Tree Lighting & Carol Sing @All Saints Church, Pasadena

The annual All Saints Tree Lighting and Carol Sing is a wonderful opportunity to “ring in” the Christmas season.

Invite your friends, neighbors and family and join us for an informal 5:00 p.m. service upstairs in the Learning Center followed by carols, cocoa and a beautiful new tree to decorate and light together.

David Zink and Michelle Bloom will lead our music.

For more information contact Isabel Leus at 626.583.2733 or ileus@allsaints-pas.org

Or RSVP to the Facebook event here.

“Lincoln, Leadership and the State of the Nation.”

Thursday, November 29 | 7:00 p.m.

All Saints Church in Pasadena will host a special evening of reflection on “Lincoln, Leadership and the State of the Nation.”

Inspired by the Steven Spielberg film “Lincoln,” Ed Bacon will lead a conversation about the film, about lessons on leadership and the workings of our democracy.

Ed will be joined by Jennifer Watts, Curator of Photographs at the Huntington Library and curator of the current exhibit “A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War” [running through Jan. 14, 2013] Jennifer will speak about the exhibit and show photos from the collection.

Participants are encouraged to see the film and come prepared for an evening of information and inspiration.

The event will be live-streamed on the All Saints website
All Saints Church is located at 132 N. Euclid Avenue, Pasadena 91101
Parking and driving info here.

A Post-Election Day Message from Ed Bacon:

I am relieved that the arduous and polarizing 2012 presidential campaign has come to a decisive end with no challenge to the Electoral College victory and a notable margin in the popular-vote. Governor Romney delivered a dignified concession speech and President Obama offered a generous olive branch to his former opponent. I take hope from the president's words on Tuesday night, “We are not as divided as our politics suggest.” The electorate seems to be more unified in support of peace, public education, care and jobs for veterans, and health care in general, as well as equal rights for women, racial minorities, immigrants, and the LGBT community than many sensational media outlets would have us believe.

So this Sunday, November 11th,  I feel moved to preach about the relationship people of faith must have with the Oval Office, whoever sits there. I want to share some thoughts about our need to embody the transformed consciousness of universal compassion and justice to which Jesus calls us and how we might exercise our responsibility to do so.

I hope you will be present to join in a Eucharist of thanksgiving and challenge for this moment in our nation’s history. I will preach on People of Faith and Their President at the 7:30, 9:00 and 11:15 a.m. services.

For more information, visit the All Saints website.
To live-stream the 11:15 service, click here.

Episcopal Church Statement on Hurricane Sandy

Note particularly that this statement by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Gay Jennings contextualizes the disaster of Hurricane Sandy within our global family and incorporates the challenge of our call to be stewards of the planet. If you would like to donate to the good work of Episcopal Relief and Development you can do that online here or at the Action Table on the All Saints lawn on Sunday.

The storm called Sandy has wrought havoc northward hundreds of miles from its first Caribbean landfall, killing and injuring dozens of people in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Bahamas, United States, and Canada. The destruction left in its path has deepened the misery of those still recovering from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti as well as hurricanes earlier this season. It is always the poorest who are most affected, although the news media have shown only a little of that reality. The impact in a principal metropolitan area of the United States has brought an unimagined level of destruction, and suffering that will long continue in the mid-Atlantic region. It has also brought home the reality of changing global weather and the kind of extreme climate events that are increasingly likely to confront us all. The effects of this storm are being felt far beyond the lands over which it has passed. May this remind of us of our shared community and tenancy on this fragile earth, our island home.

This is a time for reaching out to neighbors next door as well as farther abroad with solidarity and offers of basic human hospitality – food, water, electrical connections, showers and shelter – as well as money to assist the lengthy recovery that will be required everywhere this storm has moved. Episcopal Relief and Development began preparations with dioceses before the storm made landfall, and will continue to respond in the days and months ahead. Please be generous in prayer, and with funds and neighborly hospitality. Our Anglican neighbors gathered in New Zealand for the Anglican Consultative Council have been profligate with their prayers and expressions of concern. We know that God is with us in the midst of this suffering; you can help others to discover that reality through your own response. May the light of Christ shine through you, and may his light shatter the darkness.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings
President of the House of Deputies