All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island, SC
November 1, 2006
Our Mission Statement
“All Saints Episcopal Church is a welcoming, inclusive church empowered by The
Holy Spirit to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision of All Saints is to
care for the spiritual wellness of each parishioner, to welcome diversity while
fostering mutual respect, and to serve all God's people, through worship,
Christian education, outreach, and stewardship.”
The Vestry thanks you for your participation in the recent “feedback” process regarding the issues confronting, and actions taken by, the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) and the Diocese of South Carolina, and for the thoughtfulness and candor of your responses. From the five meetings held and the subsequent mailing, we received responses from well over half of the parishioners. A compilation of all the responses was reviewed and discussed at length by the Vestry, and a copy of this compilation is available in the Board Room at church.
The responses indicate that a sizeable majority of parishioners
support the All Saints Mission Statement and believe we can and should try to follow it,
support the “wait and see” position that the Vestry has adopted to date, and
report that they would prefer not to have to deal with a split between ECUSA and the Diocese, but if it should happen, they favor remaining aligned with the former.
At the same time, there were respondents who stated that
the positions taken by ECUSA at the past two General Conventions have led to the current tensions,
our Mission Statement is too vague and subject to overly-broad interpretations,
in the event of a split, they would feel obliged to align with the Diocese rather than ECUSA,
we have become overly focused on this issue, to the exclusion of our “normal” parish concerns, and
in spite of our desire to be ”welcoming” and “diverse”, the membership of All Saints is less diverse than it was a few years ago.
In light of all this, the Vestry remains committed to the Mission Statement, believing that it does a good job of defining who we are and what we should be doing as an Episcopal church; and with God’s help we intend to carry out that mission to the best of our ability. Like you, we hope All Saints Church can continue to be a part of both the Episcopal Church USA and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. But whatever the future serves up, we will make decisions about our relationships based on maintaining our ability to carry out All Saints’ Mission.
Unanimously adopted by the
Rector and Vestry of All Saints Episcopal Church on October 16, 2006.
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