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Dear friends,

Next Friday, June 6 is National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the kick-off of Wear Orange Weekend. Trinity will observe Wear Orange Sunday this Sunday, June 1, because next Sunday, June 8, we’ll celebrate Pentecost. So please wear orange to church this Sunday! Why orange? Because it’s the color of safety for hunters, chosen to honor 15-year-old Hadiya Pendelton, who was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago in 2013. Dr. Yolanda Dawn Waller will be our guest preacher. Dawn is a gun violence survivor, and I have learned in doing this work that it must be victim and survivor-centered. The voices that need to be amplified are those closest to the issue. Survivors are the leaders of the movement to reduce gun violence. They need and deserve our support. They welcome us to walk with them as allies. Read about Dawn’s background here, and come hear her preach on Sunday!

I became involved in gun violence prevention in Toledo two years ago when I marched in the Old West End Festival parade with Moms Demand Action and met Mike Linehan, a parishioner from Olivet Lutheran Church. Mike and I had a brief conversation about how our two faith communities were wrestling with the issue of gun violence, and exchanged contact information. Later in June, we began to work together to form the Multifaith Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence. We have hosted five public forums on topics including survivor testimonies, legislative advocacy training, safe gun storage, and updates from the City of Toledo’s Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). About 250 people from more than 50 northwest Ohio congregations representing many faith traditions have participated in at least one forum, including an impressive 40 Trinity parishioners. Thank you for your commitment to help reduce gun violence!

Several members of the Multifaith Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence engaged over the past year and a half in MONSE’s community-driven process to develop Peace in Motion, the City of Toledo’s five-year plan to reduce violence, which was approved by City Council earlier this month. The City’s dedicated efforts have reduced homicides, from 65 in 2022 to 37 in 2024. 2024 saw the lowest number of youth (under age 18) homicides since 2019. The City’s Save Our Community (SOC) program has built up a caseload of young people who are at high risk of experiencing gun violence. SOC staff provide mediation, de-escalation, and connection to services, opportunities and support to help meet their needs. The Peace in Motion plan contains actionable recommendations, such as the launch of the Healing & Compassion Fund – United Way of Greater Toledo to provide immediate financial support after the unfathomable loss of a loved one from gun violence (application and more detail here). The process to develop the Peace In Motion plan has helped to eliminate “silos” within the community around efforts to address gun violence. We can accomplish far more working together than we can in isolation. Partners like the Multifaith Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence bolster this work and ensure a community-oriented approach to addressing gun violence.

This Sunday, we will remember recent victims of gun violence, and honor the bruised and broken, strong and resilient survivors that are leading the movement to prevent gun violence. Free gun locks will be available for anyone who wants them. Here are many resources to explore for more information on how to reduce gun violence: organizations, safe gun storage, books and more. Please email me if you’d like to receive email updates from the Multifaith Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence. See you Sunday with your orange on!

Peace,
Deacon Meribah

Dear friends,

As I write this to you, I am on my way to the annual Diocese of Ohio Clergy Conference (thank goodness for speech-to-text tech!). It’s about a 3 hour drive from Toledo to the conference center.

I’ve always enjoyed long road trips, even as a young child. My family would often take long road trips. My mom and I, in particular, would regularly drive from Louisiana to Iowa to visit my aunt and her family. I came to treasure those times because they were some of the most important times when mom and I could really get to know each other better. Our relationship would deepen as the miles ran beneath us. Now, as an adult, Michael and I also enjoy taking long road trips. As much as we both love music, we often find ourselves riding along with the radio silenced – just to talk with one another; to spend some quality time together.

Road trips are about building relationships. Certainly, it’s about bringing people together from one place to another; but the relationships can also be built on the trip itself as we’re riding along. Nowadays, when I’m alone on the road, I often use this as time for intensive prayer. Prayer isn’t always with your head bowed, and your eyes closed. A lot of times, prayer isn’t much more than deep thoughts. It’s about talking to God like you talk to your loved one in the passenger seat next to you. Again, it’s about building relationships and about deepening bonds. Our relationship with God needs that as much as any of our physical relationships do.

Soon it will be Memorial Day – a day that many people think of as the sort of beginning of summer (even though the summer season is still weeks away). If your summer calendar has you taking a road trip sometime this year, I invite you to turn the radio off for a few minutes and listen to the people around you. If you’re fortunate enough to be alone for a while, spend some time deepening your relationship with God. Talk with God just like you’d talk with a dear friend or a treasured loved one. God wants to hear what you have to say. And, if you embrace the silence long enough, you might just hear what God has to say.

Blessings,
Jon+

Dear friends,

Over the past few years, something that has made me smile is seeing the number of children and families joining us at Trinity. Watching and listening to these kids in service whether it is during the procession, in their clubhouse, or in the nursery has been a source of great joy. This weekend we can share in this joy as we plant the children’s garden on the Trinity Plaza. Saturday morning at 9:30am, Melanie Schell will be leading the way and helping our kids with this endeavor. I look forward to joining them and invite you all to do so as well.

Looking to the future, I wanted to also let parents know that the last week of Sunday School in the Club House will be on June 15th, Trinity Sunday. For the summer season, our elementary kids will join us throughout all of worship, while the nursery will still be open for littles. This past year has offered us some great opportunities to continue to look at how we include our kids in the service, and what we provide for them. So stay tuned as we continue to work on this ministry.

See you all Saturday at 9:30 on the Plaza!

Grace and peace,
George Benson (he/him)

Dear Friends,

There are a few spiritual disciplines that I’ve discovered in the course of my life that have had a legitimate role in shaping me and helping me to become a more mature and genuine practitioner of the Christian faith. One of those disciplines is a conscious commitment to looking for reasons to be grateful.

A truth I’ve come to know as a person growing into Christianity (we’re all growing – no one has it figured out. Not even priests!) is summarized in Jesus’ simple teaching, “seek and you will find”. And I’ve learned that if I seek occasions of gratitude, I will find them. And when I find them, life feels better, and the Christian faith is more meaningful. So, I try to set aside some time each week to specifically look for reasons to be grateful: grateful to the people around me, and grateful to God for the blessings I might otherwise overlook.

The Vestry and I are practicing this search for gratitude as a part of our monthly meetings. We set aside a few minutes near the beginning of each meeting to specifically think about reasons we’re grateful and people for whom we are grateful. We say the names and the reasons out loud for each other and we record them, because we want to begin sharing this gratitude with all of you.

This is the list from our last meeting:

• For all the people who assisted with Holy Week services and preparing for it
• For Grace Mauk coming back
• For the music on Easter
• For police officers who have been assisting with breakfast incidents
• For Michael Kidney for being involved
• For Heather Meyer, specifically for the Toledo Grows connection and learning about pollinators

Look for more lists like this in Trinity Topics each month after our Vestry meetings. Of course, this is an incomplete list – they always will be. In a parish like Trinity that has so much going on, it takes a lot of people and a lot of passion to make this ministry happen. So, we hope that you’ll join us in seeking out these occasions of thanksgiving. If you notice something or someone that deserves our thanks, send me a quick email or text to let me know.

I hope you will find, as I have, the ways that being intentionally thankful enriches our lives every day!

Blessings,
Jon+

Dear Friends,

On Tuesday morning Becky Koskinen, Phil Skeldon, Mark Dubielak, and I will be driving out to Washington D.C. to meet with a few congressional reps, as well as dropping in to see our senators. During that time, we will also be delivering letters the Trinity Response Team wrote expressing frustration with the current administration and asking for support.

This trip will include a meeting with members of the Office of Government Relations. With the advocacy work Trinity members have been working on, we feel it is important to start a relationship with them and those who work in the Episcopal Public Policy Network. This visit that the four of us are taking on behalf of Trinity is hopefully the first of many. Please keep us in your prayers as we drive to and from our nation’s capital and for the conversations we will have during our time there.

If you are feeling compelled to write a letter for us to take to our congressional reps, please feel free to bring it on Sunday. I will be happy to add it to the pile and look forward to letting you all know how it goes!

Grace and peace,
George Benson

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! I hope you were able to take part in some of the many worship opportunities we had throughout Holy Week and on Easter Day.

This week, the members of the staff at Trinity have been taking a well-deserved time of slower schedules and a bit less intensity at work. I hope you’ve been able to do a bit of that here and there, too – to take some time to really reflect on what it means to embrace this new way of knowing and experiencing life that the Christian experience offers.

And remember – Easter wasn’t just last Sunday. We will be celebrating Easter at Trinity for a whole season! So, keep this joyful worship as a part of your Easter discipline in the weeks ahead. There’s simply too much joy for us to try to contain it in just a single Sunday! We look forward to sharing it all with you.

Blessings,
Jon+

Dear friends,

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of composting. I toyed with starting to do it in New Jersey, but we were afraid that the smells of food waste outside might attract our neighborhood bears. We saw enough of them without putting out bait!

I know – it seems like a weird thing to be fascinated by. But I’ve always been drawn to the idea of not only reducing the waste I generate by living through my daily routines, but even more by the idea of finding new value in that waste. What was waste – through a process that, because of my ignorance, seems to me to be mysterious – gets transformed into something new that is beneficial in new ways.

As I write to you this week, we are in the final, waning days of Lent. And by the time you read this, we will be deep in the heart of the Triduum – those holiest days from Maundy Thursday, through Good Friday, and into Holy Saturday that give us our last moments of preparation for Easter and Resurrection joy.

It’s a strange time to write and reflect, because our practice of faith is sort of in a time that’s like mid-compost. Our old and used-up ways of looking at the world are, through a mysterious process, being reformed and transformed into something entirely new – something with new, profound value; something that will feed starving souls.

As we make our way into this, our first Easter together, I invite you to consider that. Consider the idea that God is actively working within you to break down the useless leftovers of hurtful faith traditions that you may be holding; and consider that God can, through the power of resurrection and love, transform them into something new and powerful.

That is the Easter hope and that is the promise of Resurrection.

Blessings,
Jon+

Dear friends,

This Sunday, we begin our journey to Holy Week by celebrating Palm Sunday. This entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem on a donkey is full of expectations on his followers’ behalf. From the zealots, an over throwing of Rome’s power in Palestine, from his disciples perhaps the kin-dom of heaven establishing to earth, and everything in between. The story of Jesus’ last week of ministry this side of death is something Christians all over the earth have celebrated for almost two millennia.

It is impossible for me to prepare for Holy Week without thinking of the humanitarian crisis happening in the Middle East. For over 100 years, the Presiding Bishops of the Episcopal Church have taken up a Good Friday offering in support of The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem. This year’s offering will go to support specific ministries in The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, look to the Easter appeal letter for more information.

For the past 18 months in our Noon Prayer Service, we have been praying for those in Palestine and Israel, and this Easter we can pray with our actions. We are inviting you to commemorate this holy season by making a special gift, beyond regular giving, to partner in this Easter offering appeal. Every cent that goes above our budgeted amount will go towards this offering.

We will continue our local direct missional support offering for the Christmas season. With everything happening in our world, we want to embrace our larger identity as Episcopalians and join the larger Episcopal Church in supporting those in the Middle East.

Thank you for your continued support of Trinity Episcopal Church and we look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Grace and peace,
George Benson (he/him)

Dear Friends,

Last week I had my first visit to the Plaza! I’d seen it through the windows before, but I hadn’t had a chance to wander around outside. At last, though, a Property Committee meeting sent me up there. It’s certainly a brilliant space, and seeing it in this phase before the Spring planting and growing is beautiful and moving in a very specific way.

I remember learning in school about kinetic energy and potential energy. The plaza is bursting with potential energy. Even now, as I write this, it’s raining up there and feeding the earth and the plants are readying for a new creation.

This phase of Lent, along with our phase of life here at Trinity, are both filled with energy. From the outside, both Lent and Trinity may seem like the abundance of kinetic energy leaves room for nothing else. But living in this energy reveals that it’s really so much more. The kinetic energy here at Trinity is very real, but what it really drives us toward is the potential energy that’s buzzing just under the surface.

And that’s where we are in Lent, too. The potential energy is fed by the promise of resurrection. At Easter, it is released in all its kinetic glory.

My prayer is that we live into that Easter promise. May it guide us as we grow together.

Blessings,
Jon+

Dear friends,

Our trans siblings have always existed, and will always exist no matter what any political or religious entity says. According to the Williams Institute, 0.6% of Americans identify as Transgender, yet, our siblings have been attacked time and again. As we look to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility on the 31st, we will also celebrate it on Sunday morning. As a church that recognizes the image of God in all peoples, we look forward to raising up our Trans siblings not just this weekend, but throughout the whole year.

Trinity drew its line in the sand in 2023 when we adopted “Protect Trans Kids” as our theme for Pride, and we still proudly stand with our trans siblings. We are still committed to calling our representatives and working to steer them to protect our trans siblings in any way possible, and we always will be.

May we remember always that trans rights are human rights, and all human rights are worth protecting.

Grace and peace,
George Benson (he/him)

Dear Friends,

I am still basking in the glow of our first Sunday together. I hope you are, too.

I know that big transitions (in any aspect of our lives – church is just one) can feel like an unsettling time. The nature of the experience is change. And change often means we won’t know what to expect.

Our transition at Trinity is still ongoing – it didn’t just end because I’ve arrived. Now we’re into the part of the transition that involves us learning more deeply about each other. What change will we bring to each other’s lives and to each other’s experience of the practice of faith? The reality is, we will change each other. That’s why we’ve been called together – not to stagnate together, but to grow together.

If we’re wise, we’ll look at this season of transition as more than a season. If we’re wise, we’ll embrace this time as a road map for embracing the truth that we are being called to grow together – to always be in transition together.

I know inertia can be a powerful force, but community inertia only has as much power as we give it. I pray that we will resist it. I pray that we will commit to growing together. I pray that we will live in transition – not for a season, but as a central element of our vocation.

I look forward to discovering the ways that I will grow through you and with you.

Blessings,
Jon+

Dear Friends,

In this week’s lectionary readings, we find a conversation and ritual between God and Abram. This is a passage for which I have a deep love. We read the details: God promising Abram not just an offspring but the land of the Canaanites. What we really see is something even better. Abram, who has long arranged sacrifices in a specific way, FALLS ASLEEP waiting on God to seal the covenant between the two.

Why is that a big deal?

In the Ancient Near East, animals were slaughtered as a way to seal an oath. Two people would walk down this bloody path, and if one of them broke the oath, a curse was accepted along the lines of, “if I am to break this oath, may I become like the slaughtered animals.” Abram, waiting to walk down this path, falls asleep, and CAN’T MAKE THE PROMISE. So instead of leaving Abram and his offspring cursed and solely responsible for the future, God does the unexpected. God appears like a smoking pot and pillar of fire (two incarnations we see God as in the exodus) and goes down the path by Themself and takes responsibility for the future. This is why I love this passage. So often we read parts like this in the Old Testament and skip over the incredible history and imagery behind it. It’s a perfect example of the beauty and mystery in the poetic nature of God.

Friends, we have been on a long journey to get to where we are this week, and at times, in the silence, some of us may have felt like Abram. Accidentally falling asleep waiting for God to show up and do what God said God would, afraid of the repercussions of choosing or doing the wrong thing. And what happens when Abram falls asleep? God shows up, and God takes responsibility for Abram’s future. Even here, this is our God of hope and promise.

Trinity in two years has had three priests, and we have not ceased praying for this community because we believe in hope. We have not stopped the momentum over the past two years of what God is opening our hearts to do in this community because we believe in promise. And my friends, the Spirit has brought us home to this Sunday. We did not have a smoking pot or pillar of flames, instead, a search committee and a vestry, guided by the Spirit to this weekend. And for that, we, like Abram, give thanks to the Lord.

Grace and peace,
George

Dear Friends,

This weekend, we will usher in Daylight Savings Time at 2:00 a.m. EST on Saturday, March 9th, by “springing” our clocks ahead an hour. With it comes extended daylight hours and the anticipation of warmer weather. Spring is approaching.

Like all changes, there are challenges even when we anticipate and welcome them. We switch our external clocks an hour forward while our internal clocks lag a bit, trying to catch up. For many of us, our biorhythms take much longer to adjust to this hour shift.

Time, or the changing times, seems to have that effect on us. Whether we’re adjusting the hands of a clock or witnessing history unfolding before us, we can all agree that change is often an unsettling yet undeniable constant. Still, it endures, just as we do.

Lent is also upon us, just before our time change on Saturday. A sacred time of sacrifice, giving, and prayer. One could imagine no bigger change or uncertainty than Jesus’ experience as he walked into the desert ahead of his impending death. Alone, weary, tired, hungry, tempted, afraid, yet persisted for us and with us.

As we walk through our metaphorical clocks springing forward, watching the world in all its chaos swirl, let us be reminded of the persistence, faith, and hope of Jesus during his 40 days and nights in the desert. That the loss of an hour is no comparison to the loss of a life for us and our sins. However, we choose to sacrifice, give, or pray during this Lenten season, a time of change and a change of time, let it be knowing that we can do so with the assurance that no more tremendous sacrifice was made than that which he made for us. And he will rise, as will we. Through trials and uncertainties, chaos and hatred, he suffered, died, and was buried…but rose again. So shall we.

Karen Keune

Dear friends,

It is hard to believe that March is Saturday. After January lasting for three years, and February seeming to fly by, we look forward to the season of Lent and a time of exciting change. If, somehow, you have not heard, our new Rector Jon M. Richardson, and his husband Michael arrive on the 16th for their first Sunday. But before we get there, we have some exciting news about a new team member!

This Sunday you will see a few new faces around our humble corner of Adams and St. Clair, specifically in our nursery. I am excited to announce that Trinity has hired a new Nursery Attendant, and her name is Nichole Ramirez. Nichole is a Toledo native and is a graduate of Performing Arts School of Metro Toledo and went on to Albion College on a preforming arts scholarship.

Having worked at Children’s Discovery Center for a long time, Nichole has a lot of experience working with children from pre-school to middle school ages. She also has a little one of her own who will be here from time to time. Aside from spending all this time with children, Nichole really enjoys reading, attending live theatre, art museums, but really enjoys her time with her partner, daughter, and four cats. We are thrilled to say to Nichole and her family, WELCOME HOME!

Dear friends,

We’re coming up to my favorite liturgical season: Lent. Reading that, you probably fall into one of two camps: What’s Lent? or Lent’s Your Favorite? Really

What’s Lent? Even if you haven’t observed Lent in the past, you probably have heard stories of people who have. The stories I heard growing up were from Catholic friends, most commonly “I’m giving up chocolate for Lent.” When I asked my friends why they gave chocolate up for Lent, they invariably answered, “I’m suffering because Jesus suffered.” Back then, I knew very little about church traditions. What I’ve since learned is that Lent is the season that leads up to Easter, from Ash Wednesday through Maundy Thursday. Traditionally, this was a time of preparation for people wishing to be baptized at Easter and is associated with penitence and fasting. There are many spiritual practices associated with Lent: giving something up, taking something on, being intentional in spiritual reading, donating money to charity, and changing eating habits on some or all days of Lent.

If you made it this far, you may now be leaning to the other camp.

Lent’s Your Favorite? Really? Penitence and fasting don’t sound like much fun, so why is Lent my favorite liturgical season? Life is full of distractions, even distracting me from God. Lent lets me refocus my attention on God: Where am I falling short? What have I made more important than God? Where is God calling me to new life? Over the years, my lenten practices varied, such as coming to Wednesday soup suppers at church, being more intentional about daily prayer. Every year, I stumble over the same obstacles, like taking on the most challenging disciplines, so I can prove to God I’m serious, then feeling bad when I give up halfway. (Of all the things to give up for Lent, the hardest is ego-centered thoughts.) Lent is an intentional invitation to all of us to look at our relationships with God at the same time. Our faith community supports us, beginning with the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday (March 5).

Whether you are brand new to Lent or are looking for a refresh, join the Spiritual Formation Committee on Sunday, February 23, for What do you mean I don’t have to give up chocolate? An introduction to Lent. (It’s helpful to RSVP, but not required.) Grab a snack at coffee hour and meet in the Walbridge room. Bring your curiosity and your questions.

Maybe you’ll find your way to the third camp: Oh, Lent is My Favorite Season Too!

Jolene Miller
Chair, Spiritual Formation Committee

Dear Friends,

The Trinity Response Team (TRT) had their first gathering this past Sunday in My Brother’s Place to contemplate and act on many justice issues – gun violence, food insecurity, racism, and LGBTQ shaming – to name a few. This gathering was specifically to discuss appropriate actions and reactions to the new president and his administration these last two weeks.

Twenty-two of us attended and there were many contributions and ideas during our active discussion. Folks collected handouts that contained:

1. contact information for elected representatives and Senators in DC;
2. a description of “how to” speak to a staffer when one calls or writes an email/letter, and
3. a brief description of 10 Executive Orders (E.O.’s).

Postcards with the Trinity logo on one side were written to senators and representatives during our time together kindly stating our objections to the Executive Orders. Those were mailed out this week.

Those gathered agree this is just the beginning of TRT’s advocacy for people, both in our community and around the country, who find themselves excluded or oppressed by these E.O.’s. It was suggested that the TRT plan to meet monthly for continued advocacy and support. We will work on doing just that.

Please prayerfully consider whether you have a role to play in TRT. All people of goodwill are welcome! Please contact George Benson at Trinity with any questions, contributions, or concerns. george@trinitytoledo.org

God’s Peace,
Mark Dubielak

Dear Friends,

As we move through these turbulent and uncertain days, it seems an appropriate moment to reflect together on Jesus’ radical teaching about speaking truth to power. In a world that often feels divided, where voices of justice are sometimes drowned out by those in authority, we turn to the life and words of Jesus for guidance and strength.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus did not shy away from speaking truth to the powerful of his time—whether they were religious authorities, political leaders, or those who wielded control over the lives of the marginalized. He called out hypocrisy, injustice, and the exploitation of the vulnerable, even when it meant risking his own safety. Jesus’ message was always one of love, but it was not a message that ever compromised on the need for justice and truth.

Jesus did not mince words when he confronted the leaders of his time, whether they be religious or political, he called them out for their self-righteousness and their exploitation of the people. He spoke against the ways they burdened the poor and oppressed, warning them that their position of power would not protect them from the consequences of their actions.

And yet, in speaking truth to power, Jesus was not motivated by anger or a desire to tear down, but by a deep love for all of God’s children. He sought to awaken hearts and minds to the truth, not just about the world around them, but about the nature of God’s justice and love. His message was always an invitation—to repent, to turn toward a life of compassion, humility, and peace.

As followers of Christ, we are called to do the same. In our own time, we see so many ways in which power is used to oppress, to marginalize, and to silence voices that seek justice. Whether in our local communities or in Washington, D.C., we are reminded that speaking truth to power is not just a political act—it is a deeply spiritual one. It is an act of witness to the Kingdom of God, which calls us to stand alongside the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the marginalized, the unseen, the frightened.

This is not easy work. Jesus did not promise it would be. But he also gave us the strength to speak with boldness, to seek justice with humility, and to love even those who may stand in opposition to us. Speaking truth to power, as Jesus showed us, is an act of love that can change hearts and transform systems. It is a way of embodying the hope of the Gospel in a world that desperately needs it.

Let us remember that truth is not merely a set of facts to be defended, nor a particular political ideology, but a powerful force that moves us toward a world where all will be seen, heard, and valued. Let us be bold, let us be compassionate, and let us be people of truth.

Love and light-
Jeffrey Albright
Senior Warden