All Saints Gazette: A Mat of One's Own, or...
Creating community, animal altar, and a goat
This week:
Thursday: Bible Study, online (just this time, link below), 18:00
Sunday: No service. Next service: 20 October, Family Eucharist!
I finally got around to reading the issue of Christian Century that I brought back this summer, and came across an article (unfortunately pay-walled) by someone I knew from divinity school. She quotes someone she interviewed who says that “for many people who grew up religious, going to church was a lot like practicing yoga on our separate mats in a drop-in class: simply an experience of being in a group where everyone is doing the same thing.” Whatever we are doing at All Saints, it’s definitely not that!
I don’t want to be self-congratulatory (neither individual, having had little to do with it; no communally, since we can’t get lazy), but I do want to celebrate, and I want to ask you to continue doing what you do, and ask God how you and we can deepen it.
Going deeper might mean adding a daily prayer discipline to your life (which can start quite small—come to the next prayer lab for some tips). It might mean joining us for worship more regularly, inviting friends and acquaintances to join us, or committing to giving financially regularly. I mentioned on Sunday that I started with “the price of a latte one day a week” back in New York (one person giving €4 a week for a year would pay for a month’s rent at Vrijburg—and you’ll never know how delicious a cup of cheap coffee is until you offer the fancy coffee you might have drunk that day to God). That might also mean looking over the list of numbers in the WhatsApp group and asking someone you haven’t talked to in a while how they’re doing, or telling someone you’re praying for them.
The person quoted, herself a yoga instructor who tries to make her studio more of a community center, finds it hard to attract and retain people. She focuses on classes that ask for a weekly commitment so as to foster community, and acknowledges that her hour and a half advanced class on Saturday morning is “a big ask.” So is church. Our services are not quick in-and-out affairs, and I’m not the only one who travels a long distance to participate. But we get something for it.
But the real active ingredient in all this is our willingness to trust God with these offerings, whether they be just showing up occasionally or volunteering in a role for a long time and making a substantial monetary offering. Like every other important work, we approach this with an open mind, trusting that whatever happens, God’s will will not be thwarted. Whatever our experience of church, the life we have together points beyond itself into the life of God and draws us and the world deeper into it.
Thank you for being part of this!
Bible Study Online This Week
We will have Bible study tomorrow at 18:00. Due to some unavoidable logistic issues, it will be on Zoom this week. You’re still welcome to bring food, but sharing will be a bit harder.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81805970238?pwd=tev8JD0sMTbXDbv4xCmJDqHo6XI5PY.1
Meeting ID: 818 0597 0238
Passcode: 175793
Next Week: Bible study is on! We had previously announced that we would take the week off for Convocation Convention, but Mpho has decided to attend online, so will be available after all.
Pray for the Convention!
Next week, the clergy and delegates from all 18 parishes and missions of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe will meet in Florence (or online) for our annual convention. Mpho and Zinzy are participating remotely; Kyle and Erin are attending in person. This is one of the expressions of our being in this together with these seventeen other churches in six other countries, and the whole Episcopal Church in 22 countries and territories. In addition to voting on things like the Convocation budget, we will be learning about the visions of other Episcopal communities and sharing the fruit of the Convocation’s support of All Saints.
Thanks for bringing your animals, or sending pictures!
Several of the kids had the same idea and brought stuffed animals, and pictures were sent of others. There were also non-stuffed animals, both living and with the Lord. While I was doing something else, Rasmus started arranging them on the altar before the service started. My first impulse was to move them, but I’m glad I suppressed it. The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset said “yo soy yo y mis circunstancias,” I am myself and my circumstances. When we come to the altar we bring everything we are and all the lives that are part of us and of which we are a part.
Prayer Cycles for 13 October and Following
Convocation Cycle of Prayer: 113th Annual Convention of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and Festival
Hosted by St. James Church, Florence, 17–20 October 2024
Anglican Communion Cycle of Prayer for next week:
Sunday-The Episcopal Church in the Philippines; Monday-The Diocese of Kajiado, The Anglican Church of Kenya; Tuesday-The Diocese of Kajo Keji, Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan; Wednesday-The Diocese of Kalima, Province de
L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo; Thursday-The Diocese of Kamango, Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo; Friday-The Diocese of Kampala, The Church of the Province of Uganda; Saturday-The Diocese of Kano, The Church of
Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Help us build something good!
All Saints is not called to live a bare bones existence; we are called to flourish so that we may walk the talk of the Gospel. The discipline that will help us grow is regular giving, although we appreciate every offering, and God will use it. Use this link, the QR code, or your banking app:
Make a donation (If you can use your bank’s app, it saves us a small amount.)
Bank details
All Saints Amsterdam
IBAN NL32 TRIO 0320 8657 62
BIC TRIONL2U
That’s all for Today! Want to talk to a priest? We want to talk to you too!
Website: https://allsaintsamsterdam.church/
Mpho: mpho@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Kyle: kyle@allsaintsamsterdam.church
General: info@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allsaintsamsterdam.church/?img_index=1
All Saints Amsterdam's logo and website by Zinzy Waleson Geene