Dear Friends,

A little over five years ago, I was just beginning an interim assignment in Chicago at All Saints’, a parish in the Ravenswood neighborhood. For the first three Sundays, the pews were full of people. Then, everything shut down. Bishop Jeff (St. Paul’s “interim-interim rector”) was serving as Bishop of Chicago at the time and closed church buildings throughout his diocese. All Saints’ staff scrambled to get our footing. Our main question was “how can we sustain the vibrant community when we can’t physically gather?” Every church faced a similar question.

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert Putnam, in his best-selling book, Bowling Alone, wrote about how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another. He documented how many of our social structures have disintegrated.

Twenty-five years since Bowling Alone was published, the consensus is that we are faced with a loneliness epidemic. The Surgeon General published “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation” in 2023, an advisory on how community and social connection have healing powers. Many factors for the decline in social capital have been blamed: technology; people are overworked, or too busy or tired; we move more than we did in the past; etc. Certainly, the loneliness epidemic was exacerbated by the isolating effects of social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like churches everywhere, St. Paul’s has experienced the impact of the changes in society. When parishioners named their priorities for the congregation’s future, several of them expressed a deep longing for community. I hope you’re not surprised. Why should St. Paul’s be immune to the effects of the loneliness epidemic?

Your parish staff and Vestry have had several discussions about how to address this sense of isolation. What programs can we offer? How can we reach out to people whose connections to St. Paul’s have become more tenuous? Most importantly, how do we create a culture of caring for one another? After all, in a healthy community people care for each other and demonstrate that care in a variety of ways.

St. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about the profound connections among the members of the congregation by using the metaphor of a body. He wrote:

Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything…. The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part…. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. ~The Message

In recent days, I have had several people say to me, “I’m a member of St. Paul’s, but I’m not here very often.” It’s almost become a recurring refrain. Whether this refrain describes you or not, here’s what I want to say: Gathering matters. It’s a privilege we lost five years ago. When members are missing from the Body of Christ here at St. Paul’s, we’re diminished.

In a very short period of time, I’ve come to love this faith community. I long for a parish where each of us has a deep sense of caring and being cared for. In a little over a week, we’ll enter the most sacred time of the church year – Holy Week. Please join me and the other members of Christ’s Body as we walk the way of the cross together. We are Christ’s body – that’s who we are! We must never forget this.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate