Beloved Friends-
This Sunday we will gather once again through our sacred digital platform, Trinity@Home, at 9:00 (and anytime thereafter), and then again at 10:00 in-person for Trinity@316. In both settings we will sing, pray, hear the Good News of the gospel and then turn our hearts outwards to set out to do the work we have been given to do in the days ahead. If you come to the in-person service at Trinity@316 you will also have two additional reminders of our call, our vocation as Christians in the world. We will be offering the sacrament of baptism to our newest Trinity family member, one-month old, Luca Edward Tullis Chojnacky, and then, immediately following the service we will gather for a short Annual Meeting.
I love thinking about what both things have in common; the confluence of past, present and future. When we stand together and offer the sacrament of baptism we are doing so as if we are standing in the middle of a stream. We are standing together at a very specific place and at a particular moment of time aware of all of those (upstream if you will) of those who have come before, as well as aware of how the water will continue to flow and reach those who are yet to gather here. The same is true for our Annual Meeting. Sunday will be the 181st gathering of Trinity as a faith community for an Annual Meeting- think about THAT for a minute! So many have come before us, and with God’s grace, so many will come after us as well. What an honor, privilege and responsibility it is to stand together in this stream right now.
This year’s Annual Meeting will be a time to give thanks for all the work and worship, fun and service we have, with God’s amazing grace, we have lived into together. We will also:
Approve by acclamation the slate of new Vestry members
Acknowledge and receive of our Annual Report
all in the context of giving God thanks and praise for another year of ministry together!
We are both the inheritors and bearers of a tradition that seeks to both honor the past and anticipate a hope-filled future. I am humbled and excited each day we take another step forward together in that reality.
Below is a wonderful poem I believe may help set the context for us as we prepare for our time together Sunday. My favorite line sums it up best for me as I continue to walk by your side day by day:
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
More than ever, when I do stand still I find myself giving thanks for this community and the life we choose to live together in Christ. At every turn I see incarnate examples of God’s love and mercy. Looking back, when I stand still and pay attention to the multitude of expressions of how we have discovered and shared God’s love I am indeed astonished.
So come home this Sunday, to the community that needs what only you have to give. Come stand next to and connect deeply with those who are willing to stand still with you so that together we can learn how to pay attention to the world’s needs as well as our own and be truly astonished together.
May you never forget that you are loved.
Lisa
Messenger
by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird-equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren,
to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.