Thank you to the fifteen Trinity volunteers who came out on a cold, snowy morning to help sort and stock food donations at Arm and Arm in Hamilton Township last Saturday. Arm in Arm is one of Trinity's core non-profit partners providing shelter, food and other services to individuals and families in Mercer County.
Show Up and Say Yes
Last weekend, I had the honor of preaching at the ordination of Garrett Lane to the Sacred Order of Priests. Garrett is a Princeton Seminary graduate who is now serving at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Waco, TX. (Ironically enough, one of Meg’s former students is the Organ Scholar at St. Alban’s, so the Trinity ties abound!) Ordinations, like weddings, are events where overwhelming joy comes along with nervous anticipation. Is everything going to go right? Is everyone going to get here OK? What on earth am I signing myself up for?
After the rehearsal, I told Garrett the same thing that I tell all my students: All you have to do at this point is show up and say yes.
That message was especially appropriate this weekend, as Saturday was the commemoration of St. Fabian in the church calendar. In 236 AD, Fabian was hanging out in the crowd and watching during the election of a new Pope. The historian Eusebius describes the scene this way in his Ecclesiastical History: “when the brethren were all assembled for the purpose of appointing him who should succeed to the episcopate, and very many notable and distinguished persons were in the thoughts of many, Fabian, who was there, came into nobody’s mind. But all of a sudden… a dove flew down from above and settled on his head… whereupon the whole people, as if moved by one divine inspiration, with all eagerness and with one soul cried out “worthy,” and without more ado took him and placed him on the episcopal throne.”
To summarize, a pigeon landed on a random guy’s head, so they made him Pope. Fabian showed up, and when the call came he said “yes” to the whole thing – and to God.
Even though Fabian wasn’t even a priest when he was elected Pope, he turned out to be an able administrator, dividing the churches in Rome into districts supervised by deacons. He sent seven bishops out as apostle to the Gauls. He worked against the emergence of new heresies. And most importantly, he was known for his holiness of life – a life that ended in prison during the persecutions of the emperor Decius.
We might not think we’re qualified to serve God, and we may not think we “have what it takes” to do a particular ministry, whether in the church or outside of it. But God chooses. God calls. And God is the one who makes all of our work – as clergy and as lay people - possible.
Where is God calling you to show up today? Are you ready to say yes?
Yours in Christ,
Kara
P.S. See below for a photo gallery from my trip
Seeking Justice
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how we as a Church (both big C and little c) see ourselves and our mission in the world. The world is on literally and figuratively on fire and what are we supposed to do about it?
I recently took the General Ordination Exams (GOE) for The Episcopal Church. Writing the GOEs are a requirement for the priesthood in The Episcopal Church, as well as a rite of institutional passage. There are 6 essay questions taken over 3 days, with 3.5 hours allotted for each answer. It's grueling, but it can also be illuminating, fun, and a bit dangerous.
The first question of the second day was the Church History question, and we were instructed to profile 2 Episcopal Bishops, one modern (consecrated after 1945) and one historical (consecrated between 1810-1880), and to reflect on how our 2 examples could inform a newly elected Bishop today.
As a relatively new Episcopalian, I was excited to dig deeper into our history, and decided to research and report on an anti-slavery, abolitionist Bishop. Imagine my dismay and distress upon discovering there wasn't a single one. Not even one. I already knew that The Episcopal Church was the only major Christian denomination that did not split during the Civil War. I already knew that The Episcopal Church's complicity created deep wounds that we are still healing. And I know it’s quite possible that, given my research limitations, I might have missed something or someone. But for some reason, finding not a single Bishop who was courageous enough to speak out against the horrors of slavery stunned me into silence and sadness and rage. And into a writer's block that lasted an hour, before I managed to cobble together an answer that wasn't, by my own standards, sufficient.
צֶדֶק (tzedek), the Hebrew word for justice, appears over 400 times in the Old Testament, and it is crystal clear that God requires us to "Do justice and love mercy." Even when it's not convenient; perhaps especially when it's not convenient. When Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968, he had a disapproval rating of 75%. His disapproval rating was even high among African-Americans, partly because of his increasing outspokenness against the Vietnam war. MLK paid the price for the courage of his convictions with his life. And so did Jesus.
"My Bishop '' ended up being Bishop William White of Philadelphia, who was the first and fourth Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. Bishop White ordained Absalom Jones, the first Black man ordained in The Episcopal Church, in 1795, and was committed to the American Revolutionary cause. And although Bishop White was a bright light in my sea of despair, I was unable to use him in my essay because his consecration did not happen during the stated rubric of the exam question. But he gave me hope.
This is my cue to ask myself, and to ask you to ask yourself, "What do I believe and what or who am I willing to stand up for?" Our passions, our beliefs, our truths are required. Whatever the issues, whatever the needs, be they local, national, or international, we are the hands and feet of God in this world.
Jesus said "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed." (Luke 4:18)
We as a parish, as a beloved community, have everything we need to make a difference in the world. Our Eucharistic Prayer says that we present our entire selves as a living sacrifice to God. My prayer is we all, in every way we can, continually seek out and do צֶדֶק
The Power to Bless
Dear Beloved Ones of Trinity Church,
This past week, I found myself re-reading John O’Donohue’s classic work To Bless the Space Between Us, a wonderful collection of poems and soulful wisdom. Toward the end of the book, he has a section called “Preparing the Space for Blessing.”
“When a blessing is being invoked, time deepens until it becomes a source from which refreshment and encouragement are released. As Yeats says: Feeling I was blessed and that I now too could bless.
Whenever one person takes another into the care of their heart, they have the power to bless. There are things we never do simply because it never occurs to us that we can do that. To bless someone is to offer a beautiful gift. When we love someone, we turn toward them with our souls. And the soul itself is a source of blessing.” (p.207)
In the Examination portion in the liturgy for the Ordination of a Priest, it says, “You are to preach, to declare God’s forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform other ministrations entrusted to you.” (BCP, p.531)
Within the liturgies and sacramental rites of the Church, priests are given the privilege and responsibility of pronouncing blessing, but I pray that you never underestimate your power to bless. We are created in and through God’s blessing and love. That reality is the ground of our being and the true essence of our humanity, wonderfully restored and animated in the waters of baptism.
One does not need to raise their hand and make the sign of the cross invoking the trinitarian formula of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to bestow blessing. When you listen with compassion, see the truth of someone’s pain, speak words of tenderness and truth, open your heart and soul to another, and reach out your hands to serve and care - you offer a blessing. You become a living, breathing, loving blessing!
O’Donohue goes on to say, “Perhaps we bless one another all the time, without even realizing it.” (p.209) This offers us the possibility of a life “infused with blessing.” And this, dear ones, changes us, changes the world, changes everything.
Peace and blessings to all!
Forum This Sunday
Over the next two weeks, our Adult Forum will explore immigration and the lives of immigrants. Our forum this Sunday will be a talk by Professor Leah Boustan of the Department of Economics at Princeton University. Prof. Boustan is most recently the author (with Ran Abramitzky) of Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success. She is the co-director of the Development of the American Economy Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and serves as the co-editor at the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. An Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in 2012 and winner of the IZA Young Labor Economists Award in 2019, she is also an active member of the Jewish Center of Princeton.
We Announce...
In the early Church, one job of the bishop was to calculate the date of Easter each year and transmit that information to every priest. It’s one duty that Bishop French is happily freed from, although she might prefer that to processing the pile of email she receives every day! Because written calendars were rare, and because few laypeople could read, the priest would in turn announce the date of Easter to the congregation. The Noveritis (Latin for “we announce”) was chanted at the Eucharist on the feast of the Epiphany. It was an appropriate time to do this, as the liturgical calendar moved from seasons governed by the fixed date of Christmas to seasons governed by the movable date of Easter.
At our Epiphany service (5 PM this Saturday), I will read the Noveritis for 2024 and announce the date of Easter to the people of Trinity Church. Why do this in an age where we have calendars on our phones as well as on our walls? Besides than the fact that I think ancient practices like this are fun, it’s above all a reminder of how central the Resurrection is to our life as a Church. Every year revolves around Easter, and every Sunday is a feast of the Resurrection of our Lord. We live our lives as Christians illumined by the light of Christ that is kindled every Easter.
I hope to see you on Saturday evening! Not only will you find out when Easter is happening, you will also hear some wonderful music from the choir - and you can take home some chalk to bless the door of your house. But in case you can’t make it, here is this year’s text:
Epiphany Proclamation 2024
Dear friends, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us, and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return. Through the rhythms of times and seasons let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall the year’s culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord: his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising celebrated between the evening of the twenty-eighth day of March and the evening of the thirtieth day of March, Easter Day being on the thirty-first day of March.
Each Easter — as on each Sunday — the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death. From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the fourteenth day of February.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the ninth day of May.
Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the nineteenth day of May.
And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the first day of December.
Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of Christ in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints, and in the commemoration of the faithful departed. To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history, be endless praise, for ever and ever. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Kara
Blessing of the Plough
Monday, January 8 at 6 PM: Blessing of the Plough for Plough Monday.
The Blessing of the Plough with songs and molly dances by Handsome Molly to mark the occasion will take place on Plough Monday, 8 January 2024, 6:30 pm, at the front entrance of the church. Plough Monday is the first Monday after Epiphany. In medieval times, the ploughboys were to return to work on this day to start the new ploughing season, but the day provided one last day of festivity as the ploughboys would disguise themselves and go from house to house threatening to plough up the yard if the landowners did not provide them food and drink. Trinity Church has been marking this day for many years now. Please come.
Regular Sunday Schedule
Sunday, January 7: We will observe the First Sunday after the Epiphany (The Baptism of Our Lord) with our usual Sunday service schedule:
Holy Eucharist, Rite I 8 AM
Adult Forum on Baptism with Kara 9:30 AM
Holy Eucharist, Rite II with Baptism 10:30 AM
Choral Compline 5 PM
There is a possibility of snow or wintry mix on Sunday, so please be prudent and safe as you decide about venturing out.