An Announcement to the Congregation at Trinity

June 23, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I am writing to inform you about a change in the elected lay leadership at Trinity effective this past Tuesday evening. Shortly after the Annual Meeting, Sara Carson informed me that she was not able to continue to serve as one of our two wardens at Trinity Church. Her letter of resignation reads as follows:

June 2009
Dear Friends on the Vestry:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be able to fulfill the term of Warden to which I was just elected.

It has been a privilege and a joy to serve both on the vestry and as a Warden of Trinity Church.

I know that Trinity Church will continue to be one of the rising stars of Hartford.
With blessings,
Sara

Sara asked me to assure everyone that neither she nor David is ill – but she is looking forward to a brief sabbatical from official duties.

At its regular meeting on June 16, the Vestry accepted Sara’s resignation with regret, and determined to plan an appropriate “thank you” in due course. Sara has been remarkably devoted to her duties as Warden over these past four years, and her energy and leadership will be sorely missed on the Vestry and by me personally.

Trinity’s By-laws permit the Vestry to either fill or not fill a vacancy in elective office for the period of an unexpired term. Warden Al Shuckra and the Vestry were unanimous in their desire to fill the vacant Warden’s position, and following the recommendation of a sub-committee convened on June 14, unanimously elected life-long parishioner Barbara (Boo) Morton to fill Sara’s unexpired term until the 2010 annual meeting. The Vestry voted not to fill the Vestry vacancy created by Boo’s assumption of the warden duties.

Please take the time to thank Sara for her dedicated service as Warden during these past four years, and please pray for Al, Boo and the entire Vestry as they continue to lead our parish into our 150th Anniversary year.

Your brother in Christ,

Don+

A Busy Day at Trinity, and An Interfaith Experience

Yesterday was a wonderful day at Trinity as we celebrated Youth Sunday and honored all of our young people and the adults who minister to and with them. In particular we honored our graduating students: Our high school graduates -- Marcia Lee, Justin White, Chivelle Blisset, Carrie Margeson and Cathleen Mathew -- and our college and master's degree graduates: Kim Litsey, who graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale; Christina Peterson, who graduated with a bachelor's degree from Salve Regina University with a double major in Psychology and Spanish; and Jacob Troiano, who graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a master's degree in mechanical engineering. That was all followed by our annual spring picnic and carousel party at the Bushnell Park Carousel, where a great time was had by all.

After stopping in at the carousel party, I then went to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's mosque in Meriden for a Founder's Day symposium. I was introduced to this community by one of the physicians who treated me when I was in Hartford Hospital in December, Dr. Saquib Samee, who is originally from Pakistan. The motto of this worldwide community is Love for All, Hatred for None. The symposium included representatives of the Hindu, Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, and the presentations were designed to provide a mosaic of the underlying principles of these four great traditions. It was a day that went beyond tolerance to a mutual respect for faith traditions different from one's own. It was also a day of hope for a better future of tolerance and mutual respect.

Have a blessed Monday! Your brother in Christ, Don+

The Busy Weekend at Trinity

This evening our Vestry begins its annual overnight retreat at Camp Washington in Litchfield County, CT. As we have four new members, this evening's sessions focus around the interdependent roles of Clergy, Wardens and Vestry, the role of the Vestry not just as the body that passes a budget but as partners with the clergy in setting a vision for the church and helping to develop ways to further God's mission at Trinity. Pray for us as we enter into this time of team building and prayerful attention to what God is calling us to at Trinity.

Sunday is our annual Youth Sunday celebration. At the 10 a.m. service we will honor all our graduating high school seniors -- Chivelle Blisset, Marcia Lee, Carrie Margeson, Cathleen Mathew, and Justin White -- who will share their stories and their plans for the future with the congregation during the sermon time. We will also honor two other graduates -- Kim Litsey who just graduated from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale with a Master of Divinity Degree, and Jacob Troiano who has graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

We then will pick up picnic lunches prepared by John Hinkston and his merry hospitality crew and proceed to the carousel in Bushnell Park for our annual carousel party. Everyone is invited to enjoy the carousel and free popcorn from 12 noon to 2 p.m. courtesy of Trinity Church. The event will go on rain or shine in the carousel pavilion.

In the afternoon, I will be attending the Holy Founders Day celebration at Baitul Aman Mosque in Meriden, CT, at the invitation of Dr. Saquid Samee, a Pakistani Muslim and one of the cardiac surgeons who treated me during my stay at Hartford Hospital in December. During my hospitalization we had conversations about the role of faith in the healing process. Representatives of the Hindu, Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths will be present share the foundations of their faith traditions and together seek paths to inter-religious tolerance and respect. The symposium will take place at 410 Main Street, Meriden CT.

I hope that you will join us in worship and fellowship on Sunday! Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

On Diversity, Tolerance and Inclusion

Yesterday's attack by a lone gunman at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. was a reminder of how anger and intolerance poison our common life together. On the radio this morning, someone was quoted as saying, "The fact that you need armed guards at the Holocaust Museum is proof that we need to have a Holocaust Museum." Amen.

In the past three months, I have visited that Holocaust Museum with my daughter, Katie, and a Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. The Holocaust happened, and will stand forever as a cancer on the human experience. Like a cancer, the human failures that allowed it to happen weave through human history in times of remission and recurrence, involving people of different races and cultures.

St. Paul understood the oneness of humanity that we see in Jesus Christ: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28. As was the case with the institution of American slavery, during the time of the Holocaust and the years leading up to it, many supposedly faithful Christians stood idly by or actually participated in the culture of fear, hatred and cruelty that allowed it to happen. That same culture abounds throughout the world today. As Christians, it is our duty to stand up to it whenever we encounter it.

Pray for the guard who was shot and for his family and loved ones. Pray for the man who shot him, and for all those who share his view of the world. Pray that we may all claim the oneness that Jesus Christ offers us.

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

This Old House

As we are nearing the completion of our roof project, seeing light at the end of the tunnel, we have received some bad news: the roof over the education wing is far more deteriorated than previously thought, and both the east and west sides of the roof need to be replaced. It seems that the building was not constructed exactly as the plans in our possession indicate, and there is a spongy material under both sides of the roof that won't hold a nail even if we put new slate on top. This affects both sides of the roof. It also reflects a ventilation problem that can only be resolved by replacing both sides of the roof. Our architect, independent roofing consultant and sexton have reviewed the problem and explored the alternatives, and determined that replacement of the entire education roof is the only reasonable solution. We have received a proposal from the contractor, and the Vestry has unanimously agreed via an electronic vote to approve the additional work. The good news: Trinity will have a new roof on the majority of its space that should last for many years to come. The bad news: It's going to cost approximately an additional $100,000. The other good news: It is still within the approximately $800,000.00 we had planned on when we undertook the whole project.

Life and ministry go on . . . Let us use this Old House of Worship to do God's work.

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

Leadership for the Future -- Part II

Yesterday Al Shuckra and I attended Day 2 of the Leadership for the Future conference at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. At the morning Eucharist the Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen drew our attention to St. Paul and his message to the church at Corinth in Second Corinthians. First, it is clear that he loves his people in Corinth, and that he is engaged with them and with their lives. Second, he speaks in love to them with respect to those areas of their lives in which they are falling short of their own faith in the Good News of Jesus Christ. And finally, he gives thanks for their repentance, the gifts they have been given for ministry, and for their re-commitment to God's mission in their midst. Bp. Knudsen then challenged us to approach our discussions during the rest of the day in this spirit.

Dean Joseph Britton of Berkeley then highlighted the importance of the Rector/Warden/ Vestry relationship, reminding us that it is a unique model of church governance with the Episcopal church in its interconnectedness and interdependence.

Dean Samuel Lloyd of Washington National Cathedral then gave the first of two addresses on where we are as a church in a changing society and how we might chart a way forward. In his morning address, he noted that we have in some ways entered a "perfect storm" of changes in all of our social and political institutions, and noted that we can either "plunge into the chaos or we can watch and listen for God doing a new thing." In his afternoon address, Dean Lloyd invited us to consider four questions that relate to our leadership models as people of the spirit: 1)What kind of problems are we facing -- a quick fix or something more complex that requires an "adaptive solution." 2)What kind of world is this in which we are trying to lead? Is it a world of scarcity or is it a world of abundance? 3)What kind of story will we live by in our congregational setting? Will we look to the past, or will we look to the future? How are they related? 4) In order to change the narrative to meet the challenges of a new age, how can we as Christians -- and Christian leaders -- be better grounded in living our own lives according to Christian principles.

In the morning and afternoon break-out sessions wardens and clergy were sent to their respective rooms for conversations with Bishop Knudsen and Greg Cobbs, a business management professional who is also an active Episcopal lay leader. In his meeting with the clergy, Greg brought his management and outreach experience to bear on issues relating to clergy / warden working relationships.

All in all it was a remarkable 24 hours of learning and reflection on how we address the leadership challenges of a new age. Thanks go again to our own David and Sara Carson for their generous financial and leadership support of this program.

Today at Trinity we begin earnest preparation for our Vestry retreat which will take place June 12-13 at Camp Washington, and for our Annual Meeting which will take place on Sunday morning beginning with Holy Eucharist at 9:30 a.m. (NOTE THE CHANGE IN TIME TO 9:30 A.M.). Next we will have our weekly Roof meeting with the architect and contractor to track progress. Today we will discuss additional work which needs to be done on the East side of the education wing -- more on that tomorrow! (frown!)

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

Leadership for the Future -- Part I

Yesterday afternoon warden Al Shuckra and I drove to Berkeley Divinity School at Yale for the first part of a conference exploring leadership models for the church of the future. Made possible by the generosity of the David and Sara Carson Foundation, this evening's events consisted of an opening welcome and introduction from Dean Joseph Britton of Berkeley, Dean Harry Attridge of Yale Divinity School, and a description of a new initiative for training school chaplains at Berkeley. We then offered Evening Prayer and heard an inspiring sermon by Dean Samuel Lloyd from Washington National Cathedral, in which he spoke of the present financial crisis and the many other crises facing us both in the church and in the world as experiences of death, and reminded us that as Christians living in the world death is often a prelude to life. The world offers us both -- death and life -- will we see death as the final outcome, or see it as the passageway to new light and new life?

* * * * * * * * * *

Please pray this week for the Christian, Jewish and Muslim students who are participating in Hartford Seminary's Building Abrahamic Partnerships course through Sunday. A reminder that some students will be joining us for worship on Sunday morning as they do twice each year. This is also a reminder to us that in some cultures it is inappropriate for people to engage in physical touch with a person of the opposite sex in many circumstances. Please extend a warm welcome to our guests this weekend -- and remember that unless a person of the opposite sex whom you do not know extends their hand to you, a simple smile and nod of the head will be interpreted as a most gracious welcome.

Another reminder: Starting next Wednesday at 6 p.m. and continuing for three Wednesdays (June 10, 17 and 24!) we will have a pot luck supper (please feel encouraged to share your favorite ethnic foods!) followed by a presentation of highlights from our trip to the Holy Land in April. Even if you can't share a dish, by all means please join us for an evening of good food, fellowship and sharing! Next Wednesday we will be recounting our time in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. Hope to see you there!

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

On Transitions and Thank Yous

This morning's Gospel reading is from Luke 17:11-19, and concerns the story about how Jesus encounters ten lepers in the area between Samaria and Galilee while en route to Jerusalem. When they call, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us," Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. On their way to do this, they realize they have already been made clean and cured of their leprosy. But only one, a Samaritan (outcasts to traditional Jews and, thus, to most of the followers of Jesus), upon realizing he have been cured, returns to give Jesus thanks and praise.

It seems to me there are a couple of remarkable aspects to this story:

1) Notice that the real action in this story takes place in transition times -- while the main actors are in the middle of doing something else. Jesus encounters the lepers on his way to Jerusalem Curing a bunch of lepers was not on his agenda. And the cure happens not in Jesus' presence by some visible act of his, nor in the lepers' showing themselves to the priests, but while they are in the process of going to the priests -- another time of transition -- in which they are being faithful to what Jesus has told them to do.

2) The obvious aspect -- 10 are cured, only one returns to say, "Thank You!" Nowhere else in the Gospels do we ever hear of what becomes of the other 9 lepers -- presumably they go on with their transformed lives, but we never hear of them thanking Jesus for the transformation.

This raises some questions for us to ponder: How do we pay attention to the opportunities for grace when we are not specifically looking for it -- during the transitions, when we are pre-occupied with doing something else? What opportunities are we missing? How is God blessing us when we are not even aware of it? This, of course, leads to the obvious question: What is it in our lives for which we are not giving thanks to God? When are we forgetting to give thanks for blessings of which we are aware? And when are we missing the blessings altogether?

* * * *

This evening Warden Al Shuckra and I will be at a 1 1/2 day conference at my Alma mater, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, focusing on the question of leadership for the changing church of today and tomorrow. We'll be sharing what we hear in the coming days.

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

Happy Birthday to Us!!!

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Pentecost -- the birthday of the church (that' us!). It is the feast when we commemorate the coming of God's Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised to his disciples -- and as Mother Barbara reminded us yesterday in her sermon, it is a gift God gives to the whole creation -- Jews and Gentiles, people from every land and nation on the earth. The lesson from the Acts of the Apostles read yesterday describes the Spirit as coming in tongues of fire. (I got a little too filled with the Spirit when incensing the altar yesterday and we almost had more tongues of fire than we expected when some of the burning charcoal flew out of the thurible onto the floor!)

At Trinity yesterday we also celebrated the Church's birthday by celebrating the baptism of the newest member of the Body of Christ -- Halina Danielle Senior. Welcomed her with a baby blanket from our Prayer Shawl ministry, a baptismal banner from our Banner Guild, and a baptismal candle that will serve as a living memory of the "tongues of fire" that signalled the gift of the Holy Spirit. And of course, we had a huge birthday cake to celebrate the occasion.

So what does it mean to remember the birthday of the church? How do we approach today differently? Well, St. Paul writes in his Second letter to the church in Corinth what that looks like: From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;* even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,* we know him no longer in that way. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,* not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5

The world is different for us. With Jesus' ascension into heaven and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are the "ambassadors for Christ," we become the instruments through whom Christ's work continues.

How can you be an ambassador for Christ today?

Have a blessed one! Your brother in Christ, Don+