Trinity Stories

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