As we prepare to celebrate our annual Homecoming Sunday at All Saints Church on September 16, our rector Mike Kinman reflects on home in general and coming home to All Saints in particular.

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place
where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

Maya Angelou wrote those words in All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, the fifth of her seven autobiographical works.

For her, the “ache for home” led her to Africa … Ghana, specifically … and the call of the ancestors. It was a search, she said, that “brought me closer to understanding myself and other human beings.”

The ache for home lives in all of us.

The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

The place where we meet our source, our past … and where we know ourselves and one another just a little bit better.

This month, we celebrate Homecoming. For us, it is an opportunity to celebrate that All Saints Church aspires to be and is at our best that safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. Where we feel the presence and hear the call of the ancestors as we come together at the table. Where we are brought just a little bit closer to understanding ourselves and other human beings.

All Saints is an extraordinary community. We come from so many different homes. Some of them have been places of safety and some of them have been places of great danger. Some of them have been places where we have heard messages of love and job … and some of them have been places where theology, scripture and faith has been weaponized against us and those whom we love.

And yet, wherever we come from, whoever we are and wherever we find ourselves on our journey of faith, that “ache for home” … that yearning for that safe place where we can be as we are, and become what we are becoming, lives in us all.

And we “come home” to All Saints Church in celebration and in hope. Knowing that All Saints has been that place for generations of our ancestors, it is that place today and that, through us and God’s grace, it will be that place in the future.

I cannot begin to describe the excitement I have as I look forward into this coming year.

In October and November, we are excited to be launching a new formation experience called The Table: Gather/Engage/Grow.

For five Sunday afternoons, we will be gathering together for community, a shared meal, and exploration of a topic central to who we are. The first group of five sessions will look at the Bible – not just what it is, but how we read it and what it says about God, about us, about power, about love. What does it mean for us to look to the Bible for wisdom and authority? And what about how often and how terribly the Bible has been and continues to be weaponized against so many of the human family?

Future iterations will look at the spiritual practices that sustain our common life, how we can reframe key theological concepts in liberating ways and more.

This fall, we are also rebooting small group ministry at All Saints Church. Small groups provide opportunities for us to create smaller communities within the large, vibrant All Saints community where we can support and sustain one another, build trust that allows for vulnerability, and deepen our relationships with God and one another.

Small groups are the “tiny houses” of the church … where we can go as we are and become what we are becoming … together.

We are taking a fresh look at the Rector’s Forum this year … and in addition to having old friends like Ken Turan and new friends like Kelly Brown Douglas returning, we are identifying themes that we will carry throughout the year so the forums can build on one another and deepen our understanding of issues central to our common life.

We are looking at how we can bring increased depth and focus to our ministries beyond our walls. How we can, in the words of Fr. Greg Boyle, “gather together at the margins until the margins disappear under our feet.” How we can disrupt binaries and move from us/them thinking into truly becoming God’s Beloved Community – where all races, ethnicities, genders, socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, generations and more come together in love. Where our “ache for home” is finally met with the celebration of homecoming.

Maya Angelou said that “ache for home … impels mighty ambitions and dangerous capers.” And we will not shrink from either of those.

Be a part of homecoming at All Saints Church.
Not just this month, but all year round.
Not just yourself, but with others whom you bring along.

Come with mighty ambitions and for dangerous capers.
Come as you are and become what you are becoming.
Together.