All Saints takes its title directly from an Episcopal church in Smyrna, Tennessee that lost a large number of parishioners who couldn't tolerate the national church's acceptance of a gay bishop and a female presiding bishop. Those left behind were stuck with the mortgage on a new building on new property. Tennessee's bishop sent Michael Spurlock, a young man fresh out of seminary, to lead services and oversee the sale of the property.
The title could also refer to a disparate group of individuals who came together from as far away as Myanmar to build that church into a vibrant center of worship, education, and service. The book tells the life story of Spurlock, who was an angry atheist before his relationship with opera singer Aimee Marcoux turned him towards the Episcopal church -- and marriage; Ye Win, guerrilla fighter for his Karen people against the repressive Myanmar regime; Bu Christ, Anglican priest operating at risk to his life in Myanmar; retired Gulf War veteran Paul Adams, problem - solver and agnostic who just happens to have had experience teaching English as a second language: these, and more, saints, all.
As we get to know their backgrounds, we see these people help each other. The influx of Karen people brings energy to the church, and parishioners step up to help ease the Karen into America. A parishioner in a power - driven wheelchair, recognized from a news story, hears someone say, "You're from that church that saved all those refugees." She replies, "No, all those refugees saved us!"
As these people learn to trust each other, they learn to trust in God's providence. Several times, Spurlock finds exactly the amount of money the church needs at exactly the moment he needs it -- which he sees as the answer to prayer. Readying the church for sale, Spurlock takes a lonely walk around the church's vast property and hears a voice -- "it wasn't mine!" he says later -- pointing out that the church has land and around 70 under employed Karen whose expertise is farming: together, they establish a farm that feeds Karen families, supplies local foodbanks, and makes a profit. When watering the acres proves impossible, Spurlock meets a man on a hiking trail who just happens to have a spare 1000 gallon water tank to give away. Are these divine interventions, or does the man of faith see what he looks for -- and does faith open him up to look for help?
The story portrays faith as openness to relationships, and the trust that develops through those relationships, not as a set of intellectual propositions -- although the pastor does run the agnostic Paul Adams through the Nicene Creed, checking off all the items that Adams has come to believe as he has worked with Karen, so impressed was he by the ways they've risked their lives for faith. Faith grows through habits of worship and intentional hospitality that build the community. In these ways, and in the willingness on both sides to honor the others' cultural differences, the book All Saints illustrates much of what I've been reading in books of theology this year.
The book, now adapted as a film, is by Michael Spurlock and Jeanette Windle, All Saints: The Surprising Story of How Refugees from Burma Brought Life to a Dying Church. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2017.
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