TIDINGS Trinity’s Mission: Acting in God’s love, Trinity Episcopal Church welcomes everyone to enthusiastically live the Christian faith. We call our members to worship and prayer, lifelong education, spiritual growth, cheerful giving, and active ministry with our community. All members serve as witnesses to Jesus Christ.
Vol. XXV No. 6 July 2016
From the Senior Warden by John Fay
Inside this Issue Stewardship page 2 Rector Search page 3 Christian Formation page 4 Children, Youth and Family Ministries page 4 Young Adults page 5 Mission and Outreach page 5 Trinity Connections pages 6, 7
“Here is a call for the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” Revelation 14:12 When I find a quiet moment to read the monthly edition of Tidings, I especially look forward to the opening letter. For the past eight years it was usually from Henry Hudson, but often it was penned by others. In most of these letters I read about a topic surrounding my faith; one that made me sit back and ponder an aspect of who I was as a Christian and what I was called by Jesus to do in my life. From these previous writings I considered how to cope with, and respond to, some of the very difficult issues facing life in a modern and very global society, such as how to be accepting of those who are different than me, or how do to address the poisonous effects of racism, or respond to the evil of those who rain terror. On the other hand, many past messages brought uplifting stories of joy and the strength of our community; stories of Trinity Church working with groups from other faiths to improve the lot of our neighbors who are less fortunate, or just a simple reflection prompting me to acknowledge and give thanks for the many blessings in my life. For those of you who also enjoy those reflective opening messages found in this space, I am sorry to disappoint this month. We recently experienced back-to-back lightning strikes at the Church, which damaged several of the Church’s systems. These events are prompting me to use this space to inform you of the damage caused by these events, and the steps being taken to repair the affected systems. So while not spiritually uplifting or thought-provoking, the incidents raise important issues that affect the safety and comfort of the space where we worship and celebrate the sacraments, and they bear heavily on the Church’s finances. One of the strikes hit a building on campus, and the other struck an Entergy transformer on the back side of campus, which sent an electrical surge into our systems. The latter of the two incidents is proving to be the more damaging of the two. The strikes caused damage to equipment and systems at both the Church and the School. On the Church side, we sustained damage to numerous air conditioning components, the sound system, elevator and the lighting controls. Mike West and his team (James Beard and Ian Dutcher) have been doing double and triple duty to get these critical systems back on line. Most of these systems are now functioning at only partial capacity as we await the receipt of rebuilt motors, pumps and other parts. Some of these systems were dated to begin with, and Mother Nature is simply adding to the challenge of insuring that we have a safe and comfortable place to worship and celebrate the sacraments. So this is where I put out “a call for the patience of the saints.” If you attend a service, Baptism, wedding, funeral or other event at Trinity, and it is a bit warm, difficult to hear or the lighting is a bit dim, please have patience. Know that our clergy and staff are doing all they can to allocate the manpower and available financial resources to fix these systems as quickly as possible. And if you are on campus and see Mike, James or Ian, please give them a pat on the back and say thanks for the extra effort these past two weeks. Best, John Fay, Senior Warden