The Latest News

We are thrilled to announce that Olivia Abernathy will be joining our staff part-time in January as our Minister for Community Engagement, a role we’ve long needed to fill. Her primary responsibility will be to envision and catalyze our church’s “for the life of the world” efforts.

Our bishop plans to retire in June of 2024. In a conventional diocese, the typical procedure would be for the diocese to elect someone to become a bishop coadjutor, that is, the one who would become our next diocesan bishop. However, we are not in a conventional diocese. Our diocese was originally formed to help our province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), fund a provincial position, the Dean of International Affairs. Bishop Bill Atwood has been serving in this role since 2009 while at the same time serving as the bishop of the International Diocese.

It’s really unbelievable. We hired Fr. Ben Williams as our Curate for Church Planting back in June of 2021 for a two-year season of discernment, during which time we planned to use those two years to explore together whether the Holy Spirit was leading us to pursue a mother- daughter, church-planting relationship. And yet even before these two years have ended, the Lord has rooted a small group of people, nurtured and grown them into a mission congregation, so that they are reaching others with no church home, bearing enough fruit so that there is now a critical mass to launch weekly services! Thanks be to God!

Currently, it is nice and cool in my office as I sit down to write this update. Behind me is a construction crew that is laboring on our new nave in near-triple- digit heat and humidity. This is significant for two reasons. First, building something is exciting, and second, these workers are longing for a new season. As construction continues on our new church building, we continue to build a new church congregation, Mission St. James. And just as we are looking forward to a new season with cooler weather, we are also looking forward to a new season in church planting: Preview Season.

Once or twice a year, Bishop Bill Atwood visits All Saints, and it’s always a big event. For many of us, this may be the only time of year we think about the fact that our local church is a member of the International Diocese, over which Bishop Bill presides. Even so, you may have wondered, what exactly is the International Diocese, and how does it relate to the Anglican Church in North America and to All Saints and the broader Anglican Communion?

In recent months you may have heard someone mention the phrase “Sunday JAM.” Let me explain. Janie and I returned to Jackson in June of last year as church planters and immediately set to work establishing relationships with as many folks in our community as possible. The Lord has crossed our paths with so many new people that it has been difficult to keep up. On October 15, 2021, we held a retreat with the Vailes and Denker families who committed to our planting efforts early on. We all agreed that we needed a weekly gathering to which we could invite friends old and new. Thus was born Sunday JAM.

Our church is filled with people who love to read, but too often we find ourselves reading alone, wishing we had others with whom we could discuss our thoughts. As a step toward creating a community that reads, thinks, and converses together, we are offering a variety of different book clubs during the season of Epiphany. Each will be facilitated by a different person, will read a different book, and will meet at a different time and place to discuss. Descriptions coming soon!

We are thrilled to welcome Laura Griffith to the All Saints staff as our new Administrative Assistant. Laura is a recent college graduate originally from Nashville. Among other things, she loves reading, music of all kinds, travel, and long walks in her sweet midtown neighborhood. Laura has loved being involved in the life of All Saints, first as the ASIS intern and now in administration, and she looks forward to seeing how God will continue to use this church to further His kingdom.

As we often remind ourselves at All Saints, the church exists “for the life of the world.” We remind ourselves this important truth because we tend to forget it. Churches too often—even if unintentionally—isolate themselves from the world. But that’s not as God intends. As the Father sends Jesus into the world, so now Jesus empowers us with his Spirit and sends us into the world to bear witness to his kingdom.

We were thrilled to welcome Fr. Ben and his family to All Saints back in June. As you know, Fr. Ben has come on board as our Curate for Church Planting. But what does this mean exactly? What will this “curacy” look like? What are Fr. Ben’s duties here at All Saints?