Rector’s Address

Rector’s Address: the State of the Parish

The Rev’d Julia E. Whitworth, Rector

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give Thanks in all circumstances. When we selected our stewardship theme this year, I confess that I was looking simply for something upbeat. Something inspiring. Something that prompts us, no matter the hardship of our pandemic times, always to be grateful. As I have reviewed our last year together in light of these words, however, I’m now struck by the theme of steadfastness in Paul’s words from First Thessalonians. “Always”.. “without ceasing”... “in all circumstances”— these phrases remind me both of the constancy and steadfastness of God AND the resilience and faithfulness of you, Trinity Episcopal Church. And I am so very grateful, indeed. PATIENCE, PERSEVERANCE, and PIVOT I hope that you will review the pages of this year’s annual report with great care. In them you will find a multi-layered snapshot of a year marked by persistent hope and frequent discouragement, sometimes in equal measure. The year’s ever changing pandemic landscape required a fair amount of waiting for conditions to change, pushing forward with fortitude in the face of unknowns, and quick changes of direction when needed. Patience, perseverance, and pivot became some of our buzzwords for 2021. You’ll be glad to know that I will not track through every twist and turn of 2021 in this address. It would be almost as exhausting to relive it as it was the first time around. Some broad strokes, however: We started entirely with pre-recorded videos for worship in 2021. During Lent, we tried Zoom, to bring people into the same time, if not space, and layered in small services in the Church on Wednesday afternoons and Sundays at 8:00 a.m. Holy Week found us using every space and every available technology to create imaginative options for each service while we awaited the final installation of our amazing livestream system here in the church. Who could forget walking into this beautiful space at the Vigil after sitting by the fire outdoors to tell our sacred stories. We celebrated a JOYOUS Easter under the BIG tent in the parking lot. Pentecost on the scorching soccer field and the windy playground. Our Garden service returned and flourished from May through October. And finally, finally, we were able to gather in the church in the summer, although always masked, and not always engaging in singing. We also celebrated an amazing organ revoicing in September! Since then our allowed numbers have gone up and down, throughout each surge, but I’m pleased to say that we have not had to cancel any services since reopening last winter. And I’m pleased to say that I do not intend to close these doors ever again. There are so many people to thank for their patience, perseverance and pivoting in the last year. It’s always dangerous to call out just a few. But in a year like 2021, I must. To the Regathering Taskforce, this year comprised of David Crabb, Erik Hembre, Bob Marchesani, Jen Phelps, and Todd Relue, for their clarity and steadiness in advising me on each decision we made regarding safety measures and, especially, in-person worship. Thank you for helping me walk the line between courage and folly towards our consistent goal to create the most inclusive, most beautiful conditions for Trinity to worship in community. To the clergy and program team—Father Ben and Mother Erin in the first half of the year, Father Ben, Mother Megan and Father Adam in the second half, plus Michael Messina and Missy Roetter. Your imagination, collaboration, and willingness to work hard, even when demoralized, to try new ideas, and to jump into new situations and job responsibilities made this year bearable and even beautiful. To the ever-patient choir, who waited and waited to be allowed to sing together in this space. They rehearsed across the street in a parking garage to prepare their work. And to the Choristers who waited even longer to sing in church – rehearsing, masked and outside, for a year and a half without the gratification of singing in the church in coveted red robes. To the patient and persevering Liturgy Leaders, especially the Altar Guild, Ushers, MC/servers, lectors, and acolytes and their leaders, for continually shifting as we recreated liturgy again and again and again. Special thanks to Kim Purucker and Jen Phelps for taking on leadership of the Altar Guild and Lectors, respectively, during such a challenging time. To Sunday School Teachers and Youth Leaders who endured month after month of zoom gatherings and outdoor classes before ever making it to their rooms. To the Pastoral Care Team and tiny Parish Life crew, who gave so much to the homebound, the grieving and the community at large. To Diana Craesser, and all Sunday Dinner volunteers and staff, and Susan McMahon, Matt Jennings, Cathy Bridge and Kathleen Strickland, and all at the Mid North Food Pantry, for continuing to be the hands and face of Christ for so many in our community: showing up for another year of outdoor hunger relief ministries on our campus. To the Exodus Welcome Team, who are modeling for us all an example of full-hearted Christian witness to the vulnerable. The energy, excitement and enthusiasm of their support of not one, but two, newly arrived Afghan refugee families is nothing short of inspiring. To Senior Warden Todd Relue, Junior Warden Shelly Furuness, and Treasurer Kay Whitaker, and all our Vestry. In a year with two major renovation projects and five major staff transitions (plus a pandemic!), you were steadfast in your support of this often frazzled rector and clear-eyed about the big picture in the face of the many many decisions and transitions that came our way.

Rejoice always! Pray without ceasing! Give Thanks in all circumstances!

TRANSITION, TRANSFORMATION, and NEW BEGINNINGS Transition and Transformation have been a major aspect of 2021 at Trinity. We started the year with the news that the Rev. Jennifer Fisher, our Minister for Outreach, would be leaving Indianapolis, and Trinity, after two and a half years with us as seminarian and part-time staff. Soon thereafter Mother Erin Hougland, Associate Rector for Lifelong Formation and Congregational Vitality, discerned a call to hospitality chaplaincy. I started two searches for either lay or ordained leaders to fill these critical roles in the mission and ministry of our parish. We were beyond blessed that the Reverends Adam Pierce and Megan Miller discerned calls to move to Indianapolis and join Trinity in this exciting moment of our parish life. Mother Megan is Associate Rector for Children and Lifelong Formation. She coordinates and/or teaches Sunday School, Children’s Liturgy of the Word, and the new middle school youth group, PRISM. She also leads our collaborative adult formation programming and Newcomers Welcome. You can often find her surrounded by hordes of adoring children. Father Adam is Associate Rector for Outreach, Justice, and Congregational Vitality. In addition to his work with parish and community outreach leaders and on stewardship, this year Adam has been the Program Director for Trinity’s newest ministry, Trinity Service Corps—an intentional community of young adults who will live on our campus for a year of service in our midst. I am so excited for you to hear all about the amazing progress Adam and his team have made. By fall we will be welcoming up to six young adults to the program! In the winter months we were saddened to learn of the closure of Project Home Indy, a partner institution that had provided housing for teenage moms and their babies for over ten years at 32 East 32nd, a house owned by Trinity. Unwilling to leave that house empty for long, we pivoted quickly for an immediate, mission-congruent use for it: low-cost rental housing for Americorps/Vista volunteers who have moved to Indianapolis. An idea championed by vestry member Kate Howe, providing Americorps housing allows us to have tenants in 32 E. 32nd on a year-to-year basis, and provides a small revenue stream to offset some annual ESC expenses. In May, we rejoiced to celebrate the opening of Trinity Haven, an independent not for profit founded by Trinity to serve LGBTQ+ youth at risk of homelessness. A glorious ribboncutting deserved a glorious spring day, and it got one! Our Bishop and the Mayor addressed an overjoyed crowd gathered to celebrate your vision and generosity in incubating the first dedicated residence for LGBTQ+ youth in Indiana. I’m delighted to report that the house has been filled several times over and there are 6 young people also housed through our host homes program as well. Bravo to founding Board Chair Leigh Ann Hirschman, founding Executive Director Jenni White, board members Joel Harrison and John Craun, and so many of you who served on discernment and implementation committees and supported Trinity Haven over the last four years since its inception. Bravo! In the summer, Dr. Leslie Hosey joined our campus community as the new Head of St. Richard’s Episcopal School. It’s been a delight to welcome Dr. Hosey: she brings wisdom and warmth to her role and is a fantastic new colleague in leadership. You will have an opportunity to get to know her on February 27 at our annual Episcopal Schools Celebration, which was pushed from its traditional fall date. I do hope you can join us. Almost as soon as we welcomed our new Trinity clergy, we began to experience upheaval in our lay staff as well. In August, we said goodbye to Trinity’s Director of Communications Tracey Lemon, when she left Trinity’s full-time staff to move to Chicago. Just last week, we welcomed longtime parishioner Leigh Anne Naas to the position. She brings decades of professional communications experience from Lilly. Also in August, we welcomed Bethany Baugh to the already open position of Executive Assistant and Special Projects. Bethany manages both my own and the parish’s calendar, as well as many details on stewardship, the parish registry, and more. Her position began as half-time but rapidly transitioned to fulltime after Albie Marco, Director of Finance and Administration, accepted a position at Ivy Tech in October. After over 15 years on Trinity’s staff, Albie leaves a big hole, but we were delighted to welcome Molly Ellsworth earlier this month to a modified version of the position, Director of Operations. As Director of Operations, Molly will oversee all matters pertaining to facilities, finances, human resources, information technology, and office administration. In December our Finance Assistant, Faith Hennings, gave notice, leaving Molly, Kay and me with the opportunity to assess our staff structure and budget. In the meantime, we have retained an outsourced accounting firm to handle bookkeeping and payroll on a weekly basis.

In her role, Molly will work closely with Dirk Edwards on all facilities issues, including the ongoing renovation, the transformation if you will, of the Trinity Service Corps house (3256 East Pennsylvania St.) and the Chapel of the Holy Innocents. Our Chapel Design committee, headed by Kathy Watson, has worked hard all year to select and oversee an architect and builder, approve designs, and oversee the project budget. In the summer we held a “soft campaign” and secured over $21K in donations and pledges. Over $8,000 of that derived from an amazing bake sale conducted by our middle school kids! Their contribution will pay for amazing skylights over the altar. While the Chapel renovation has been significantly delayed by COVID and supply chain issues, we are told it should be complete in March. So exciting! The Service Corps house is looking great and running on schedule. In the spring and summer we will have a major used furnishings drive and house shower to prepare for its residents’ arrival. A final note about transition. As many of you know, 2022 was marked by several funerals of longtime parishioners. Presiding funerals is among the greatest privileges that priests undertake—they are the ultimate opportunity to proclaim our resurrection faith. Nonetheless, we all experience loss when we say goodbye to those we love, as we have this year. I give thanks for the opportunity to remember them in prayer at the Feast of All Saints. CHALLENGES and OPPORTUNITIES As cheerleader-in-chief at Trinity, I tend to share the most upbeat bits of news I can at Annual Meeting and beyond. The Spirit is moving at Trinity, and there is so much to celebrate! Be that as it may, I would be remiss if I didn’t speak honestly about some of the challenges I see for our parish community as we began to think about life together in a post-pandemic era, God willing. But as is usually the case, challenges also provide opportunities for growth and new directions. I think one of our greatest challenges right now is fatigue. System-wide fatigue. You are feeling it in your own personal and professional lives, and I – we here at Trinity– are as well. The sheer numbers of decisions we all made in the last year is enough to commend a long winter’s nap. That fatigue can result in some real concerns of which to be aware: Burn Out. Plenty of ink has been spilled about the Great Resignation and the impact of the pandemic on the workforce. Trinity has not been immune from those forces. I am paying attention to my own fatigue, yours, and that of my Trinity and St. Richard’s Episcopal School colleagues. If we aren’t taking care of ourselves—physically, emotionally, spiritually—we cannot take good care of you, and one another. The last two years have been a grueling marathon. I am paying attention. This year I will have the opportunity to do some extra traveling, mostly work-related: to accompany the youth on their pilgrimage to Rome, the choir on their pilgrimage to England, and to attend CREDO, a clergy-wellness retreat sponsored by the Church Pension Fund. For my growth, I will be doing all of these programs, plus my already committed governance duties as a delegate at the National General Convention, a board member of the National Association of Episcopal Schools and an active participant at CEEP (Consortuim of Endowed Episcopal Churches). Additionally, I am committed to having my full vacation and retreat time, and insist upon that for all the clergy team as well. So after two years of going pretty much nowhere, I will be on the move quite a bit, representing Trinity in new and hopefully refreshing ways. This year I will also be preparing for a sabbatical, likely in early 2023. I am so grateful for such a competent team of clergy colleagues that make it possible for me to widen the scope of my ministry this year. Diminished Attendance, Diminished Voluntarism. I recognize that almost two years of couch church makes it extra challenging to motivate on a Sunday morning, or on a Wednesday night. Add in a COVID surge or two to rattle our confidence in safety, and it’s particularly hard to get back to the habits of regular attendance some of you might have once known at Trinity. This is my deep and profound invitation to come on back to Church. Whether regularly in person or online, I believe that we are made for community, and one place where we can heal from the traumas of the last two years is together, where we can prayerfully engage the God of Life and Light even in the shadow of death. So if you are not back regularly, please consider a late New Year’s resolution—to worship, give, and serve others at Trinity. Another area where I see the fatigue at play is in voluntarism/ ministry leadership at Trinity. While we are blessed with many returning worshippers (thank God!), we have found that many who stopped ministry service during the shutdown were loath to return to it afterwards. My colleagues tell me that this is not exclusive to Trinity. A social trauma like a pandemic often serves to reveal something already true about a system: in this case that the major bulk of ministry leadership was held by a relatively small number of folks, some of whom have retired from their roles, or even passed away. We are particularly in need of new and renewed engagement in the following ministries of hospitality at Trinity: Sunday Dinner: We need a team of servers every week to serve our neighbors a hot to-go meal; we are in deep need of more volunteers to provide nourishment to the food insecure at the Trinity Outreach Center. Families with children are welcome! Trinity Hospitality: Historically at Trinity, parishioners have volunteered to provide hospitality and care for one another at receptions after funerals. We are very short of members of “Trinity Hospitality” (previously Trinity Women). Please consider participating in this important ministry, so we can be church for one another. • Ushers and Altar Guilds The graciousness of our liturgical life depends upon the welcome and guidance of ushers and the careful preparation of the beautiful tools of our

Sacraments—vessels, vestments, linens, and hanging— before services. The pandemic has taken a toll upon these guilds, and I heartily encourage you to consider serving.

You will grow in your connection with the liturgy and one another! • Guild of Unexceptionable Cuisiniers Several years ago parishioners Jim Purucker and Rob McMath founded the

Guild of Unexceptionable Cuisiniers, a men’s cooking group which has catered large events for the parish. After over two years’ hiatus, we will engage in some creative thinking about big parish events for the future, and we will definitely need volunteers. Things won’t look exactly the same, but I for one am ready for some Trinity parties! Engagement in these important ministries has been a key part of life at Trinity. I anticipate that 2022 will be a year of great discernment for each of us individually about these and other commitments as well as for the Church corporately. Another challenge of the last year is Evangelism. When was the last time you invited someone to Church? We’ve got a good thing going here… and Trinity remains one of the best kept secrets in Indiana. I’m excited to work with Leigh Anne Naas and the clergy team on increasing visibility for this magnificent parish, and I hope that you will help us with that. We will look at every aspect of our outward facing identity. I am excited to announce that St. Richard’s Episcopal School and Trinity have received a grant in the amount of $341,760 from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation in order to enhance our campus “street appeal” with a Peace and Reconciliation Garden at the corner of 32nd and Meridian, and a public facing outdoor learning space on Pennsylvania. Both institutions are committed to working together to develop a comprehensive signage plan as well. MISSION, VALUES, VISION, STRATEGY: The way ahead! You may recall that in 2020 our vestry began to roll out the first elements of a strategic plan for Trinity. Not surprisingly, that got shelved soon after COVID-19 became a reality in our lives. As we look to the way ahead, it’s a challenge to shift from crisis response mode to strategic thinking. But that shift is upon us. Before we can address strategy, however, we are overdue as a community to re-articulate our mission, vision, and values as a parish. In November consultant Nathan Kirkpatrick worked with the vestry, parishioners, and staff to begin that process. The new vestry will continue that work in the months ahead. From there I propose we will work on strategy in two separate, but related areas. • Mission Strategy will look at strategic directions to live into our re-articulated and enlivened mission as a parish.

We will also seek to integrate the strategic vision of the

Social Justice and Racial Reconciliation Working Group into the Mission Strategy for the whole parish. Continuing to work with Nathan Kirkpatrick, it is my plan that we will have an updated strategy plan for you by Start Up Sunday in Fall 2022. • Resource Strategy will analyze our primary resources: our properties, our partnerships, our invested assets, and our revenue sources which includes pledging, to determine needs, opportunities, and directions for the future. Our treasurer Kay Whitaker and Junior Warden

Shelly Furuness have been laying the groundwork to begin a comprehensive asset management plan that includes keen attention to our campus as a resource not just for Trinity, but for the whole neighborhood. Rejoice always! Pray without ceasing! Give Thanks in all circumstances! The length of this report gives you a sense of the richness and complexity of 2021 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Indianapolis. This is your amazing church, and it is God’s, of course. I give thanks for you, your steadfastness, your prayers, your abiding joy in this community of faith. Wherever we have been, God has been present with us. And God will be us in the exciting year to come. Thanks be to God!

Mother Julia