not comfortable to reach out, but while reaching out does bring us risk, it also brings us great rewards.

As we move into a historical year, let us look at our dynamics.  Let us look at how the miracles of our tolerance and love has helped us to reach out beyond our comfort zones.

We walk by faith, not by sight, and we are not there yet.  On our local level, on the Diocesan level and on the global level we can realize that we aren’t there yet.  We continue to press on because Christ says that our endurance will save our souls.  We have a hope, a dream, and a passion for All Saints’ to be a church that welcomes everyone.

This requires a lot from us.  As we enter the season of Lent, let’s look at how we can all live safely in our hearts by learning to forgive.

E Pluribus Unim. Out of many come one.   We are part of the larger picture, we are the hands, feet, and eyes of Christ, and we are all in this thing together.  Thanks be to God.

Your faithful servant,
Margie

Episcopal Church Women

We are still saving the bar-codes on the Campbell soup labels, the BOXTOP$ on certain items, and aluminum cans for CPC.  Please deposit them at the parish house except for the aluminum cans. The cans can be left in the kitchen at the administrative building. We are no longer collecting pill bottles and the church collecting them has an ample supply.  If anyone has a request for bottles -such as special people going to 3rd world countries -please let me or Nancy Mosley know and you can get some of those bottles to take along.

We will meet on Wednesday, February 4^th starting with the board meeting at 10:15 in the Mullen Room and then service in the church at 11:30 followed by our program and  meeting, then lunch in the Parish House. You are welcome to attend  and we would love to have you.  All of it is GOOD.  Guest are welcome, however if you are coming for lunch and are not already counted please let Sadie Carol know by the Monday morning before the meeting date.

Next month our meeting will be in the parish house on Sunday March 1^st, after the church service. All women of All Saint’s are invited plus guests.  This lunch meal is furnished by the board members, so please come prepared to the 10:15 meeting this month with good ideas for that day. We will not have a regular Wednesday meeting in March.

I look forward to seeing you Wednesday, February 4^th.

Sisters in Christ,
Ruthie G.

Outreach

Outreach Sunday will be February 15th instead of February 8th to coincide with a visit from the Reverend Thomas Chesterman, from Food for the Poor.  He will conduct our services that day and talk to us about their ministry.  He comes to us from California to discuss the need to continue to address the issue of world hunger as part of meeting our Millennium Development Goal.  Don't miss his message and the chance to help!

Warm greetings to all of you in this season of cool days and colder nights!

On behalf of the family of All Saints I would like to say a big thank you to our departing vestry members Cary Whitaker, Bill Hodge, Henry Moncure, and Tony Short for their years of service to our church.  A special thank you to Tony Short for all the things you have accomplished while you were our junior warden.  We will miss you but know you are only down the street and a phone call away!  As we say thanks to our departing members, we want to warmly welcome our new members Lori Gowen, Susan Hodge, and Mike Scott.  We look forward to working with you in the coming years.

The following are a couple of projects we hope to accomplish during 2009:

Roof:   One big priority is to have our church roof evaluated for renewal and get a cost estimate for repair or replacement.  Once this has been done we will get back with those figures and a decision for it.

Altar changes:  For approximately 8 months there has been conversation on changing the position of the altar so Margie would be able to face us during Eucharist and other parts of the service.  Scott Barber was kind enough to volunteer his time and drew a sketch of the existing altar so we could formulate a plan that would work and be minimally invasive.  We have not come to a final course of action but have decided the kneeling rail will stay where it is.  Before any work is started I will keep you informed as to our thoughts and get feedback from parishioners about this.

We appreciate the hard work of the Finance Committee, and especially Bill Pierce, for all they do on our budget.  We fell short on our All Member Canvass for this year by about $15,000 so it will be necessary to revise our budget and present it to the Vestry members at our February meeting.

A final note about the Diocesan Convention I attended last weekend in Winston-Salem.  It was very enlightening to see how our diocese works on both local and national church issues.  I got the feeling that all the churches in North Carolina deal with the same issues we do.  Over the next few months I will have more to say about what issues were voted on and how the vote affects our church.

God’s blessings for a healthy and happy 2009!

Bob

FINANCIAL CORNER

We still have some outstanding pledges from 2008.  We are trying to close our 2008 books so that we can proceed with our annual audit.  If you have not fulfilled your pledge for 2008, please contact Bill Pearce so that we can start fresh with 2009.

We now offer bank drafts for payment of pledges.  If you are interested, please contact Mary Lou Jarman at 537-8250.

Please mark your checks in the memo area so that your funds will be certain to go where you want them to.

If you have not received your numbered pledge envelopes or are interested in receiving pledge envelopes, please stop by or call the office.

All Saints’ Bookshelf

Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement
By: Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, Eerdman’s, 2008

This book explores the different aspects of homelessness.  Homelessness is not just a dynamic of living on the street.  True homelessness is being dislocated from God.  There are a variety of problems that contribute to our homelessness.  These problems are economic, ecological, theological and spiritual.  The authors also interact with themes and characters from trendy literature and culture.  Each chapter ends with a biblical interlude or meditation that brings us a wonderful sense of spiritual healing and belonging.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
By: David Wroblewski, Ecco, 2008

This is a book that you won’t want to put down or finish.  It is the story of a young boy, Edgar, in Northern Wisconsin, whose family breeds dogs.  Edgar is mute, but has developed a special way of communicating with one of the family dogs.  Suddenly, young Edgar must deal with a the tragic loss of his father.  His journey is one about a boy who comes of age and about the language of friendship: a language that transcends words.

Plum Spooky
By: Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s Press, 2009

For those of us who love the lovable loser, Stephanie Plum, here is another fun and easy-to-read book.  This is a between the numbers novel in which we find the same cast of characters who have a knack for attracting trouble, danger, and laughter…

COLUMBARIUM NEWS

We have added 24 new niches to the Columbarium in the Dunn Garden.   At this time, they are being offered for sale at the price of $1,000.00.  This is an introductory price.  As of June 1, 2009, the price will increase to $1,500.00.  Please give this careful consideration and let us know if you would like to purchase a niche.  Contact the parish office for more information.

Reflections on Lent
Playing by the rules…

During the short month of February, we enter another church season: Lent.  This year we will be offering the rite of reconciliation for those who desire it.  For some, reconciliation or confession may give us different ideas of who God is.  Some of us picture God as angry and judgmental versus the image of a loving father.  However we look at God, God gives us some guidelines or rules to play by as we try to live faithfully.

God is not merely a concept; nor is God merely some immortal sitting high and uplifted in the midst of the temple of heaven surrounded by angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven.  God is not only approachable through prophetic visions and the Damascus road experiences.  Nor is God the keeper of the Cosmic scoreboard of life, waiting to pop up when we least expect it and say "Gotcha."  Nope.  God quit keeping score not from the comfort of the heavenly judgment seat, but, instead, from the hard wood of the cross.

An important function of judges in our justice system is to make sure everyone plays by the rules and that the defendant receives a fair trial.  We can see in both society (the justice system) and religion (exclusion) that sometimes people do not play by the same set of rules.

As Christians, we live in two different worlds: we are citizens of the Kingdom, and we are citizens of the larger world.  This gives us two sets of rules to live by.  Rules such as speed limits are different than the rules of the Kingdom of God.  Loving your neighbor and respecting the dignity of every human being cannot be enforced like the laws of the land can.

Taking time to repent and confess our sins gives us a chance to look deep into our own hearts through self-examination. This is a time when we can honestly look in areas where we are missing the mark or falling short of God’s glory.  It is also a time when we can look to Christ and see him as our judge, our loving judge who holds us to the rules of the game.  He will toss the penalty flags when necessary: not to exclude us, or throw us out, but to help us start anew, to give us a new starting line.  In all this, God greets us like the father of the prodigal son.  God still wants us in the game.  God just asks us to play by the rules of the Kingdom.

Where Do We Go from Here?
By Jim Lee

Choosing music for worship from the 1982 Hymnal requires that I acknowledge a really difficult question—how do you take five hymns and two anthems and satisfy the musical tastes and spiritual needs of 80 to 100 different people on a given Sunday morning?  I hope that your reading of these articles over the past year has given you some insight into the process by which these choices are made.  So where is church music going in the near future?

 First, consider what other churches—especially Evangelical churches—are going through.  The texts of Evangelical hymns, from “Amazing Grace” to “I Can Only Imagine”—tend to be simpler and more emotional than liturgically-based texts (many of which began as scripture, psalms, or collects from the mass). The music for Evangelical hymns is, as a rule, more singable than many Liturgical hymns; this is in part because many of the tunes were originally secular tunes, the “pop” music of their day.  On the other hand, the musicality of these tunes—both old and new—may reach an emotional chord in us that more liturgically-oriented music does not.  Think of the recent gospel song, “I Can Only Imagine.”  This three minute song has only eight different lines of text when it is written down as poetry, and four of those repeat one musical pattern and the other four repeat another.  Yet many people are touched by the sentiment of the music. As a result of this emotional response, many Evangelical churches have adopted popular music as the norm.

Now Liturgical churches have to decide how far toward this trend to veer.  Here at All Saints’, we used to sing less liturgically-bound music at our 9:00 a.m. service, and our Diocese even went so far as to compete with the Evangelical churches by setting up a “praise” church Raleigh (this experiment failed after a year or so).  On the other hand, many liturgical texts are now set to music that is more singable and may make a more emotional connection with us, such as “Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song” or “Alleluia, Give Thanks to the Risen Lord,” and this musical movement is well-represented in our Hymnal.  Believe it or not, our 1982 Hymnal will soon be 30 years old and the process of selecting hymns and service music for our next Episcopal hymnal will begin within the next 10 years.  Based on what is in our current Hymnal and what you have read in these pages, can you even begin to guess what that hymnal will sound like?

 I have enjoyed preparing these notes for you, and I have learned for myself about some of these things for the first time while deepening my understanding of other things that I had only a passing knowledge of before.  I learned a lot about myself in the process, too.  I was raised with the “old” Methodist Hymnal and spent my childhood summers at an evangelical church with a hymnal that had not been updated since before World War II except to paste “How Great Thou Art” inside the back cover, so I am well steeped in Evangelical hymnody.  I spent four years in college with Morning Prayer, monthly Communion, and the 1940 Hymnal at St. Stephen’s in Durham in the 1970’s, so I am well acquainted with the traditions of the Episcopal Church that many of you grew up with.  It was not until 1991, when I began attending an Episcopal church regularly again, that I discovered the beauty and complexity of the patchwork quilt of the Eucharistic services in the ’79 Prayer Book and the ‘82 Hymnal. I enjoy programming music that is appropriate for a particular service even if that music is sometimes new and challenging.

 Ralph Vaughn Williams was once asked if he liked a piece of music that he had written.    “I don't know whether I like it,” he said, “but it is what I meant.”  Fitting the music to the words, and the words and music to the lectionary continue to be the liturgical aim of the Episcopal Church as we try to get closer to God and find meaning in our spiritual lives through our liturgy and music.  Sometimes this makes us stretch our boundaries, but stretched boundaries can hold more. As Alexander Pope said: “Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

 As we move into the future, the Episcopal church—and All Saints’ Church—will be around to cherish our traditions and heritage while finding new and interesting challenges in liturgy and music.