
All Saints Lutheran Church, San Diego
6355 Radcliffe Drive, San Diego, California 92122 Church: 858.453.3595 • allstsofc@sbcglobal.net Preschool: 858.453.5340 • allstspre@sbcglobal.net The Holy Eucharist: 9 am Sundays, in person and on Zoom The Wednesday Evening Service has been suspended |
From the Pastor . . .
Dear Christian friends: Again we begin our journey together through the holy season of Lent. It is a time in which the Church invites us to live in a heightened awareness of Christ’s redeeming work in his passion and death on the cross, and of our identity as people baptized into his cross and resurrection. These forty days remind us of Israel’s forty-year journey to the land of promise. And they invite us to relive Jesus’ forty-day wilderness time of prayer and fasting. The point of the Lenten season is to listen to the word of truth, to reject lies that poison our lives. Lent is an invitation to let the Word of God to penetrate our lives, reminding us of who we are, where we come from, where we must go, and along which path. It is a journey in which we open our eyes to our own weakness and brokenness, and open our hearts to the merciful love of Christ. As always, the journey begins with Ash Wednesday’s reminder of our mortality and call to repentance. It is not a call to gloomy remorse and self-flagellation, but to renewed awareness of the spiritual struggle that is the Christian life, the baptized life. Lent is not a time for self-inflicted pseudo-suffering or therapeutic self-improvement. It is a time for greater dedication to the things of God, and less dedication to myself and my things. Repentance opens the door to the spiritual path of simplicity that will lead us back to the cross on Good Friday, the font at the Easter Vigil, and the Resurrection of our Lord. Grace and peace, Paul Bieber, STS, Pastor Ash Wednesday Liturgy, March 5, 7 p.m.: The Holy Eucharist with Imposition of Ashes The Lenten Disciplines—Giving, Prayer, Fasting Every year on Ash Wednesday we hear Jesus’ teaching about giving, prayer, and fasting, the disciplines of Lent. Specifically, Jesus refers to “giving alms”: giving to help our neighbor in need. Doing good to the poor by sharing our possessions is a sign of living faith. And, as Jesus reminds us in St. Matthew 25, “you did it unto me.” Taking time to pray could begin with joining us on Wednesday evenings for Compline (see below) and expand as you add more elements of the daily prayer of the Church to the evenings and mornings of your daily life. Evangelical Catholics (The Lutheran Churches) do not have a lot of rules about fasting as the Roman and Byzantine Catholics do. But we recognize the broad power of this spiritual tool. Here is what St. John Chrysostom says about it: I speak not of such a fast as most persons keep, but of real fasting; not merely abstinence from meats but from sins as well. . . . Let the hands fast by being pure from plundering and avarice. Let the feet fast by ceasing to run to unlawful spectacles. Let the eyes fast, being taught never to fix themselves rudely on handsome faces, or to busy themselves with strange beauties. For looking is the food of the eyes, but if it be unlawful or forbidden, it mars the fast and upsets the whole safety of the soul. Wednesday Evenings in Lent 7:00—8:00 p.m. “Savior, Servant, Friend” and Compline On each of the Wednesdays in Lent this year we will contemplate some of the ways we might think about Jesus as Savior, Servant, and Friend. We will read and discuss some passages from the Bible and conclude by praying the Church’s Nighttime prayer office, Compline. Because of the importance of being in the church together for the meditation, silence, conversation, and prayer, Wednesday evenings will be in-person only. And there will be a Lenten soup supper coupled with this Bible study and prayer on Wednesday, March 12. Fridays in Lent: 12 noon, Stations of the Cross We are blessed with a worship space the walls of which are adorned with the Stations of the Cross. You are invited to join Pastor Bieber in this traditional devotion. It takes about half an hour. Adult Forum—Nicaea 1700 At All Saints, we profess our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed every Sunday—unless a Baptism or other baptismally oriented rite calls for the Apostles’ Creed. It was in AD 325 that the Christian Emperor Constantine called together a synod of bishops, an ecumenical council, at Nicaea. At that Council, 1,700 years ago, the Nicene Creed was written. What is its importance for us today? Christian theology is a living entity, not a fossil. Yet each new generation is not left to work out its truths as though our fathers and mothers in the faith had not already prayerfully considered many of the issues and heresies that beset the church in our own day. Understanding the path that brought the church to the formulation of the faith that we call the Nicene Creed requires that we enter into the issues as they were discerned, expressed, and discussed seventeen centuries ago. That we will try to do, after the Liturgy and refreshments, in the pastor’s study, on non-Confirmation Class Sundays. Please join us. To view sermons from All Saints, visit Unbroken Word | Broken Bread Invitation: In-person or by Zoom You are invited to join the All Saints community in worship. California has lifted masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people. If you are vaccinated, you may come to church for worship without a mask and sit where you like. If you are not vaccinated or if you simply prefer it, you may wear a mask and/or mark your seating so that social distancing will be maintained. The service continues to be available on Zoom. If you are gathering virtually for worship via Zoom, please go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7904299410 at 9 am on Sunday to join us online. You can also dial in on your phone at 1 (669) 900-9128; the Meeting ID is: 790 429 9410. We open the meeting at about a quarter to nine so that we can greet one another and check in before the worship service begins. The meeting host will admit you to the meeting from the waiting room. Send an email to allstsofc@sbcglobal.net if you would like to be added to the list of those who receive the order of worship and the readings via email. Regarding offerings: You may bring your offering to church. Or you can mail a check to the church or slip one through the mail slot next to the church office door. Or you can send money via www.Zellepay.com (the church’s email address is allstsofc@sbcglobal.net) or www.Paypal.com. Thanks to all our generous givers! Sermons from All Saints, Episodes of "What Is the Premise?" and more are available at Pastor Bieber's site, Unbroken Word | Broken Bread: evangelicalcatholicsandiego.wordpress.com/
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Please visit our Liturgical Ministries page
for schedules of acolytes, deacons, lectors, offertory giftbearers, and coffee hour setup hosts
for schedules of acolytes, deacons, lectors, offertory giftbearers, and coffee hour setup hosts
We Invite You to Join Us!
Sunday Eucharist – 9:00 am
We regard the Church's liturgy as the birthright of the baptized and invite Christians of all ages
to worship as they are able. At the end of the liturgy on the first Sunday of the month,
we encourage children to join the pastor for a children's sermon.
Sunday School follows the worship service – from Holy Cross Day (September 14) through the Day of Pentecost
Confirmation Classes – 10:45 am Sundays, alternating with the Adult Forum
Wednesday services have been suspended
Sunday Eucharist – 9:00 am
We regard the Church's liturgy as the birthright of the baptized and invite Christians of all ages
to worship as they are able. At the end of the liturgy on the first Sunday of the month,
we encourage children to join the pastor for a children's sermon.
Sunday School follows the worship service – from Holy Cross Day (September 14) through the Day of Pentecost
Confirmation Classes – 10:45 am Sundays, alternating with the Adult Forum
Wednesday services have been suspended
All Saints is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its Pacifica Synod.
We are also a member congregation of the Community Christian Service Agency.
Website most recently updated on Monday 26 September 2022.