Trinity Stories

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday of this week, our son, Peter, sent photos of his sons on their first day of school. Edward and Sammy started sixth and third grades respectively in the Worthington City School District located just north of Columbus. Their cousins – also our grandchildren – live in New York where school begins after Labor Day (the time of year, in my opinion, when school should start. I suspect my having grown up in Upstate New York influences my opinion about this matter.)

Back-to-school pictures have been popping up in my Facebook feed ever since the beginning of August when schools in Indiana kicked off the 2024-2025 school year. Because I began to serve as interim at St. Christopher’s, Carmel in 2017, the little children I knew then aren’t little anymore. Elementary school kids are now in high school, and high school students have already graduated from college. As Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “So it goes.”

The start of this year’s school year feels different from others for me. You see, I’ve always had someone in our house heading back – my wife, Terry. Her retirement last May has changed the usual rhythm. The advent of August always used to bring a flurry of activity, and although Terry doesn’t seem to miss the tasks of ordering supplies, prepping her room, and making name tags for her first graders, I do.

So, it’s probably a good thing Trinity’s “program year” begins in early September. Its arrival mitigates the loss of my going back to school, even if my “going back” was vicarious. I’m grateful there’s a similar feeling of anticipation and excitement in the parish as various committees and your staff gear up for the start of the fall “term.”

With PRIDE only a week away, most of the time and energy recently has gone to ensuring Trinity’s celebration of our LGBTQIA+ siblings is beautiful and joyful. This issue of Topics contains information on all the ways to participate and, especially, to volunteer (see below)!

Then it’s Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer. How can that be already? Many enjoy the long weekend with trips to the beach or pool and cookouts. We’ll still have church on September 1 – and feel free to come in summer casual attire!

Then the pace quickens on Adams Street! Here’s a preview of what’s in store:

• Saturday, September 7 – Safe Church Training will be offered in person at Trinity from 9:00 am – 12:30 pm. Sadly, both child and adult sexual abuse happens in churches. Safe Church Training gives church members the tools to recognize and reduce the likelihood of such abuse occurring. The training is mandatory in the Episcopal Church for the clergy, for those who work with children, and for others in leadership positions. Sign up for the class below.
• Sunday, September 8 – “Welcome Back Sunday!” Trinity will welcome Mariachi Mexico 2020 – a terrific mariachi band from Detroit – who will play during the service and at the fiesta afterwards. Trinity’s Choir will be back after their summer hiatus. Plan to join us for a morning of great music and celebration. It’s a good way to kick off national Hispanic Heritage Month when, starting September 15, the history, heritage, and accomplishments of Hispanic and Latino Americans of past and present takes center stage. There’ll also be a photographer taking “School Pictures” as we populate the parish’s database with photos to help the new rector get to know us better.
• Sunday, September 15 – Sunday School classes begin for children where families meet the teachers at the beginning of worship in the sanctuary. After a game, a Bible story, a craft related to the story, and a snack, kids return to the sanctuary to join their families for Holy Communion. For more information contact George Benson, Director of Community Engagement.
• Also on Sunday, September 15 – we begin our fall adult formation offering: “Prepping for Election Day 2024.” What is the relationship between faith and citizenship? What is a Christian’s responsibility as a citizen? What do I need to know about voting? Is American Civil Religion the same as Christian Nationalism? How can we disagree without being disagreeable? What spiritual disciplines can we practice as we approach Election Day on November 5?

Mark your calendars now and be thinking of someone you might invite to join you in one or more of these activities. It’s not back-to-school; it’s Welcome Back! I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Over the past year, there has been an ongoing conversation about how we can care for our children here at Trinity when it comes to spiritual formation. This is something close to my heart, and it is not because I have a kid here. When I first started volunteering and working for churches, it was in children’s ministry. Providing a safe space for children to learn who they are in Jesus is an incredibly important part of caring for the church body. We started down the road earlier this year when we hired Ms. Wendi to staff our nursery. She’s been a great addition to our team.

We are now ready to take the next step by expanding what we offer for our 1st – 5th grade kids. Starting Sunday, September 16, we plan to launch Trinity Kid’s Sunday School. What would it take to do this?! Great question, and this is where you come in!:

• 12 volunteers who would serve in pairs (2) in a single classroom
• Volunteers serve once every 6 weeks
• Parents can be volunteers; other parishioners especially welcome!

Here’s the support and training Trinity will provide:

• Safe Church training (required) – either in-person here in My Brother’s Place at Trinity on Saturday, September 7, from 9:00 – 12:30 am. Childcare, coffee & refreshments provided. Or,
• Online Safe Church training (required). Register by contacting Heather at the Parish Office – heather@trinitytoledo.org
• Sunday lessons from Illustrated Ministry curriculum detailing the story, craft, prayer, and expectations for each week.
• Classroom materials and supplies
• Snacks

Here’s how a typical Sunday morning would go for that week’s volunteers:

• Volunteers of the week meet parents and kids in the sanctuary where kids are “dropped off” to them.
• At 10:05, one volunteer leads the kids upstairs to the Parish House classroom; the other brings up the rear to make sure no kids wander off.
• The volunteers lead the kids through a game, a Bible story, a craft related to the story, and a snack
• When the lesson is finished (10:40 am), the volunteers and kids return to the sanctuary where they meet their parents during the passing of the peace.
• Kids then stay with their parents for the rest of the service.

We are excited to have a number of children worshiping with us. I know we have at least 12 volunteers who will help us kick off Trinity Kids’ Sunday School on September 16 because whenever there is an ask here, Trinity shows up! Is God calling you to this ministry?

This has been a banner year for Trinity Episcopal Church as we have launched and sustained new ministries and have seen growth during a transition period. The way y’all continue to show up to support and be present is not something I have ever experienced before in a house of worship. I am so honored to be here serving with and for y’all. If there are any questions, or if I can clarify anything, please reach out and ask me.

Grace and peace,

George Benson (he, him)
Director of Community Engagement
george@trinitytoledo.org

Dear Friends,

The weekend essay by David Owen, in this week’s New Yorker magazine is all about porches. Its title, which is itself long enough to be considered an essay is “Inside Out: The magical in-betweenness – and surprising epidemiological history – of the porch.” Owens points out that, during hot months in the era before air-conditioning, a porch was usually the coolest room in a house. Many, although not all homes, are now cooled by artificial climate control, and during steamy weeks, like this past one, we mostly live indoors where the temperature and humidity are comfortable.

Terry and I have an extraordinary front porch at home – one large enough so that, in Spring every year, we create a living room on it. After sweeping and washing the floor, we bring out a cushioned couch and chairs, along with some old wooden rockers we inherited from friends years ago. Because the porch faces east, it’s comfortably in the shade during the late afternoon and evening hours, making it the perfect place to eat supper and read a book. A ceiling fan moves the air on still evenings and, when we run it fast enough, keeps the bugs at bay. A small children’s table and chairs in one corner hearken back to the time our kids were little, and a climbing hydrangea envelopes one of the two brick pillars.

I don’t have a porch here in Toledo; I have a concrete slab outside the living room doors of my apartment instead. My neighbors have done much more with their concrete slabs than I. They’ve put chairs and tables and plants on them – which represents an act of faith, in my opinion, given the neighborhood. No furniture has gone missing – proof that the security firm that patrols the parking lots of the apartment complex is an effective deterrent.

Owens writes, “Porches are semi-magical spaces, intermediate between inside and outside.” The idea of a porch being an intermediate space – a space between “in” and “out.” – led the church I served in Granville to call one of its programs, “The Porch.” The program was intended to be a ministry of hospitality and healing for disaffected Christians and, for all, a non-threatening introduction to alternative views of the Christian faith. During sessions held over five consecutive Sunday evenings, participants had the chance to explore Christianity from different points of view, learn how to take the Bible seriously, but not literally, and what it would mean to live a life that incorporated the values of Jesus.

We believed then, and I still believe now, that crossing a church’s threshold for the first time is really hard for many people – especially those who have experienced any kind of trauma in a religious setting. Meeting on a “porch” was a way to lower the threshold.

Trinity may not have a specific program called “The Porch,” but it has many porch-like opportunities. Earlier this year, we welcomed people to view the solar eclipse during “Totality at Trinity.” A huge crowd came to the Plaza for the Fourth of July fireworks. Music & the Arts concert series represent another “porch.” And later this month, Toledo’s Pride observances will give this parish another opportunity to offer a space that’s “intermediate between inside and outside.”

Is there someone you might invite to the coolest room in the house.?

See you on the porch.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Paris, France is six hours ahead of Toledo, so the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics will begin at 1:30 pm today. Hosting the Olympics – whether the summer or winter edition – is an enormous task for any city, and it falls to Paris this year to welcome athletes and spectators from around the world to the games which had their origin in ancient Greece around 3,000 years ago. The ancient games lasted until 393 AD when the Theodosius I banned them to promote Christianity. (Leave it to the Christians to be the party poopers.)

Unlike other opening ceremonies, this year’s will be held outside a stadium. The parade is set to be held in the heart of Paris along the Seine, its main artery. Each national delegation will have a boat which will join a parade of boats moving from east to west in which some 10,500 athletes will cross through the center of Paris. By the way, work on cleaning the Seine for the Olympics has been going on since 2015. More than $1.5 billion has been spent so the river could be used for swimming events. Nine days ago, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, took a swim to demonstrate how clean the Seine is now. I’ll spare you the details of how the sewer infrastructure was renovated. It’s enough to say that, even with the building of a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, planners still hope there won’t be heavy rain between now and August 11.

Not surprisingly, the unique plan has already had an enormous effect on the parts of the Ville lumière – the City of Light. Grandstands and platforms have been under construction since mid-June, a project that was scheduled to be completed yesterday. Only four bridges crossing the Seine have been spared from construction during this preparation time. The upper and lower quays have been closed to the public for the last week. And even the Tour de France – the most famous bicycle race in the world – moved its traditional finish on the Champs-Elysees to a sprint between Monaco and Nice in the south of France.

When the Emperor Theodosius banned the games back in the fourth century, he must have forgotten about all the athletic metaphors employed by St. Paul and others to describe the Christian life. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews instructs his readers to “run without stumbling the race that is set before [them.]” Drawing on images of ancient footraces in Greece, Rome, and Israel, the Christian life is described as a marathon, not a sprint – one that requires faith, stamina, commitment, and discipline.

Paul reminded the Corinthians that “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things” – and called on them to exercise self-control in a society where there was precious little of it. The letters written to Timothy tell him that only an athlete who is physically fit will win the prize, and that he, as a believer, must do the same. “Train yourself for godliness,” Paul wrote to his mentee. “Train” (Greek gymnazō) literally means “to exercise” and enters the English language as gymnasium. And, in his second letter, Paul tells Timothy that an athlete has to compete according to the rules. Similarly, every believer must live in obedience to God. Paul writes, “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

So, while we are watching people whose self-discipline and training has brought them to participate in Olympic-level competition, we might reflect on what kind of shape our spiritual lives are in. And if we find they’re out of shape and flabby, perhaps it’s time to start some kind of training program. Prayer, scripture reading, worship, meditation, journaling, or serving in some way have long been recommended by spiritual coaches as ways to get in good spiritual shape.

Let me paraphrase the opening line of every Olympics, summer or winter, and say, “I declare open the Games of Trinity Episcopal Church, celebrating the 47th Summer Spiritual Games. (187 years Trinity has been in existence, divided by four). Game on!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate