Dear Ones,

This evening, Governor Newsom asked all Californians to stay home and LA City and County ordered all nonprofit and non-essential businesses to close and prohibited public gatherings of 10 or more people until April 19. This is absolutely the right thing to do and I urge all of you to abide by this directive as we are. As of right now, All Saints Church’s physical campus is closed and we will stay connected and love one another online and through phone and text, and, of course, prayer.

The only exceptions to this are our feeding ministries, which are granted an exemption. I will be at All Saints from 9-10 a.m. on Sunday morning handing out Ralph’s gift cards to members of our community who depend on us for food. Monday morning, I will join our Food Ministry volunteers in our usual feeding program … which we will adapt to an outdoor pickup table. At all times physical distancing will be observed and all surfaces will be thoroughly cleaned afterward. This is being done with the knowledge and consent of Pasadena Police Chief John Perez. Most important, our value of courageous justice and prioritizing care for the most vulnerable mandates that we do this.

Every Sunday, we invite everyone to Come Together at All Saints Church … and we are not stopping now.

Coming Together is more important than ever. What binds us together can travel much more than six feet between us. It can travel through walls and into homes, across the country and around the world.

What binds us together is love. And nothing stops love.

This Sunday, we will once again be gathering virtually for worship. We did our first try at this last Sunday … and now the landscape has changed again. For at least the next month, we will not be able to stream from the sanctuary at All Saints Church. However, we have subscribed to a Zoom webinar service that will allow us to gather (as many as 10,000 of us!) for worship led by people in different locations. We will email you (and post on our website and social media) the instructions for how to log into the service this Sunday … and the services will also be available on Facebook Live and YouTube.

It will look different … and the most important things will not change. We will be together … and God will be among us.

Here’s what this Sunday is going to look like:

11 – 11:15 a.m. — We will start with a short Virtual Children’s Chapel led by Kelly Erin O’Phelan. Tune in with your kids (or even without them) on Kelly’s Facebook feed (you can friend request Kelly and it will be set to ‘public’ on their page, so you can watch it by searching for their name). There will be opportunities to comment during the stream. If you have a candle and matches at home, please have them ready so you can light the candle together. We will share the video afterward if you want to do this later with your children.

11:15 a.m. — We are thrilled that violinist Vijay Gupta of the LA Philharmonic and Street Symphony will join us virtually from his home to gift us with some beautiful music to begin our service. Then, much like last week, we will hear the readings from the week, I will do what I’m calling a “preachchat” (think more fireside chat than sermon … after all, I wouldn’t come into your house and preach at your table!). Then, we heard your desire to have Eucharist, so we will be having Eucharist, breaking bread and telling the story of Jesus right before we move to our “Virtual Coffee Hour” … where we will invite you to grab some food and drink with us and we will break bread around the table and chat online for awhile.

1 p.m. — Alfredo Feregrino will preach at our bilingual service, and we’ll again follow Eucharist with breaking bread together at a Virtual Coffee Hour on our streaming page.

Other than Vijay playing for us, we are still working out the music for these services.

A few other notes about our common life:

*A reminder that we are committed to continuing to pay all our staff and contracted workers through this difficult time. That makes it so important that you continue to support All Saints Church. You can make a special gift or a payment toward your pledge by clicking here (https://allsaints-pas.org/donate/donate-now/).

*In addition, we are picking one nonprofit each week that is working hard to care for the most vulnerable in our community and are asking everyone to give generously to them, as well. We start off this week with Union Station Homeless Services (https://unionstationhs.org/), which is the primary provider of services for those among us without homes in Pasadena. You can make a donation to USHS by clicking here: https://unionstationhs.org/help/donate/.

*The All Saints CYF department has done a great job of setting up an online community so that all children, youth and families can stay connected during this time. All regular meeting times (as well as any other times you’d like) will remain in place to gather online. Please contact Jeremy at jlangill@allsaints-pas.org or Nina at nscherer@allsaints-pas.org to get access to the server. Youth are also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ascyouthpasadena/, Instagram at ascyouthpasadena, and visit the CYF website at https://ascyouth.squarespace.com/ for regular updates. More updates regarding Our Whole Lives and Seekers will be coming soon! For parents of young children looking for support during this time please connect with Kelly Erin O’Phelan at kophelan@allsaints-pas.org. Also, Jenny Tisi is doing amazing things keeping our choristers connected and in tune, you can reach her at Jtisi@allsaints-pas.org.

*I thought you might like to know that last Sunday we had the largest streaming numbers in our online history! For the 11:15 service we had 806 unique viewers online (unique computers, some of which had more than one viewer). 60 tuned in for the 1:00 p.m. bilingual service, and a whopping 192 tuned in for the great Jazz Vespers at 5:00 p.m. It was so wonderful to have you all with us for a great day of community! Let’s keep that going. Invite people you know who need the kind of radically inclusive love that All Saints is about … have them tune in from wherever they are. Let’s use this time to grow this community in love!

*I invite you to send prayer requests to us during our live liturgy by texting this number: 910-839-8272 (910-TEXT-ASC. At other times, please send prayer requests to: https://allsaints-pas.org/more/pastoral-care/prayer-requests/. Also, please note that our Virtual Action Table is also linked to the streaming page so you can easily take part in this week’s action! Or you can visit the action page anytime at: https://allsaints-pas.org/more/action/.

*For a comprehensive list of meetings and groups that have shifted to online, or have been cancelled, please visit the Coronavirus and All Saints page at https://allsaints-pas.org/coronavirus/.

*This is also a great time to try on the Diocesan Carbon Footprint Challenge for Lent! The L.A. Diocese is asking churches to participate, and the All Saints Climate Change Task Force encourages everyone to sign up at www.sustainislandhome.org and enter the information about your family’s home energy use and carbon footprint. This will be a fun and engaging way to make us all aware of our personal contributions to climate change, and encourage each other to be the change we want to see.

Even more than ever, please stay connected by joining our digital community via live-stream for Sunday services at 11:15 a.m. and 1 p.m. (more details coming!), and we invite you to visit our website to view the latest updates — or view sermons and Forums, past and present, whenever you like on our YouTube channel. Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself, there is a place for you here at All Saints Church. Join us!

We’re praying for you all every day. Know that you are loved!