Rector Letter - Welcome Back
Dear Trinity friends,
When my child was elementary-school age, there was a hardware/art supply store in our town which offered a service to busy parents each fall, putting together bags of supplies that the public school teachers asked each student to bring with them on the first day of classes. Although the store charged a slight premium for the service, because they were able to buy markers and crayons and notebooks in bulk, the cost to families was the same or maybe even a little less than what parents would have spent buying all those things on their own.
Regardless of all those benefits, I never took advantage of this service. I loved—and still do—the start of the school year. I love the anticipation and excitement of a new season, the planning and the getting ready, the hope and promise of beginning anew. (And I’ll never pass up a chance to cruise the aisles of an office supply store.)
I have this same sense of anticipation and excitement about the start of the church’s program year, which roughly parallels the school schedule.
This Sunday, September 11, we will welcome back the choir into the 10am service. Our church school building will once again be filled with children and catechists and volunteers for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) program. All of the ministries of Trinity will be “commissioned” at both the 8am and 10am services, to bless and renew their ongoing service to this faith community. The Youth Groupers will begin their new 8-week embodiment series, guided by vestry member Max Rorty and Director of Children and Youth Diana Small. Several new bible study groups will begin to meet and study scripture together.
On September 18 and 25, Trinity will host a Ministry Fair after both services—an event we’re calling “Find Your Connection”—to discover ways to connect with Trinity ministries and other Trinity members.
The month ends with our Becoming a Way Finder retreat (September 30 and October 1), which will be a time of kinship, breaking bread together, and celebrating the gifts of the Spirit that open to us when we become wise in our ways of discerning the voice and presence of God in our lives. If you haven’t already registered for this event, you can do so on Trinity’s website or at coffee hour on the labyrinth on September 11.
Two+ years of social distancing have taken their toll on our very human need to be in community, worshiping and praying and serving and celebrating together. Here’s to the hope and promise of new beginnings.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
~ excerpted from John O’Donohue’s, For a New Beginning
With faith and joy and anticipation,
Elizabeth+
The Rev. Elizabeth Molitors,
Rector Trinity Episcopal Church
emolitors@trinitysb.org
