GOINGS ON AT ALL SOULS

WOMEN’S ALLIANCE
The Alliance started the Fall season with its annual Welcome Back Cocktail Party in the Ware Room to which every one in the congregation was invited. It was a well-attended party with plenty of food, wine and music, setting the stage for upcoming Alliance events. Those events included:

The Holiday Gift Table in November, during which about $400 in merchandize was sold in the short space of less than two hours. The proceeds of this annual sale are given to two organizations chosen by the Alliance membership.

An outing to the Daheesh Museum, where the group was offered a guided tour through an exhibit about Napoleon in Egypt.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON LEARNING CENTER
The Learning Center celebrated its 20th Anniversary in Friendship Hall on November 9th, with a seated Gala Dinner, jazz by Jim Denko and a small Silent Auction. The dinner was partly arranged to honor its founder, the Rev. Dr. Leroy Ricksy, who sadly, was too ill to attend the festivities, a fact that cast a pall over the event, which included speeches, film clips and photographic displays highlighting the Center’s 20 years of providing after-school tutoring to now, almost a generation of East Harlem children with the help of many All Souls volunteers and donors. Reverend Ricksy lived just long enough to receive an emotional account of the successful event before passing away that same night. The Learning Center will survive into the future to help many more East Harlem children and families with educational enrichment.

THE LIFELINES CENTER
Lifelines offered four related lectures about Religion in the Public Square during the Fall, featuring insight into the relationship between government and religion from the perspective of Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Evangelical Protestantism. The four very distinguished speakers (Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, Rabbi David Saperstein, Dr. Peter Awn and Dr. Randall Balmer) attracted large, rapt audiences as they dispelled certain misconceptions about their respective theologies and offered the hope that reasonable voices are being raised and heard in policy making circles.

ADULT EDUCATION
Each year, the Adult Education program organized by Rev. David Robb has been growing more comprehensive and more popular as church members find it difficult to choose between its many and varied offerings, not only during the church service time slots but also often, at other times. There are too many to list here, but one particular offering in October deserves special mention:

“Socrates—in Person,” portrayed by Ron Gross, who co-chairs a Columbia University Seminar on Innovation in Education, and who visited All Souls complete with toga, staff and laurel wreath, and remained totally in character as he discussed the ideas, trial and death of the famous Greek philosopher. His original appearance on November 5 was followed by two more discussion sessions about the pursuit of happiness and about creativity.

BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS
This has become an annual event at All Souls, and on November 19, the Sanctuary was again filled with dogs of all kinds and sizes, assorted gerbils and birds and a number of cats. A group of third graders from the Rudolph Steiner School sang, the head of the ASPCA was present and the Rev. Cheryl Walker did the blessing and homily, assisted by Melaney Mashburn, Bill Edwards and Ray Ramsey. Marilyn and George Collins and Emily Blake served as ushers at this festive event. The program was filmed by CBS, and church member Marion Stano made it to the evening news with her two purebred rag-doll kittens.

ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY
The celebration of All Soul’s founding in 1819 has been an annual event that has included the honoring of individuals who had been members of the church for 25 years or longer. Last year, 20-year members were included and the party, hosted by the Deacons, was moved to Friendship Hall from the traditional venue in the Ware Room. This year, the celebration was made even more inclusive, recognizing the value to the congregation of those members who have participated in the life of the church for many years. All members of 20 years or longer were invited to the lunch in the Gallery although special honors were offered to those who reached the special membership years of 20, 25 and 50 years or longer in 2006. Although only some of the eligible members accepted the lunch invitation, those who did, enjoyed being specially recognized.

ALL SOULS AT MIDWEEK
This year, the Rev. Cheryl Walker started this new worship service on the first Thursday night of each month. In our rather traditional church, this new service provides an alternate form of worship. Congregants share soup and crackers before the beginning of the service in the vestibule and then gather in the sanctuary for a program of non-traditional music, the sharing of thoughts, the lighting of candles interspersed with hymns, prayers, the holding of hands and a short sermon. This service is reminiscent of how UU services are conducted in many of the smaller UU Fellowships and provides those who attend with a strong sense of participation.

HEART AND SOUL AUCTION PREVIEW PARTY
Mark Leeds and his wife, Mary McKenna, held a special party for Church School parents and friends at their beautiful apartment to acquaint them with the upcoming Auction. The event was attended by about 50 people, who enjoyed the mild October weather on the Leeds’ terrace and learned about the purpose of the annual Auction and the causes its proceeds fund.

30S/40S FELLOWSHIP
Here are some highlights of the activities during this quarter of this very active group:

Labor Day Weekend—a weekend trip to the Green Mountains. Led by Robin Bossert, our group joined members of the Miramar Ski Club (host group) and the AMC for a weekend of hiking, kayaking and exploring Vermont.

September 28th—an evening visit to the New York Botanical Garden for a special nighttime celebration of the works of renowned glass sculptor Dale Chihuly.

October 28th—Halloween Tour of Greenwood Cemetery

Greenwood Cemetery, founded in 1838, was a big tourist attraction and picnic spot in the 19th Century and is the permanent home of 600,000 famous and obscure New Yorkers. At the end of September, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

December 16th—Gift Donation Party—30s/40s member Kim Calder hosted a holiday party to collect gifts for the children at the Booker T. Washington Learning Center. The group coordinated their project with the All Souls BTWLC volunteers, who assigned each gift to an individual child and wrapped the gifts that were collected by the 30s/40s Fellowship members.

In addition, the group organizes a dinner most months. It also explores cultural and social sites, and supports members who are performing as non-professionals, such as the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and the Oratorio Society of NY, as they give the annual performance of Handel’s The Messiah at Carnegie Hall. It also participates in numerous other events.