September 26, 2022
 
​Dear Friends,
 
As you may know, All Saints’ Church belongs to a diocese, or a geographical grouping of Episcopal parishes. We are one of 130 churches in the Diocese of Long Island, which is headquartered in Garden City in Nassau County. Every diocese is overseen by a bishop, who is the chief pastor to the clergy and laypeople, ensures the good order of ministry in the diocese, and is “called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” (BCP p. 517). 
 
New York City is oddly split between our diocese and the Diocese of New York, which comprises Staten Island, Manhattan, the Bronx, and seven counties, mostly along the Hudson River. It contains many well-known parishes such as Trinity Wall Street, St. Thomas’ on Fifth Avenue, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, but most of its parishes look a lot more like us here at All Saints’. The Bishop of New York announced his retirement last November, which triggered a search for a new bishop. 
 
I’m writing today to let you know that I am a nominee to be the next Bishop of New York. I am humbled and honored, and I stand before you in need of your prayers. I am surprised to find myself in this position, because I had no intention of participating in this process until a few close friends encouraged me to do so. While I’ve been eager to share this news with you all, I’ve been respecting the wishes of the search committee to maintain confidentiality until the list of nominees was announced today. 
 
You’re probably wondering what this means for All Saints’. First and foremost, our common parish life this fall will be unaffected—so please keep coming to church! Jesse and I will participate in a series of “meet and greets” across the diocese in mid-November, but other than that, you will notice very little different this fall. The next Bishop of New York will be elected at a convention held on December 3. After that, there is another period of about two months when the person elected must gain the consents of dioceses around the church, so nothing will be official until about February 2023. 
 
More importantly, I am but one of a slate of highly talented and faithful nominees—each of whom could easily be elected and serve the Diocese of New York well. You can see more information about them here. No one knows how the Holy Spirit will move in this process, and statistically speaking, the most likely outcome is that I will continue to serve God at All Saints’. And so we are entering a period of what I’d like to call “holy uncertainty,” during which we have no choice but to hand over the future to God.
 
But please be assured of this: serving as rector of All Saints’ has never failed to give me immense joy. Like you, I treasure my relationships in our church and will do my best to honor the trust you put in my presence and leadership. The Vestry, Wardens, and I will faithfully plan both for my possible departure and for the more likely scenario that I get to continue to be rector here in Park Slope.
 
I’ll explain the bishop election process and answer any questions you have at this week’s Sunday Forum following the 10am Eucharist. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to email, text, or call with any questions you might have. Finally, please continue to pray for All Saints’, for Jesse and me, and if you have some more room on your prayer list, for the people of the Diocese of New York and their bishop nominees. 
 
May God continue to bless our church!
 
Faithfully,
The Rev. Steven D. Paulikas
Rector

By the Rev. Steven D. Paulikas, rector of All Saints’ Church, Episcopal Relief & Development board member.   Find the article online here.

Episcopal Relief & Development’s support for Ukrainians displaced by war feels personal to me. I’m the rector of All Saints’ Church in Brooklyn and a proud member of Episcopal Relief & Development’s board. But I myself am only one generation removed from war and displacement in Europe. The church’s assistance to my family then made possible my life today—just like how our response today will shape the lives of millions in the decades to come.
In 1944, my grandfather disappeared from the Lithuanian village where my family lived. The way the story was told to me, one day he just didn’t come home from work, and that was that. It was during the German occupation of Lithuania, and men from neighboring villages had been disappearing for a few months. Rumors were that they were captured and forced to work for free for the German army–in other words, they were enslaved.

My grandmother was left with three small girls, alone at home. The war was not going well for Germany, and the Soviets were closing in from the east. As terrible as the German occupation had been—I was told plenty of stories about that, too—the last time the Soviets were in charge in 1940-41, a different kind of terror had prevailed. My grandmother understood that the Soviet reoccupiers would most likely accuse her of colluding with the Germans because of my grandfather’s absence. There was already news of thousands of people in eastern Lithuania in similar situations being deported to Siberia or executed, so she made the brave decision to take her daughters and flee, leaving behind everything she had ever known, and cast herself out into a completely uncertain future. She was one of roughly 50,000 Lithuanians who fled our homeland during this period.

There are so many more stories. They were on the last train out of the country. They saw the tracks being destroyed behind them. They hitchhiked hundreds of miles. One night they slept in a barn during an air raid. For whatever reason—God, good luck, smart thinking—they made it to safety behind Allied lines. My grandfather reunited with his wife and children, and my father was born in November 1945.

My family spent five years in what was called a “displaced persons camp” along with almost one million other migrants from Eastern Europe. The camp, near the Bavarian city of Günzberg, was my father’s home for his entire early childhood. My uncle, who was also a child in the same camp, used to tell me how much he looked forward to Easter, because it was one of the few times a year he got to eat meat. But one year, he discovered a long, pinkish tail in the Easter stew—and realized that all this time, they’d been eating rat meat.

In 1950, a Roman Catholic priest in Detroit included my family on a list of names of refugees he would personally sponsor for resettlement in the United States. In doing so, the priest and his parish took full financial and legal responsibility for my family, pledging that they would find them a place to live, jobs and help integrate them into American society. My father used to talk about the journey by ship across the Atlantic. He said he remembered being the only person on board who wasn’t seasick the whole time and that all the other passengers gave him their dessert.

The six members of my family settled in a two-bedroom apartment above a bar on the west side of Detroit. My grandfather took a job as a janitor at a General Motors factory, where he worked long enough to earn a pension and health insurance for his family. My grandmother cleaned houses. One of her clients was kind enough to put index cards with the English words for furniture and other items around the house. My grandfather never spoke a word of English in his life; my grandmother, because of the strange language instruction she had, spoke a form of English that was basically just a string of nouns.

These people were my heroes growing up, and they still are. I am proud to be the child of a refugee. I have never accomplished anything half as impressive as what they did, and I know that the stories I was told are really just a little glimpse into the traumas they actually survived.

But the lesson they taught me that lives inside me—the knowledge that is part of my inheritance–is this: it is never finished. Against all odds, they refused to give up. They abandoned their lives multiple times, and each time, the only way they could move forward was by having the faith that there would be a new life on the other side. Death and resurrection, death and resurrection, death and resurrection.

So when Jesus says in John 19:30, “it is finished,” he knows it’s not the final word. It’s just this particular life that’s over, but another one awaits. To believe this with him is to be a Christian.
More than 70 years after the church offered my family a new life in the United States, All Saints’ Church is proud to be sponsoring a refugee family from Afghanistan for resettlement in New York. Together with other Episcopal parishes, we’ve raised money, recruited volunteers from inside and outside our church communities and found a voice of advocacy for displaced people. We’re discovering new depths of our faith in the process and learning strength and resilience from the family with whom we are working.

We also know how many more vulnerable people around the world have been displaced since we started this work, including those who were forced to leave Ukraine. When I hear accounts of violence from Ukrainians, sometimes I simply sit and weep, wondering how this could still be happening so many years after my family experienced the same thing. Then, I’m reminded that through Episcopal Relief & Development, my church is going places where I can’t, helping to ease the burden both of Ukrainians displaced in their own country and those who have fled abroad. I remember stories of acts of Christian kindness offered to my family and my own burden is lessened just a little because of the knowledge that Episcopal Relief & Development is part of Christ’s presence in the midst of suffering.
​
Whenever you meet a refugee, remember this: they have died and risen again. The only reason they are still here is because they had faith that when the life they loved or hated or were indifferent to nonetheless came to an end, that it wasn’t finished for them. May their faith be our own.

NY Times Opinion Piece by Father Steve Paulikas: May 31, 2021
My Parishioner Was Not Sentenced to Death. He Still Died.
Read the entire NY times piece here.

StorySharing this Lent

This Lent, we have a very special opportunity to deepen our spiritual relationships with one another and confront racism with All Saints' StorySharing. Through a series of four guided peer discussions beginning in mid-February, we will tell our own stories and learn about the experiences of others. All parishioners and others with connections to All Saints' are encouraged to participate in this deep and transformative program. A variety of meeting times will accommodate any schedule.

Sign up for StorySharing this Lent HERE

Almighty God, we humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
 -From the Collect for our Country, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 820
 
 
A Message from the Rector
Dear Friends,

Since earliest times, Christians have prayed for the sick and the vulnerable, for the Church, and for their secular leaders. Prayer assures us of God's eternal love amid the vicissitudes of earthly affairs. As our attention is drawn today to the inauguration of a new President and Vice-President, let us ask for God's blessing on our common life and that the new administration would have "wisdom and strength to know and do thy will" (BCP, p. 820). 

Like many of you, I was moved last night to watch the memorial for victims of the pandemic. The reflecting pool on the National Mall was flanked by 400 lights, each one representing at least 1,000 lives lost. It was fitting to honor the dead as preparation for the inauguration. The images of today's civil ritual marking the transfer of presidential power make clear that we are living through a time of grief during a profound crisis--a crisis of health, security, justice, and spirit. And yet our faith teaches us to maintain hope even in the face of dire challenges. 

I hope you will join me today in saying a prayer for the future of our common life. Just as we have prayed diligently over the past four years, Sunday after Sunday, for the outgoing president, we will pray for the new administration. Jesus demonstrates that true authority is shown through humility, and that the right purpose of gaining power is to use it to lift up the lowly. Our new leaders will need our prayers as much as they will need to be held accountable to their call to serve the least among us in truth and righteousness. An inaugural prayer service joined by President Biden will take place at the National Cathedral on Jan. 21 at 10am and live streamed at cathedral.org.

May God bless us all on this historic day.

​The Rev. Steven D. Paulikas

Dear Friends,

This Sunday is our annual Founders Day celebration, when we acknowledge the people whose faith compelled them to start our beloved parish church. In the spirit of Founders Day, the 5pm Evensong this Sunday will be our first opportunity to worship together in person since March. Evensongs are scheduled for every Sunday at 5pm through November 1. This liturgy of music (no congregational singing), Biblical readings, and prayer will look quite different from Evensongs before the pandemic. Our COVID task force, composed of medical professionals and other lay leaders, has created meticulous plans to insure this service will be as safe as possible. We follow all guidelines set forth by the CDC, New York State and City, and the Diocese of Long Island. 

But safety will also require your cooperation. Please read the guidelines for attending Evensong below and be prepared to follow them when you arrive. Above all, please do not attend Evensong if you have any symptoms of illness. Contact the church office by email or phone if you have any questions at all. 

Attending church in person will be a big step emotionally and spiritually for many of us, and many in our community are not yet ready to congregate in any form. Follow your gut! If the idea of being in church makes you uncomfortable, why not wait until you are able to enjoy the experience? You are always welcome to worship at home by watching the live stream at 5pm on the All Saints' Park Slope Facebook page. 

As our period of physical separation extends beyond half a year, the burden is heartbreaking and excessive. Personally, I dream of the day when we can praise God together in person with one voice. Until that day comes, we will continue to care for one another by staying safe and lifting one another up across physical distance. 

In Christ,

The Rev. Steven D. Paulikas

September 2020
Guidelines for In-Person Worship at All Saints' Church
          1.  Guidance on Who Should Attend

The best way for our congregation to keep each other healthy is to not attend in-person
​worship if: 

• You have had a new onset of symptoms of Covid-19 in the last 2 weeks. Common Symptoms include: 
  • Loss of taste or smell
  • Cough
  • Chills
  • Trouble breathing
  • Sore throat
  • Exhaustion
  • Headaches
  • Diarrhea
• You were exposed to someone with the above symptoms or a positive Covid-19 test in the last 14 days
• You have travelled out of the state in the last 14 days (see COVID-19 Travel Advisory)
  We encourage members who plan to attend services in person regularly also to be tested regularly for COVID-19. To find a testing site, visit https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/covid-19-testing-sites/.

1. Registration for Contact Tracing

When you arrive, there will be stations available inside the church where you will be asked to provide your contact information. All attendees must provide contact information to be allowed in the church.

1. Demarcating Physical Distancing

The pews will be closed off so that worshippers will be seated six feet apart. The pews will be closed off with ropes.


The maximum allowable number of people allowed in the church is 25% of the church's seating capacity. In this initial phase, we are capping attendance at 50, which is half this number, or under 1/8 of the church's seating capacity.

1. Masks

Proper and complete mask use will be a requirement to attend the evensong and will be monitored and enforced by an usher. Masks must be worn over the mouth and nose at all times with no exceptions. 

Surgical masks will be available at the entrance to the church.

1. Physical Distancing

Clergy and ushers will encourage worshippers who do not arrive together as a household to maintain six feet of physical distance, referring to posted signs, as needed. 

All attendees must exit the building immediately at the conclusion of the service. Weather permitting, socially distanced outdoor fellowship will be available in the garden following the service.

1. Singing

There will be no congregational singing at the Evensongs, sadly. 

1. Hand Sanitizer

There is a no-touch hand sanitizer dispenser at the church entrance 

1. Cleaning

The church is cleaned after each Evensong and before the church is used for anything else. We follow the guidelines laid forth in the CDC’s “Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Facility.”  

A sanitary log of cleaning is kept. 

All porous items, including cushions, prayer books, and hymnals, have been removed from available pews.

1. Ventilation

The doors of the church and all windows will be kept ajar for the duration of all services, regardless of weather. There will be no artificial ventilation, including fans.

1. Ushers

You will be greeted by ushers, who will facilitate registration, direct the flow of worshippers to their seats and to ensure that all attendees adhere to all guidelines. Please be courteous and follow the ushers' instructions.