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Dear Friends,

This coming Sunday we celebrate Trinity Sunday. This church doesn’t have a patron saint. We’re not named after a person like many other Episcopal congregations are – we’re not a St. Andrew’s, or a St. John’s, or a St. James, or a St. Philip’s. This church was named after the Trinity when the parish had its beginnings in early 1837. So it’s fair to say that this Sunday is our “patronal feast day.”

Trinity Sunday is when we talk about what God is like. We do that every Sunday, of course – at least I hope we do – but on this particular Sunday we are invited to think together about one of the core doctrines of the Christian church – that idea God is three in one and one in three. What’s so important about the doctrine of the Trinity? The answer is Community.

In 2000, a serious, deeply theological book appeared written by the Brazilian theologian and writer, Leonardo Boff. For those who may not recognize the name, Leonardo Boff is a former Franciscan friar who has published widely and has written particularly in the field of what’s called Liberation Theology. He is brilliant and controversial. Both his brilliance and his willingness to provoke controversy landed him in frequent trouble with the Roman Catholic Church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith went as far as to silence Boff for an entire year back in 1985 – at a time when Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict, was leading it.

The book I’m referring to is the book entitled, Holy Trinity: Perfect Community. In the book, Boff talks about the doctrine of the Trinity – how the doctrine helps us see that, in the beginning was “the communion of the Three, not the solitude of the One.” Boff is saying, in other words, that the very nature of God is community.

If the nature of God is “community,” then it makes all the difference for us at Trinity Toledo. It means that when we are called into fellowship with God, we are also called to be in community with each other. And not just any community. We are called to be in holy community the way God is in holy community – a community of love and giving – a community of hope and joy – a community passionate for justice and truth – a community through which others can catch a glimpse of the very nature of God.

So, this Sunday we celebrate God’s community and our Trinity community. It seems like a fitting thing for us to do in this parish church where all are welcome and wanted. And you thought the doctrine of the Trinity was boring and dry. Not so much.

See you soon!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

The Great 50 Days of Easter come to an end this Sunday when we celebrate Pentecost. Actually, this Sunday has two names. In addition to Pentecost, this Sunday is also known as Whitsunday. Not surprisingly, the name is a contraction of “White Sunday,” a name that derives from the white garments worn by those who were being baptized on that Sunday.

Pentecost, or Whitsunday, is one of the five great baptismal days recommended in The Book of Common Prayer. From the second century on, Pentecost was a time for baptizing those who had been prepared but who, for some reason, had not been baptized at Easter.

We’ll celebrate a baptism here at Trinity this Sunday as Ariel Grube, an adult member of our choir, undergoes the central liturgy of Christian community. As a way of underscoring the centrality of community, she has asked the choir to be her sponsors!

Ariel has chosen to be baptized by immersion, so this will be the first time in several years that the baptismal pool at the entrance to the church will be put to use. Although it’s unusual in the Episcopal Church for a person to be baptized by immersion, it’s the norm in many other Christian communities. The traditional American song, “I went down in the river to pray . . “ made famous by the move, “O Brother, where art thou?”, is often sung at outdoor full-immersion baptisms for obvious reasons.

That immersion baptism has a long history in our own church is borne out by the fact that the rubrics (or instructions) for performing a baptism give immersion as the first option: “Each candidate is presented by name to the Celebrant, or to an assisting priest or deacon, who then immerses, or pours water upon, the candidate . . .”

The connection between water and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost goes all the way back to something Jesus said in the Gospel according to John, “”Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, `Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” John immediately explains the meaning of Jesus’ words this way, “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive.”

I hope that you will be present on Sunday to witness this very special baptism and that you will pray for Ariel and for all those who long for a deeper relationship with our gracious and loving God. If you can’t find the right words to pray, here are some you might use:

O God, you have created all things by the power of your Word, and you renew the earth by your Spirit: Give now the water of life to those who thirst for you, that they may bring forth abundant fruit in your glorious kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And, yes, Ariel will be wearing a white robe for her baptism – it is Whitsunday, after all! Let me encourage you to dress for the occasion, too. Wear red in honor of the “tongues, as of fire” that appeared among the disciples when the Day of Pentecost came all those years ago in Jerusalem. No matter what you decide to wear, it will be a festive day!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

For the last week, my friends from the Village Flower Basket have been posting photos of all the different flower arrangements and gifts they have available for Mother’s Day. Wednesday, they went above and beyond with the announcement that the shoppe will be open on Sunday from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm and sharing a postcard they’re going to have popping up all over town with vases. The postcard has a QR code that can be scanned so customers can view and shop VFB’s Mother’s Day section. To top it off, the store will be hosting Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace’s food truck. Evidently nothing says Mother’s Day like the combination of floral arrangements and franks.

I know the owners and employees of the Village Flower Basket well. They’re former parishioners, and I have been their customer for many years. Holiday centerpieces, prom corsages and boutonnieres, “no special occasion” bouquets for Terry – VFB has done a terrific job with all of it! Most recently, I asked them to do the flowers for the rehearsal dinner on the night before the Bishop of Southern Ohio was going to be ordained. So I’m a fan – not only of their work, but also of their entrepreneurial spirit. One can hardly blame them for advertising so aggressively. Mother’s Day ranks as the second largest “single-day” holiday for florists, falling just behind Valentine’s Day, and it generates a significant portion of many florists’ annual revenue.

But let’s be honest, Mother’s Day is complicated for many. It isn’t a mimosas-and-brunch-kind-of-day for everyone. Here are some reasons:

– Some people don’t have moms.
– Some people don’t have moms – anymore.

And, not even everyone who does have a mom is celebrating.
– Some are estranged.
– Some may be incarcerated & are suffering shame.
– Some may be abandoned.

And then regarding be-ing a mom, some struggle.
– Some struggle hard & long & get success but haven’t gotten there yet.
– Some struggle hard & long & never get their dream.
– Some moms are single moms bringing a new list of complications.

Whether it is due to being widowed, being unwed, being abandoned, they may have no one to head up the celebration of them. They may have mourning attached to their celebration.

That’s a lot of emotion that could potentially be wrapped up in the biggest phone call day of the year.

If you’re excited for Mother’s Day and the day is flowers and cards for you, that’s wonderful. I’m happy for you. And if Mother’s Day is complicated for you, and if you need to take a moment to cry, or hurt, or struggle to forgive, or establish boundaries, those feelings matter too. Sometimes Mother’s Day is complicated. And although I am not a mother, I’ve known enough of them to know that motherhood can be complicated, too.

Now about floral arrangements and franks . . . .

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Trinity will have a new building partner starting next month. Toledo Streets Newspaper (TSN) will occupy the former Next to New space located in the lower level of the church. TSN launched in 2009 as part of 1Matters.org. After five years as a branch of 1Matters, TSN grew to become its own organization. They are part of a global street paper movement of over 110 papers in 35 countries, all with the same goal – giving their communities a program to lift individuals out of poverty through work.

The way their program works is simple: each self-employed vendor starts with 10 free newspapers. Papers are sold with a suggested donation of $1.00. After the first 10 free papers, additional copies are available to vendors at $0.25 each. The vendors keep all profits.

Before this latest development, Trinity already had a solid, positive relationship with TSN. Our volunteers provide a TSN vendor lunch each month, and a generous portion of this year’s Easter offering was designated for support of TSN’s mission.

Trinity is in the process of clearing out the former Next to New space and has been able to donate some of the store fixtures to other area non-profits. However, there’s still much to do. If you’d like to help get the space ready, come on Saturday, May 11, between 10:00 am – 12:00 noon. That day we’ll also be weeding the beds on the Plaza and sprucing up the N. St. Clair side of the church. TSN will use their new space for offices and vendor meetings. They will have their own entrance on N. St. Clair Street. When Trinity delivers lunch each month, the travel distance will be much shorter!

What a blessing it is to be able to welcome an organization that makes such a huge difference in Toledo! And what a terrific thing it will be to have a significant portion of Trinity’s unused space occupied by a group whose mission aligns with the church’s mission! This kind of ongoing partnership is exactly what a progressive, downtown parish should be forming. Welcome, Toledo Streets Newspaper! We look forward to collaborating for a long time to come.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Many years ago, I attended a meeting of one of the committees of the parish I was serving. Clergy attend a LOT of committee meetings – in the parishes they serve, in the dioceses where they’re canonically resident, and in the communities where their churches are located. I have no idea how many such meetings I’ve gone to, but the number is well into triple digits and may have crossed the one thousand mark. I never thought to count them.

The particular committee whose meeting I attended many years ago was planning a special event – a joyous celebration that would involve both parishioners and people from the surrounding neighborhood. As we talked about the different activities that would be part of the event, excitement started to grow. Finally one of the committee members said, “It’s going to be an extravaganzia!” – not an extravaganza, but an extra-va-gan-zia! I’m not sure why the addition of a single letter – the letter “i” – made the event sound like it was going to be so much more fun, but it certainly did.

This coming Sunday, the big event (other than the celebration of the Holy Eucharist which is always a big event) will be Plazapalooza. Plazapalooza will be an extra-va-gan-zia! (I hope you are smiling at this silliness.) What’s going to happen?

Here’s an overview:
Trinity’s always popular coffee hour will move to My Brother’s Place on the second floor of the Parish House and will be enhanced with special food provided by the Wardens and Vestry. Heather Meyer, Trinity’s Director of Operations, will provide a brief history of the Plaza which she will illustrate with some amazing photos from the parish archives. Finance Committee member Dennis Degnan will “do the numbers” – laying out the cost of this critically important project and how it’s been paid for. And then Bruce & Deacon Meribah Mansfield will invite us out onto the Plaza itself where four “stations” will be set up. We’ll learn what it means to be a Sacred Grounds congregation, and they’ll share aspects of a vision for the terrific restored space and seek input and ideas from everyone present. What fun it will be!

So, plan to come to Plazapalooza – this Sunday’s extravaganzia. After days of chilly and damp weather, Sunday is supposed to be warm with a predicted high of 83 degrees! The three “celebration” maples planted earlier this spring have started leafing out. There’ll be food, fellowship, and Plaza possibilities. Who knows? It may even turn into a Plazapaloo-zia!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

I’ve got my Interim Rector hat on this week so I can promote the recent request of the Search Committee.

Last week, the Committee sent an email to everyone who is on the Trinity Communications list about the “Silent Listening Session” being held this Sunday, April 21. A “Silent Listening Session” is a novel idea in my experience as an interim – one that has a great deal to commend it. Let me explain.

The last two listening sessions were interactive. Lively conversations went on in small groups as participants responded to prompts and questions from facilitators.

Some people respond well to an information gathering approach that’s verbal in nature. I am not one of those people. I like to have time to think about what I’m going to say before I say it. And you know what? That’s a handicap in group settings. By the time I’ve formulated a response, the conversation has moved on without my input.

If you’ve had a similar experience, this Sunday’s “Silent Listening Session” is for you. You have the questions in advance. You will have had over a week to think about how you want to respond to them in writing. No one will interrupt your prayerful, thoughtful reflections. Conversations will not have gone on without your contribution.

Even if you prefer the give-and-take approach of the last two listening sessions, the way the Search Committee is gathering information this time still works for you. Your written answers will be every bit as valued and respected as if you’d said them out loud. And if you still want to give your answers verbally to a Search Committee member, just write to the Committee at trinity@trinitytoledo.org letting them know days and times that you are available to talk (and a phone number at which you can be reached.) On the off chance you aren’t going to be in church this Sunday, you can use the same email address to send in your responses. So you don’t have to hunt for them among your unread emails, here are the questions:

1. Trinity is a radically welcoming community of faith.
a) How specifically does Trinity do this well?
b) How can Trinity improve our welcoming?

2. Trinity strives for justice and peace among all people, and strives to respect the dignity of every human being.
a) What 3 qualities in a Rector do you think will be the best to represent this vision?
b) How will these qualities in a Rector represent this vision?

3. Trinity stands with those in need.
a) Whom do you see us serving?

4. Trinity is growing a community of learners and disciples.
a) In what ways or areas can we continue to grow this community?

5. How can Trinity improve overall?

Right after Sunday’s 10:00 am service you’ll have the chance to respond using the pens and paper provided by the Search Committee. Or you can write your answers at home, put them in an envelope, and hand them to a Search Committee member after church. (That’s how I’d do it.)

How you respond is not important; that you respond is! I hope you will.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Peter Higgs’ obituary was in The New York Times on Wednesday. In 1964, Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle that would explain how other particles acquire mass. That’s as far as I’m going to go in trying to explain his contribution to what’s known as the Standard Model – a model that captures all human knowledge acquired to date about elementary particles and the forces by which they shaped the universe. My paltry understanding of physics is limited to the long-running (and now syndicated) sitcom, “The Big Bang Theory.”

Dr. Higgs died at the age of 94, sixty years after he suggested the existence of the boson that now bears his name. The Higgs boson is known popularly by another name – “The God Particle.” This name was coined by the media, not because Peter Higgs was particularly religious. The story goes that the name was derived from the title of a book written by the Nobel-prize winning physicist, Leon Lederman. Lederman was frustrated by how hard it was to detect the Higgs boson, so he proposed that the title of the book he had written be “The Goddamn Particle.” The publishers – as publishers will do – changed this to “The God Particle,” and a connection with religion was drawn, one which bothers physicists to this day (and certainly bothered Peter Higgs.)

The announcement of the detection of the Higgs boson was made at the European particle physics laboratory CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland on July 4, 2012. It took until March the following year to confirm that the detected particle was indeed the Higgs boson. Peter Higgs and another scientist, François Englert, were subsequently awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics, for their Higgs field theory.

The news of Higgs’ death in Edinburgh came during the same week that people across North America observed a total eclipse of the sun. Traffic backed up for miles on interstate highways; Chambers of Commerce calculated the economic impact of visitors to places like Findlay, Tiffin, and Toledo; and businesses, museums, and churches all planned special events. Our “Totality at Trinity” event on the restored Plaza was well-attended, and it was a special gift to welcome guests from St. James Episcopal Church in Grosse Ile, Michigan. (Now there’s a faith community that raises the church potluck to a whole new level!)

As I read articles about the eclipse afterward and scrolled through Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok, the overwhelming reactions people shared were of awe and wonder – emotions usually associated with religious/spiritual experiences.

We live in an amazing universe, and we have – at least some of us have – the ability to conceive of subatomic particles and forces that help us understand the cosmos. When was the last time you experienced awe and wonder? Maybe it was this past week during the eclipse. Maybe it was when a child or grandchild was born. Maybe, just maybe, it was in church.

A week like this leads me to give thanks for the extraordinary complexity of the created order and how the glory of God is manifested in it. The opening verses of Psalm 19 come to mind:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows his handiwork.

2 One day tells its tale to another, *
and one night imparts knowledge to another.

3 Although they have no words or language, *
and their voices are not heard,

4 Their sound has gone out into all lands, *
and their message to the ends of the world.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! We’re still in the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season that began on Easter Day and continues through the Day of Pentecost. This is the most joyous and celebrative season of the Christian Year! Our celebration continues this coming Sunday with four baptisms at the 10:00 am service.

St. Paul connected baptism to Easter in his letter to the Christians in Rome, “When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus.” As we do at every service of Holy Baptism, we’ll renew our own baptismal covenant and be reminded that, through baptism, we are raised to new life with Christ.

Another metaphor for baptism is re-birth. The prayer the priest uses to bless the water at a baptism service says that through water “we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.” In Orthodox churches, the baptismal font is often referred to as “the Divine Womb,” since, in the font, we receive the second birth as child of God.

These female metaphors of womb and birth, borrowed from our Orthodox siblings, are a helpful counterbalance to the Western Church’s theology and symbolism which are often dominated by male metaphors.

The fact is the Good News of Easter came to women first. The Gospel accounts may differ in the details, but they agree that God chose a small group of women to share the greatest news of all time. And it was the women who told Jesus’ male disciples, “He is Risen!” Luke’s Gospel captures how the disciples responded, “they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Not a very good look!

In the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday we meet the apostle we know as Doubting Thomas, but Thomas was not the only one who had trouble believing. Jesus’ words to Thomas could well have been addressed to the others: ““Have you believed because you have seen me?”

Having spoken directly to the apostles, Jesus then turned his attention to us. He said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” May his blessing be on those who are being baptized this Sunday and on all of us who believe without seeing.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This letter will arrive in your inbox early on Good Friday morning. Trinity is offering two ways to observe this most solemn of days:

• The Liturgy of Good Friday at 12:00 noon
• Stations of the Cross at 7:00 pm (this service will be livestreamed)

Easter is still three days away. So it seems premature to bring the Alleluias out of mothballs where they’ve been during Lent. What to write is a conundrum but let me give it a shot.

Years ago, Tony Campolo preached a sermon that has since become famous. The sermon, which later became the title of one of his books, was “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Comin’”. For those of you who have never heard of Tony Campolo, he’s a sociologist and a Baptist pastor who has been one of the most influential leaders of the evangelical left. He’s been a huge proponent of progressive thought and reform.

Dr. Campolo’s sermon is really a sermon about a sermon. He tells the story of a “preach off” that occurred in the church he attended. A “preach off “ is when several preachers get together and try to top each other’s preaching. Of course, it’s never said that it’s a competition. It’s all for the glory of God! But every preacher knows it’s game on!

According to the story, Tony Campolo preached first and, he says modestly, preached well. He sat down after his sermon and said to the old preacher sitting next to him, “You’re turn. See if you can beat that.” The old man looked at Tony and said, “I’m going to do you in.” And that’s just what he did.

He started with the two phrases “It was Friday . . . but Sunday’s comin’” and built his sermon from there.

Friday. . . Jesus was dead on the cross, but that’s because it was Friday. Sunday’s comin’

Friday. . . people are sayin,’ “as things have been, so they shall be. You can’t change things in this world. But I’m here to give you the Good News. It’s only Friday. . . Sunday’s comin’”

It’s Friday, and they’re saying that a bunch of old people sittin’ in church can’t change the world. That’s because it’s Friday. . . Sunday’s comin’”

People of Trinity, these days it can feel like we are living in more and more of a Good Friday world. Innocents are suffering unspeakable horrors because of conflicts around the world. Bridges – both real and metaphorical – are collapsing. And, if the pundits are right, we are heading into one of the most contentious and bitter election seasons in recent memory.

But Sunday’s comin.’

For every Good Friday, God’s answer always is, “Sunday’s comin’!”

Please join us when Sunday arrives – Easter Day at 10:00 am in person or on our livestream.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

In her 2009 book, The Case for God, Karen Armstrong argued that religion is a practical discipline that teaches us to discover new capacities of the mind and heart. What new capacities of the mind and heart might we cultivate during the holiest week of the Christian Year?

Holy Week begins this Sunday, Palm Sunday. Most of the scriptural “airtime” on Palm Sunday is given over to the stories of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent passion, suffering and death. Because of this, we might miss the practical discipline St. Paul offers us. In his letter to converts in Philippi in what is now Asia Minor, Paul quotes a hymn that was, evidently, already well-known to Christian communities. Armstrong writes, “. . . from this very early date (c. 54-57) Christians saw Jesus’ life as a kenosis, a humble ‘self-emptying.’”

Here’s what Paul wrote to the Philippians – in contemporary English: “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death – and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.”

This coming Sunday morning, bread will be broken, and wine poured out in remembrance of the one who emptied himself for our sake. He did not seek to save his own life but lost it and is alive for evermore. If we can begin to imitate Jesus’ kenosis – his self-emptying – in the details of our own lives, our hearts will open in response to Christ’s great love for us. They will open to the pain and suffering we see all around us. They will open to those who are on the margins of society. And they will even open to our enemies and those who wish us harm.

Imitating Christ is not without cost, but Jesus tells us that “those who lose their lives for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, will find them.”

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

The three traditional practices for Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I want to talk about the first of the three – prayer.

Each Sunday, the person leading the Prayers of the People references those on “the Trinity prayer list.” I thought recently, “I wonder where that prayer list is and who keeps it?” Yes, I’m in my sixth month as your interim, but I’m still discovering things about the way Trinity works. (Remember this when your new rector arrives – it will take time for them to learn about the parish’s people and practices. There will be a learning curve!)

I decided to find out more about the parish prayer list. So I conducted an investigation. Guess what? We don’t have one. The reference in the Prayers of the People is a vestige of another time in Trinity’s life. This discovery was enough motivation for me to address this absence and the need for a simple way for parishioners to request prayer.

People preparing for confirmation or reception in the Episcopal Church often are taught the acronym, ACTIP, as a way of remembering the different kinds of prayer. Here’s what each letter stands for: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Intercession, and Petition. Our Prayers of the People are prayers of intercession – we pray for the church, for our nation and those in authority around the world, for those who suffer in body, mind or spirit, and for those who have died.

One of the bishops in whose diocese I served was adamant that people should stand for the Prayers of the People. He believed that lay people were exercising the priesthood of all believers as they prayed on behalf of others. So, they should stand just as priests stand to celebrate Holy Communion. I am less concerned about people’s postures and more about whether they have what they need to perform this very important ministry. Some adjustments are in order.

Here are the adjustments I’m suggesting we make:

• We re-establish a parish prayer list. We’ll make it easy to request prayers for people or situations through our website: www.trinitytoledo.org or by emailing or calling the parish office. Email is trinity@trinitytoledo.org. Phone is (419) 243-1231.
• When a request comes in, it will remain on the prayer list for four weeks before it’ll be taken off. Requests can always be renewed or submitted again. However, having an “expiration date” will prevent the list from overflowing with prayer requests that are out of date.
• When a request is received, the requester will be asked whether they want it to appear on the public prayer list, which will be read out loud at Sunday services, or be added to a private list. In order for a request to be included in the public prayer list on Sunday, please contact the church office no later than the end of the day on Wednesday. And if we’re praying publicly for someone you know, be sure you’ve gotten their permission to be named aloud.
• If the request is designated to remain private or discrete, the parish clergy and a small prayer team will offer prayer. The request will not go public.
• A small prayer team has already agreed to say prayers of intercession. The team members will pray on their own for now. This is not a closed group. You may ask to join the prayer team by emailing me at stephen@trinitytoledo.org.

The goal is two-fold – to make it easier for people to make prayer requests and to involve more parishioners in the practice of praying for others.

Let me end with a portion of a prayer written by the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor, author, and public theologian. Her online publication, newsletter, and community is called “The Corners.” It’s a reminder to me that nothing is out of bounds when it comes to praying for others:

“Bless the things we mistakenly think are already dead. Bless that which we have already begun to carry out of town to bury. Bless our rocky marriages and our college age kids who smoke too much pot. Bless the person at work who we love to hate. Bless the young adult who wonders if they are too young to really be an alcoholic, and bless the 6o year old woman who’s had too much work done. Bless the public school lunch ladies and the guy who stole my kid’s bike. Bless the chronically sick. Bless the one who has no one. Bless what we call insignificant and which you call magnificent. Bless it all and love what only you can love: the ugly, and abandoned and unsanitary in the wash of humanity upon which you have nothing but a gleaming compassion when we have none.”

And let us all say, Amen!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Since Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has so much going on, I’m not sure when he has time to sleep.

Professor Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Most people know him from the popular program, “Finding Your Roots,” which has been broadcast on PBS since 2012. In each episode, celebrities learn about their ancestral histories, discovered by a combination of paper trails, DNA analysis, and forensic genealogy.

“Finding Your Roots” is only one of Dr. Gates’ projects. He’s been the executive producer, host, and writer of “The Black Church,” in which he traces the 400-year history of how Black people have worshiped in America.

His most recent offering is, “Gospel,” a program that honors the legacy of Gospel music in America. Trinity’s staff is tired of hearing me tell them to watch the four-part series, so I’m expanding my evangelistic efforts to you – the readers of Trinity Topics. My message is simple: Spend the four hours it will take you to watch all four episodes. You’ll be glad you did. It’s streaming on PBS Passport, or you can find it here: https://www.pbs.org/show/gospel/.

As a lifelong Episcopalian, I didn’t grow up with Gospel music in church. We sang hymns from the Episcopal Church’s hymnals and anthems from the English Choral Tradition. This genre of music is beautiful, and I will love it to the end of my life. For years, this was the only music one heard in the Episcopal Church. “The Republican party at prayer” is the way Americans used to snicker at the Episcopal Church, the snobby, worldly US branch of the Anglican communion. But the church, like this country, has changed. It’s becoming multi-cultural – thank goodness! – more open and inclusive. And that includes the music we sing.

My introduction to Gospel music happened when I served my first interim assignment at St. Andrew’s Church in Cincinnati. The Director of Music there was Mrs. Irma Tillery, a force of nature and one of the editors of our church’s African American Hymnal, Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Although Trinity doesn’t have these hymnals in pew racks, Chelsie and Grace draw music from the book all the time – songs like “Precious Lord, take my hand,” and “I come to the garden alone.” But Mrs. Tillery took things a step further. She designated the first Sunday of every month as Gospel Sunday. On Gospel Sunday, Mrs. Tillery turned over the keyboard to Jerome, picked up her tambourine (although she was 80, she still played a mean tambourine), and sang in the Gospel Choir. Like the choir here at Trinity, the Gospel Choir at St. Andrew’s regularly brought down the house.

I’ve learned a lot about the origins of Gospel music from watching Dr. Gates’ series – about the emergence of Gospel music in Chicago and then, Detroit – and about the key figures in its development: Thomas A Dorsey, Jr., Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Aretha Franklin, the Winans, Andre Crouch and many others; and about its power to comfort, inspire, and empower.

If you’re looking for a different way to observe Lent, “Gospel” might be just the thing.

And again, when does Henry Louis Gates sleep? All these PBS programs and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at Harvard. Wow! I look forward to the next project he has in the pipeline.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Spring training began this past week as baseball teams reported to Florida – the Grapefruit League – or Arizona – the Cactus League. Pitchers and catchers always show up first. Then the position players arrive, some of them grizzled veterans, some of them rookies hoping to be in the lineup come Opening Day.

I’ve loved baseball since I was a boy. My grandfather Applegate was a huge baseball fan. He spent summers living with us for several years, and he parked himself in front of the TV set in the living room so he could see and hear the games. Although he wasn’t totally blind or deaf, his eyesight and hearing had suffered considerable decline in his old age. One didn’t need to be in the living room to know what was going on with the Yankees. Mel Allen, Red Barber, and Phil Rizzuto’s voices on WPIX could be heard throughout the house.

These days, I rely on the MLB app on my phone, or watch one of the games on MLB.TV to get my baseball fix. A recent email reminded me that I needed to update my credit card so my subscription will renew without interruption.

Here’s a story about spring training and Lent that’s circulated for a long time: Many years ago, a popular Roman Catholic priest was invited to celebrate Mass for a men’s club as they were entering the season of Lent. Like most people, the men thought of the 40-day period as just a time for increased prayer and fasting. The priest changed the thinking of the men that evening as he presented a talk on “Lent, a time of spring training for people of faith.”

“Lent is like spring training in baseball,” the priest said. “We get out of spring training what we put into it. We need to do this yearly to be on God’s team.”

You may not be a baseball fan, or even pay any attention to the sport, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how much eye-hand coordination it takes to hit a sphere that’s only 9-9.25” in circumference traveling at you from 60’ 6” away at 100 mph.

Instead of seeing Lent as a dreary season when we give up things we like for reasons we don’t understand, I’d like to offer another view of Lent – a view from our National Pastime. Lent is the time to ensure that our spiritual life is in top-notch coordination. But in the case of our spiritual lives, it’s not eye-hand coordination; it’s mind, heart and hand coordination.

In place of taking batting practice and fielding ground balls as players do during baseball’s spring training, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the essentials of spiritual spring training. They result in the coordination of mind, heart and hand.

Opening Day will be here before you know it, and so will Easter. Will you be ready when the umpire says, “Play ball”?

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Late last Saturday afternoon, I drove from Columbus to Toledo following the Ordination & Consecration of the 10th Bishop of Southern Ohio. After two very full days – one of them converting the Short North Ballroom of the Greater Columbus Convention Center into a church, the other serving as the Minister of Ceremonies for the service – I was grateful for time alone in the car. If I answered one question during the time I was in Columbus, I answered a hundred. So, I thoroughly enjoyed what the old hymn calls, “blessed quietness, holy quietness.” No radio, no CDs, no Spotify.

When I arrived at my office early the next morning, I found my desk covered with papers, files, books, and empty coffee cups. What a mess! I don’t claim to be the neatest person when it comes to my office, but I’d clearly let things get out of control in the days before the consecration. I’m still clearing the clutter as a write this – still digging out of the pile.

Albert Einstein famously pointed out that “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” Thomas Edison, who had a famously messy desk, must have agreed. And Steve Jobs. While our cluttered desks may not prove we are brilliant, they do show that we might be geniuses. . . or that the desks need some attention!!

Lent is the season of the church year to clear off our desks, to do some holy housekeeping – some spring cleaning – to open the windows of our souls enough for the strong breeze of God’s Holy Spirit to clear out the clutter that’s piled up over the winter. Our resentments, our uncharitable thoughts about others, and our sins all keep piling up on the flat surfaces of our lives.

Repentance is the word traditionally used to describe what Christians need to do to clear off those surfaces – to create enough space for there to be room for God. The famous preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor, writes that repentance “calls individuals to take responsibility for what is wrong with the world – beginning with what is wrong with them – and to join with other people who are dedicated to turning things around.”

What does the top of your spiritual “desk” look like? Take a few moments now to see the clutter that is crowding God out, ask God’s help to clear some space, and then join with others who are dedicated to turning things around. The invitation to a Holy Lent awaits your RSVP.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

One of the images for the season of Lent is wilderness. It’s easy to see why. According to the Gospels, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness after his baptism by John in the Jordan River. The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. Although we, who live in North America, often think of wilderness areas as being heavily forested, the wildernesses of the Middle East are deserts – dry, desolate places with little to sustain life.

Many years ago, a priest friend gave me a book of sermons by H.A. Williams entitled The True Wilderness. The title comes from one of the sermons – the one Williams preached on Ash Wednesday in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. Here’s how he began the sermon: “It is a pity that we think of Lent as a time to make ourselves uncomfortable in some fiddling but irritating way. And it’s more than a pity, it’s a tragic disaster, that we also think of it as a time to indulge in the secret and destructive pleasure of doing a good orthodox grovel to a pseudo-Lord, the pharisee in each of us we call God and who despises the rest of what we are.”

Ouch! I remember thinking, is this what I’ve been doing all these years I’ve been giving things up – like alcohol or chocolate – for Lent? Was I just making myself “uncomfortable in some fiddling but irritating way”?

H.A. Williams went on to say that what Lent should be about is entering the true wilderness that’s inside each of us – a wilderness that isn’t so much about our wickedness (although some people are indeed wicked) but is rather about how incapable we are of establishing communion with each other and, therefore, how alone and isolated we are.

This past Christmas Eve, USA Today published an article about how loneliness has become epidemic in the United States. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General, gives this definition of loneliness: he says loneliness occurs when the connections a person needs in life are greater than the connections they have.

If loneliness is not your wilderness, you are blessed. If the connections you have are greater than the connections you need in life, give thanks. But if loneliness is your wilderness, Lent offers forty days to reestablish communion with others and with God.

Here are ways we offer “holy communion” – ways to connect – at Trinity during Lent: the 10 o’clock Sunday service (in-person or online), the Wednesday service of Holy Eucharist at noon or the three Wednesday evening offerings: Evening Prayer at 5:30 pm., supper with others at 6:15 pm, and the class I’m teaching at 7:00 pm about St. Mark’s account of Holy Week.

Celebrity doctor Daniel Amen recommends minimizing screen time while maximizing in-person interactions to combat loneliness. He especially recommends church. “So it’s back to church,” he says. “Go back to church. Get involved. Get involved with groups. We have to go back. And really, no better place to solve [loneliness] than the church.”

The good news is that the Biblical accounts about wilderness end with stories of new beginnings, of new life, of new connections. The season of Lent ends this way, too, on Easter morning . . . . But for now, we’re just getting started.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This Sunday, February 11, promises to be a special one at Trinity. First, the Reverend Anna Sutterisch, Canon for Formation for the Diocese of Ohio, will be our guest preacher. Anna and her husband, Noah (who was recently instituted as Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Parma) are the proud parents of the adorable 15-month-old Martin. Her role on the diocesan staff includes thinking a lot about how the church – ‘big C’ institutional church and ‘little c’ faith community church – can best teach and shape Christians amidst the brokenness of the world. She asks, “How can we form communities of courage and hope, when it’s easier to just disappear into apathy and Instagram, putting trust in no one because everyone is a disappointment?” Anna loves to cook, grow and eat plants, and run!

Following the 10:00 am service, all are invited upstairs to My Brother’s Place on the second floor of the Parish House for a Mardi Gras/Shrove Sunday party. We’ll combine the best of the English tradition of Shrove Tuesday – think pancakes! – and the best of the Latin tradition of Mardi Gras (which means Fat Tuesday) and Carnival (which means Farewell to Meat) – both ways to mark the shift to the 40-day penitential season of Lent that begins on Ash Wednesday, February 14. Below are all Trinity’s offerings to help you observe an intentional and holy Lent. – from worship opportunities, to classes and gatherings, to practices you can undertake at home on your own schedule.

We say goodbye to the word, “Alleluia” this Sunday – “fasting” from the celebrations it represents in order to prepare for the great celebration of Easter on March 31 this year when we we’ll sing “Alleluia” joyfully!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Breakfast is nigh!

On February 25th at 8:30am we will be opening our doors to members of our outside community for our first soft breakfast opening. Between now and then, there is a lot to do, but nothing that we can’t get done by carrying the load together. As Stephen said in his announcement of this “reboot”, this is going to be Trinity’s signature ministry that is outward oriented.

With food as the catalyst to deeper relationships with our neighbors and friends, we will be enriching our lives in ways known and unknown. But first- we must prepare the way! This Sunday after service we will be meeting in the room known as My Brother’s Place for two reasons:

1. Inventorying what we currently have so we can build an efficient list of needs.
2. Cleaning the kitchen with a good scrub.

If we can have 22 volunteers, 11 on cleaning and 11 on inventory, this will be done quickly. Knowing how well Trinity shows up when the ask is on the line, I am confident in our ability to get this done. Please click here for our signup genius for this event, and I will look forward to seeing you Sunday with some refreshments, a smile, and all-around good time.

Never forget, by rebooting this ministry we are becoming the hands and feet of God in a tangible way within our small corner of the Kin-dom.

Grace and peace my friends.
George (he/him)

Dear Friends,

Deep in the bowels of Trinity are a number of rooms that are and have been used for different purposes: the room where AA meets every weekday at noon, the wood-paneled room complete with fireplace that was once the youth room, and the large space where Trinity’s Next-to-New resale shop was housed until the COVID pandemic changed everything.

Heather Meyer, Trinity’s Director of Operations, gave me a guided tour the afternoon of the day I met with the Vestry about serving as your Interim Rector. Since my memory of the space was blurred, I ventured back to the lower level of the church this week to remind myself.

In the Next-to-New space, Lynzi Miller, who served as manager, had posted a timeline of key events in the life of Trinity. Interspersed on the timeline were national events that provide context, for example, the assassination of President Kennedy. I’m told that one Sunday, after mining the parish archives, Lynzi hosted a coffee hour where people could view the timeline along with a photo album she’d created that contained decades of images.

In interim work, we call an event like Lynzi hosted a “heritage event.” Search Committees need to know the parish’s heritage so they can share it with candidates for rector.

What do I mean when I talk about heritage? It’s reviewing how the congregation has been shaped and formed. The congregation’s heritage, both corporate and individual, is the foundation upon which the present rests. Paying attention to heritage means encouraging and hearing all of the stories about the congregation’s past, and embracing the rich variety that makes up this particular congregation. The Annual Meeting this Sunday following the 10:00 am service will be Trinity 181st Annual Meeting. That’s a lot of heritage!

Soon the Search Committee will be scheduling “listening sessions” to hear your stories about your time at Trinity. In March a specific “heritage event” is being scheduled to help us all know about the ways Trinity has been molded.

What do you know about Trinity’s history? Whether you’ve been attending for thirty years or thirty minutes, I hope you have a hunger to learn more about our heritage as we move through this time of transition. And, if you ever want to take a field trip to the “bowels” of Trinity to see the timeline, I’d be happy to be your guide.

See you this Sunday at church and at the Annual Meeting following.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate