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Building Project Update
You can make a difference for All Saints Church and for the City of Pasadena. The Draft Environmental Impact Report on the All Saints Master Plan was released in late July, and comments are now being accepted by citizens to become part of the Final EIR. If you are willing to write a letter that will support the All Saints Master Plan, please contact Chris VanDerHorst for instructions: cvanderhorst@allsaints-pas.org or 626.583.2715.

 

Midyear Budget Revision
Christina Honchell, Parish Administrator

The Finance Committee and our staff are committed to prudent, responsible and realistic financial management and to transparency in our financial reporting. Part of that commitment is an annual process to evaluate the budget in July every year, in order to determine whether we need to adjust spending to bring it into line with expected income.

On July 29, the Finance Committee met to do that annual analysis and budget review, and passed a resolution to lower our expense budget for 2010 by the amount of $156,000. This cuts represents 3% of our annual budget, and is based on a careful analysis of the elements that go into our annual pledge budget; we have identified anticipated shortfalls in new expected new pledges, late payments on prior years’ pledges and on renewals.

This action acknowledges that we are experiencing a new normal in our financial relationsip, as an institution, and within each of our parish families. We are grateful that we were able to do budget reductions which held up our core values of not cutting the budgets for Peace & Justice, the Office for Creative Connections or Pastoral Care, and without cutting any staff positions.

The cuts are made up of savings from open staff positions in the first half of the year (all positions are now filled), the fruits of careful work to cut our administrative overhead with new arrangements for phones and copiers, our liability insurance renewing in April at a rate lower than we had planned for, lower utility costs than we had budgeted for, and cuts to some of our program budgets. We are also using the operating contingencies that we budget each year.

What will you notice? We are no longer serving coffee during the week – we will continue to offer the hospitality of coffee on Sundays for services, but it will not be available for meetings on campus. You may be asked to potluck some of your gatherings, so that we are not spending pledge dollars on meals. Some of our programs will delay planned purchases of materials and supplies. We have not cut into the heart and soul of our mission, however we do want to recognize that we need to creatively embrace the new financial realities we live in.

You can find our financial statements through June here. We post our financials on the website each month after they are given to the Finance Committee. If you have questions, you can call me at 626.583.2742 or send an email to chonchell@allsaints-pas.org.

We are deeply appreciative of all that you continue to do to support the ministry and mission of this wonderful enterprise, as we move forward to turn the human race into the human family. 


 


Celebrate Our New Peace & Justice Director

Dear Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Rev. Carissa Baldwin has accepted my invitation to join the All Saints staff as the Director of Peace & Justice, effective September 1, 2010. 

Carissa BaldwinOrdained a priest in 2007, Carissa has served for the past three years as Assistant Rector and Outreach Center Director at St. Stephen’s Church in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and received her Master of Divinity degree at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. She spent a year studying in Spain and is fluent in Spanish. Before attending seminary, Carissa spent 10 years as a community organizer in Brownsville, Texas, organizing with churches and public schools. As a long-time advocate for social justice and human rights, Carissa said when she read the job posting for the position at All Saints, “This is the story of my life.” 

I am grateful to the search committee, chaired by Will Watts, for their good and thorough work. And I invite you to introduce yourself to Carissa on her first Sunday, September 5, and welcome her aboard!

Peace,




 

 

JOB OPPORTUNITY AT ALL SAINTS - ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT FOR FACILITIES
All Saints seeks to hire an administrative assistant to support the work of the Facilities Manager. Please read the job description and instructions on submitting your resume here.

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Draft EIR of the All Saints Building Project Made Available By the City of Pasadena
The draft Environmental Impact Report requested by the City was delivered to All Saints Church on Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Below is the entire Draft EIR, Volumes I and II (lengthy documents that may take a while to download), and the overview of the executive summary of the EIR which was used in the Rector's Forum presentation on Sunday, June 27, 2010 (watch the video of the presentation)
View the EIR Volume I
View the EIR Volume II
View the Overview of the Executive Summary of the EIR

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Check Out All Saints' New News Blog
A place to go for news about the mission and ministry of All Saints Church: stories from within the All Saints community and reports from the wider community.
 
Click here for a welcome from All Saints Rector, Ed Bacon

See All Saints in the News

Visit our Marriage Equality pages

Life Safety Presentation for All Saints Church
Please take time to look at the new safety plan for All Saints Church created by Building Safety Solutions and our Buildings and Grounds team.

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EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY CLASSES
If you have always wanted to do a small group study of the Bible and church history, drop by the EfM table on the lawn today to sign up for the coming class year. We have three different nights that class is held on, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. We guarantee to stretch your imagination and open a new world of insights as you probe scripture and tradition. Classes begin in September. Information = Gary Leonard, 626.644.9104 or tofr@pacbell.net.

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ACT WITH ALL SAINTS IN STANDING AGAINST TORTURE

Stand Against TortureAll Saints Church stands firmly against torture. We have joined forces with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture to urge Congress to create an independant commission of inquiry into investigate U.S. torture policies and practices.

See the NRCAT website.  Join the complaint against Human Experimentation during torture of detainees in U.S. custody (see the video below).

Read Ed Bacon's anti-torture letter to President Obama.



 


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IN MEMORIAM


Death in the Family Saints Alive
 




A memorial service for Andrew Wieting will be held on Friday, August 27, at 10:30 a.m. in the chapel.


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WATCH OUR THREE EDUCATIONAL EVENTS ON AFGHANISTAN:

  • Rethink Afghanistan  (video)
           A Presentation by filmmaker Robert Greenwald, November 22, 2009

THE CHARTER FOR COMPASSION
The first ever “Charter For Compassion” was released on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009.

Read the Charter in English, or lea la Carta por la Compasión en Español. 

Charter for Compassion LogoThe brain child of Karen Armstrong and signed by a wide variety of people from Desmond Tutu, Deepak Chopra, Goldie Hawn, Peter Gabriel, Isabel Allende, Queen Noor, Quincy Jones, Eboo Patel, to Kenneth Cole, the Charter notes that “The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

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THE CITY OF PASADENA'S GENERAL PLAN
The City is updating the General Plan, the blueprint for the City's future which lays out specific strategies to accomodate growth and new development, including the transportation networks that support the City. This is the first major update since 1994.

Please visit www.cityofpasadena.net/generalplan for details about the update process. All Saints' future is the future of the City, so please stay informed on this important process!

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 ACTIONS ALIVE!


Over 600 parishioners signed their names to the statement of conscience issed by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. These signatures have been added to thousands from across the country and will be delivered to Capitol Hill in August by organizers from NRCAT.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation.

To visit All Saints' Virtual Action Table, click here.



Episcopal Public Policy Network Logo 1The Episcopal Public Policy Network brings the positions of the Episcopal Church to our nation's lawmakers. The EPPN represents the social policies of the church established by the General Convention and Executive Council, including issues of international peace and justice, human rights, immigration, welfare, poverty, hunger, health care, violence, civil rights, the environment, racism and issues involving women and children.

To join the Episcopal Public Policy Network, click here.

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I STAND WITH DARFUR

DarfurContinuing until the Darfur genocide stops, a large coalition of grassroots, interfaith, and civic organizations will target the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. for demonstrations and acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

I Stand With Darfur is a campaign to demand that President Bush stop trading the lives of Darfurians for Sudan's intelligence information and, instead, protect the people of Darfur with an effective international peacekeeping force - with or without the government of Sudan's consent.

The continuing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, has claimed over 400,000 lives and brutally displaced over 2.5 million people, and the Sudanese government has recently escalated attacks on innocent civilians.
 

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