Healing and Hope

DECEMBER
31,
2006
T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F A L L S A I N T S E P I S CO PA L C H U R C H
VOLUME XIV N U M B E R 4 8
Healing and Hope
FROM WILMA JAKOBSEN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, PEACE & JUSTICE AND PARISH LIFE
T
New Year’s Eve
Eucharist
All are invited to attend a New
Year’s Eve Eucharist, Sunday,
Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the
Church. Canterbury Choir soloists
Elizabeth Tatum-Harris, Ruth
Ballenger, Stephen McDonough
and Jim Campbell and rhythm
section offer music of Halley and
James Walker. This special
service is a wonderful way to
prepare for the New Year. Ed
Bacon offers a meditation.
Labyrinth Ministry
Need a moment of quiet
reflection as the old year winds
down? Searching for direction for
the new year? Revive your soul
and refresh your spirit! Walk the
Labyrinth, Sunday, Dec. 31 in
Sweetland Hall between 9 a.m.
to 1 p.m. There are no
‘requirements’ or ‘rules,’ just
place one foot in front of the
other, and listen. Encounter this
ancient meditative tool for feeling
the Spirit’s presence reaching
out to you. Questions? Call
Susan Adkins at 626.440.1812
here was a time when I prayed with
typical optimism at the beginning of
each year that God would give me a quiet year.
That heartfelt prayer arose out of the many
rich, exciting, challenging experiences that
seemed to constantly over-fill the cup of my
life. Then there came the time when I reluctantly yet consciously decided to give up
praying that prayer because I came to believe
that there is no such thing as a quiet year! And
certainly not at All Saints Church! That is
because God is always wonderfully at work,
doing so much in us and through us and
among us that brings great joy and gratitude.
There is certainly much for which to be
grateful and joyful. In this Christmas season, we
still want to celebrate the joy and wonder that
we feel from God coming among us, being born
anew into our lives and our world, and giving
us hope. As the year ends, there is also much
cause for pondering and reflection. For what
can I give thanks in this past year? Where have I
experienced God’s grace? Where have I resisted
God’s grace, or God’s call to maturity and
growth? How have I made a difference in the
world, and how has the world made a difference in me? How have I welcomed God’s love
and others’ love — and how have I been able to
show God’s love to others? Is there anything I
need to let go of in order to start the new year in
a fresh way? Do I have any regrets?
This quote by Brother Roger of Taize may
help us ponder on letting go the past year: “On
days when we look back, filled with regrets,
our energies are depleted. In all things peace of
heart, serene joy. The Holy Spirit has buried
our past in the heart of Christ. The Holy Spirit
will take care of our future.”
On this last Sunday of the year, we hold our
annual service of healing. In the context of
God’s grace experienced in the eucharist, we
are all invited to come and kneel at the altar
rail and experience the laying on of hands for
healing, with prayers for ourselves or others
for whom we are burdened. It is God’s invitation to us, another way to let go of the past and
embrace the future.
And as another new year begins, we
continue to ponder. How do I feel as the New
Year begins? What are my hopes and dreams
for this year? What are my fears and anxieties?
Ellen Ott Marshall recently challenged us to
purposefully cultivate hope as a part of our
spiritual practice. That is something I have
included in my goals for next year.
At the beginning of this year I found a
prayer by Joyce Rupp that spoke deeply to me. I
found myself praying through it many times,
and as the year went by I often saw my life
correspond to a line in the prayer — and knew
that God was at work. May this prayer speak
to all of us as we enter 2007, with healing and
hope in our hearts:
God, Faithful Companion, in this new year I pray:
to live deeply, with purpose
to live freely, with detachment
to live wisely, with humility
to live justly, with compassion
to live lovingly, with fidelity
to live mindfully, with awareness
to live gratefully, with generosity
to live fully, with enthusiasm
Help me to hold this vision and to daily renew it in
my heart, becoming ever more one with you, my
truest Self. Amen.
Sunday
DECEMBER 31, 2006
SUNDAY MORNING
ADVENT 4 EUCHARIST
The Rev. Zelda Kennedy
preaches on Knowing the
Intensity of God’s Love at 7:30, 9
and 11:15 a.m. The Rev. Abel
Lopez preaches at the 1 p.m.
Spanish-English service.
F I R S T S U N D AY A F T E R C H R I S T M A S
A D U LT S AT 1 0 : 1 5
FOR CHILDREN
–New Year’s Eve–
No Adult Education. Please
greet each other on the lawn
Preschool (ages 2–4), SCOTT HALL
9:00
10:15
Infant and Child Care with Bible Stories
Room 3, 4, 5: New Year’s Eve, No Sunday
School
Grade School (K–5), LEARNING CENTER
9:00
10:15
Children’s Chapel: Children go to church with
their parents, leave after the Gospel, and
return at the offering
Grades K—5: New Year’s Eve, No Sunday
School
FOR YOUTH, JR. HIGH AND HIGH SCHOOL
10:15–11:00
No Junior High & High School Journeys
At 9 and 11:15 a.m. Coventry
Choir offers The Blessed Son of
God by Ralph Vaughan WIlliams
and Lord, Lead Us Still by
Johannes Brahms.
SUNDAY’S SCRIPTURES
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Psalm 147 or 147:13-21
The 5 p.m. Saturday Celebration Eucharist returns January 6
Vestry Slate of
Candidates for 2007
T
he Vestry Nominating Committee (Lorna Carry, Cathy Clement,
Rick Davis, Miles Deamer, Gerti
Reagan Garner, Terry Gock, Lydia
Lopez, Barbara McNear, Grace Miller,
Jon Neff, Jim White, Bob Long, Maria
DiMassa) thanks you for your participation in the nominating process!
Following a series of prayerful deliberations, the committee is proud to
announce this slate for election at the
Annual Meeting, Part I, Sunday,
February 4, 2007.
Will Baldwin— has grown up at
All Saints; Wednesday Night Youth
Program, Youth Bible Study Group,
volunteer at Union Station; 11th grader
at La Canada High School.
Susan Caldwell— has been a
member since the early 70s; former
Vestry member, chaired Program
Review and the Leadership Project,
Road Map committee; former English
teacher, currently an activist in the arts
community.
Trula Worthy Clayton— 10 years a
member; co-chair Foster Care Project,
Transformational Journeys steering
committee; retired probation bureau
chief.
Ed Johnson— member of All Saints
for five years; Coventry Choir member,
steering committee for new building,
stewardship, business development
consultant in technology and entertainment production.
Juan Mejia— at All Saints for six
years; member Peace & Justice steering
committee; community involvement in
Sanctuary Movement; attorney.
Toby Pugh— All Saints member
since 1990; previous Vestry member;
founder of Max Valor, new ministry
supporting currently member of
military, veterans & families; architect.
Laura Vossler— grew up at All
Saints; choir, Wednesday Night Youth
Group, Seekers class of ’06, acolyte;
10th grader at Arcadia High School.
Gwen Whitson—Five years at All
Saints; Forum Greeter, Newcomer
Coffee host; chair of trustees for Camp
Fire USA; attorney.
It is also possible to nominate an
individual by petition by submitting a
statement of 75 words or less describing the person’s qualifications for
Vestry service. Have this signed by
five other members of the parish as
well as by the person being nominated. Bring it and a photo of the
proposed candidate to the church
office no later than noon on Tuesday,
January 9, 2007. Photos and information on all candidates will appear in
the February 4 issue of Saints Alive.
For more information, contact Anne
Peterson 626.583.2713.
Festival of Life Keynote Speaker to be
Sister Helen Prejean
W
e are pleased to announce
that Sister Helen Prejean will
be the Keynote Speaker for the 2007
Festival of Life, All Saints’ Lenten
educational experience.
Sister Helen was vaulted into
popular culture when her book Dead
Man Walking made the New York
Times Bestsellers List in 1993 and then
made into a motion picture in 1996.
Sister Helen began her prison
ministry in 1981 when she dedicated
her life to the poor of New Orleans.
While living in the St. Thomas housing project, she became pen pals with
Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of
two teenagers, sentenced to die in the
electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola
State Prison. Upon Sonnier’s request,
Sister Helen repeatedly visited him as
his spiritual advisor. In doing so, her
eyes were opened to the Louisiana
execution process.
The subject for the Festival of Life
this year is “Humanity Imprisoned,
Humanity Transformed.” Join us as
we explore themes of reconciliation,
justice, dignity and redemption. Sister
Helen will speak from her personal
experience in prison ministry and
many years of reflection on justice in
America.
Save the dates February 23 through
February 25, 2007 to attend the Festival
of Life. More information will follow.
Save The Date And
Change Your Life
O
n Sunday, Feb. 11, from 12:30
till 2:30 pm., join us at an allparish luncheon meeting in Sweetland
Hall to launch a new ministry: Transformational Journeys. You could travel
with other All Saints members to visit
immigrants crossing the border from
Mexico to the U.S., learn about AIDS in
Malawi, economic development in
South Africa, or protest the slaughter in
Darfur at the Sudanese Embassy in
Washington, D.C. Take your part in
“transforming the human race into the
human family.” Save the date, come to
the luncheon and change your life.
2007 Operating
Budget Update:
Breaking Through!
W
e are deeply grateful to all
who have made a pledge to
the 2007 Breaking Through Stewardship Campaign. To date, we have
received a total of 1223 pledges
totaling $4,125,397.00. The vision we
believe that God has given us for
ministries in 2007 will cost
$4,707,000.00. In order reach our
budget goal, we are calling on all
members and friends of this parish to
make a pledge toward the 2007
Operating Fund Budget. Please call
the Stewardship office at 626.583.2736
or e-mail [email protected] to
make your 2007 pledge.
Year-End Budget Notice
It is year-end, and we would like to remind all
parishioners to verify that pledges have been
completed by December 31. Only payments
postmarked by this date will be counted as
contributions for the 2006 tax year. There are a
significant number of parish households with
balances still remaining. We are counting on the
completion of all pledges in order to be able to fulfill
our commitment to ministries that provide for those
within our parish and in the community at large.
Harville Hendrix in the Forum, Jan 7
Harville Hendrix, Ph.D.,author of the best seller,
“Getting The Love You Want: A Guide for Couples”
will be in the Rector’s Forum on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007
at 10:15 a.m. to kick off the new Tuesday evening
class called, “Couplehood As A Spiritual Path.” He
and his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D., developed
this course for churches as an adaptation from his
popular book. This eight-week program will be offered
every other Tuesday evening from 7-9 p.m. from
January to May.
Covenant II Begins January 7
Covenant II – Deepening Our Faith, Living Into Our
Baptism – continues the exploration of the Baptismal
Covenant begun in Covenant I. Covenant I invites
class members to look at the Covenant through the
lens of personal stories of faith. In Covenant II, the
focus is theological. Staff members present the core
teachings of the Anglican Church concerning major
themes of the Baptismal Covenant. Scripture,
history and ethics are all vital topics in the program.
Covenant II, offered once a year, meets on selected
Sunday afternoons for lecture and discussion, from
January to May. The class culminates with
Confirmation on Saturday, May 12, 2007. Covenant I
is a way into All Saints Church; Covenant II is the
way into Confirmation or Reception in the Episcopal
Church and to the Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows.
The first Covenant II session meets on Sunday, Jan.
7 at 1:00 p.m. in Sweetland Hall. To register, please
stop by our table on the lawn. For more information,
contact Rusty Harding at 626.583.2735 or
[email protected].
Lectio Local Reads Salvador
Plascencia’s The People of Paper
Lectio Local, All Saints’ discussion group focused
on life in Southern California, resumes after a
break for the holidays on Friday, January 19. This
month the conversation will center on Salvador
Plascencia’s The People of Paper. Daniel
Hernandez in The Los Angeles Times wrote that
Plascencia’s wildly inventive novel gives “Southern
California and its mythology a borderless
treatment that our literary heritage, until now, has
seemed to lack.” The discussion will be held in the
Guild Room starting at 7:30 and continuing until
9:00. All are welcome. Call Rusty Harding at
626.583.2735 for more information.
Volunteer to be an Angel on Call
Angels on Call is a Pastoral Care & Spiritual Growth
ministry, providing a host of services to those
parishioners who have suffered the loss of a loved one
or who are faced with serious or life threatening
illnesses. Your hands could be those that bring food to
a parishioner in crisis or connect them to services they
need. For more information contact the volunteer
coordinators - Tom Drino, 626.852.6954,
[email protected], or Joe Gonzales, 626.442.2192,
[email protected].
Fiction Fun! Reads March by Geraldine
Brooks
Fiction Fun! begins the New Year on Friday, January 26
with a discussion of March by Geraldine Brooks. The
New Yorker wrote that “the true strength,” of Brooks’
Civil War novel, “is a deep imaginative engagement with
how people are changed by catastrophe.” Please join us
in the Guild Room for the discussion beginning at
7:30 p.m. and continuing until 9:00. All are welcome. Call
Rusty Harding at 626.583.2735 for more information.
Save the Date! Chris Hedges is Coming
to Town!
Chris Hedges returns to All Saints on Wednesday, Jan. 24
at 7:00 p.m. in the Forum. He will promote his new book
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on
America, and talk about the showdown with Iran.
shorts
Harding at 626.583.2735 for more
information.
Movies and Meaning on the
Immigrant Experience
Do You Want to Be Called by
Call To Community?
Religion and the
movies “share an
interest” in values,
according to theologian
Margaret Miles, but
those values now are
often most powerfully
represented, not in the
church, but in the
theater. Please join us
for a time of sharing
film, our lives and our
values as we bring
those worlds together
to see what they say
about our journeys of
faith. The final film
scheduled for viewing
and discussion in this
film series on the
immigrant experience
is A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn (Wednesday,
Dec. 27). Please contact Rusty
If you want to get
connected at All
Saints, meet people,
or just talk with
someone, simply
contact either of the
following people and
express your desire to
be placed on the Call
list. Susan Long at 626.564.0141
or [email protected], or
Maria DiMassa at 626.796.8765 or
[email protected].
Computer Savvy Volunteers!
If you have computer
skills - especially a
familiarity with Excel
- the Pastoral Care &
Spiritual Growth
office needs your
help. Contact Chris MackeyMason, 626.583.2752 or
[email protected].
prayers
F O R T H E PA R I S H C O M M U N I T Y
Remember those for whom prayers have been requested: Devon Williams
Bishop; George Bolanos; Steve Carlburg; Lanell Copeland; Jean Doyle; James
Galvan; the Gallion and LaCour Families; Frank Guevera; Darlene Guzman;
Lucas Kelly; Betty Kunz; Abby McCarrel and the McCarrel Family; Mary
McColl; Mike Menchaca; Julie Minson; Linda and Aidan Miranda; John Monaco;
Hideo Munkakami; Fumie Murata; Shirley Pascal and Family; the Presser
Family; Dianne Pounds; Louise and Terry Pisenti; Lois Russell; Charles Sterrett;
the Toth Family; Matthew Velasco; Nastassja and Kenya; Don and Carolyn;
Courtney; Jason, Meredith and Ethan
In thanksgiving for: The marriage of Robert Rui Otani and Alicia Reid Langford,
daughter of Janet and Hugh Langford; the birth of Joshua Ellias Maxwell
Beaver, son of Katherine Carlburg and Elliot Beaver and grandson of Carolyn
Carlburg and Dave and Cindy Carlburg; the birth of Stella Norene Carlson
daughter of David and Shandy Carlson; the birth of Dylan Christopher Eng, son
of Mary Christ and Phil Eng, grandson of Dorothy Christ; and the birth of
Sebastian Lopez, son of May Ling and Abel Lopez
For those who have died: Don Caldwell, Jane Frame, Severine Gallion, Daniel
Nathan Magana and Rae Mason, Louise, Andor, and Andor Toth, Jr.
saints alive Volume 14 Number 48 Sunday, December 31, 2006 Deadline for January 7, 2007 issue is Tuesday, December
12, 2006 USPS 553-760 Published weekly except biweekly in July and August Postmaster: Send address changes to Saints Alive, 132 N.
Euclid Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101-1796 Telephone 626.796.1172 Fax 626.796.4749 Online www.allsaints-pas.org J. Edwin Bacon, Jr.,
Rector
Printed on recycled paper.
Attention Postmaster: Dated Material
1 3 2 N O R T H E U C L I D A V E N U E PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91101
ALL SAINTS CHURCH
Pasadena CA
P A I D
Periodicals Postage