Welcome to My Blog

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

Dear Friends,

Trinity will be holding a couple of very important meetings after the 10:00 am service during the next two Sundays.

The first – this coming Sunday, January 21 – is the annual presentation about church finances. Margaret Baehren, the parish’s Treasurer, will lead the presentation along with other members of the Finance Committee. Together, we’ll review the financial report for 2023 – our income and expenses, and whether we ended the year in the “red” or in the “black” – and then go over the vestry-approved 2024 Budget.

Numbers aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the finances of a parish aren’t just about numbers. They’re about ministry and mission and our priorities when it comes to the work we’ve been called to do – that is, God’s work. Trinity has certainly been blessed by the generosity of our forebears, who left substantial legacies that support our excellent programs in music and the arts, allow us to experiment with new ministry initiatives, and preserve our buildings. But Trinity also receives significant support from today’s members. The stewardship of our financial resources is ultimately the responsibility of the Wardens & Vestry, but it isn’t only their responsibility. So, plan to get a cup of coffee at the end of the service and take a seat in the front of the church. You’ll gain important insight into the dollars and cents (not to mention the sense) it takes to do ministry in and from Trinity.

The second important meeting – on Sunday, January 28 – is the Annual Meeting of Trinity Episcopal Church of Toledo, Ohio (the official name of our church.) Having covered the finances of the parish the week before, we’ll turn our attention to celebrating the year just completed and elect three people to serve terms on the Vestry. The Annual Meeting of an Episcopal parish is a business meeting to be sure, but it’s also a time to look back with gratitude for all the ways the Holy Spirit has moved in and through us as well as to look ahead to the coming year. Given that Trinity is in the midst of a rector transition, your leadership will review the steps the parish will be taking to identify and call a priest as your next rector.

Some find it difficult to think of a church as a “business.” For many of us, our parish is our spiritual home, where we are renewed each week by Word and Sacrament. And we ask, why should I come to meetings that are mostly about parish administration. The answer is that administration is holy work, too.

In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul cites “administrators” as one of God’s gifts to the Christian community (1 Corinthians 12:28). The word translated administrating in 1 Corinthians is κυβέρνησις, which means “to steer a ship.” That seems like just the right image for a progressive, inclusive, creative community of faith located in downtown Toledo – one of the busiest ports on the Great Lakes! So, please steer your ship to church the next two Sundays and, then, to the meetings that will follow worship.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This coming Monday, January 15, the nation will observe the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He would have been 95 this year. He was only 39 when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. It’s difficult to think of how young he was when he died.

Many churches, including Trinity, will mark Dr. King’s birthday a day earlier – on Sunday – with prayers, readings, and music that reflect his values and ideals: among them, the principle of non-violent resistance to racist oppression and the dream of Beloved Community.

The Episcopal Church, inspired by our own Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, is guided by the long-term commitment to Becoming Beloved Community in its work toward racial reconciliation, healing and justice. Our ministries are organized around four things:

• Truth-telling: Telling the Truth about Our Churches and Race
• Proclamation: Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community
• Formation: Practicing Jesus’ Way of Healing Love
• Justice: Repairing the Breach in Society and Institutions

None of these is easy. Just take the first – Truth-telling – and think about all the ways many people, including some political leaders, try to deny the truth about Black history in America and attempt to rewrite that history by requiring teachers to give – or stay away from – certain lessons, on penalty of possibly losing their jobs. In July, The Washington Post reported that “A 2022 law [in Florida] mandates students may not be made to ‘feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress’ because they were forced to reflect on bad acts committed in the past by members of their race. And now, according to curriculum standards released last week, Florida students must learn that enslaved people ‘developed skills’ that ‘could be applied for their personal benefit.. . . ‘”

Trinity’s own recent unwelcome visit from an avowed white supremacist, who took issue with our Black Lives Matter banner, was a stark reminder of the persistence of racism in our society.

A dozen years ago, a parishioner in the parish where I was rector wanted to find a way to observe the King holiday that would involve the community. He had been part of the King Center in Atlanta in its early days, and had worked with Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow. His goal was to make the holiday more than a day off. He decided to help the local food pantry network by organizing a food drive that would gather a ton of food on Dr. King’s birthday.

Since he was a marketing guy, he called it Feed the Dream. Feed the Dream’s slogan, “One Day, One Ton,” captured the simple idea – and the slogan became the URL for the drive’s website: onedayoneton.org. The idea caught on, and has subsequently received volunteer support from the local public schools, Denison University, service clubs, the local IGA grocery store, and others.

For whatever reason, the King holiday always seems to fall on the coldest day of the year. This year, January 15 is predicted to have temperatures down in the single digits. While we are all trying to stay warm, may I suggest we find a way to make this year’s King holiday more than a day off. I plan to attend the celebration at Glenwood Lutheran Church, 2545 Monroe St., this Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm and then contribute to The Toledo NW Ohio Food Bank. I invite you to join me, or to find another way to help Dr. King’s dream of Beloved Community become a reality.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This Sunday after the 10am service we will be meeting on the second floor in the room known as My Brother’s Place about the launch of our new ministry “Breakfast at Trinity.” As quite a few of you remember, we had a weekly breakfast program before the pandemic that served members of Trinity as well as the unhoused living in and around downtown Toledo. Due to the pandemic, it went away, and we’ve spent the past year working on bringing it back. In September, Karen Keune submitted a grant to the Diocese of Ohio for $5,000 in funding, while including that we’d try and match the grant through our own funding. While we still have not heard about the grant, I can tell you we’ve received a $5,000 anonymous donation for funding Breakfast at Trinity.

To be sure, there is still a need for a Sunday morning meal downtown for those on the margins which is why we are relaunching this breakfast. But providing a meal is only meant to be a catalyst for relationship building.

Welcoming home new friends and family members who don’t know what they’ve missed is who Trinity is, and this breakfast will provide a great opportunity to expand on that. That said, there are a few logistics that we’ll be going over in more detail at this Sunday’s meeting that I will touch on here:

1. This will be a weekly ministry.
2. Breakfast will be served café style from 8:45-9:15am.
3. We will be asking for six (6) volunteers every week to help make this happen.

We’re not simply relaunching the breakfast program; we are creating a new ministry that honors the spirit of what was in order to make way for what can be. There will be some carryover from the previous iteration of our community breakfast, however. For example, it’ll still be an incredibly fun time where we meet new friends and forge deep bonds. Also, our Director of Music and the Arts, Chelsie Cree, has a few fun things up her sleeves that are going to make this unlike any other breakfast you may have been to. Here are some save the dates to put on your calendars now. We’ll go over them again Sunday:

1. Sign-up Genius going live on 2/1
2. Deep clean of the kitchen on 2/4 after service
3. Volunteer training on 2/18 after service
4. Soft launch on 2/25

I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday after church!

Grace and peace.
George M. Benson (he/him)
Director of Community Engagement

Dear Friends,

Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? You know the ones I’m talking about – the ones about getting more exercise, spending less time on social media, or finally getting organized. You haven’t? Me neither. It’s not because I have nothing to work on (the list is long!) It’s because I would be setting myself up to fail at keeping any of my resolutions past Groundhog Day.

The practice of making New Year’s resolutions is an ancient one. Archeologists believe that the first recorded people to make them were the Babylonians some 4,000 years ago. For them, the New Year began in March when crops were planted. Kings were crowned during the festival, or subjects renewed their loyalty to the reigning king. Commitments were made to pay any debts owed to the gods, and promises were made to returned anything that had been borrowed. Keeping promises meant that the gods would bestow favor on you. Failing to keep promises. . . well, that was no something one dared do in the ancient world where the gods could be capricious and the consequences dire.

The early Christians picked up on the religious aspect of making resolutions, and the first day of the year became a time when one thought about past mistakes and committed to doing better in the future. John Wesley, the Anglican priest (and co-founder of the Methodist Church) pioneered what we now know as “watch night” services. He intended the services to be an alternative to the boisterous celebrations. It was, he thought, much better to be singing hymns and reading scripture than to have people partake of the alcohol-soaked parties common at the time (and, of course, afterwards.)

Resolution-making these days is mostly a secular thing, with people making promises to themselves rather than to a deity. And what we typically resolve involves some kind of self-improvement. If we are honest, it’s hard for most of us to change patterns and habits even when we want to.

Here’s my alternative proposal – and quelle surprise, it is a throwback to the time when people’s resolutions were religious in nature:

Set a pattern of when you will attend church in person and follow it. (Note that I didn’t say, attend church more often – although I could get on board with that. No, what I am saying is set a pattern and stick with it.

When I was a first-year seminarian my advisor, Dick Norris, gathered his new advisees and told us to create a matrix of when we would attend services in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. If I remember correctly, there were 19 services each week while school was in session (it was seminary after all, where clergy are formed for their lives of prayer.) Dr. Norris said, pick the ones you will attend and then go to those services whether you feel like it or not. Don’t go to the services that aren’t on your matrix even if you feel like it. Sounds strange, I suspect.

His point was our prayer lives should not be dependent on our feelings – that we ought to pray because God wants to be in relationship with us no matter what’s going on with us or how we are feeling – good days and bad days, happy times and sad times, times when we weren’t “feeling it” and times when we were. The point wasn’t our feelings. The point was responding to God’s deep desire to connect with us.

You may not be preparing for ordination, but Dick Norris’ counsel still pertains. At Trinity, we don’t have 19 services a week, we have (mostly) 8 each month. Pick some and show up.

How many should I pick, you ask? To give you a baseline, the Pew Research Center reports that 62% of Christians attend church once or twice a month. You know your current pattern. Maybe you want to continue it in 2024. If you attend Trinity once a month – to put it in percentages – if you attend one service a month, you are here for 12.5% of the services offered. No matter how many services you commit to attending in a month, stick with it.

By the way, what I’ve been talking about is not some kind of self-improvement program. The resolution is about you, to be sure, but it’s about your relationship with God through Jesus Christ and your relationship with your fellow members here at Trinity.

A lot will happen at Trinity in the next twelve months, and you get to decide how much you want to be part of it – anywhere from 0% to 100%. Have fun thinking and praying about it. Whatever you decide, Happy New Year!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

In the early 1980’s. I served on the staff of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, NY. Priests who serve at cathedrals are called Canons, so I was known as Canon Applegate. (And yes, there were a lot of jokes made about my being a “big gun.”)

The cathedral in Buffalo had a long-standing tradition of musical excellence based on the English model of having a choir of men and boys and a separate girls choir. Both choirs toured regularly in England and the United States. In return, choirs on tour frequently made a stop at the cathedral.

One Advent, St. Paul’s hosted the famous choir of King’s College, Cambridge, the choir known for the annual broadcast of the Service of Nine Lessons & Carols. Needless to say, the event drew a huge crowd; the church was packed.

Toward the end of their program, the choristers and gentlemen of the choir sang seasonal favorites – many of them carols well-known to aficionados of the English choral tradition. As many times as I had listened to recordings or tuned in to the Service of Lessons and Carols on Christmas Day, nothing prepared me for hearing the choir sing live in a beautiful space with wonderful acoustics.

The last piece Kings College choir sang was “O Little Town of Bethlehem” to the English tune Forest Green rather than the tune that’s more familiar to Americans, St. Louis. The words to the hymn were written by Phillips Brooks, who served as rector of another Trinity Episcopal Church – this one in Boston. The last stanza of the hymn is a prayer, and it is my prayer for all of us here at Trinity Toledo as we celebrate Christmas 2023:

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

Merry Christmas on behalf of the Wardens & Vestry and Staff of Trinity!

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Today, the Alcoholic Anonymous group that meets at Trinity celebrates its thirty-second anniversary of gathering here. This church, like many other churches, has opened its doors to A.A., recognizing that the way A.A. helps alcoholics recover – built on the simple idea of one alcoholic sharing with another – has made it possible for thousands of people to gain and maintain sobriety.

The A.A. group at Trinity meets Monday – Friday at noon. Like every other A.A. group, the one that meets here welcomes anyone who has a desire to stop drinking, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, income or profession. Participation is free.

A.A.’s program begins with the first step: “We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable” and continues through the twelfth step – the Twelve Steps, as they are known. Combined with the Twelve Traditions, they provide a path to personal recovery and the basis for the organization of the group.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob are recognized as A.A.’s founders. Both had initially been members of the Oxford Group, a non-denominational movement modeled after first-century Christianity. The tenets and practices of an American Oxford Group greatly influenced the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

An Episcopal priest also had a significant role in A.A.’s founding. Sam Shoemaker was rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City which was the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group. Bill W. attended Oxford Group meetings there and became close friends with Shoemaker. Shoemaker helped start other Oxford Group chapters including one in Akron, Ohio, where Dr. Bob, a surgeon, became involved. Bill W. met Dr. Bob during a business trip to Akron. He worked with Dr. Bob, who had been unable to stay sober, for 30 days – one alcoholic helping another – the model that has continued throughout the organization’s history. Dr. Bob drank his last drink on June 10, 1935, marked by A.A. as the date of its founding.

How significant was Shoemaker in A.A.’s founding? Bill W. once wrote that “Sam Shoemaker was one of A.A.’s indispensables. Had it not been for his ministry to us in our early time, our Fellowship would not be in existence today.” In another place, he wrote: “The early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else.”

For people who have a problem with alcohol, A.A. has a simple program that works. How blessed Trinity is to have them as one of our building partners! Happy 32nd anniversary.

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Since 2003, the Applegates have lived in Granville, Ohio – a quaint college town (Denison University) that is a New England village transplanted in Central Ohio in 1805. Granville has maintained its ties to the past, preserving a historic district that boasts over 100 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. It shares with Lake Woebegon the idea that it is a town “that time forgot and decades cannot improve.”

Each year, the Chamber of Commerce sponsors a Christmas Candlelight Walk on the first Saturday in December featuring musical performances of various kinds, businesses sponsoring open houses, horse drawn carriage rides, and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

In preparation for the event, fresh cut fir trees are set up along Broadway. Children from the elementary school make ornaments and walk to the village center to decorate the trees with them – each class accepting responsibility for a tree. My wife, Terry, is in her 20th year teaching first grade in the school, and annually leads her students to take part in the tradition. This year, for the first time anyone can remember, one of the trees went missing. It was the tree her class had decorated. As the local newspaper asked, “Who in the name of Whoville would do such a thing?” Didn’t they know that little children had made the decorations?

The mystery was solved quickly when Granville police officers found the tree in the Denison University dorm of two young men, who, as the police chief put it, “imbibed a little too much and made a silly mistake while in a really good mood.” The tree was returned, the students apologized, and the matter resolved. Such is life in a quaint college town.

Unlike the Grinch, the students were not trying to stop Christmas from coming. Nor did their hearts need to grow several sizes. But we all know people whose hearts need to grow, and we certainly know from reading other news stories that Christmas won’t come this year for many people in war torn places around the world – certainly not the bucolic, pastoral Christmas so often bathed in nostalgic longing for an idyllic holiday.

As we move through the season of Advent – this season of preparation – what are we preparing for? I certainly hope it’s more than Currier & Ives – sleigh bells and tinsel – holly and ivy. I hope we are preparing for the coming of God’s light and love once again in Jesus – light that shines in the darkness and love that always wins.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

One year ago today my family and I were welcomed with open arms into Trinity Episcopal Church. December 1st was my first day on staff, and being here has felt like the culmination of a lifetime of struggle and hard work. Having gone from full time ministry to the private sector and back, I have worked a lot of terrible jobs, and it didn’t take long before I had a bad day. When people asked how at Trinity has been for me for most of this year, I’d respond with, “this is the most consecutive good days I’ve ever had,” and that still remains true. I didn’t really have a horrible day until July 11th when Priest Lisa announced to the staff that she was leaving.

To share some of my history, this was the fourth time in my professional ministry career a lead pastor/priest resigned within/just after a year into my coming onboard. Of those four churches, two have since then closed their doors.

But Trinity is not like other churches, and I think it is easy for us to forget that at times. When the extraordinary becomes the status quo, it can be hard to see how truly special you all are. I had my “come to Jesus” moment and became a Christian when I was 18 years old. Since then I had joined many other churches, looking and longing for a denominational home. I thought I had found it a few times, but when we joined Trinity it was clear God was saving the answer to my search for the Episcopal Church. It has been such an honor to become an Episcopalian, to have our son baptized here, to be a part of this wonderful family, and to be welcomed home by you all.

While this year hasn’t turned out as expected, I would like to share some incredible numbers with everyone. So far in 2023 we have fed over 800 people through our Food for Thought community partnership, almost 200 people have received NARCAN training since we have partnered with the Health Department’s safe syringe exchange program, and of those trained 17 of them have reversed an overdose with NARCAN, saving lives. We have seen our community grow and change in so many ways. I am honored and excited to see what God has in store for 2024.

Grace and peace.

George Benson (he/him)

Dear Friends,

Today is “Leftovers Day,” when we eat turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup, and – an old friend’s favorite: turkey hash.

A quick Google search offers “9 Easy Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipes,” or the “25 Best Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes,” or, for the desperate, “31 Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes to Clear Your Fridge With” (pardon the grammar!). Creative cooks aren’t lacking for ideas! And then there’s the ever-helpful answer to the question: How long are Thanksgiving leftovers safe to eat? (The answer – three or four days in the refrigerator, so Monday at the latest.)

Needless to say, too much turkey can get tiresome. The children’s poet Jack Prelutsky (jackprelutsky.com) captures the feeling perfectly in his poem “Leftovers”:

Thanksgiving has been over
for at least a week or two,
but we’re all still eating turkey,
turkey salad, turkey stew,

turkey puffs and turkey pudding,
turkey patties, turkey pies,
turkey bisque and turkey burgers,
turkey fritters, turkey fries.

For lunch, our mother made us
turkey slices on a stick,
there’ll be turkey tarts for supper,
all this turkey makes me sick.

For tomorrow she’s preparing
turkey dumplings stuffed with peas,
oh I never thought I’d say this —
“Mother! No more turkey… PLEASE!”

Of course, it’s only those who have more than enough to eat who have the privilege of complaining about too many leftovers. For many – especially in those places where people are at war with one another – food and water are scarce.

The Holy Scriptures have many stories about crop failures, droughts, cities starving under siege, and widespread famine. Things have been hard for many for a long time.

But the Bible also has stories of abundance. Perhaps the most famous of them is the story of Jesus’ feeding 5,000 men – and, Matthew writes in his Gospel, “women and children besides,” so maybe 15,000 people were fed?

Do you remember that, at the end of the meal, there were leftovers. Matthew says, “Everybody ate and was satisfied, and they picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces.”

I’ve long been intrigued, not only by how the story ends, but by how it begins. Twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered at the end of the meal, because someone shared “five loaves of bread and two fish.”

As you enjoy that turkey sandwich or that piece of leftover pie, find some way to share the abundance with which you’ve been blessed. If you want to help locally, consider the Toledo Food Bank. If you are looking for an Episcopal Church response to need throughout the world, there’s Episcopal Relief & Development. And the United Thank Offering has a $100,000 challenge grant, matching donations that will go to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

Giving Tuesday is just four days away. You should have eaten all your Thanksgiving leftovers by then and be ready to share your abundance. Miracles happen when we do.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate