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All Saints' Church
Princeton, NJ
Get Involved!
God has given each one of us special talents, abilities and passions. We are called to use those gifts to serve the church, our community and world around us. Below are our fellowship, service opportunities and ministries at All Saints'. Please prayerfully consider and let us know which of these opportunities you would like to participate in.
Christian Education and Formation
Our parish mission places Spiritual Formation among our most valued and highly prioritized ministries. We are blessed with an array of talented parishioners within the academy, the arts, and other diverse professions, blessed with educated and gifted clergy, and several Princeton Seminary Interns each year who bring manifold gifts and backgrounds.
Adult Forum
Adult Forum typically runs between the Sunday services, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. through the academic year. We have enjoyed both mini-series running three to six weeks, as well as one-time offerings. Contact the church office for more information. (parishadmin@allsaintsprinceton.org)
Men's Bible Study
The Tuesday Morning Men’s Bible Study, co-facilitated by Peter Travers and Alan Dybvig, gathers every Tuesday, 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. via Zoom, to discuss both the philosophical and practical aspects of our faith. The group excels at offbeat, wide-ranging and entertaining discussions. If you have any questions, please contact Alan Dybvig (alandybvig@verizon.net) or Peter Travers (pjtray@chasefield.com).
Book Study
The Tuesday Morning Men’s and Women’s Book Study, co-facilitated by Peter Travers and Alan Dybvig, gathers every Tuesday, 8:05 - 9:05 a.m. via Zoom. We are exploring the workability of a hybrid discussion format with some folks in person and some on Zoom. Details regarding current book selections will be published periodically in the service bulletin or Saints Alive newsletter. If you’d like to join, please contact Alan Dybvig (alandybvig@verizon.net) or Peter Travers (pjtray@chasefield.com).
Youth Programming
The new Youth Room, the old acolyte room, has been prepared as a comfortable and welcoming space for our young folks to hang out. Monthly youth letters go out, occasionally including candy, stickers, games and Advent calendars, depending on the season. For more information, please contact Pastor Maddy Patterson (maddypmpat@gmail.com).
Worship Service
Acolytes
Children (age 7 and up) and adults may serve as acolytes to assist the clergy during worship at 10:15 a.m. Sunday Services and major services. The Crucifer carries the cross and leads the processions. Two servers are the torchbearers and serve at the altar during the Holy Eucharist. At occasional services with incense, a specially trained acolyte may serve as Thurifer. Acolytes need to arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the service to vest, light the altar candles, and receive any special instructions from the clergy. We will schedule a brief training session in late summer for newcomers (or returnees who would like a refresher!). If you’d like to join, please contact Pastor Maddy Patterson (maddypmpat@gmail.com).
All Saints’ Players
All Saints’ Players is an inter-generational group that enthusiastically presents a short play inspired by one or more of the day’s lessons in place of a sermon about three-four times per year. In addition, we enact the Nativity story at the annual pageant on Christmas Eve, complete with carols and live animals. No auditions required and all our welcome! This ministry requires some rehearsal time ahead of the service. If you’d like to join, please
contact Pastor Maddy Patterson (maddypmpat@gmail.com).
Altar Guild
This dedicated group’s ministry is to care for the altar, vestments, vessels, and altar linens of the parish. Altar Guild members prepare the sanctuary for Sunday services, weekday services, special services, and occasionally at weddings or funerals. This typically requires a half an hour before and after the scheduled service, usually working in teams of two. Schedules are arranged on a four-month rotation, and members may switch dates according to their personal needs. The Altar Guild does not have regular meetings. Each week on a rotating basis, members are asked to perform additional duties in preparation for the Sunday schedule of services, including changing the altar hangings for the liturgical season, polishing silver, and caring for linens and clergy vestments. Please contact Judy Soncrant (soncrant@oit.rutgers.edu) if you would like to join!
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If you’re interested in learning more about the choir, please contact Director of Music Kevin O’Malia (musicdirector@allsaintsprinceton.org).
Choir
The Choir provides musical leadership for congregational singing in the worship of the church. We offer leadership in hymns and service music, and offer anthems and psalms to enhance the weekly liturgy at All Saints Church. During the academic year, the choir rehearses on Thursdays, 7:30 - 9:15 p.m., in the chapel, and on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in the chancel. The choir typically sings at 10:15 a.m. Sunday Services, Christmas Eve, and Holy Week. We also offer choral evensong, choral compline, and other special services occasionally through the year. This year in particular is exciting, as we are preparing for a choral residency at Exeter Cathedral, UK, in August 2023. Throughout this coming year, we will be preparing for this singing Evensongs at local venues, and tour participants and non-participants alike will have a fun time taking part in the process! In addition to our singing, we have fun as a community at choir dinner, parties and other ways of showing hospitality. In the summer (typically the month of July) a less formal “summer choir” meets in the sanctuary at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays to prepare hymns, service music, and a short anthem for the 10:15 a.m. service. No long-term commitment required – it’s the perfect time for newcomers (from the pews or from the community) to try it out! This is a good way to 'get your feet wet'. No previous singing experience required to join us, and you don't have to read music (we can assist you there)...just the ability to match pitch, and the desire to enhance our music ministry!
Flower Guild
Each weekend, a Flower Guild member typically creates two altar arrangements from cut flowers delivered to the church on Friday by the Pennington Market Floral Shop. The color and type of flowers are selected by the Floral Shop most weeks, reflecting what is in season and the best value, but the chair places specific orders to honor memorial or other special requests and for certain dates in the Church calendar. Following Sunday services, Flower Committee members take down the altar arrangements if they are able to and the flowers are made into smaller arrangements. These are then placed in the Chapel and/or breezeway or delivered to parishioners who are convalescing, grieving, or observing a memorial, birthday, anniversary, or birth either by committee members or by clergy staff when making pastoral visits. The regular time commitment is approximately 90 minutes every six weeks (except during Lent and Advent when there are no flowers on the altar). In addition, Committee members also plan, order, purchase, create and coordinate the floral decorations of the Church for Easter and Christmas. If you would like to join this ministry, please contact Amy Johnson (ajohnson@mathematica-mpr.com).
Intercessors
Each week at the 10:15 Sunday Service, a lay person offers the Prayers of the People or other intercessions as determined by the clergy. They should plan to arrive 15 minutes before the start of the service to check in with the clergy and do a sound check at the lectern. The schedules are set for each season (Fall, Spring, Summer) and Intercessors must notify Sarah Nickleson no later than Monday before a service if they arrange a swap, so that the correct information will appear in the bulletin. If interested, please contact Liz Colagiuri (lizcolagiuri@gmail.com).
Lay Eucharistic Ministers
A Lay Eucharistic Minister (LEM) is a lay person licensed by the bishop to administer the consecrated elements of the eucharist. Lay eucharistic ministers may be licensed to administer the consecrated bread and wine at any celebration of the eucharist in the absence of a sufficient number of priests and deacons to assist the celebrant. They may also be licensed to go from a Sunday eucharist or other principal celebrations of the eucharist to share the sacrament with members of the congregation who were unable to be present at the celebration because of illness or infirmity. (See Pastoral Care/Lay Eucharistic Visitors.)
Typically, one LEM is scheduled to assist the celebrant with the Holy Eucharist at the 10:15 Sunday Services; two LEMs may be needed for major services. The LEM stands next to the clergy at the altar during the liturgy, helping to turn pages or track lines in the Altar Book as needed. They may also assist with the offering plate, water and wine vessels, or the lavabo if an acolyte is not present. They then administer the chalice. Please contact the church office if you would like to learn more! (parishadmin@allsaintsprinceton.org)
Lectors
The Lectors are lay persons who read the appointed lessons from the Old Testament and the New Testament (and the Psalm if the choir is not singing) at 10:15 a.m. Sunday Services as well as special feast day services. The propers for the day come from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, available online at http://lectionarypage.net/. Lectors must notify Sarah Nickleson no later than the Monday before an assigned service if they arrange a swap, so that the correct information will appear in the bulletin. Lectors should arrive 15 minutes before the start of the service to check in with the clergy, check the book at the lectern to ensure it’s open to the day’s propers, and to do a brief sound check at the microphone. No license is required for this lay ministry. Readers are scheduled approximately three times per season (fall, spring, summer). Advent Lessons and Carols provides a great opportunity to try it out. We also arrange a broader group of parishioners who help us “speak in tongues” on Pentecost and who take an assigned part in the Palm Sunday reading of the Passion. If interested in joining this ministry, please contact Liz Colagiuri (lizcolagiuri@gmail.com).
Live-Streaming and Sound
Our sound system is now used to live stream our 10:15 a.m. Sunday Services. This has increased our reach and has served our homebound parishioners with greater ease and inclusion. Set up typically takes 30-45 minutes prior to the start of the service. We would very much welcome two or three additional parishioners to serve as sound techs. No technical expertise is required. If interested in participating in this important ministry, please talk with anyone you see sitting at the soundboard in the back of the nave. You may also contact Jim Barringer (barringerjt@gmail.com)
Ushers
The ushers help welcome attendees to worship services, hand out bulletins or other materials, assist parishioners to an available pew (if needed), collect and present the offering, ask two attendees to serve as oblation bearers (bringing forward to the altar the bread and the wine during the offertory), and count and record the number of attendees at the service. Ushers should encourage newcomers to sign the guest book in the entryway and to join fellowship time after the service. After the conclusion of the service, two ushers count and record the money in the offering plate and secure it in the safe. Typically, we schedule one usher for 8:00 a.m. Sunday Services (during the academic year) and two ushers for 10:15 a.m. Sunday Services, as well as other major services. Ushers should arrive at least 20 minutes prior to the start of the service to be on hand to welcome and assist attendees. For more information, contact Steve Knowlton
Fellowship
Holy Hosts and Helping Hands
The Holy Hosts, working closely with Sexton Brian Kirby, coordinate congregational fellowship events. This includes fellowship time after the 10:15 Sunday services (coffee hour in the South Room during the academic year, punch on the Butler Courtyard patio during the summer) and special events at various times throughout the year. Event formats vary – some ask for parishioners to sign up to bring a dish or host punch, some are centrally ordered for purchase and pick up, and some are professionally catered. The Men’s Group hosts the annual church picnic at the start of the program year each fall. We currently need to recruit four to six additional Holy Hosts to help plan and run events. This year we also want to recruit eight to ten “Helping Hands” who will help with event set-up, service, and clean-up. If interested, please contact Joan Jones (JoanTerry88@yahoo.com).
Living in Christian Community
Pastoral Care/Lay Eucharistic Visitors
All Saints Parish is blessed with a team of clergy who offer a variety of ministries deemed pastoral care, such as pastoral calling to our homebound, hospitalized, ill, and those in need; taking Holy Communion to our hospitalized; offering the sacramental rites of Healing, and Ministry at the time of death. But, in keeping with the Episcopal Church teaching that ministry is the work of all the baptized, we also include a significant lay ministry with pastoral care at All Saints Church. If you have a pastoral concern please contact the church office. If you would like to get involved in this ministry, please contact Sue Langhans (slanghans@verizon.net)
Prayer Chain
The Prayer Chain is a network of parishioners who offer their prayerful support to members of the parish and their families in critical need. For example, the group may pray for a sick parishioner, a family member preparing for surgery, or a recent birth in the family. Parishioners who wish to have the Prayer Chain offer intercession on their behalf may drop a note on the newly created bulletin board in the main hallway, or speak to any member of the group or to the church office. Intercessions are limited to parishioners and their families. Also, after one month, prayers are cycled off the chain unless an extension is requested. If you have any questions please contact our church office at (parishadmin@allsaintsprinceton.org)
Transportation Ministry
Each week, three to five All Saints’ parishioners (living in Princeton, Montgomery Township, and Lawrenceville) need rides to and from church for the 10:15 a.m. Sunday Service. Ideally, we assign drivers to pick-up parishioners who live nearby or on the way to church. Sometimes the drivers also assist with picking up prescriptions or groceries en route. We would like to identify four or five additional drivers for this academic year. Please contact Maddy Patterson (maddypmpat@gmail.com) if you are interested in joining this ministry
Outreach Ministry
Ou†reach
All Saints Church supports significant projects of charity, advocacy, and justice through its outreach ministries, co-chaired by Suzanne Thompson spthompson1994@gmail.com) and Jane Kleindienst (kleindij@gmail.com). We have long-term partnerships with: Arm in Arm, HomeFront, NAMI, Princeton Community Housing, The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK), Religious Ministries at Penn Medicine, Princeton Hospital Center in Plainsboro, and Womanspace.
- In late summer, we sponsor a group of children through the HomeFront annual Back-to-School drive. At Christmas, we sponsor families by shopping for gifts on their children's wish lists.
- This past year, we collected thousands of dollars in furniture and donations to help refugee families from Afghanistan settle in New Jersey, and provide financial aid to organizations responding to the refugee and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine.
- The parish supports TASK through financial contributions and by occasionally preparing and serving lunch in the soup kitchen.
- The parish has also helped to alleviate food insecurity in our area for many years through food and financial donations to Arm in Arm.