May 2020 Vestry COVID-19 Response

Dear Trinity Family,

Friday, May 22, 2020

Greetings from your Senior and Junior wardens! We write to you today with gratitude for the bonds of affection that hold and strengthen us day to day right now, as well as to offer brief update about next steps in our common life.

Lisa and the entire Trinity staff have worked faithfully and diligently in new and unchartered waters since we all gathered last together on the second Sunday of March.

Since then they, along with the help of all of us, have pivoted in such a way that we now have record numbers of people joining us on Sunday morning for our 10:00 worship service and then throughout the week as we continue to explore and expand our new “branding” of ministry we call Trinity@Home. As of today, here are all the wonderful ways we are reaching out and connecting with each other as well as inviting new friends among us: ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨

10:00am Sunday Worship (followed by 11:00 Virtual Coffee Hour) 9:00pm Tuesday Evening Exhale 7:00pm Wednesday Lectio Divina Bible Study 7:00pm Canterbury Choir Check in & Practice 9:00pm Friday Compline Prayer Service Daily Bread- Prayer & Assistance submission Form Trinity Card Guild- sending out handwritten cards Sacred Ground- Beginning in June- Adult Formation opportunity TBD- Coming Soon Children’s Evening Story & Prayer Time

In addition to these on-going events our staff, vestry and committees continue to meet virtually to ensure our faithful stewardship of the resources and temporal responsibilities for which we have responsibility.

We pray you are as deeply appreciative as we are for our community’s courageous and creative expressions of faith and leadership during this season of ministry together.

While much in the days ahead remain uncertain, there are 3 particular updates we would like to share with you today: 1. Community Engagement & Aid Task Force: A handful of staff and members will be gathering virtually next week to resume our on-going conversation answering the question Lisa posed to us last week: “What Would Love Do?” in terms of how we might find new and necessary ways to be evermore engaged and responding to the needs of our Toledo community. After this small group meets to generate some initial ideas to explore opportunities we will circle back and ask for more hands and hearts to join us.

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2. Shift to Recurring Giving: Over the course of the past 3 years the staff vestry leadership have worked diligently to select and implement software upgrades to streamline and strengthen all of our internal systems related to membership, finances and giving. Over the past year we rolled out the opportunity to move individuals and families to our on-live giving platform. Our goal then and now includes signing up as many as possible as recurring giving in order to increase your ability to stay faithful to your pledge of financial support, and our ability to receive the funds we depend upon for ministry. In the days ahead you will be contacted with more information on how to make that shift if you have not already.

3. 3 Phase Plan to In-Person Parish Life for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio: Some of you may already have seen earlier this week a letter with accompanying documents from our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr. and diocesan staff. This coming Tuesday (5/26), Lisa and your vestry will have their monthly meeting and we will together discuss and discern the right next steps for Trinity.

We can tell you after continued conversation with Lisa, we are confident our plan and decisions for Trinity will indeed made in light our faithful and moral responsibility to love our neighbor as ourselves. We also remain grateful that throughout the document each congregation is given the latitude to make their own decisions affording us the ability to air on the side of caution and prudent and well-paced steps. We suspect we will have more to say after next week and thank you for your patience as we travel this next step together.

Finally, while we look forward to the day when we get to sit down and write to tell you when and how we will “re-open� for in-person worship and large group gatherings, but we are simply not there yet. We also know our plans for any movement forward back into the building must include the very real possibility that the current situation will continue for many months and/or until a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, scientifically proven to be safe and effective, and universally available. Like all of you, we fervently hope that day comes sooner rather than later. In the meantime, please join us in finding the many ways we have to stay connected as well as helping us look for new ways in the days ahead to love our neighbors as our selves.

We welcome any questions, comments or suggestions you may have in the days ahead.

Please feel free to contact either of us (email addresses?) We are so blessed to be in these positions of leadership at this time as it affords us the opportunity to be with you, the staff, the vestry in ways that are surprisingly life-giving and full of the power of the Holy Spirit.

The building may be closed, but our church is wide open. Thanks be to God! Faithfully, Donna Steppe, Senior Warden Roberta Durham, Junior Warden

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