Thanksgiving Reflections -- And This Sunday at Trinity

I pray that you had a blessed Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Fr. Ron had a wonderful message on Thursday. While I won't summarize his sermon -- you can catch it under "Sermons" on the website -- one of the quick, practical things I took away from it was to share with others that "I am blessed." How many times when someone casually asks "How are you?" or "How are you doing?" do you nonchalantly say, "Fine" -- whether or not that has any basis in reality? Fr. Ron shared a story with us on Thanksgiving morning that reminded us of a better -- and more realistic -- answer: "I am blessed." No matter how we feel, that answer is always true, and serves not only to share with the inquirer your own status -- it reminds them of their status as well -- and it reminds them that in all things, we are in God's care. So as we move forward into the season of Advent, why not change your answer to that frequent question, "How are you?" Make your response, "I am blessed!"

This Sunday is the beginning of a new church year -- Year C in the three-year liturgical cycle, and the first Sunday in Advent. All Christian formation classes are cancelled in order that we may all join in an inter-generational event -- the creating of Advent wreaths for our own homes and for those who cannot be with us on Sunday. The wreath making will be available after both services. While we are making wreaths, there will be on display in Goodwin Hall a slide show -- on the big screen -- including Fr. Don and Debbie's pictures from their trip to Tanzania in 2006 and slides from Kate Smith's travels in the Holy Land. The slide show will represent the conclusion of our November focus on the work of the Outreach Committee as part of our 150th Anniversary celebration.

I hope that you will be able to join us for worship and wreath making on Sunday morning. Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

America's Day to Give Thanks

Matthew 6:25-33
Jesus said, "I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

I think it is interesting that the Gospel appointed for Thanksgiving Day begins by telling us not to worry. Our Vestry studied this passage at its November meeting, even as it was considering pretty drastic cuts to Trinity's 2010 budget. Giving thanks does not mean that we will always everything and anything we could ever want -- it means that God will provide that which we need -- and worrying about it doesn't make one bit of difference, except to make us anxious.

Today is a day that our nation and our church both set aside to give thanks, corporately, for all that we have. God knows that we need to be giving thanks every day, at all times and in all places, but this is a day when we are called together as a nation to do so. Our scripture passages remind us that ultimately God is the source of all we are, all we have, and all we hope for. I hope you will join us for Holy Eucharist with hymns at 10 a.m. in the church, with Fr. Ron preaching. Following a short break, during which we will set up for lunch and enjoy fellowship and snacks, we will enjoy a full traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the fixing's, thanks to our director of music ministries, Bert Landman, who organizes this event each year. A free will offering will be taken to help defray the costs of the dinner. We have also invited our friends at Engine Co. No. 5 and the police officers on duty out of the Asylum Hill Substation to join us as they are able.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day. Your brother in Christ, Don+

A Busy Week, and Another Special Weekend at Trinity

This has been an exceptionally busy week around Trinity. It started on Sunday where we welcomed 36 new official members of our congregation, each of whom demonstrated their commitment to our ministry by signing their names in the official parish register. We also honored some 26 veterans who have served their country of origin (not all of them American) in military service. Monday featured our Light and Peace Program, as is customary on Monday evenings.

Tuesday evening saw our Vestry begin their meeting with a study of Jesus' admonition to "seek first the Kingdom of God, and God's righteousness, and all these things shall be gathered unto you." The Vestry then heard about progress on any number of initiatives -- you can check out the specifics on this web site as of Friday evening by going to "newsletters".

Wednesday evening marked the conclusion of our 5-part "soup supper" series with Huston Smith and Bill Moyers on major faith traditions. Simultaneously, the Day School Exploratory Committee and the Choir School Board were holding back-to-back meetings to move forward on the vision for these two ministries. Thursday morning many of us were at the Greater Hartford Prayer Breakfast at the Artist's Collective on Albany Avenue, where Rabbi Donna Berman of the Charter Oak Cultural Center gave a moving homily on "United Prayer: Everyone!". Our own Al Shuckra and Kim DeMichele were on the steering committee for this event. And then Thursday evening our Adult Christian Formation Committee met to plan the next Christian Education series, followed by the 150th Anniversary Committee conducting a debriefing on the activities since September and to flesh out plans for the coming months.

Whew! The Spirit is a-movin'!

This Saturday evening will feature a wonderful "four hands" piano recital by former Trinity members George Vona and Lark Popov. Sunday at Trinity, we will continue our look at Trinity Outreach Ministries as part of our 150th Anniversary celebration. At both services on Sunday morning, part of the Liturgy of the Word will be the showing of an 18-minute video highlighting the work of the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. Our Sunday Symposium following the 10 am service will feature Kate Smith, a member of the board of AFEDJ, who will speak about the many outreach ministries of the organization in the Holy Land and Trinity's role in supporting them.

I hope you will be able to join us for worship, fellowship and study this weekend Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

This Weekend at Trinity

Saturday evening you can sample a wonderful concert performed by Trinity choir soprano Judith Milardo, Alta and CVCO performer Gwen Winkel (clarinet) and Trinity Music Director Bert Landman (piano and harpsichord). The three will team up to present the music of Schubert, Vaughan Williams and contemporary composer Zeke Hecker. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and a donation of $15 is the suggested offering. Come for a wonderful evening of musical entertainment with these three fine musicians who in a variety of ways calls Trinity "home."

Also on Saturday evening is a "game night" sponsored by our Young Adults in the Church (YAC) teens for all of the young people in our Journey to Adulthood program. The game night will begin with home-made pizzas which the teens will cook on-site in the parish kitchen, followed by a time to hang out in the library and enjoy each others friendship over some board games. Call Nancy Berger or Lily Miller if you wish to participate or have any questions.

Sunday morning we will honor all of our Veterans with a time of prayer and the gift of a carnation boutonniere on this Sunday after Veterans' Day. We will also formally welcome some 25 new parishioners who have made the decision to join us in our mission and ministry at Trinity during the past year. After being introduced to the congregation, each will sign his or her name in our parish register, formally signifying their commitment to God's mission as a partner in our community of faith. Please be sure to be at our 10 a.m. service to celebrate their membership with us!

Have a blessed weekend! Hope to see you on Saturday AND Sunday!
Your brother in Christ, Don+

A few days for spiritual retreat

Trinity clergy are on spiritual retreat with the other clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut at Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center from Tuesday through Thursday. Please hold us in prayer as we will be holding you in prayer during this time. You might also want to follow some of the other spiritual links and scripture resources available on this site. Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+

Trinity at 150: Feeding the Hungry

During the month of November, we are highlighting Trinity's outreach ministries throughout its 150 years. This week we focus on "feeding" ministries. We kicked off the week with Kitty Jo Reynolds of Foodshare, who showed a brief DVD about the Foodshare program in the Hartford area and then expanded upon that in her presentation. (Someone asked her a question about how cash that is donated to Foodshare is spent -- she is going to get me the answer and I will post it in this space.) Among its myriad activities in our region, the Foodshare truck comes to Trinity one day per week (on Wednesday or Thursday, depending upon the week) under the auspices of the Salvation Army Senior Center.

Trinity is the original home of the Loaves and Fishes Ministries, which outgrew our space and now resides at Immanuel Congregational Church on Woodland Street. A faithful crew led by Hyacinth Miller still prepares the luncheon served at Loaves and Fishes on the third Wednesday of each month. In addition Trinity supports them with a monthly cash contribution as well.

Our Light and Peace program, which serves children in the Asylum Hill neighborhood on Monday evenings during the school year, started as a combination feeding, spiritual enrichment and craft program when there were not other evening feeding programs in Asylum Hill. In the past couple of years, the Boys and Girls Club has begun to serve dinner to its young clients who are still there at dinner time. Rather than have two competing programs, we are presently in conversation with officials at the Boys and Girls Club about how we might combine forces to offer the richest and most effective programming to the neighborhood young people.

Trinity also collects food each week which is donated to the Space for Grace Food Pantry at Grace Episcopal Church on New Park Avenue -- during the month of November we are trying to collect 150 packages of pasta for the Pantry (pasta being in apparently short supply the Foodshare). The church also participates in the Episcopal Diocese's "Feeding in the Park" program, in which on the third Saturday every other month, a team of faithful servants shops for and builds 160 bagged lunches, each with two sandwiches, some fresh fruit, cookies, chips and a drink. This ministry is coordinated by our diocesan deacons, and led at Trinity by our own Deacon Pat Jackson. Every once in a while we are able to add in something extra -- last month it was tubes of toothpaste donated by our friends at Glastonbury Dental Associates.

In honor of our recently deceased parishioner Todd White, planning is currently underway for a dinner for homeless persons on Friday evenings, as there is not currently functioning program like this in the Asylum Hill neighborhood. We hope to start up this ministry under the leadership of Todd's widow, Trudi White, in the next month or so.

We are blessed to have so many committed parishioners who carry out these ministries in love and devotion. They indeed are Christ's hands and feet in the community -- may they be richly blessed. If you would like to participate in any of these ministries, please call Pam Haddad at the Trinity Church office and she will put you in touch with one of the leaders of that ministry.

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

Rite-13: A Celebration of Manhood and Womanhood

This weekend Trinity celebrates one of the central liturgical observances in the Journey to Adulthood Program with the Rite-13 ceremony at our 10 a.m. Eucharist on Sunday morning.

Journey to Adulthood is a junior and senior high program that guides young people in developing their Christian faith and integrating it into the maturation process that is the work of teenagers. The program starts from the proposition that manhood and womanhood are biological gifts from God, but that Adulthood is something that has to be earned and developed. Through the seven years of the program, students learn, in successively challenging ways, what it means to be a responsible, Christian adult. In study, discussions, ministry and social activities, the teens (and their adult mentors) explore areas of self, society, spirituality and sexuality in the context of their faith.

The weekend begins with an intergenerational dinner tonight in Goodwin Hall. The evening will feature an discussion between parents and young people who are NOT their children(always a favorite, and a surprise to the parents!), a fabulous meal prepared by Fr. Ron and Hyacinth Miller, and a presentation by the young people who will participate in the Rite-13 ceremony.

On Sunday morning, we will formally acknowledge and pray for our Honorees, all of whom either have already or will soon be reaching the age of 13. What I have sometimes dubbed sort of a "Christian Bar/Bat Mitzvah," the young people and their parents will come to the front of the church where they will affirm that they are committed to working hard in the Journey to Adulthood program, and their parents will acknowledge their emergence into young adulthood. Each will receive a blessing from the clergy and from their parents.

The six young people who will be honored on Saturday evening and Sunday are Advetus Bohlen, William Burns, Kayla Gonzales, Meg Foster, Hailey Townsend and Franklin Ude. Many thanks to Fr. Ron and Hyacinth for organizing the meal, to Grace Haronian, leader of the Rite-13 program, and to all of the families for their support. Prayers and all good wishes go to them and to the Rite-13 families.

Have a blessed weekend. Your brother in Christ, Don+

900 Years: What Have We Learned?

Last evening a number of folks from Trinity, including yours truly, had the privilege of participating in an interfaith dialogue sponsored by Hartford Seminary, Public Agenda, 20,000 Dialogues, Trinity Church and several other local organizations. Following supper, the groups watched the movie, Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain. The film tells the epic story of one of the world’s great civilizations: the European Islamic civilization of Muslim Spain. Its rise and fall was due in large part to the rise and fall of tolerance among its Christian, Muslim, and Jewish inhabitants, fostered to a large degree by parochial forces from outside of the region seeking to advance their cultural, religious and political agendas. The film seeks to warn of the dangers of cultural and religious struggles for supremacy in the world.

Following the movie, the large group was split into groups of 6 to 10 for discussion. An opening question to spark discussion was: What comes closer to your belief with respect to the role of religious and cultural diversity within a community:
A. A society functions optimally when a diversity of cultures and religious faiths can co-exist and appropriate among the groups those traditions of another group they find desirable or compatible with their own traditions.
B. A society should accept the free flow of ideas and cultures and faiths and let the marketplace of ideas determine which, if any, gain ascendancy.
C. A society should be tolerant of a variety of cultures and religious traditions each maintaining their own traditions, in a "live and let live" type of environment.

Which of these comes closest to your view of the model society?

Further discussion followed within the small groups, culminating in the sharing of ideas for encouraging interfaith understanding and dialogue. The proceedings from all of the groups will be made available in the coming weeks.

What struck me was how little we have learned in 900 years since the fall of the Spanish Islamic state, followed closely by the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. I was reminded of how history is written by the victors, and how the losers are relegated to forgotten history. As a boy growing up in 1950s New England, what I remember of 1492 was the "discovery" of the New world by Christopher Columbus. What was not taught -- or at least emphasized -- was the persecution of non-Roman Catholics, and the expulsion from Spain of Jews and Muslims. How different our own cultural heritage in North America seems when considered through the lens of those other, contemporaneous events.

One of the main ideas that came out of the group for which I served as Recorder was that just society can best be achieved when people of differing religious and cultural backgrounds can feel safe, respected and valued in order that the free interchange of knowledge, values and cultural understandings can be nurtured. How we create that safe space in society at large is the challenge. I pray that in communities of faith like Trinity we may model such a place.

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

Trinity Co-Sponsors "Many Religions, One Community"

This evening, six Trinity parishioners will be among those leading an interfaith conference this evening at Hartford Seminary. Organized by Trinity parishioner Kim DeMichele, the gathering of some 200 area religious leaders will consider lessons for interfaith relations in the 21st century through the lens of medieval Islamic Spain. The evening will feature a dinner, a viewing of the film Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, small group discussions on the film and reflections on how everyone can contribute to interfaith understanding and dialogue.


The Trinity parishioners who are helping to lead the discussions are Lily Miller, John Hinkston, Kim Litsey, Al Shuckra, Don Hamer, and Gary DeMichele. The program is offered as a joint project of Public Agenda and 20,000 Dialogues, and is co-sponsored in Hartford by Hartford Seminary, Trinity Episcopal Church and several other area organizations. Unfortunately, registration is closed for this event, but I will share follow-up on the event here and in future programs at Trinity. Thanks to Kim DeMichele for her special leadership in bringing this event to Hartford.l



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

Voting: Your Christian Duty

Today is election day for local elections and, in some states such as New Jersey, state elections. With all of the drama and prominence that goes with national politics, we often forget that it is at the local level that government affects us on the most personal basis. Even though the funding and the policies may come in part from higher levels of government, the implementation of programs such as education, recreation, fire and police protection, and other municipal services is all determined at the local level. And yet, voter turnout in local elections tends to be a small fraction of that for state and national elections.

Most local elected officials serve basically as volunteers, putting in endless hours of meetings and planning sessions in order to serve us. My first entry into elective politics was as a successful candidate for Board of Education in Glastonbury in 1987. (Keith Hook, David Carson and I share the happy memories that go with that job -- Keith in Hartford and David in West Hartford.) Before each bi-weekly board meeting, a Board messenger would drop a one-inch thick packet of materials off at my house, and I was expected to be familiar with its contents by the following Tuesday evening. It is a lot of work serving in local government.

I hope that you will all make it a point to vote today in your local elections. In our country, we have the rare situation of having church and state separated. But in a democratic society, it is our duty as Christians, even as it was for the Jews of first century Rome, to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's," and that includes taking advantage of the privilege -- and accepting the responsibility -- of electing the officials that administer our civil laws.

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

Trinity Church: A Legacy of Leadership

Last night at Trinity featured the latest celebration in honor of our 150th anniversary as a parish. The evening began with a beautiful service of Evensong featuring the choirs of Trinity Church and the preces and responses composed by our own Bert Landman. At a special moment during the service, 6 choristers (several others were out sick) received new ribbons, symbolizing level of accomplishment in musical learning and skill. The ribbons are work as part of the choristers' vestments and reflect accomplishment according to the standards of the Royal School of Church Music, Voice for Life curriculum which is utilized by the Choir School of Hartford. Congratulations to these choristers!

Immediately following Evensong, we shared fellowship and a bountiful pot-luck supper hosted by Penny Pearson and our 150th anniversary committee. Ham, a number of tasty and nutritious salads, fried chicken, Jamaican beef patties, and yummy desserts were among the selections -- everyone ate well and there was food to spare.

The program for the evening was provided by guest speaker Bill Faude, formerly of the Old State House, Mark Twain Memorial, and the Connecticut Historical Society. Bill brought history to life through the eyes of the founding members of Trinity, who were not only visionaries for the parish but for the City of Hartford as well. With established roots in Hartford society and commerce, these individuals were able to effect lasting change in the city. Their legacy to Trinity is our commitment to make a difference in our church and in our community.

Early 21st century Hartford is a very different place from the Hartford of 1859, but the opportunities and the challenges remain. Through it all are the transcendent values that fueled the founders' vision for this congregation and that remain alive today. Bill's challenge to us as a congregation is how to celebrate those values as we build upon that early vision for Trinity Episcopal Church and our city.

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