The Season of Creation, September 1st through October 4th, is celebrated by Christians around the world as a time for renewing, repairing and restoring our relationship to God, one another, and all of creation. The Episcopal Church joins this international effort for prayer and action for climate justice and an end to environmental racism and ecological destruction. The 2025 theme is Peace with Creation. In celebrating the Season, we are invited to consider anew our ecological, economic, and political ways of living.

Trinity is celebrating the Season of Creation with three events on our newly renovated and planted plaza. Tomorrow, Saturday, September 6, at 9:30 am, we’ll plant the last garden bed as a rainbow daylily garden, in bands of red, orange, yellow, green, lavender and purple flowers. It will be so beautiful next summer! All are welcome to come help! Bring trowels and gardening gloves. Also, please bring a few more hostas from home to plant in the hosta garden, to replace the irises that will be moved back to the sloped bed where they’ve been since the plaza was first planted in the 1980’s.

The second event is our 10:00 am Sunday worship service, to be held on the plaza this Sunday, September 7. We’ll make a joyful noise together as we worship our Savior Jesus Christ in the sacred space of our plaza. Parasols will be available to shade yourselves.

And thirdly, we’ll invite the community to visit the plaza on Tuesday, September 9 when we’ll host a Rain Garden Tour from 6:00-7:00 pm, in cooperation with two of our community partners, Sacred Grounds and the Toledo-Lucas County Rain Garden Initiative. We’ll also honor our other supporters: KeyBank and the Terhune Foundation, North Branch Nursery, Toledo GROWS and Ogden Station Daylilies. Special thanks to our Sacred Grounds mentor, Tom Schoen, who has shepherded us through this journey. Please wear a Trinity t-shirt and come help host this event for the community.

After the plaza renovation was completed at the end of 2023, the next challenge was to plant the large concrete containers in a sustainable way. The decision was made to follow The Episcopal Church’s commitment to Creation Care. That meant planting native plants that would support a vibrant ecosystem for wildlife and be good for the environment. More than 50 Trinity volunteers have participated in 10 plaza work days over the last 16 months to plant the garden beds. The 8 plaza garden containers were filled with 1,544 40 lb. bags of soil and mulch and then we planted:

  • 3 Celebration red maple trees
  • 3 Monarch Waystation beds of native plants, 2 of which are rain gardens
  • A vegetable garden, planted by the children
  • A rainbow daylily garden (to be planted tomorrow!)
  • A hosta garden
  • A bed filled with Serviceberry and Red Twig Dogwood bushes
  • A bed planted with a groundcover of native Common Blue Violets

Many of you helped design and plant the garden beds. Eight of us took a Master Rain Gardener course last spring, where we learned which plants would thrive under the special conditions of the plaza. Our native plants are supporting a vibrant ecosystem enjoyed by butterflies, pollinators and birds. Trinity’s plaza has been certified as a Sacred Grounds site by the National Wildlife Federation and registered as a Monarch Waystation.

Come celebrate the Season of Creation at the parish work day on the plaza tomorrow, worship on the plaza on Sunday, and at the Rain Garden Tour for the community next Tuesday! Thank you.

Peace and Love,
Deacon Meribah