All Saints Episcopal Church
Annual Report – 2013

Rector’s Report
Richard Carroll Lindsey

Pointing to the Future
[remarks delivered at the Annual Meeting: January 26, 2014]

Thankfulness and Blessing

I begin my remarks today, by stating the obvious; thank you to members of the parish and all who have faithfully supported the life and ministry of All Saints. And equally, by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, we are a blessed congregation in every way conceivable. So, I begin 2014, deeply mindful and humbled that every person in this parish, whether you are present two or four weeks a year, three or twelve months a year, rich or poor, young or not so young, checking us out or dyed in the wool ancient Episcopalian, baptized or not baptized, high or low church, reformed or unreformed; individually and corporately we are the face of Christ through our common bond of worship, fellowship, and outreach into the world. To say we are blessed by God is grossly understated; God has provided everything we need to be the body of Christ, known as All Saints.

We are blessed by the faith commended to us...

We are blessed by the grace of God that underscores all that we undertake...

We are blessed by well over six hundred members…

We are blessed with a gifted lay staff: Marilyn Adams, our Parish Administrator; Steven Braynon, Music and Choir Director…

We are blessed with an incredible cross-section of able and gifted clergy: Mark and Matt, as our staff priests, each with different and important gifts for ministry; Sandy and Kathie, deacons with different ministries within the deaconate; Woody Woodroofe, from the Diocese of Connecticut; Gordon Weller, from the Diocese of Michigan; Greg Prior, former rector, from the Diocese of Rhode lsland; George Moyser, England, by way of the Diocese of Vermont; Pam Farhrner, Diocese of Maryland; Jack Niertert, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina by way of St. Mark’s Port Royal.

We are blessed to have Bishop von Rosenberg as our bishop, who has called us to be leaders in the diocese…

We are blessed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, empowering Jives and encouraging us to set our lives outward into the world...

We are blessed with creativity, determination, and a willingness of members who make room in the pew and in our hearts for the next visitor, and hopefully member, of the parish; we are not by any exaggeration the frozen chosen...

We are blessed that in a post-Christian era in America, we are growing, not because of any set of doctrines that may attract someone to the Episcopal Church, but rather because of the gracious love of Christ that goes beyond all boundaries, that seeks all, welcomes all to share in that great love. It is by no accident that all are welcome to receive the Body and Blood of Christ at All Saints.

We are blessed by the least among us, and the greatest, the quiet and the not so quiet; by those who have beautiful voices and those who simply hum; we are blessed by those who pray for us.

We are blessed by the youngest among us, fresh and honest, with few words, but abounding with gracious movement, who offer wisdom for our hearts.

I am thankful for you (who make up 99% of the parish) who, by the grace of God, make this parish healthy and alive. I am thankful to God, that we receive God's blessing over and over again, without fail.

Missional and Attractional

As we move into 2014 there are opportunities and challenges for All Saints; opportunities and challenges that will stretch out well beyond this year, as if those opportunities and challenges are one and the same, that they have everything to do with the depth and breadth of our faith and our willingness to trust that God is with us, doing infinitely more than we can ever imagine.

There are missional challenges facing us as a member of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina – missional in that we look and act beyond our own needs, to a diocese that needs our financial support and equally our gifts and talents. Imagine starting a parish from scratch, (as this parish did twenty seven years ago) literally, all the investment of time talent and finances, and we begin to see the enormous effort that must be undertaken to aid existing communities, missions, and congregations in our diocese.

The entire budget of the diocese, which stretches from Myrtle Beach/Surf-side to All Saints, is less than half that of our parish budget for 2014. The Diocesan budget reflects taking no money from the Episcopal Church and relying on the Stewardship of thirty parishes, missions and gathered communities. There are more retired clergy in this diocese than full time active clergy.

Our own deanery (the lower third of the diocese) is comprised of one parish, All Saints, six missions – All Saints Hampton, Christ Church Denmark, St. Phillip’s Denmark (on the campus of Voorhees College), St. Mark’s Port Royal, Holy Communion Allendale, Heavenly Rest Estelle, and the Episcopal Church in Okatie. Our staff and retired clergy assist weekly with those communities, pastorally and liturgically. We are beginning to develop strategies, aided by the diocese and our own network of clergy and laity, that will hopefully move those missions and worshipping communities from merely surviving to self-sufficiency. At home we understand the importance of missional as an essential reality of our life and ministry, that we are not simply about meeting our own needs.

We have also embraced what is termed “Attractional” – paying close attention to what we do to attract people to the life and ministry of All Saints. In general terms that means paying attention to our core values and realities that set us as a unique parish: we are open, welcoming, friendly, engaging.....we do well as we worship, in fellowship, pastoral care… in our desire to be always “missional", we must keep in mind the worship of this parish, the fellowship that draws us together as the body of Christ, and the pastoral care that sustains spiritually members of this parish.

Moving Forward

Foundation

The mission of the All Saints Foundation is to establish and grow an endowment fund which will exist to support All Saints Episcopal Church, its facilities, religious works, missions, and outreach programs. Promised bequests total over 850 thousand dollars to this date.

Stewardship

Underpins all faithful life.

Young Family Ministries

Breaking the mold that developed over the last ten years. We are now saying and doing, and "living into" the fact that all are welcome at All Saints. By thought, word, and deed we are really saying, with program and budget and people, that young families are not simply encouraged to be part of All Saints but are vital to the life of our parish...... now!

Healing Ministry/Lay Leadership...

For Jesus it was an important, core ministry. Somehow the church lost its way...that ministry of healing was pushed to the outer edges of the church....we're bringing it back as central to our life together....

Pastoral Care/ From a Lay perspective

Placing an emphasis on pastoral care, with laity in the vanguard.

Music Director’s Report
R. Steven Branyon

It does not seem possible that another year has come and gone. In the music department, we celebrated a one year anniversary for the organ with recitalist Louis Shirer, a fellow colleague from Winthrop University. On Shrove Tuesday, Mr. Bob Walker returned to re-voice our new organ followed by Robert Gladden, another certified tech at Walker Organs.

During Lent the choir had two major offerings for our congregation. They first had a weekend workshop with conductor Richard Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy was a choral conductor for North Greenville College when I was a student there back in the late 70’s. The choir enjoyed his leadership and celebrated with a Lenten Concert including brass instruments and a reception sponsored by the Friends of Music, faithfully led by Suzy Stetson. Also in Lent the choir sang a wonderful major work (which, as far as I know, had never been sung on Hilton Head Island), Theodore DuBois’s The Seven Last Words, using soloists from North Greenville University, a Baptist affiliated school in Tigerville, SC. There were invitations extended to other schools as a part of our newly adopted missional emphasis, but North Greenville University was the only one that responded. Our invitation to the University's Dean of Music, Dr. Jackie Griffin, my first organ professor, was much appreciated and the soloists who were selected by the Voice Department were most grateful to have an opportunity to perform such a dramatic work. I'm quite sure that these young soloists will cherish the memory of that performance for many years to come, and these concerts also allowed me to renew my personal relationship with two of my instructors and the university itself.

A small group of faithful handbell ringers along with flautist Pam Cooper brought us from darkness into the light of the Eastertide season. On Easter Sunday, the organ contacts started to give trouble. This was because they were original to the organ and not damaged as a result of the lightning strike but were worn from thirty years of wear and tear. They had to be replaced, but were no longer covered by warranty and this was one of the reasons that our music budget went over the anticipated amount this past year. These contacts are now warranted for another ten years, as is the organ itself. There should not be any other surprise problems with our organ.

The choir served faithfully as always through Trinity Sunday, taking a break until Labor Day, starting rehearsals again in the fall. During the summer, our services were embellished by both soloists and instrumentalists from our church and the community. This is also living our mission as so many orchestras across the country are having such difficulties sustaining themselves. At the end of the summer, we had a special choir party to say goodbye to a faithful member, Joyce Kauffman, who relocated to Colorado Springs. She had served not only as a member of the choir but also as the Choir Librarian. We lost another member in the fall, but gained others. Our present choir membership stands at 42, as we just received another member into our fellowship this past week. This is the largest enrollment since my arrival at All Saints. Our choir is offered an option of a daytime and a nighttime rehearsal. The attendance for the afternoon rehearsal has steadily grown as some of our members no longer wish to drive at night. In addition to our regular rehearsals, there are many more rehearsals scheduled for individuals who serve as soloists and as cantors.

In addition to our faithful choir, we are privileged to hear two guest organists from time to time. Syd Small accompanied the Thanksgiving Eucharist and Jim Hall played for the Taize services during Advent and Lent. This past Christmas Eve, we had an opportunity to employ Brass musicians. This was the first opportunity to have a full instrumental ensemble on a holiday, because they are usually booked years in advance. On Christmas morning, we enjoyed the talents of Uri Kholodov on the violin. This was a wonderful contrast. Also by having these musicians, the choir could spend more time concentrating on the music of Advent and the Christmas Lessons and Carols Service to follow.

During the coming year, I have asked the Choir Council Members to consider the possibility of having one rehearsal a month offsite. This will not only give the choir an opportunity for all to rehearse together, but it will get our choir out into the community in a very visible way. These rehearsals can be in restaurants, in hotel lobbies, in nursing homes, or other visible places of interest. I have asked Mark Brinkmann, with the other Clergy, to write an attractive tract for us to take on these outings.

I will close with this story. There were two missionaries who were serving in Iran in the years of the Shah. A Baptist missionary was going about trying to convert people to Christianity by approaching individuals one on one. He was not having any luck, and he had no converts. The Episcopal missionary had a congregation of about thirty converts. The Baptist missionary asked the Episcopal missionary how he managed this success. The Episcopal missionary said that he simply set up a church, and went about doing what God called him to do, which was to worship and live life to the best of his ability according to the example of Christ. This is worth thinking about as a goal for our music ministry this year, to just be seen doing what we do best, offering the best of sacred music to our most worthy God, in hopes that others will want to come along on our journey of their own free will.

Respectfully,
Steven Branyon

Senior Warden’s Report
George Pinkerton

The Episcopal Church is thriving and growing in the Lowcountry and All Saints Episcopal Church is helping to lead the way!! God’s Blessings were many and bountiful this year. To begin the year, the framework for a “Vision of All Saints” was established at a Vestry retreat. This presented many new challenges for renewal and growth.

Through the year of 2013, the Vision Goal categories successfully implemented included:

·  Youth and Families

o  All Saints became a full service church to support families with children with the assistance of hiring a second Associate Priest, Reverend Matthew Schneider.

o  All Saints co-sponsoring with Christ Lutheran Church resulted with a successful Vacation Bible School with 35 students and 30 volunteers.