All Saints Church
Worcester, MA

All Saints, Worcester, began in 1835 with the missionary efforts of Thomas Hubband Vail. One hundred sixty-six years and three church buildings later All Saints continues to search for Jesus Christ in the lives of those inside and outside its walls.

Ministry to the diverse and urban neighborhood surrounding All Saints in downtown Worcester reflects the growing diversity of the church gathered on Sunday mornings. The congregation comes from dozens of surrounding communities. Its members span the economic scale and reflect all the hues on the palette that is the human skin. People of many types of families and households--traditional and nontraditional --find a place in the worshipping community that is All Saints. Parishioners read the gospel on Pentecost in a score of languages.

Worship remains a core value and activity at All Saints. The parish is justly proud of its men and boys choir, which began in 1868, and is the oldest such American choir in continuous service. The St. Cecilia Choir of Women and Girls joins the Boy's and Men's Choir for Eucharist and special programs and the Parish Choir of mixed voices regularly augments the liturgical witness.
Taize services, labyrinth walks, sung Compline all deepen the spiritual life of the All Saints family.

A key goal in 2002 is to make God ever more the center of life at All Saints, both institutionally and in the individual lives of its members. A broad range of programs seeks to advance the spiritual formation of the congregation. The parish attempts to nurture children and adults in the Christian life and to help all its members discern the ministry to which God calls them.

Neighborhood ministry at the turn of the millennium has meant walks in the neighborhood of a summer evening, crafts and games with children in empty lots, and sidewalk vigils at the scenes of drive-by shootings.

Sunday Eucharist, choral evensong, breakfast and Bible study, meditation group, Nenana group (a women's missionary group named after a village in Alaska), church school and youth group the list goes on. All are the warp and woof that make up the seeking for God and the daily act of being found in His love that is the fabric of life at All Saints. That life, for all the changes of more than a century and a half, is essentially the same as Thomas Vail set in motion so many years ago.

Worcester, MA: All Saints Church