Fill out our E-Survey

Dear Trinity Church,

As we’ve shared with you in an email earlier this week, Trinity Church has embarked upon a planning study to explore a potential campaign to strengthen the church – for today and tomorrow. As a valued member of the Trinity family, your input is important to us. Please take a few minutes to complete the planning study e-survey developed by our fundraising consultant, The Munshine Group. The survey will be open for three weeks from July 17th - August 7th.

As always, if you have any questions or input please reach out to me at david@trinityprinceton.org or 206.407.8612. Thank you for your participation.

Peace,

David Schneider, Senior Warden

Holy Laughter

“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” (Psalm 126:2)

If you’re at all like me, you might be finding yourself in need of some laughter these days. We find ourselves navigating an onslaught of bleak and depressing headlines, we seem unable or unwilling to end war or famine, we despair as our planet literally burns, and we find it increasingly difficult to imagine a bright and equitable and peaceful future for our children and grandchildren. It’s grim. What is there to laugh about, rejoice in, celebrate? 

When was the last time you laughed so hard that you cried? I remember being a teenager and staying up late watching ‘Saturday Night Live,’ laughing until I was short of breath and my stomach hurt. It was an absolute release. The SNL jokes and sketches were often raunchy and certainly not appropriate for the Trinity Church ePistle. But the laughter - it was holy. 

Anne Lamott says “laughter is carbonated holiness.” Have you ever heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s laugh? Holy.

The humorist (and Episcopalian) Garrison Keillor quipped, “You know you are a Episcopalian when it’s 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the service,” and “You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you can.” Can you feel yourself grinning and nodding in agreement and recognition?

I think there should be a yearly church commemoration of Robin Williams ‘Top 10 Reasons to be Episcopalian.’ Williams, a cradle Episcopalian, was a master of not taking oneself too seriously, and we were all blessed by his ministry of holy (and unholy) laughter. So here’s the list. Feel free to add your own. Maybe we should nail them to the door of the church, like Luther’s 95 theses. Enjoy. 

Robin Williams’s Top 10 Reasons to be Episcopalian: 

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry - none of the guilt.

2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the NUMBER ONE reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

Wishing you the blessing of carbonated holiness,

Wesley

Local Events

Dear Friends:

Here at the Glee Club, we're very proud to announce that our upcoming 150th anniversary celebrations will kick off on November 15th with a performance in Richardson Auditorium by the unstoppable superstars of global a cappella - THE KING’S SINGERS - featuring a program of music curated specially for the occasion, and joined on stage by the Princeton University Glee Club for the world premiere of a new work by American composer Stacey V. Gibbs. 

We have a limited number of tickets still available for this event, available at tickets.princeton.edu. We’d love to see you there!

The celebrations continue on Saturday the 16th with a gala concert featuring around 350 past and present members of the Princeton University Glee Club, all singing together. Tickets can be reserved at tickets.princeton.edu

To end the weekend, we will have a chapel sing of Fauré’s Requiem on Sunday the 17th at 2:30pm in the Princeton University Chapel. All are welcome to attend! This event is free and unticketed.

Trenton Convocation Summer Bible Study

The Trenton Convocation of the Diocese of New Jersey will host an online Bible study this summer, and you're invited to join us! We have chosen Acts of the Apostles for our “textbook,” and will be hosting 6 sessions of learning and discussion. Each session will be hosted by one of the Trenton Convocation clergy (including yours truly) and held on Zoom. Starting on July 17th, we will gather Wednesday evenings from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm and explore the different themes found within the writings.

If you're interested in joining the conversation, please contact the Rev. Amy Cornell (rector@stdavidscranbury.com) to register and get the details!

Kara

The Presiding Bishop-Elect's first sermon

Last week, I introduced Presiding Bishop-Elect Sean Rowe to you. While we are enjoying the holiday weekend, here's Bishop Rowe's own introduction to his new role: his sermon at the Closing Eucharist of General Convention. I commend it to you! 

In Christ,

Kara

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/81st-general-convention-of-the-episcopal-churchclosing-eucharist-sermon-by-presiding-bishop-elect-sean-rowe/

Meg's Recital at Blackburn Cathedral

Dr. Meg Harper, our Director of Music, recently played a recital at Blackburn Cathedral, where she met up with John Bertalot - Director of Music at Trinity Church from 1983-1998. Here are two pieces from that recital to start your morning:

J.S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2u2NmFhrU0

Arvo Pärt, Mein Weg Hat Gipfel Und Wellentäler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHd8R5wBy4I

Bibles and Newspapers

I don’t know how I became a “news junkie,” but I suppose it was the same way that anyone becomes addicted to anything: I got a taste of something that made me feel good and informed and excited (and smugly superior), and so I gradually needed more and more of it to satiate my desire, and before I knew it I would go into withdrawal unless I got my daily dosage.

The problem for many of us who grew up with the seemingly limited selection of only 3 news channels (CBS, ABC, NBC) is the overwhelming choice, the sheer volume of information coming at us, in amounts that our brains may not be designed to absorb. Naval Ravikant, American entrepreneur and investor warns, “The human brain is not designed to absorb all the world’s breaking news, 24/7 emergencies injected straight into your skull with clickbait headline news. If you pay attention to that stuff, even if you’re well-meaning, even if you’re of sound mind and body, it will eventually drive you insane.”

The renowned theologian Karl Barth said that pastors should “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” 

I think some of us do quite the opposite and “interpret the Bible from our newspapers.” I wonder what Barth would have made of our endless 24/7 news cycle, clamoring for attention with seductive clickbait. I wonder what he would’ve said about my reaching for my phone and NY Times updates, before I reached for my Book of Common Prayer and before doing my morning prayers. It seems that we (I) have put the cart before the horse. 

How can we see Louisiana’s recent law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools through the lens of scripture? What does the Bible have to say about Oklahoma‘s new law requiring the Bible to be taught in public schools? And does the Bible have anything to say about the Presidential debates? 

One of the most dangerous phrases in history is “The Bible is clear..” and so I’m certainly not going to proscribe specific biblical passages that speak to our current political landscape. 

But what I will invite us to do, is before we gorge ourselves on the non-stop toxic smorgasbord that is the news, we spend some time with scripture and in prayer and meditation. 

Our Old Testament lectionary reading this week could be a good start:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

As Episcopalians, we are called, commanded even, every week to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” and our ecstatic response is “Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!” 

With God as our guide, with love as our song, the news of the world is an opportunity for us to serve. And I think then we can heed Barth’s call and actually change the world through a Christocentric lens.  And what could that change look like for us? For the world?

Introducing our new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe

Yesterday, the House of Bishops meeting at General Convention elected the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, Bishop of Northwest Pennsylvania and Western New York, to serve as the  28th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church. Presiding Bishop-Elect Rowe will be seated at the Washington National Cathedral on November 2. 

You can read more information about him here:

https://livingchurch.org/news/news-episcopal-church/sean-w-rowe-elected-as-28th-presiding-bishop/

On a more personal note, I’m particularly excited because he’s the first Presiding Bishop from my generation - he’s only 49 years old. Bishop Rowe is known as a steady bishop with expertise in fixing broken church structures. He isn’t a larger-than-life presence like Presiding Bishop Curry, but I think his expertise in administration makes him the right choice for our particular moment as a Church. He’s a theological moderate, and I wouldn’t expect him to make any shocking statements to either the left or the right. His election on the first ballot was overwhelming, which shows that the bishops who know him best thought he was the man for the moment. 

Here’s a fun church fact. For most of the Episcopal Church’s history, the Presiding Bishop wasn’t a national figure; it wasn’t even a separate job. The democratizing impulse of the Revolutionary War period very intentionally moved away from archbishops as much as it rejected kings. The Presiding Bishop was the senior bishop in the Church who presided at General Convention and participated in the consecrations of other bishops - and that was it. In the 20th century, with the advent of radio, television, and faster travel, the Presiding Bishop became a spokesman for the Episcopal Church on the national and global stage. In addition, as the Anglican Communion took on structural shape in the 20th century, the Presiding Bishop was called upon to represent us at meetings of Archbishops and Presiding Bishops from other countries. 

I ask you to join me in praying for Presiding Bishop-Elect Rowe and his family, and in giving thanks for the ministry of Presiding Bishop Curry and his wife Sharon.

Yours in Christ,

Kara