Welcome Grace and Joseph!

Dear friends,

We are thrilled to introduce you to the two newest members of our Trinity staff team: Grace Francque and Joseph Ferguson. Grace has just started her job in Family Ministries to help our children and young people and their families grow in their life in Christ. Joseph will be joining Dr. Meg Harper in our music department as Associate Director of Music on July 1. As you see Grace and Joseph around the church this summer, please do introduce yourselves and welcome them to our parish. I can’t wait to see what the next chapter in our life together holds.

As Fr. Paul would say, forward in faith!

Kara

Grace: Hi there! My name is Grace Francque (pronounced like Frankie), and I’m super excited to be leading Trinity’s children and family ministries! I graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary this past May; my degree reads “Master’s of Theological Studies with a Specialization in Practical Theology and a Concentration in Education and Formation” (I know, it’s a mouthful). For most of my educational journey, I envisioned myself working in a corporate office after graduating from my master’s program (I actually have a B.A. in business management!), but God had different plans for me!! I have a diverse and extensive background in childcare, education, and adolescent social and emotional health; my background in working for the Church or other faith-based organizations is just as comprehensive. God, time and time again, opened doors to opportunities that required me to exercise the skills and apply the knowledge my aforementioned experience afforded me. One of those opportunities was running Trinity’s nursery. I’m certain that God brought me to Trinity, and I’m certain that God, in God’s divine timing, gave me the honor and privilege of stepping into this leadership role in the Trinity community. I am looking forward to laying a path for our littlest parishioners to know Jesus, and I’m looking forward to providing parents and guardians the resources and support they need to build their home churches. I’m also looking forward to meeting those of you whom I have not met!

All are welcome to swing by my office any time to introduce yourself, ask questions about the future of children and family ministries at Trinity, or recommend your favorite TV show or movie — I’m always looking for new things to watch!!

Joseph: Joseph Ferguson is an organist and pianist from Little Silver, New Jersey. A recent graduate from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, he is especially interested in organ improvisation and the role of music in the liturgy. During his time at Yale, Joseph held the position of Organ Scholar at Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan, New York, where he accompanied the adult choir and choristers, performed service music and voluntaries, and conducted regularly. Previously, he earned degrees in Piano from Rutgers University and McGill University. Joseph is looking forward to joining the team at Trinity, supporting the growth of its music program and further getting to know the members of its community.

Help our Partner St. Michael’s Church

Help our partner St. Michael’s Church in Trenton with their Fundraising Reception, Saturday June 29, 2024 

St. Michael's, Trenton is running a pair of urgent fundraising receptions, Sat. June 29th, from 1pm-5pm, and Sat. October 12th from 3-6pm. This winter our cast iron boiler sprung a leak-- and the upgrade to 21st century HVAC will will be costly. We are raising funds to demonstrate our fundraising capacity to cover their matching requirements for a matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Spaces. To help us along the way, become part of the newly-formed "Friends of Old St. Michael's" by clicking on the following link and SUPPORT  ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH .  We'll put your name on our list for "free" entry to the June 29th reception, where you'll get to hear what's planned for the October fundraiser, as well as several new Broadway numbers from the St. Michael's Players radio-podcast, "Kovacs' Cafe in the Upper Room @ St.Michaels.”

Welcome Home

Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;  it is so high that I cannot attain to it. For you yourself created my inmost parts;  you knit me together in my mother's womb. I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well. My body was not hidden from you,  while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb; all of them were written in your book; they were fashioned day by day, when as yet there was none of them. How deep I find your thoughts, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand. (Psalm 139)

Matthew Shepard was a gay 21-year-old college student who died 25 years ago, the victim of a vicious anti-gay hate crime. Matthew’s shocking death electrified the gay rights movement, and he remains an icon among the LGBTQIA+ community. For 20 years, his parents Judy and Dennis did not know where to inter his ashes; they wanted him to be somewhere safe where he could not be attacked again. In 2018, Matthew was interred at the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. At the service, The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in The Episcopal Church, heartbreakingly and beautifully ended his homily with “welcome home.” 

I recently announced my intention to start (or restart) a special interest group here at Trinity for members and friends who identify as LGBTQIA+ and I was surprised by the response. Yes, there were quite a few people who identify as LGBTQIA+ who reached out to me, but the main interest came from folks who are grandparents or parents or siblings or uncles and aunts of LGBTQIA+ loved ones. And it moved me to tears. With all the hatred and despair that threatens our humanity, and our seeming indifference and inability to see the image of God and to seek and serve Christ in all persons, your responses were a balm in Gilead. 

Oasis, our new Trinity LGBTQIA+ group will officially start in the Fall, and it wonderfully seems like we will need a separate group for allies and supporters. What a blessing!  Princeton Pride 2024 is June 22, and I would like to invite all of Trinity to be a part of our parish’s pride celebration. I’m thinking of it as our first Oasis official unofficial meeting before the Fall. In the coming weeks, we will let you know how you can help with planning. It will be a party!

Friends, today’s political and social climate threatens to reverse many of the gains made by marginalized groups over the last 60 years. The Episcopal Church stands firm in its commitment to justice and equality. In June 2023, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry issued a message of encouragement to “all of my LGBTQ+ family members,” noting, “I believe deep in my soul that God is always seeking to create a world and a society where all are loved, where justice is done, and where the God-given equality of us all is honored in our relationships, in our social arrangements, and in law.”

The good Good News is this: You are seen, you are loved, you are made in the very image of God.

The Apostle Paul said: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

Welcome Home

Diocesan Discussion Group

From Canon Susanna Cates: The first Diocesan Discussion Group is about to start!  We've had a tremendous response from folks whose adult children no longer attend church, and our group will have its first meeting on Thursday, June 6th, at 10:00am. This meeting will give us the chance to begin getting to know each other and to hear our stories and will be our time to set up more meetings going forward. In the weeks to come, we'll continue to spend time with each other and with clergy and mental health professionals who will help us navigate healthy discussions and engage in best spiritual practices. There's still time to join us, and we'd love to include you.  To sign up or for more information, please contact the Reverend Canon Susanna Cates (scates@dioceseofnj.org).

Paul's Sabbatical Updates

Stay up to date with Paul’s Sabbatical updates here: https://www.trinityprinceton.org/sabbatical-updates.

No Cemetery Memorial Day Prayer Service

Due to the transition at All Saints’ Church, there will be no Memorial Day prayer service this year at the cemetery.

We pray for all those who have given their lives in the service of this nation.

O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Trinity Sunday

I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity…

Trinity Sunday is the feast day that has launched a thousand jokes. You know the ones: Trinity Sunday, otherwise known as International Make the Curate Preach Day. Trinity Sunday: The only feast day devoted to a doctrine. Trinity Sunday: the day on which you’re most likely to hear a heresy. 

I love to preach on Trinity Sunday. This day of the Church year gets right to the heart of what we’re here to do. Trinity Sunday asks us to get clear about what we mean when we say “God.” Unfortunately, far too many people think that what we celebrate today has nothing to do with their lives. 

The doctrine of the Trinity – the reality of God as Trinity - is relevant to your life and mine. It tells us why Jesus’ life, example, and teachings are authoritative for us as Christians. It tells us why his death and resurrection has turned the world upside down and called us to live as witnesses to that reality. It tells us that the person of Jesus (or who Jesus is) interprets his work and his words (what Jesus does). And who Jesus is, is none other the son of God. 

What do we mean when we say ‘God’? Every time we begin the Eucharist, we say what we mean: “Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” When we say “God,” we don’t refer to a God of ultimate vagueness, of “faith” in general, or “religion” in general. Instead, we are talking about a God who has acted and continues to act in particular ways. When we say “God,” we mean precisely “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  We talk about a God who acts in the world for us and for our salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in the sending of the Holy Spirit. We talk about a God whom we know in Jesus - and who does not change. 

Wesley Hill writes that the doctrine of the Trinity ‘is meant, among other things, to offer assurance to wavering consciences. If we ever wonder whether the grace and new beginning we have experienced through Jesus’s love and the Spirit’s presence among us is merely the momentary kindness of an otherwise unpredictable God, Trinitarian theology says, “No, this is how God fundamentally is — all the way back into eternity, and all the way into the coming kingdom.”’ 

Join me this Sunday as we worship the Triune God together. 

Yours in Christ,

Kara

Come, Holy Spirit

Dear friends,

As we approach the feast of Pentecost this Sunday, I’m reminded of one of my favorite vignettes in Anglican history, the 1739 conversations between Bishop Joseph Butler and a young priest named John Wesley. Wesley, with his revivalist outdoor preaching, was accused of spreading “enthusiasm” among the people. Bishop Butler told Wesley, “Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing.” Wesley responded, “I pretend to no extraordinary revelations, or gifts of the Holy Ghost: none but what every Christian may receive, and ought to expect and pray for.”

Having attended a Methodist seminary, I confess that I have a soft spot in my heart for John Wesley. In a time when the predominant strain of Anglicanism was heady and philosophical, Wesley called the church to be attentive to the real, powerful work of the Holy Spirit today, not just in history. He reminds Anglicans, and indeed all Christians, that the Holy Spirit is alive and active, changing hearts and transforming minds.

Edgardo Colon-Emeric, Duke’s current Dean of the Divinity School, writes,

When John Wesley first stepped out of the walls of the church in order to reach people working in fields, mines and markets, he preached from the passage from Jesus’ inaugural sermon: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). This textual choice was not free from controversy. The 18th century dismissed those who talked about the ongoing work of the Spirit as ignorant and irresponsible. 

Against the theological currents of his day, John Wesley refused to limit the Spirit’s presence and power to the age of the apostles or the institutions of the church. The rise of Methodism was for him proof that the power of Pentecost was still at work in the world. The Spirit was still active in history, particularly among the marginalized.

According to Scripture, the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 5:5). For Wesley, the social dimension of this love is made visible through works of mercy. Pentecost’s power is at work when we feed the hungry, visit the sick and welcome the stranger. It is also at work when we call sinners to repentance and encourage Christians in the way to holiness.

As we look to Pentecost this Sunday, I invite you to pray with me that perilously life-giving prayer: Come, Holy Spirit. I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to enliven and empower our parish for ministry, and set us on fire with love for the God who has given us this Good News to proclaim. 

Yours in Christ,