Happy Derby Day from Fr. Paul!
Sabbatical
IN GRATITUDE: REMEMBER, REFLECT, AND RENEW
Journeying Through the Seasons of Life with Christ and One Another
Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit.
Give us inquiring and discerning hearts,
the courage to will and to persevere,
a spirit to know and to love you,
and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.
Amen.
Dear Good People of Trinity,
Tomorrow, I will drive to Kentucky and spend a few days with my mother before heading to the Abbey of Gethsemane for a week-long silent retreat. Upon my return, there will be a couple of days to prepare before my family and I embark on our exciting adventure to Kenya.
I am deeply grateful for the gift of this time away. I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked so hard to prepare the grant proposal and the subsequent planning and preparation that made this opportunity possible.
I was profoundly moved on Sunday by your kind words and gestures, sending forth me and my family with great love and support. What a blessing it is to serve as your rector!
With gratitude and love,
Sabbatical: Comprehensive Campaign
In Gratitude: Remember, Reflect, and Renew
Journeying Through the Seasons of Life with Christ and One Another
Dear Good People of Trinity,
This Sunday will be my last Sunday before I embark on my sabbatical. As I shared in our two recent forums, during my time away I will be inviting you to join me for a period of remembering, reflection, and renewal. Together, we will spend time in sacred remembering, as we recall seasons past and how God has been present in the realities of our lives. We will then spend time reflecting on how God is at work in our hearts and souls in this present season. Finally, we will open ourselves to the renewing of our hearts, bodies, minds, and spirits to prepare us for the path and purpose that God will set before us.
In the months ahead, let us embrace the interconnectedness of our lives and faith as fellow pilgrims on the way. To guide us during this time, I offer a prayer adapted from our baptismal liturgy.
“Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us inquiring and discerning hearts, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.”
I extend my sincere thanks for your loving and faithful support these past 16 years and for the gift of this Sabbath time with my family. It is with great anticipation and promise that we enter this time to see how God will work in all of us to prepare us for what is yet to come. Indeed, what a blessing it is journeying through the seasons of life with Christ and one another!
Peace and Blessings to all,
Paul
P.S. Please review the attached materials, which will explain in more detail what will be happening over the summer during the sabbatical. There is also a video/audio of our Sunday morning forum which will offer much greater detail about my plans during the sabbatical and my invitation to the parish to join me in a season of prayerful discernment. This video/audio will also speak to the role of the Munshine Group which is helping us understand and access our current reality, as we chart our course for the future.
The Art of Pilgrimage
Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,
As the days to my sabbatical draw ever closer, I ready myself for this sacred season that awaits. Much preparation and planning has been done for sure, but I know that it’s the unexpected things along the way that will be the most nourishing, challenging, and life-giving.
Phil Cousineau, in his book, The Art of Pilgrimage writes, “For millennia, [the] cry in the heart for embarking upon a meaningful journey, has been answered by pilgrimage, a transformative journey to a sacred center.” Our lives are most definitely “a transformative journey to a sacred center.” Holy travel across the seasons of our lives. And we take this sacred journey together.
Cousineau continues on to say, “With the roads to the exalted places we all want to visit more crowded than ever, we look more and more but see less and less. But we don’t need more gimmicks and gadgets; all we need to do is reimagine the way we travel. If we truly want to know the secret of soulful travel, we need to believe that there is something secret waiting to be discovered in virtually every journey.”
As we enter the months ahead, I invite us to reimagine the way we travel. I invite us to reimagine the way we live, the way we pray, the way we serve, and the way we love. I invite us to give ourselves the freedom to discover something secret, something sacred, something holy. And to remind ourselves to not simply look at the world around us, but to open our hearts and souls, so that we may truly see the wonderful gifts that God has in store for us. May we see with the eyes of the heart.
I invite you to join me this Sunday, and again on Tuesday evening for a more in-depth conversation (more information in the article below), as we prepare to embark on this pilgrimage that together we may indeed discover the sacred art of soulful living.
Peace and Blessings on the way,
Paul
Invitation to Parish Conversation
Dear Good People of Trinity,
As mentioned at the Annual Meeting, Trinity Church is the recipient of a grant from the 2023 National Clergy Renewal Program. Trinity was selected as part of a competitive grant submission process, which is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and administered by Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. Established by the Endowment in 2000, the program’s grants allow Christian congregations to support their pastors with the gift of extended time away from their ministerial duties and responsibilities.
The last Sunday before the sabbatical begins will be April 28th. David Schneider, our Senior Warden, and I would like to invite you to a conversation to discuss what will happen over the course of the next few months as we move into the fall and then begin to form and implement a comprehensive plan for the future of Trinity Church. There will be two gatherings to discuss the exciting possibilities before us.
• Sunday, April 21st at 9:30 am in Pierce-Bishop Hall
• Tuesday, April 23rd at 6:30 pm in Pierce-Bishop Hall
This is a most exciting time in the life of our Church. Your prayers, presence, and participation are of utmost importance as we embark on this journey together. Forward in faith! We are Trinity Church!
Peace and Blessings to all,
Paul
I AM the Alpha and the Omega
Dear Beloved Ones,
Earlier this week, I had the chance to be in New York for the morning, and I took the opportunity to go by The General Theological Seminary. I sat in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd and turned back the clock 28 years. As the weeks draw ever closer to the beginning of my sabbatical, I found those few moments in the Chapel to be profoundly meaningful. I sat in the same spot where I would sit for Morning and Evening Prayer during my Anglican Studies year in the fall of ’96 and spring of ’97. I walked up and stood in the pulpit where I preached my “Senior Sermon” and sat in the officiant’s seat, where I led Evening Prayer for the first time.
As I was sitting there, I couldn’t believe how fast the time had gone. I remember as if it were yesterday, the day that Christina and I drove into the city in a U-Haul truck that was much larger than we needed, but it was the only truck they had. I remember our excitement as new friends helped us move our belongings into the apartment on a scorching day in August.
On our first night, we slept on a futon in the front room because we wanted to look at the Empire State Building, which we could see clearly from the window. We couldn’t believe that we were living in New York. What an amazing year it was!
During the spring term, I was tired and needed a break. A friend who had studied at Princeton Theological Seminary invited me to “get out of town for an excursion to Princeton.” I had never been and immediately took her up on the offer. We got off the Dinky and walked up Alexander, and our first stop was Trinity Church. The doors to the church were open for all to enter, just as they are today. We walked in and sat for a time of quiet and prayer. After looking around a bit, we stood before the central altar and then left for a walk around town. I had no idea that 11 years later, I would have the sacred gift and privilege of being your rector. What an amazing and blessed journey it has been. I still can’t believe it.
All of this is merely an introduction to what may seem like a rather insignificant insight. As I sat in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, I looked to the wall above the altar and saw what I had seen a thousand times before - Λ and Ω with a beautiful stained-glass window in between.
All of our lives, all of our beginnings and all of our endings, and everything in between are held within the embrace of the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Every second, every breath, all of our days and nights, all of the seasons, and all of the years of our lives are part of the ongoing story of God and God’s people. We are a part of the sacred tapestry, song, poem, painting, sculpture, and story that is the artistry of the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of all that was and all that ever will be. How fast it goes! How fragile it can be. How precious it is! How sacred a gift!
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Rev. 22:13)
Easter Blessings to all!
Paul
He is risen, He is risen!
Dear Friends,
This Sunday, we will gather to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate the truth of God’s love. A love that created the universe, a love that holds us and sustains us, and a love that will not leave us in the darkness of the grave but breaks the chains of death and sorrow to set us free to Easter life and joy.
Our closing hymn, He is risen, he is risen!, beautifully articulates our Easter hope and our Easter call.
He is risen, he is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered; man is free.
Christ has won the victory.
Trusting in the truth of the resurrection and the victory we have in Christ, we are to “Tell it out with joyful voice” so that all the world might know the Easter message.
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday as we gather with our siblings in Christ from around the globe to celebrate the victory over death and our freedom from the bondage of sin … for Christ has won the victory
Easter Blessings,
Palm Sunday
Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,
As we prepare to begin our Holy Week Journey, I share with you excerpts from a reflection by Fred Buechner, originally published in A Room Called Remember.
When Jesus of Nazareth rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his followers cried out, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord," the Pharisees went to Jesus and told him to put an end to their blasphemies, and Jesus said to them, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."
King Jesus, we offer all churches to you as you offer them to us. Make thyself known in them. Make thy will done in them. Make our stone hearts cry out thy kingship. Make us holy and human at last that we may do the work of thy love.
We live in trying times. We live in a season when the church and the prophetic Word of God are desperately needed. We live in a time when church attendance is declining, and its relevance is questioned. We live in a time when many say, "put an end to [the] blasphemies." But the message of the Gospel cannot be silenced, and even if we lose heart and find our voices muted, the very stones will cry out with praises and shouts of joy! They would proclaim a word of liberation and Easter life.
As we walk these holy days, may we offer ourselves fully to the redemptive story of God's love shown to us in Jesus. May God be known through us! May God's will be done in us! May our stone hearts cry out the power of God! And finally, may we be made holy and human to do the work of LOVE!
Peace and blessings to all,
Paul