Dear saints,

On Memorial Day evening, my family and I will leave for something of an ancestral pilgrimage. We're heading first to Lithuania, where Monica's mother's side of the family are all from. Our children will see a part of their heritage for the first time, meeting family members we’d barely known existed.

At the end of the Second World War, half of the Lithuanian family left for America, the other half stayed. The American half escaped Soviet persecution in 1945 when my mother's family fled across the border into Germany where my mother-in-law, who is joining us on the trip, was born in a camp for refugees and displaced persons in Dinkelsbühl. She will return there for the first time since her birth. It's going to be an immense privilege to see it through her eyes.

The resilience of human beings who can somehow withstand the awful things we do to one another is often hard for us to fathom unless we see it for ourselves. Thinking of that resiliency, I have always been fascinated by the Hill of Crosses outside the city of Šiauliai in the north of Lithuania. By legend, the first cross was planted by a father, desperate for his daughter to survive a grave illness. On his eventual return home, he found his daughter restored to health. Since then, people have planted crosses on the hill in the hopes that their prayers might also be answered. By the time the Soviets assumed power in Lithuania, the hill was filled with crosses and so the atheistic Soviet government attempted to remove the hill of its religious significance by bulldozing the crosses erected there. Except, it never worked. During the day, the authorities would crush, or burn, or uproot all they could only to return the next day to find that the local people had erected more crosses overnight. Today there are over 100,000 crosses and other religious icons on the hill - signs that even in the determined face of its denial, hope prevails.

I have tried to imagine that hillside and that resiliency this week as I have listened to the news describing the desperate plight of tens of thousands of children in Gaza facing starvation because their mothers are too malnourished to breast feed and the powers that be have been preventing supplies of baby milk from getting in. 80 years ago, my mother-in-law's family was able to cross the border to find hope and freedom. Where can these infants flee? What can their mothers possibly do? And how can we learn to hope for the things of God in a world so unconscionably cruel?

I can't tell you how heartening it feels to be able to answer that question by telling you about the life of this church.

Sitting in a vestry meeting on Wednesday night, I got to hear about how refugee children too traumatized to attend school are now getting specialized therapeutic care to slowly enable them to integrate into our education system, not only because of your financial generosity that helps us pay those bills, but also because of your relational generosity expressed by over 130 volunteers now walking alongside refugees in all manner of ways.

I heard another story of a vestry member and his wife helping a family of ten sort through their mail to find all eight children's Medicaid cards so that family can continue their long walk to healing that has taken them all the way from the Congo to Clarkston.

During our staff meetings this week, I heard about our Vacation Bible School that will bring parishioner children alongside a couple of dozen refugee children, and I listened to plans for an All Saints' summer music education camp for the kids of Threads.

Each of these are tiny droplets of hope in what can feel like a despairing world. None of it will end war or feed starving children, yet each act holds the power to incline us to the world differently. When we seek to exercise hope ourselves, we start to look for it in others places. When we value the lives we encounter here, we start to demand that life be valued everywhere. In other words, hope draws us toward change.

In this church, we seek to be an incubator for hope. We want it to grow in you because of this community of faith and care, and then we want you to take that living gift that has grown here and give it away. We can either admit defeat in the face of the world's too often callous disregard for the value of life, or we can act. God calls us to act. To love. To give. To forgive. To become the new thing God is doing with this world.

I can't wait to tell you about that Hill of Crosses on my return, yet you won't need me to tell you what it feels like to see hope made manifest. Just plant your own cross to experience that.

Peace,

Introducing Piper Shifflett, our new Young Adult Ministries Coordinator 

Piper is a clinical researcher in infectious diseases at Emory and lives in Kirkwood with her husband Sam, their cat, and a rotating cast of foster pups. She originally joined All Saints in 2019 as a graduate student and loved the community she found in the Young Adults group, especially during the pandemic. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, attending Braves and United games, and exploring new corners of Atlanta. Our outgoing coordinator, Tasia Blair, has done a phenomenal job and will certainly be missed. We are thrilled to have Piper take the reins. Young Adult Ministries is thriving at All Saints'! To learn more about young adult ministries at All Saints', contact Piper at: youngadults@allsaintsatlanta.org

This Sunday

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Sunday, May 25

**NEW SUMMER SCHEDULE**

UPDATED Weekly Service Times

• 8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I (Traditional Language, no music)
• 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II (Contemporary Language, choral music, livestream)
• 5:00 p.m. The Welcome Table (Contemporary Language, music) 

WORSHIP ONLINE: Please worship with us online! Our 10:00 a.m. service will be available live at allsaintsatlanta.org/live and on youtube.com/@AllSaintsATL. Recordings will no longer be available on Facebook, but will still be immediately available on our YouTube channel.

PARKING: Overflow parking for is available at the Bank of America—please enter on North Ave. Please request an additional validation ticket from an usher in the church narthex upon arrival or exit. Use both validation tickets upon exiting the Bank of America parking deck to park free of charge. Be aware, also, that on Sundays in Midtown Atlanta, street parking is free. Please Note: The parking lot by the Varsity is under new management. If you park there you are at risk of enforcement.

Celebrating Rev. Karen Evans on 40 Years of Ordination

This Sunday, May 25

We are so thankful for Rev. Karen Evans, our Priest Associate for Pastoral Care. Congratulations Karen, on your 40 years ordination! Watch Karen share about her call to ordination here.

Join the Summer Choir!  

Sundays, starting May 25, 8:45 a.m., Church  

Have you always wanted to sing in the All Saints’ Choir but time or experience has kept you away? Now is the time to give it a try! The Summer Choir meets at 8:45 a.m. each Sunday to learn an accessible anthem which is then sung at the 10:00 a.m. service. No previous experience as a singer is necessary. Feel free to commit to singing one or many weeks; all we ask is that you let Director of Music Scott Lamlein know you’re coming: slamlein@allsaintsatlanta.org Let’s praise God together in our song! 

Jesus on the Front Page 

Sundays, 9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m., Parish Hall 307 

In this weekly Sunday morning discussion of a current news story, participants reflect on how we are called to live as faithful people. In a nonpartisan reflection, we explore how we might be called to pray differently, think differently or act differently in our private and public lives. We ask where God might be found in this story and learn to name our lament as well as our hope. Email Clark Lemons (clemons@emory.edu) if you have questions! 

Stump the Organist

Sundays through August 17, 9:50 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., Church

Our summer prelude begins at 9:50 a.m. in the summer. Come request your favorite hymns, as played by our Director of Music, Scott Lamlein and our Associate Director of Music, Justin Maxey.

The Welcome Table: Sunday Evening Worship Service and Dinner  

Sundays at 5:00 p.m., In the Chapel and Ellis Hall  

Before your busy week begins, the Welcome Table is a place to join with others and find rest and refreshment. Come to the Welcome Table: a service with contemplative music, singing, communion and prayer (together and in ways that speak to us individually). A community dinner for all participants follows the service. 

The rainy morning kept all of our celebrating inside, but ice cream sundaes make everything fun! We gathered last Sunday to mark the end of the formation year, thank our formation teachers, and thank all who were involved for their collective work in creating a campus master plan for All Saints'. So many smiling faces!

Thank you to all of our formation teachers, those present and not, and Kathy Roberts, our Director of Children's Formation, for another wonderful year!

We are so thankful for all of those involved in the Future of Our Block committee and the creation of our All Saints' Master Plan. Present committee members were given a framed picture of the Solomon window in our chapel in commemoration of Solomon building the temple and in thanksgiving for their years of hard work. Read the All Saints' Master Plan here.

Celebrating the 2025 Annual Canvass: 634 Pledges • $3,394,555 Raised!

Thanks to your incredible generosity, our total pledges grew by 3.6% this year — a powerful testament to the strength and commitment of our All Saints’ community. Heartfelt thanks to our devoted Annual Canvass Chairs: Edgar Callaway, Patrick Becker, and Rainey Woodward.

Please give generously to our All Saints’ offering plate, in-person and online. 

All Saints' offers easy ways to pay your pledge or to make a gift:

Give online: allsaintsatlanta.org/give

Mail a check: to All Saints’ Church, 634 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta, GA 30308

Text to Give: text AllSaintsAtlanta to 73256

Put a check or cash into the offering plate during the services, gift stocks or securities

Discover more ways to give at: allsaintsatlanta.org/give. 



If you have questions, please e-mail them to:

Julie Lockhart, Director of Development, jlockhart@allsaintsatlanta.org. 

Summer Worship Notes

Our 10:00 a.m. Summer worship at All Saints’ celebrates the life we share as a congregation. The singing is led by a summer choir made up of members of the parish. You are welcome to join. The prayers of the people are composed and led by parishioners and our preachers will feature both All Saints’ clergy and people from the pews. This summer we are celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed with a sermon series called, "We Believe."

Much of the words of our worship today come from the New Zealand Prayer Book, with Alternative Great Thanksgiving D used for the Eucharistic Prayer. As you grow accustomed to using these words for our worship, you are encouraged to notice what grows within you. For the Lord’s Prayer we pray for forgiveness of sins, rather than trespasses. As we break the bread we remember our oneness. The Eucharistic Prayer invites us to seek fulfillment in Christ’s love, to reconcile and unite, and to find hope in our calling as followers of Jesus. We use these words of worship through the weeks of the summer as a reminder that we belong to a global church through the life and ministry of the Anglican Communion. As we enjoy the long days of summer light, sister churches in the southern hemisphere enter into the dark of winter; as we enjoy plenty in the Global North, our siblings in the Global South struggle for bread and justice. Though we are many, we are one body. 

The Journey Bible Study - Prophets & Kings 

Weekly on Mondays, from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., on Zoom 

First the history and then the prophetic response will be our format for Bible study through May. The history of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, will be read including the stories of the prophets Elijah, Elisha and Amos.  For more information or to sign up for the class, please contact The Rev. Karen Evans kevans@allsaintsatlanta.org.

PARISH LIFE

Please Note: Wednesday Night Supper takes a break for the summer and will return on August 20th.

Save the Date: Annual Parish Retreat at Kanuga Conference Center

Friday, October 3 - Sunday, October 5, 2025, Hendersonville, N.C.

Save the Date to join the All Saints’ Parish for a weekend of fun and fellowship. Registration is now open! Visit the table in the courtyard or contact Marcia Mayfield, mmayfield@allsaintsatlanta.org, for more information. 

CHILDREN & YOUTH

Vacation Bible School Registration is Open!

All Saints' VBS 2025: God’s Love

Monday, June 2 through Friday, June 6, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Aftercare until 5:00 p.m., The Attic

Rising Kindergarteners-5th grade are invited to come see what God’s Love is all about! All children are welcome! VBS is such a different and wonderful time for the kids. They go deeper in their formation, deeper in their friendships - old and new, and deeper in their connection with God and this community. They form friendships with all ages that keeps them wanting to come back on Sundays throughout the year. 5th graders will be counselors-in-training, but still do all the camper stuff! Register for VBS here: https://bit.ly/AllSaintsVBS2025

6th-12th graders can be counselors. To sign up to be a counselor, please email Kathy Roberts with your interest and T-shirt size, kroberts@allsaintsatlanta.org.

Summer Break



Nursery/Little Saints: Birth-Pre-K, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., 1st floor of the Pritchett Center - Remains open for the Summer!

Our children’s and youth programs take a break for summer, as do our children’s and youth choirs. All other children’s and youth programs will return in August. Email Emily Halbert for more information at ehalbert@allsaintsatlanta.org.

YOUNG ADULTS

Brunch & Bible Study 

Sunday, June 1, 11:30 a.m. – 1.30 p.m., Ross Room

Come enjoy a delicious catered meal, lively conversation, and bible study with the All Saints’ Young Adults’ following the 10:00 a.m. service. All are invited – whether you’re looking to connect for the first time, reconnect after a long while, or keep connections going! Childcare is available upon request. Contact: Tasia Blair at youngadults@allsaintsatlanta.org. 

Young Adult Fellowship Online! 

Are you in your 20s or 30s and interested in fellowship, discipleship and service? Reach out to Tasia Blair at youngadults@allsaintsatlanta.org to receive our monthly newsletter, get added to the WhatsApp group chat and find out what events we have coming up! 

Bring and Share a Meal with Covenant Community Residents

Mondays, 6:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m., Tate Hall

What better way to get to know the residents at Covenant Community than breaking bread together? Sign up for a Monday Insight Dinner, where parishioners bring and share a meal with approximately 15 men. Most residents arrive after detoxification to live in Covenant Community for six to nine months, building a new life without addiction, while learning new life skills to enable their success. Sign up at covenantatlanta.org and contact Arjun Srinivasan at arj6950@gmail.com. 

Matthew 25 Service Project: Threads at Emmaus House

Saturday, June 7, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Emmaus House, Peoplestown

Our Matthew 25 volunteer group is excited to host a Threads pop up at Emmaus House in Peoplestown. Our pop-up will offer clothing, diapers, lunch and a festive atmosphere for 75 children and their families. This Matthew 25 project will strengthen relationships between All Saints’ volunteers, Emmaus House, and Threads, and will help us learn how to implement the Threads pop up model so it can be used in the future in other contexts such as Clarkston. If you would like to volunteer on June 7, you are welcome during the time of the event at Emmaus House or during set-up from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Louisa Merchant, louisam@allsaintsatlanta.org.

Threads Welcomes Families for Shopping 

Threads welcomes families for in-store shopping Thursdays and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Interested in volunteering? Contact Marcia Mayfield. Threads needs you! Contact Marcia Mayfield at threads@allsaintsatlanta.org.

You may purchase items please via the Threads Amazon Wishlist:

bit.ly/ASECThreadDecember2024 

NEW! May's Faith & Justice Newsletter! Here are the highlights:

• Small Groups Forming for a Better Way
• Community Building Amidst Challenging Times
• Hallelujah for Refugees!
• Join MAC’s Annual Midtown Race 
• Midwives of Justice: The Work of Casa Alterna
• Novel Theology Reviews James
• Recommended: Video of the Rev. Jennifer Butler Presentation

• Novel Theology >> Meets one Wednesday a month on Zoom from 7:00-8:00 p.m.. Click the link above to learn more and register.

• The Journey Bible Study >> Meets every Monday at 11:00 a.m. via Zoom. Register here

• Jesus on the Front Page >> Meets every Sunday morning at 10:20 a.m. in P307 in the Parish House.



• Sports and Spirituality >> Meets the third Thursday of each month on Zoom. Register here

Share Your Photos! Share Your Expertise!

Did you know that you can submit photographs of All Saints’ events to share with the Communications Team? If you want to make a habit of it, join the Photography Guild! Contact Kathy Powell at communications@allsaintsatlanta.org.