Youth-led Evening Prayer
Service Saturday at Arm In Arm
Saturday, April 1, 2023
from 10am–12:30pm
at Mill One in Hamilton
We are seeking a group of Trinity volunteers to help pack grocery bags for Arm in Arm’s mobile pantry food truck distribution throughout Trenton. Arm in Arm, one of Trinity’s local ministry partners, delivers food to several sites in Trenton to communities where there is great need. This service day is suitable for adults and families with children 8 years and older. It is a great way for teens to get community service credits for school.
We will be working inside at their Mill One location in Hamilton and there is ample off-street parking. We will gather on the circle at Trinity Church by 9:30am and can drive down to Mill One together. If you need a ride please let us know.
Please contact Phil Unetic at phil.unetic@gmail.com or 609-844-0801 if you would like to join!
From the Holy Land
Sunrise Eucharist in the desert
To the good people of Trinity in Princeton,
I always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in my prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father our work of faith and labor of steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Trinity pilgrims arrived safe and sound in the Holy Land! Our days have been filled with sights and sounds, people and landscapes that have truly been a blessing from God. We have joined with thousands and thousands of other pilgrims who have come from every corner of God’s creation to this beloved and sacred land. We, and they, come seeking insight, healing, courage, and guidance. Together, we come to experience, as we say each Sunday, “an encounter with the Holy One, the Risen One – the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Yesterday, we traveled to the desert for a sunrise eucharist. We then continued on to Jericho, the Mount of Temptation, and finally to Nazareth to visit the Basilica of the Annunciation.
Mount of Temptation
The Basilica of the Annunciation, Exterior
The Basilica of the Annunciation, Interior
On Thursday morning, we departed at 7am make our way to the River Jordan to renew our Baptismal Vows and then off to Capernaum, Peter’s house, the Mount of Beatitudes, and a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.
Renewal of Baptismal Vows at the River Jordan
Capernaum and St. Peter’s House
The Mount of Beatitudes
Holy Eucharist on the shore of the Sea of Galilee
A boat ride of the Sea of Galilee
Each day has been an opportunity for blessing. Each moment offers the possibility of something sacred, transformative, and life-giving.
As we continue on our journey, I bid your prayers. May our travels be safe, our relationships enriched, and our faith renewed.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Peace & blessings to all!
The Rev. Paul Jeanes III, Rector
This Is My Body
On Wednesday, we gathered to begin our Lent series on being human in the body of Christ. It was a wonderful evening with an enthusiastic group, and we enjoyed an excellent dinner thanks to our intrepid Vestry. If you missed last week, please do join us next time. In our program, we began by talking about the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist that we receive every Sunday, and what this might tell us about our own lives as human beings who are body-havers and not merely brains in jars.
Christian history is littered with examples of heretics who taught that only the spirit is good, while material creation is somehow evil. But when God created, God named that creation good. And God comes to us not as an idea, or as a concept, or as a nebulous presence, but as a child - as the Word made flesh. And that taking-on of our fleshly nature shows us God’s care for all of us, not just part of who we are, because God meets us where we are.
The logic of the incarnation is also the logic of the sacraments, where God promises to meet us in material stuff - in water, bread, wine - and impart grace through them. In his wonderful book Why Sacraments, our CTI friend Andrew Davison writes this:
Why should we bother with the sacraments? Well, why would God bother with them? The answer is that God thought it fitting to reach human beings in a human way. Calvin approached this with his idea of ‘accommodation’: in his action towards us, God accommodates himself to what we are.
He continues by quoting the 20th century Anglican mystic Evelyn Underhill, who wrote:
In the Eucharist (as in other sacraments) God the Supernatural seeks man [and woman, of course] by natural vehicles and lowly ways, and man, the creature of the borderland, makes his small response by the same means … and thus man learns to recognise the constant mysterious intermingling, yet utter distinctness, of his natural and supernatural life.
Because we are creatures who encounter the world through our five senses, that is how God encounters us. As sacrament-shaped people, we regularly meet God in the places where God has promised to be. And then, we are sent out as those who are ready to see God at work in the world around us and to share the news of what God is up to.
Will you meet me this Sunday where God has promised to meet you?
In Christ,
The Rev. Cn. Dr. Kara Slade, Associate Rector
A Letter from the Rev. Joanne Epply-Schmidt
Dear Friends,
It is with fullness of heart that I write to announce that I will be retiring from Trinity Church in mid-June of this year.
It has been a great joy to have served as Associate Rector at Trinity, and I am deeply grateful to Our Lord and to you all for extending to me such kindness, support, and love throughout these six years.
Sharing and growing together in our faith in Jesus Christ through the joys and challenges of this time has been an honor for me, and is a gift I will hold in my heart and will carry forward in all my ministry to come.
Trinity is a vital and thriving church growing in meaningful and exciting ways, and it has been a privilege to serve among you in this vibrant community in Christ. I will miss all of you as I set out for a new phase in my ministry and my family’s life.
Faithfully in Christ,
The Rev. Joanne Epply-Schmidt
Associate Rector
Trinity Church
Doubt, Our Faithful Companion
Our faith journey can be somewhat circuitous. In fact, it is, more often than not, a very circuitous journey. We seldom, if ever, take the most direct route to God. Our path is winding and twisting. It sometimes leads us to dead-ends, and other times we journey for years only to find ourselves back in the exact place we started. The life of faith is not easy. It ebbs and flows. There are seasons of abundance and scarcity, times of nourishing rain, and devastating drought.
But what do we do in times of scarcity and want, confusion and doubt? Our beloved Nancy Hagner sent me a book by Brian D. McLaren, Faith after Doubt. A lifelong Christian, pastor, teacher, and author, McLaren noted that we don’t often know what to do when our faith seems to fail us. What do we do when suddenly we find ourselves questioning and doubting? What does it mean? What’s wrong with me? Is my faith not strong enough?
McLaren points out that doubt is an essential part of faith, “eventually, I came to realize that doubt was a companion, every bit as resilient and persistent as faith, and she wasn’t going away. I realized that she had some things to teach me, and I decided since I couldn’t shut her up or drive her away, I might as well learn from her. She’s turned out to be a tough but effective teacher and a difficult but faithful friend.”
Let’s face it, what we believe is hard to believe. Theologian Paul Tillich writes, “Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith … Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.” In our state of “blessed unrest,” we must allow ourselves the freedom to inquire, explore, and wrestle with our faith. I believe that the Holy Spirit is fully alive and at work in our doubts leading us to new and previously unexperienced and unexpected places on our journey, offering the possibility of growth and understanding on our way to greater spiritual maturity.
Forward we go, fellow sojourners, with honesty about what we believe and where we struggle and question and doubt, trusting fully that God is at work!
Peace and blessings,
The Rev. Paul Jeanes III, Rector
Announcing Search for Trinity’s Next Music Director
Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
— Psalm 81:1-2
Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,
I bring you good news! Our Music Search Committee is hard at work and the process is well underway.
For nearly one hundred and ninety years, Trinity Church has been a beacon of faith, hope, and love in the very heart of Princeton. We are in an Episcopal congregation in the Diocese of New Jersey devoted to striking, spirit-filled worship in the Anglican prayer book and choral traditions, lifelong Christian formation and fellowship, and the care and comfort of those most in need in our community and in the world, always aspiring to be a visible and tangible sign of Christ’s ineffable love.
We welcome all people, regardless of gender, race, age, culture, ethnic background, sexual orientation, economic circumstance, family configuration, or difference of ability. We celebrate the worth, dignity, and gifts of every person as a child of God and invite all into the full life of the church.
I offer my sincere thanks to our team of both Trinity members and community partners who are faithfully and prayerfully dedicated to this important work.
Matthew Baglio
Carol Burden
Gabriel Crouch
Cheryl Evans
Barbara Gonzalez-Palmer
Andrea Hyde
Mark McConnell
Eric Plutz
Wesley Rowell
Iris Sikma
Trudy Sykes
Cindy Westbrook
Mike Williams
Co-Chairs: Leslie Edwards and Clancy Rowley
I bid your prayers for all involved that we will indeed be open to the Spirit’s leading, as we live into this next season of our common life together as the people of Trinity Church.
Forward in Faith!
In Christ,
The Rev. Paul Jeanes III, Rector
From the Search Committee
Dear members and friends of Trinity Church,
We are writing to provide an update from the Search Committee for the Trinity Director of Music. The Search Committee began work in December with the recruitment of members and the development of an aggressive timeline in which to complete the search. Members have worked together to draft a job description that has been carefully and thoroughly reviewed and was published this week and can be viewed on the Trinity website.
At the same time, we have developed a survey for stakeholders: congregation members, past and present choir members, and those who are deeply invested in the music program at Trinity Church Princeton. The results of the survey will guide our selection of potential candidates, inform our interview process, and be considered in the work of the music program steering committee once a candidate has been selected.
The survey has eight questions and is available online, as a PDF that can be printed and returned to the church, and in paper format, available starting Sunday, February 19 before and after all services.
It is our goal to be as open and transparent in the process as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact any of the members of the search committee.
With gratitude for this opportunity,
Leslie Edwards & Clancy Rowley
on behalf of the Director of Music Search Committee:
Matthew Baglio, Carol Burden, Gabriel Crouch, Cheryl Evans, Barbara Gonzalez-Palmer, Andrea Hyde, Mark McConnell, Eric Plutz, Wesley Rowell, Iris Sikma, Trudy Sykes, Cindy Westbrook, and Mike Williams