When Religion Becomes Lethal

with Professor Charles Kimball

We are delighted to welcome Professor Charles Kimball to the All Saints Rector's Forum. An ordained Baptist minister and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Kimball holds a PhD in Comparative Religious Studies from Harvard with a specialization in Islamic Studies.

For the last 25 years he has consulted with Congress, the White House and the State Department and blogged for the Huffington Post. His latest book, When Religion Becomes Lethal: The Explosive Mix of Politics and Religion in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, examines the ways in which religion can bring out the best and the worst in us.

Kimball’s life-long commitment is to helping find constructive ways to move forward in our interconnected, interdependent world community. His message is both timely and compelling -- come be informed and inspired!

Copies of his book will be available.
Sunday | October 2nd | 10:15 a.m.| in the All Saints Forum
For more information contact The Rector's Office or call 626.583.2711

October 2nd is Blessing of the Animals Day @ All Saints Church!

Bring Your Pets to Church for a Blessing! 9:00 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 2. Please bring your pets, photos of your pets, or even a stuffed animal. All pets are invited to process in the Church and then adjourn to the outdoor worship service on the quad lawn -- including a blessing of animals -- for our annual celebration of St. Francis Day.

Please arrive no later than 8:45 a.m. if you would like to participate in the procession.

[Here's a look at last year's fabulous St. Francis Day Celebration!]

Celebration of Ministries 2011: THE BEST EVER!

Some photos from Sunday's Celebration of Ministries -- and tribute to Anne Breck Peterson on her retirement after 33 years on staff at All Saints Church. (You can watch her sermon -- Finding Fearlessness and Fun on Life's Journey -- on the All Saints website.) With thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this year's celebration such a success!

A foretaste of the heavenly Celebration of Ministries Banquet

Tomorrow the lawn at All Saints Church will be teaming with energy, color, banners, brochures and ministry leaders for the annual Celebration of Ministries Sunday -- where forty-six tables representing over sixty ministries will be outward and visible signs of the many ways All Saints works to make God's love tangible 24/7.

This is what it looked like "backstage" at All Saints Church today as our amazing custodial team worked to set up the infrastructure for the tomorrow's celebration.

Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of faith there's a ministry with YOUR name on it at All Saints Church! And tomorrow is the day to come find out what it is!

All Saints Stands Against Torture: Joins National Religious Campaign Against Torture action at Dick Cheney's Simi Valley speech

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking Tuesday night in Simi Valley, was unapologetic about many of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration, defending waterboarding as merely 'enhanced interrogations' and calling the government's surveillance program 'one of the greatest success stories of American intelligence.'

Before [Cheney's] talk, about 25 local supporters of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture protested Cheney's visit at the library's entrance on Presidential Drive. The campaign has criticized the arguments Cheney conveys throughout his memoir — that torturing detainees is a useful and acceptable means of punishing and gathering information from them.

"Torture carried out by the past administration has caused one of the darkest stains on our nation's history," said Virginia Classick of Woodland Hills, who organized the protest.

Read the rest of the Ventura Star News report here.

WE'RE BACK!!!

After three days being off campus due to the work on the electrical vault under the north driveway the "Campus Closed" signs are down, the concrete is being poured back over the newly installed vault and we are back up-and-running at All Saints Church!

With thanks to ALL who worked so hard to make this project happen and happen so smoothly -- for flexibility and patience in the face of the relocation of some and rescheduling of other meetings and events -- and most of all for the amazing work of our Buildings & Grounds chair Lonnie Schield and our property manager Adriana Lizarraga.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled agenda of making God's love tangible 24/7!

Statement after the execution of Troy Davis

by the Reverend J. Edwin Bacon, Rector
All Saints Church, Pasadena
Wednesday, September 21, 2011

All human beings carry within them the Divine. When the cruel and unusual punishment of the death penalty is carried out-- a blatant violation of the 8th amendment to the U.S. Constitution – a life bearing the image of God is killed in a premeditated manner.

It is most likely that Georgia has committed state sanctioned murder against an innocent human being. Tonight the State of Georgia has executed Troy Davis. Davis’s guilt is in doubt as most witnesses who testified against him in court have recanted stating their testimony was coerced. Another man confessed to the murder of which Davis was convicted, and the ballistics evidence used in the trial was unreliable. How can this be called justice?

We know that the death penalty is applied unevenly. It is disproportionately pursued and administered against African-Americans. People of color and people of low income are more likely to be executed than others in the United States. This immoral, racist, and classist practice has been abolished in most civilized countries. To our shame the United States' use of the death penalty places us in the company of nations known for human rights violations: China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Iran.

The death penalty dehumanizes all persons in whose society it still remains. The Supreme Court’s upholding this execution implicated us all in the murder of Troy Davis. As Coretta Scott King famously said, “Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.” On this somber night may all people of good will commit themselves ending this evil done on our behalf and to the abolition of the death penalty.