Easter Blessings

Dear Beloved of Trinity,

As we draw ever closer to the celebration of the Resurrection, I share with you these beautiful words of Easter blessing from John O’Donohue:

"On this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given. Let us lay down the useless baggage we carry—old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling—and find the courage to begin again.

Life is so short, and we are no sooner here than it is time to go. We must use to the fullest the time we have been given. We often underestimate the good we can do. A kind word, a listening ear, a helping hand—these can be the light someone needs in a time of darkness.

We weren’t put here to chase wealth or status. We are here to seek the light of Easter within our hearts—and once we find it, we are meant to share it freely and generously.

May the spirit and light of this Easter morning … bless us, watch over us, protect us on our journey, and draw us out from the shadows into the light of peace, hope, and transfiguration."

Easter is a miracle, a promise, and a calling. The truth of Easter is a sacred invitation to reawaken our souls to the gift of life and the infinite possibilities before us. The Easter proclamation stirs us from the slumber of indifference, opening our hearts to see the world with renewed wonder—to feel again the joy of simply being alive, and to walk more fully and freely in the way of the Risen Christ.

May we embrace, with joy and renewed spirit, the days before us. And may the light of Easter continue to guide, sustain, and encourage us for the journey yet to come.

Easter Blessings,

Paul

Four Quartets Reading

On Sunday, April 27, Trinity will host a reading of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, probably the greatest religious poem cycle of the 20th century. The readers will be Jakob Wilcoxson, Ada Matthews, and Brit Whittle, with a special guest appearance by Mtr. Kara as the ghost of the "long-dead master" in Little Gidding. The reading, which will last approximately one hour, will begin immediately following Compline. This will be the April activity for the Oasis LGBTQ+ Fellowship. 

Conversation Over Crepes @ Jammin' Crepes

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 4:00 PM 6:00 PM

Jammin' Crepes - 20 Nassau Street (map)

Interested in solutions to rising local homelessness? Join us for Conversation Over Crepes.

Connect with HIP’s Executive Director, Lori Troilo, and HIP Board Members at Jammin’ Crepes to learn how neighbors are helping neighbors avoid eviction, homelessness, and drive systemic change in housing policy.

25% of any purchase during April from 4-6pm (including take out orders) will be donated to HIP’s Eviction Prevention Program and Transitional Housing Program, which provides families in crisis with a path to a permanent home.

Holy Week

Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,

Holy Week invites us to step into the heart of our faith—not as distant observers, but as participants in the mystery of love, suffering, and resurrection. It is a sacred journey that transforms us, not simply through ritual, but through presence. As we walk with Jesus from the palms of triumph to the shadows of the cross, we are called to bring our full selves—our hopes, our griefs, our longings—to the story. This week is not only about remembering what happened long ago; it is about encountering the living Christ here and now, in bread broken, in feet washed, in silence kept, and in light kindled anew. When we fully enter into Holy Week, we are opened to the truth that death is never the end, and love always has the last word. Come—bring your whole heart, and be changed by the grace that unfolds in these holy days.

Peace and Blessings,

Paul

Overnight Vigil

From 8 pm on Maundy Thursday evening to 7 am on Good Friday morning, the reserved sacrament from the Maundy Thursday service will be on the altar in the Lady Chapel. We invite you to spend an hour in prayer with Jesus, who asked his disciples ‘could you not watch with me one hour.’ 

Sign up at the Google link below or in the Narthex: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1li8RNJzYlMZHXMicNtPM7ZtVDrLee3vG4--JoembROU/edit?usp=drivesdk

Reminiscences of Bishop Tuttle

Last week I spent a few wonderful days on a pre-Holy Week vacation in Utah. Back in graduate school, I gave a paper at a conference on Kierkegaard at Brigham Young University, an event which sounds implausible but which really did happen. During that trip I didn’t have time to explore the outdoors, so it was a joy to finally be able to do so. 

While I was there, I started reading a book that I came across quite accidentally: Missionary to the Mountain West: Reminiscences of Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle. Bishop Tuttle was a larger-than-life character in the history of the Episcopal Church. After he was consecrated bishop at the age of only 29, he traveled by train and then by stagecoach into the heart of the American frontier. Establishing his home in Salt Lake City, he served as missionary bishop of the combined area of Utah, Montana, and Idaho. By the time he died in 1923, he had been a bishop for an astonishing 56 years. 

Bishop Tuttle arrived in Salt Lake City only 20 years after Brigham Young saw the Great Salt Lake and exclaimed “This is the place’ to build his theocratic American Zion. When Tuttle established St. Mark’s Cathedral, it was the first non-Mormon religious building in Utah. The Latter-Day Saints knew him as a tireless leader who treated them with respect, even as he vehemently and publicly opposed their theology and practices, particularly the practice of polygamy. 

One might expect this lion of the Church to be supremely self-confident, maybe even egotistical. But he was not. In a bout of loneliness while ministering in a particularly rough Montana mining town, he wrote to his wife: 

Ah, dear, do you not see and know that if I leaned on, or trusted in, this community, or in my large audiences, or in aught human here, I would now be plunged in the lowest deep of despair? It astounds me to think of and realize the breadth and depth of wickedness and vice in which this whole community is steeped.

Nothing but God's Almighty power, with His loving, cheering grace, keeps me patient and courageous, or in fact restrains me from giving up in despair and fleeing Eastward across the mountains, scarcely daring to look behind me, any more than Lot upon the cities of the plain. 

The stories of our faith are full of people like this. They were ordinary people with ordinary fears, yet they relied on God who empowered them to do extraordinary things.  They were also people who were empowered by grace to treat everyone with respect and kindness, even when they profoundly disagreed. 

Our own stories may not be epic Western tales like Bishop Tuttle’s. But each one of us is given the same grace as he was to meet our own difficulties and opportunities. 

Yours in Christ, 

Kara 

PS The book is sadly out of print, but you can request a copy through inter-library loan at the public library. You can also find it online here: 

https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesofm00tuttrich/page/n7/mode/1up

No Oregon Trailblazers this month - Wild West next month

Because our April meeting time falls on Holy Saturday (April 19th), the Oregon Trailblazers won't meet this month. Join us instead for the Easter Vigil at 7 PM. Bishop French will be there and it should be a lot of fun. Of course, our traditional Easter Egg Hunt for kids will be earlier that day at 11 AM. We will meet again on Saturday, May 17 at the usual time (5:30 PM) for our last gathering of the program year. The theme is "Wild West" to celebrate Kara's impending sabbatical in Oklahoma that starts the following Monday! That means tacos, barbecue, or anything else you think might work. Stay tuned for a signup later on. 

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