The Future Begins Today!

Dear Trinity Family,

It’s that season again — the time when we, the people of Trinity, turn our hearts and attention toward how we can support our beloved church in the year to come through our gifts of time, talent, and treasure.

Stewardship is a vital part of maintaining a healthy and thriving community. It’s about more than just financial giving — it’s an investment of our hearts, our energy, and our faith in the mission and ministry we share.

Below you’ll find a letter from our stewardship co-chairs, Bill Hackett and Cindy Westbrook. We are deeply blessed to have these two faithful leaders guiding us in this year’s effort.

Please take a moment to read their letter prayerfully, and to consider how you might support the ongoing work and witness of our beloved Trinity Church.

The Future begins today!

Peace and blessings to all,

Paul+

The World as We Know It… Is Ending

Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,

A week or so ago, the clergy of the Diocese of New Jersey gathered in Toms River for our annual Fall Clergy Conference—two and a half days of learning, reflection, and fellowship with Bishop French and the Rev. Gay Jennings, former President of the House of Deputies and member of the Presiding Bishop’s staff.

One recurring theme throughout our time together was that we can no longer live with a status quo mindset. “Business as usual” is no longer sustainable. The world around us is changing—rapidly—and these changes compel us to make intentional choices about how we live out our ministries in an ever-evolving society.

One of the phrases that framed our discussions was:

“The world as we know it is ending.”

In truth, that’s been the case since the beginning of time. The world is always changing. Yet, today, the pace and scope of that change are unlike anything humanity has ever experienced. Transformation that once unfolded over centuries or decades now happens in years, months, even weeks. New ideas, technologies, and global connections are reshaping our lives at an unprecedented rate.

So how do we live faithfully in such a rapidly changing world—anchored in the timeless truth of the Gospel?

With that question in mind, I invite you to join me this Sunday during our Adult Forum for a conversation shaped by six questions adapted from our clergy discussions. My hope is that this conversation will help us deepen our shared understanding and prepare us thoughtfully and prayerfully as we approach our Annual Meeting on November 9.

We need to be intentional, prayerful, and proactive as we discern together the future of our ministry at Trinity.

Here are the questions we’ll explore:

  1. What do we need from each other?

  2. What do you need from your clergy?

  3. What do the clergy and leadership of Trinity Church need from you?

  4. How can we best support one another?

  5. What would be the signs of a strong community and a strong church?

  6. What is our fundamental job as the Body of Christ?

The world as we know it is ending—and we have a vital role to play in what is being created anew. Filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered by God’s love, and sustained by God’s grace, we are invited to help shape the world that is coming into being.

And that, my friends, is exciting.

Forward in Faith!

Paul+

Hospitality

Dear People of Trinity Church,

Recently, I’ve been spending time with Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. One section that especially caught my attention is titled “Reaching Out to Our Fellow Human Beings.” In it, Nouwen reflects deeply on the biblical idea of hospitality—“one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight into our relationships with our fellow human beings.”

Nouwen offers a powerful reimagining of what hospitality truly means. It is so much more than simply welcoming a stranger. He writes, “The Dutch use the word gastvrijheid, which means the freedom of the guest.”

Hospitality, Nouwen explains, “means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom undisturbed by dividing lines. It is not to lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left, but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and commitment. It is not an educated intimidation with good books, good stories, and good works, but the liberation of fearful hearts so that words can take root and bear fruit.”

Hospitality, then, is a way of liberation—for both the host and the guest, the one who welcomes and the one who is welcomed. It frees us from our preconceived notions, prejudices, and suspicions. It opens our hearts and minds to the possibility that something new and wonderful might happen in the space between us.

True hospitality says not, “Come, and you will become one of us,” but rather, “Come, and together we will discover something new.” It creates a space in which truth and grace, diversity and unity, can coexist. In that space, we begin to see one another not as strangers but as bearers of gifts to be shared—gifts that bless both giver and receiver.

In this particular season of our church’s life—and in our national life—may we practice this liberating, life-giving hospitality. May we rediscover the freedom that bears the fruit of love, community, grace, and healing.

Peace and Blessings,

Paul+

BRAHMS REQUIEM

 

MASS FOR ALL SOULS' DAY

Featuring the Complete Brahms Requiem

Join us in remembering departed loved ones in an evening of beautiful liturgy, sublime choral music, and peaceful contemplation.

Featuring the Choirs of Trinity Church

Noël McCormick, Soprano

Connor Martin Lidell, Baritone

Dr. Margaret Harper, Director

Joseph Ferguson, Organist

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE

 

The Joy of Beauty

It’s that most wonderful time of the year here in Princeton, when the leaves begin to turn, the weather gets cool, and the radiance of fall is all around us. This time of year lends itself well to quiet contemplation, to thinking more deeply about our world – which is in the first instance God’s world. For me, it’s a time to revel in the beauty of creation and the joy of being a creature in relationship with God.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about beauty and the role it plays (or doesn’t play) in our culture, especially after reading a marvelous interview between Peter Wehner and the novelist and nonfiction writer Marilynne Robinson. Robinson is, I think, our greatest living chronicler of the dignity of humanity as God’s creatures – a humanist in the classic sense.

Here’s a link to the article, which I commend to you enthusiastically. (I hope the gift link doesn’t die…) 

Our contemporary culture, Robinson says, has fallen into a functionalist and materialist aesthetic sensibility, so that anything that points at beauty and the soul is seen as somehow untrue or – at best –an unnecessary luxury:

“It’s like we have made beauty into something falsified. Calvin says there is not a blade of grass that God created that was not meant to ravish us with its beauty. The idea of the beautiful is a signature of God, I think for Calvin and Jonathan Edwards and many other people. This distillation of the joy, the sensory joy, of being among things in the world.”

Despite any cultural claims to the contrary, we live in an enchanted world, shot through with the glory of God and the fellowship of human souls both living and in that “great cloud of witnesses” who rejoice in God’s nearer presence. The spiritual aspects of life are as real (or more real) than the material. As Robinson puts it, the enchantment of the world is “reality clearly perceived.” She continues, “I think God enchanted things and it is for us to acknowledge the fact.”

In this beautiful season of the year in our community, I pray that you will find time to slow down, take a breath, and look for those signatures of God in the enchanted world all around us.

Yours in Christ,

Kara+

Travel to the Holy Land

Spirited Pilgrimages

A couple of years back, some members of Trinity Church traveled with our Rector, Paul Jeanes, and The Rev. Keith Marsh and to the Holy Land.

It proved to be a marvelous and spiritually uplifting experience for all who made the pilgrimage! After retiring in June of 2023, Keith started Spirited Pilgrimages, a business devoted to planning, promoting and hosting unique, small-group pilgrimages around the world for people of faith.

Two pilgrimages have been planned for the fall of next year and you are invited to join: 

  • The Footsteps of Paul – September 9-19, 2026 – travel through Turkey and Greece by land and sea - visit sites from the Book of Acts associated with St. Paul on his missionary journeys: Ephesus, Patmos, Corinth, Athens and more, including the islands of Crete and Santorini  

  • Celtic Christianity – October 12-24, 2026 – follow the path of Christianity’s early years in the Celtic kingdoms, beginning in Ireland and expanding into Scotland and northern England – trace the spread of Celtic Christianity from its introduction by St. Patrick to its demise at the Council of Whitby.

These pilgrimages will be led by Keith, an experienced pilgrimage planner and host. To learn more about these two all-inclusive pilgrimages – expansive itinerary, roundtrip airfare, lodging and meal details, price and deadlines, as well as how to reserve your spot – visit the Spirited Pilgrimages website at: spiritedpilgrimages.com

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