Dear saints,
I had the privilege this week of touring The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Tech. It is the first building in the state and one of only about 30 buildings in the world to earn a "Living Building Challenge" award. Tech's webpage for the building describes it as a place that "fosters regenerative and restorative relationships amongst humans and nature where people give back more to the environment than they take." Talk about a building that speaks of the values the people inside of it want to communicate to the world.
This Sunday, following the 9:00 a.m. service, we will hold a Future of our Block forum in Ellis Hall where we will get to hear what you have shared about what is most important to you about the future of this church on our city block. It will not surprise you to hear that there is a simply staggering amount of thoughtful and prayerful reflection that you have offered. In fact, there is so much of it that the architecture firm we are working with, Houser Walker, needed another month to collate it all into a full report. I tried to tell them that the parishioners of All Saints’ like to offer their opinion on things! We will get that to you once we have it. That said, Sunday's forum will not be short on information to learn. I do hope you can be there. For those who will want to join online or who cannot be there at 10:20 a.m. this particular Sunday morning, we will have it available on our website.
At the heart of all of this incredible amount of data are the values we want to communicate to the world through All Saints'. For me, to see those values rise to the surface in your survey responses and home gatherings and town hall comments has been a beautiful thing to behold. There is so much that you value about our church and for that I am deeply thankful.
Perhaps our vision will be that one day we will have buildings on our block that speak to our values—both because of what happens in them and how they are built. There are so many ways for us to love our neighbors. As we listen to the call of God upon our lives in this place, may we hold close to ourselves the promise of scripture: that "the One who calls is faithful, and He will do it'."
Peace,
