Trinity Topics

The Newsletter of Trinity Episcopal Church in Toledo, Ohio

APRIL 2009

All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope.

Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day
all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the
future without the need to know exactly what it would look like.
Henri J. M. Nouwen
litur g y & events Palm/Passion Sunday — Compline
Sunday, April 5, 7p

Schutz: St. Matthew Passion

Canterbury Choir presents a meditative service to begin Holy
Week exploring the other side of Palm Sunday.
Free admission

Good Friday
April 10
12n—Choral Meditation on the Passion
A good Friday service of lessons and carols using old
testament prophecy to foretell the journey of Christ’s passion.

7p—Stations of the Cross A community walk with

Christ on the Via Dolorosa combining scripture, music and
ritual in a solemn remembrance of this most holy of days.

The Creation — Perrysburg Symphony Chorale

Friday, May 1, 7p
Haydn: Creation. Celebrate May Day with this classical
masterwork as archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel tell
the story of the beginning of life.
Tickets: Adults: $15; Students & Seniors: $12

SUNDAY, MAR 29—LENT 5B SUNDAY, APRIL 19—EASTER 2

Jer 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33 Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31
9:00a Eucharist w/hymns ONE SERVICE TODAY
10:00a Formation 10:45a Parish Eucharist
10:45a Parish Eucharist
SUNDAY, APR 26—EASTER 3
SUNDAY, APR 5—PALM SUNDAY Acts: 3:12-19; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 14:1-15:47 9:00a Eucharist w/hymns
ONE SERVICE TODAY 10:00a Formation
10:45a Parish Eucharist 10:45a Parish Eucharist

SUNDAY, APR 12 EASTER SUNDAY, MAY 3—EASTER 4

Acts 10:34-43; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; John 20:1-18 Acts 4:5-12; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
ONE SERVICE TODAY 9:00a Eucharist w/hymns
10:45a Parish Eucharist 10:00a Formation
10:45a Parish Eucharist

2
Faith, not fear

from the rector

Eleven years ago, I left a job that had been
very safe – and for me, very life-draining. I had
great co-workers, but the work itself was not
what I was called to do. I was quitting so that I
could go hike the Appalachian Trail, and would
start what would be my 900-mile journey on St.
Patrick’s Day, 1998. Why? God was calling me
– no, nagging the hell out of me – to make this
journey. I’d be praying about something else,
and this would come up. I was being called into
much more than a walk in the woods - I was
being called out of safety, out of my very small
comfort zone.

Saying yes to that journey was the most

important YES I ever said in my life, because it
set all of the other yeses in motion. As I hiked, I
tried to listen for God and tried to hear if I was
to go to seminary. There were no burning
bushes, but every other option just fell away. Faith, not fear. Are the two mutually
exclusive? Not at all. The message is not about
Before all of that, on my last day of work, which one we have, but which one guides our
there was the last lunch. My co-workers and I lives.
drove to a little French inn just over the state
line. As we finished our desserts, they handed It reminds me of where we all are right now,
me a small wrapped box. “The present is not as as individuals, as a community, as a nation, and
important as the message,” they said. It was a as a planet. Last month, I turned my column
small, ornate, eight sided silver box. On the over to Dan Hotchkiss of the Alban Institute,
bottom was inscribed: who wrote that we need to “reflect and pray
about the congregation’s mission and articulate
EMH a vision for its ministry that reflects a special
Faith, not fear. calling in times of trouble.”

From Your Friends I ask the vestry to do that, and I ask you to
2-98 let them know your thoughts. We are being
called out of safety, out of maintenance, into
“It’s a God Jar,” one of them said. “With a mission and into resurrection life. God’s hope
God Jar, you write down your fears, the for us is that we say yes. We have made a huge
situations you can’t control, and put the paper in step in that direction by inviting Food for
the jar. You have now physically turned them Thought to join us in our building. We do not
over to God. And the weird thing is, when you know what this journey will look like, but we
go and look at those fears a few months later, are living into our mission, into God’s dream for
most of them have been resolved.” us. I firmly believe our response to this time in
our community will set our other yeses in
I cried so hard I had to leave the table. motion.
Despite the fact that I did not like the job itself, I
realized that my colleagues understood me far Faith, not fear. Let faith lead us through this
better than I ever knew. season, out of the tombs of our comfort zones,
and into an entirely new vision and new life.
I still have that silver box–it’s right beside
me as I type. I still read the bottom of that box,
and I still need to keep living into its message.
Liddy

3
 HOLY WEEK 2009
A personal journey of faith ...
Holy Week is an experience of “thin space” at Trinity, a state of presence, of wholeness and connectedness in
which there is only the thinnest of veils between oneself and God. There are many ways to make it personally
significant, ways to connect with both God and our community. You are invited to actively participate, for this
giving of oneself to God reveals the true meaning of the Pascal journey. If you see something below with which
you’d like to help, please call the church and let us know.

Palm/Passion Sunday Passion Compline:

Sunday, April 5 10:45 am Sunday, April 5 7:00 pm
Come early in order to join the festive procession This is a quiet vespers service in the darkened nave.
that begins this service. We also need readers to There is nothing to “do” except come, sit, pray, and
take parts in the Passion Gospel. The service ends meditate on the events which lead up to Christ’s
with the veneration of the Cross, a chance to enter crucifixion in Schutz’s St. Matthew Passion.
into the Passion mystery personally.

THE TRIDUUM: THE THREE GREAT DAYS

Feast of Friends / Maundy Service Choral Meditation on the Passion Easter Vigil
Thursday, April 9 7:00 pm Friday, April 10 12:00 n Saturday, April 11 7:00 pm
We gather to share a meal, and this A meditative Good Friday service of We recount the history of our
year we are inviting all parishioners lessons and hymns using prophecy salvation and celebrate the raising of
to prepare the food. Your last name from Hebrew Scriptures to foretell Christ from the dead. We renew
lets you know what to bring: the journey of Christ’s passion. our baptismal vows in a festive
A to F: salad or appetizer Eucharist A reception follows; bring
G to M: side dish a dish of finger food to share.
N to T: main dish of pasta Stations of the Cross
U to Z: dessert. Friday, April 10 7:00 pm Easter Liturgy
Afterwards, we show our love for A participatory Good Friday service
Sunday, April 12 10:45 am
each other in an act of humility, strip in which we use our senses to walk Our festive Easter service with
the church in preparation for Good the “Via Dolorosa” (“Way of Grief” organ. Following this is a
Friday, and then finish with Christ’s or “Way of Suffering”). Readers are celebratory coffee hour and a special
Agony in the Garden. Help is needed for this service. activity for the kids. We need you
needed with the stripping of the and your talents: please bring a
church. dish of finger food to share.

THE GREAT VIGIL AT THE TOMB

Thursday, April 9 9:00 pm to Saturday, April 11 7:00 pm
From the ending of the Maundy service on Thursday until the beginning of the Vigil service on Saturday, we will
keep a 48-hour vigil of the resurrection by reading the Bible through from start to finish. All this requires is a
willingness to read and keep watch. Please sign up for an hour time slot, come to the church at your appointed
time, begin reading where the last person left off and continue until the next scheduled person arrives. Those who
participated last year said that this was one of the most moving things they did during Holy Week. Keep watch at
the tomb by adding your voice in quiet remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice.

4
News from David S. Nelson Spirit School Move

congre gation/wor ld
Hello Trinity Family, The Dominican Center at Marywood's
Good news! I have an update for you about my spiritual formation program has changed its
ordination process. I just received word that the Toledo location, and is now operating out of
Standing Committee has approved both my Candi- Washington Church on Central Avenue in
dacy and Ordination. This means that we’re almost west Toledo. The decision to move the
there! I will meet with Bishop Hollingsworth soon program out of Trinity was made after issues
and I will be sure to let you all know additional in- with our building (most recently, heating and
formation as I receive it. There is simply no way plumbing problems) became too
that I could have kept going throughout this process burdensome.
without your amazing support. From the bottom of
my heart I want to say Thank You! The Dominican sisters are very grateful to
Yours in Christ, Trinity for our collaboration, our spaces, and
David S. Nelson our hospitality during the last 6 years.
Trinity’s help was vital in establishing this
important spiritual formation program in
Eggstreme Makeover northwest Ohio, which has touched the lives
One of the primary ministries of Food for of over 800 people.
Thought is a lunch
program that pro-
vides a simple free
lunch and hospital-
ity to 300-400 people
Easter Flower Memorials
every Saturday at Don’t forget to make
the Main Library your donation to honor
(just a few blocks friends and relatives this
from Trinity). FFT Easter. The donations are
wants to make its used to offset the extra
lunches special on April 11, the day before costs of flowers and
Easter, by including a colored egg and a music for Holy Week and
decorated Easter cookie in the meals they Easter Day. Envelopes
share. Trinity has agreed to provide the 400 are available for your use,
colored eggs needed for this day. and the deadline for
inclusion in the Easter
If you think coloring and decorating 35 bulletin is Monday, April 6.
dozen eggs sounds like holy insanity, come
and be a part of it! We will gather for a quick
pizza supper and egg coloring on Wednes-
day, April 8, at 6:30 p.m. in My Brother’s Photographers Still Needed
Place on the second floor. Bring a pair of la- Since Marie’s move to Boston, we have
tex gloves unless you want your hands to not had anyone regularly taking pictures of
also be brightly dyed for Holy Week. All egg what’s going on in our community. If you
artists are welcome. enjoy digital photography, regularly attend
Trinity events (both inside and outside our
MEMBER MATTERS walls), and would be willing to take photos
for our Website and Topics, please talk with
Don Sorter entered new life on Monday, Liddy. We’d like this role to be shared
March 16. May Don and all the saints, through among several people (a new Photo Guild) so
the mercy of God, rest in peace. that we have someone taking pictures of both
the large and small ways we live out our
David C. Nelson has started chemotherapy.
mission statement.
Bonnie Loss is at home recuperating from
knee surgery.

5
 Next Steps in Natural On the Threshold
congre gation/wor ld Church Development ~~Notes from our seminarian~~
Natural Church Development (NCD) is a When I realized that the Episcopal emerging
process that focuses on improving the health church community (The Crossing) in Boston
of a faith community, with the understanding needed a field education intern, I was ecstatic.
– documented by research – that when a This is exactly the kind of unique experience I
congregation is sufficiently healthy, was yearning for when I came to seminary. The
numerical growth will follow. NCD is an Crossing (www.thecrossingboston.org)
approach to building healthy congregations describes itself as “the place where your life
that has been adopted by the Episcopal connects with God's life connects with the
Diocese of Ohio, and the Trinity vestry has emerging urban life around us – and new
decided that our community can benefit from possibilities are born.”
participating in this program.
The Crossing is made up people who
The NCD process begins with a coach, a identify themselves all along the Christian
facilitator-guide from outside the spectrum, from evangelical to progressive.
congregation who has been trained in the Some are entirely new to church; some have
program. Trinity now has a coach, and has come back after years of absence because our
identified a Church Health Team, a group of way of life makes sense to them. Many of us are
parishioners chosen to lead our NCD effort. lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. We
have lots of grad students, unhoused folks and
Our next step in the process will be a folks recently in recovery. We have a few
survey that measures the health of our people my age and older and many, many
community in eight areas. The anonymous people in their twenties and thirties. I am by
survey of about 80 questions will be offered far the oldest person in the leadership team.
in early May to anyone who regularly attends
Sunday worship and who is involved in some We worship on Thursday nights, using a
kind of small group ministry at Trinity (e.g., fresh liturgy that is still firmly grounded in its
choir, Altar Guild, chalicers). However, only Episcopal roots. For Trinity folks, much would
30 surveys can be submitted for scoring feel familiar, including gathering around the
(computer-tabulation by diocesan staff). The altar for communion. But we live out our value
survey results will identify our weakest area. of empowering everyone in the community in
Focusing attention on strengthening this some very concrete ways. For example, our lead
weakness is expected to produce the greatest priest doesn’t lead the “reflection” (preaching)
improvement in Trinity’s health. each week. Instead, we rotate that among lay
people, always on the lookout for whose voice
Watch for announcements in the Sunday might be ready to be heard next.
bulletin about when the survey will be
offered, and plan to participate in the NCD Finally, we’re not just about worship. We’re
process. NCD is designed to engage the about living the Jesus way. One of the most
whole community, helping us find a better unique expressions of our community life is our
way to do what God is dreaming for us to do. Rule for Real Life, which was written over a
number of months by folks in the community
and then tested and revised. You can find it on
the website.

Being a part of the Trinity community has

given me wonderful roots to grow from as I
become part of other communities on my
journey. I am, as ever, grateful and humbled by
your love and support.
Marie

6
Food For Thought Recognized MultiFaith Banquet
At its annual Prism Awards ceremony on March The 8th Annual MultiFaith Banquet will be held
11, the Eastern Maumee Bay Chamber of Com- on Sunday, April 19th from 4-7 p.m. at
merce recognized Food for Thought with its Hori- Congregation B'nai Israel (behind the JCC in
zon Award, honoring excellence in business and Sylvania). The theme for this year's event is
community service organizations. “Faithful Stewardship of the Environment”. The
deadline for reservations is April 10th. More
And on March 19, Food For Thought was information and the reservation form are available
awarded $40,000 from a collaborative funding pool at www.multifaithcouncil.org.
including United Way, Toledo Community Foun-
dation and Lucas County. The money will provide
needed assistance to Food For Thought in its con-
tinuing work to make food available to those who “Hope sustains one's capacity to live with
need it. Food for Thought is part of the CARE
(Community Asset & Resource Engagement) Team, danger without being overwhelmed by it;
a unique partnership that also includes the United hope is the will to struggle against obsta-
Way, 1 Matters, the Toledo Neighborhood Block cles even when they appear insuperable.
Watch Program, Neighborhood Health Associates,
Lucas County Department of Job and Family Ser-
Ultimately our hope rests in the God who
vices, The Source, and the Lucas County Save the gave us life, sustains the world by his
Dream Task Force. Each month, the CARE Team power, and has called us to revere the lives
takes its resources to a different Lucas County
of every person and all peoples.”
neighborhood.
(The Challenge of Peace, USCCB)

Bad Chicks
and
Which Came First, the Bunny or the Egg?
Two plays about Easter and life
First Sunday after Easter
April 19, during the 10:45 liturgy

S Which
CK Came
H I
C First?
D
BA
7
 Dental Care for Stewart Emanuel Children’s Home:
Students An Update
This spring we will be collecting funds to Last year, Trinity raised $12,000 to help
outr eachings allow us to give each student at Stewart the Emanuel Children’s Home build a
Academy for Girls an age-appropriate nursery. In February, Wayne Anthony,
toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. We buy Susan and Mike Lowrey and Lucia and Frank
these in bulk from a dentist so that each Cooper visited the home in San Pedro Sula,
student receives similar items. If you would Honduras. They saw the nursery wing under
like to contribute, the construction, and learned more about the
suggested amount is needs of the Home.
$5 but any donation is
welcome! Please Each day workers are busy building the
place your gift in one new nursery wing. The nursery being
of the special constructed is very different from the original
envelopes on the plans. The impetus behind the change was
curved wall. The an increase of more than 60% in the
students will receive the toothbrushes and Honduran minimum wage that took effect in
toothpaste to take home with them at the end December 2008. The only way the Children’s
of the school year. Home can continue to operate is to offer
room and board to staff members in place of
part of their wages. Therefore, the nursery
wing will have two stories, with rooms for
Epworth Furniture Ministry staffers on the second floor.
There are many families in the Toledo
area that lack the things we often take for The Emanuel Children’s Home has
granted in our homes. A bed for each family sufficient resources to accept more children if
member, or a table to sit at to eat a meal or do it can make the ongoing commitment to pay
homework, can be luxuries beyond the reach for added staff. If you have any ideas about
of a family struggling with unemployment, how Trinity could help, please contact Lucia
illness, or other life changes. Cooper.

Epworth United Methodist Church has

developed a furniture ministry to help people
with limited incomes furnish their living
space. Initially, Epworth has been working
with FOCUS and the YWCA Battered
Women’s Shelter to provide the basics for
those trying to start a new and safe life for
themselves and their families.

How can you help? The Furniture

Ministry accepts donations of used furniture
in good condition. They even offer twice-
monthly donation pick-ups. Items in
particular need: couches, tables, chairs,
recliners, beds, mattresses & frames, dressers,
end tables, TVs, coffee tables. Items NOT
needed: computer desks, entertainment
centers, or bookcases.

If you have gently used furniture that you

would like to re-gift, email Janice Harris
([email protected]) for more
information or to schedule a pickup.

8
A Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church
Meeting, March 13-18, 2009
I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all
circumstances I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all
things through him who strengthens me. --Philippians 4:11b - 13

As the House of Bishops gather at the Kanuga Camp and Conference Center for
our annual Spring Retreat, we are mindful of the worsening financial crisis
around us. We recognize there are no easy solutions for the problems we now
face. In the United States there is a 30% reduction of overall wealth, a 26%
reduction in home values and a budget deficit of unprecedented proportions.
Unemployment currently hovers at over 8% and is estimated to top 10% by the
end of the year. There are over 8 million homes in America that are in foreclosure.
Consumer confidence is at a 50-year low.

Unparalleled corporate greed and irresponsibility, predatory lending practices,

and rampant consumerism have amplified domestic and global economic
injustice. The global impact is difficult to calculate, except that the poor will
become poorer and our commitment to continue our work toward achieving the
Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is at great risk. A specter of fear creeps
not only across the United States, but also across the world, sometimes causing us
as a people to ignore the Gospel imperative of self-sacrifice and generosity, as we
scramble for self-preservation in a culture of scarcity.

The crisis is both economic and environmental. The drought that grips Texas, “A specter of fear
parts of the American South, California, Africa and Australia, the force of
hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the Caribbean, Central America creeps not only
and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in Kentucky—these and other natural disasters across the United
related to climate change—result in massive joblessness, driving agricultural
production costs up, and worsening global hunger. The wars nations wage over States, but also
diminishing natural resources kill and debilitate not only those who fight in them,
but also civilians, weakening families, and destroying the land. We as a people
across the world,
have failed to see this connection, compartmentalizing concerns so as to minimize sometimes causing
them and continue to live without regard to the care of God's creation and the
stewardship of the earth's resources that usher in a more just and peaceful world.
us as a people to
ignore the Gospel
In this season of Lent, God calls us to repentance. We have too often been
preoccupied as a Church with internal affairs and a narrow focus that has imperative of self-
absorbed both our energy and interest and that of our Communion – to the sacrifice and
exclusion of concern for the crisis of suffering both at home and abroad. We have
often failed to speak a compelling word of commitment to economic justice. We generosity, as we
have often failed to speak truth to power, to name the greed and consumerism scramble for self-
that has pervaded our culture, and we have too often allowed the culture to define
us instead of being formed by Gospel values. preservation in a
While our commitment to the eradication of extreme poverty through the eight
culture of scarcity. “
Millennium Development Goals moves us toward the standard of Christ's
teaching, we have nevertheless often fallen short of the transformation to which
Christ calls us in our own lives in order to live more fully into the Gospel paradigm of God's abundance for all.

Everyone is affected by the shrinking of the global economy. For some, this is a time of great loss—loss of employment,
of homes, of a way of life. And for the most vulnerable, this "downturn" represents an emergency of catastrophic
proportions. Like the Prodigal who comes to his senses and returns home, we as the people of God seek a new life.

9
A Pastoral Letter, continued
We recognize in this crisis an invitation into a deeper simplicity, a tightening of
the belt, an expanded Lenten fast, and a broader generosity. God's abundant
mercy and forgiveness meet and embrace us, waiting to empower us through the
Holy Spirit to face the coming days.

In a time of anxiety and fear the Holy Spirit invites us to hope. Anxiety, when
voiced in community can be heard, blessed and transformed into energy and
hope, but if ignored, swallowed or hidden, fear and anxiety can be corrosive and
lead to despair. We Christians claim that joy and hope emerge for those who have
the courage to endure suffering. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul goes so far as
to boast of his suffering, because "suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint
us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit...." “In a time of anxiety
Our current crisis presents us with opportunities to learn from our brothers and
and fear the Holy
sisters of faith in other parts of the world who have long been bearers of hope in
the midst of even greater economic calamity. Spirit invites us to
We can also learn from our spiritual ancestors, who found themselves in an
hope. Anxiety, when
economic and existential crisis that endured for forty years – on their journey voiced in community
from Egypt to Israel. While they groaned in Egypt, they murmured at Sinai – at
least at first. And then after their groaning, complaining and reverting to old can be heard, blessed
comforts of idol worship, they were given Grace to learn and understand what and transformed into
the Lord wanted to teach them.
energy and hope, but
They learned that they needed the wilderness in order to recover their nerve and if ignored, swallowed
put their full trust in God--and to discover their God-given uniqueness, which
had been rubbed away during their captivity in Egypt. They adopted some basic or hidden, fear and
rules that enabled them to live in a community of free people rather than as slaves
– the God-given Ten Commandments. And perhaps most importantly, our
anxiety can be
spiritual ancestors discovered that the wilderness is a unique place of God's corrosive and lead to
abundance and miracle, where water gushed out of a rock and manna appeared
on the desert floor – food and drink provided by God. despair.”

As we go through our own wilderness, these spiritual ancestors also point the way to a deep and abiding hope. We can
rediscover our uniqueness – which emerges from the conviction that our wealth is determined by what we give rather
than what we own. We can re-discover manna – God's extraordinary expression of abundance. Week by week, in
congregations and communities around the world, our common manna is placed before us in the Eucharist. Ordinary
gifts of bread and wine are placed on the altar, and become for us the Body and Blood of Christ, which, when we
receive them, draw us ever more deeply into the Paschal mystery of Christ's death and resurrection.

As our risen Lord broke through the isolation of the disciples huddled in fear for their lives following his suffering and
death, so too are we, the Body of Christ, called to break through the loneliness and anxiety of this time, drawing people
from their fears and isolation into the comforting embrace of God's gathered community of hope. As disciples of the
risen Christ we are given gifts for showing forth God's gracious generosity and for finding blessing and abundance in
what is hard and difficult. In this time the Holy Spirit is moving among us, sharing with us the vision of what is real
and valued in God's world. In a time such as this, Christ draws us deeper into our faith revealing to us that generosity
breaks through distrust, paralysis and misinformation. Like our risen Lord, we, as his disciples are called to listen to
the world's pain and offer comfort and peace.

As we continue our Lenten journey together we place our hearts in the power of the Trinity. The God who created us is
creating still and will not abandon us. The Incarnate Word, our Savior Jesus Christ, who in suffering, dying and rising
for our sake, stands in solidarity with us, has promised to be with us to the end of the age. God the Holy Spirit, the
very breath of God for us and in us, is our comforter, companion, inspiration and guide. In this is our hope, our joy
and our peace.

10
What to Do With Regrets
by Kelly Averill Savino

I. Winter Bulk purchased bargains gone buggy,

In the rare, thin light of solstice alone in the pantry for years.
When bare trees branch like exposed nerve endings Mistakes. Bad timing.
into a leaden sky A cottage cheese carton

from the wires

I hunch and clench across the ice, uneasy; with a sinister bloat and a Christmas
wake in the long dark remembering past unfairnesses expiration date.
small souvenirs best forgotten From waste, abundance.
old guilts and sorrows fragile and dry as From error, wisdom.
pale corsages crumbling to dust in an attic box.
Uneasiness follows me through midwinter days; III. Redemption
seasonal blues and fear of karmic retribution. I am not Catholic, cannot confess.
I am not Buddhist, cannot Be Here Now.
II. Spring So I dump my past into the composter,
Each year around Easter stir with a pitchfork,
I welcome perspective, gather pink worms out of puddles
and set to rebuilding redemption: to add to the pile
Contraption of salvaged pallets wired
to make a box. and Nature, benevolent with forgiveness
Each year, resurrected, makes rich black dirt
poetic as Jesus, symbolic as Easter eggs: to work in the garden,
to set about planting seeds
My religion
is Compost. Nothing And if sometimes a withered green onion
is wasted, nothing is lost. refuses to decompose and grows
The best laid plans gone furry and soft
in the produce drawer, or a chunk of discarded potato
ingredients still in a fertile stew puts out roots and leaves
of clippings and leaf litter, dry twigs, between the eggplant rows
chickenshit, straw.
if tomato seeds eaten by chickens return to
The whole wheat loaf of homemade cinderblock, the garden to sprout unannounced
raw veggies brought home
for the diets I didn't start. it's no longer the haunt of regret:
just reminder
that gifts come to those who allow
for the unexpected
another chance to do it right
another spring, returning light

hope is perennial
in the clear bright of day

Used by permission of the author, Toledoan Kelly

Averill Savino. From the Winter 2009 issue of
Shalem News, from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual
Formation (www.shalem.org).

11
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services
Parish Staff SUNDAYS 9 & 10:45 am, Holy Eucharist
Elizabeth M. Hoster, Rector 10 am, Formation for all ages
Wayne F. Anthony, Associate for Music and the Arts HOLY DAYS as announced
Susan Lowrey, Associate for Community Life
Virginia Shafer, Executive Secretary
Jane Bueche, Parish Accountant
Bridget Blanchard, Organist
prayers
FOR THE PARISH COMMUNITY
Parish Vestry Remember those for whom our prayers have been requested: Carol Statum,
Jeff Albright, senior warden; Jason Rahe, junior David C. Nelson, Bonnie Loss, Jessica Snyder, Nancy Paulas, William E. Siebold, Izzy
warden; Karen Wabeke, clerk; Solveig Barnes, Lucia Durham, Herb Landis, Ruth Archer; the children and staff of Emanuel Children’s Home;
Cooper, Jane Gomersall-Zohn, Jennifer Siebold, those on death row, including Brett Hartman, who is scheduled to be executed by the
Sherre Owens Smith, Jim Zechman. state of Ohio on April 7; all victims of war and violence; Marie Harkey and David S. Nelson
in their continuing vocational discernment; and David S. Nelson and Beth Anne Swartz,
Parish Offices preparing for marriage.
Mon thru Fri, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Prayers for those who have died: In the parish: Donald Schwarz (Carol Schwarz),
Phone 419.243.1231 Fax 419.243.0920 Donald Sorter (Sally Sorter), Glenn Cannon (Susan Cannon), Oscar Sauceda (Baylon
Email: [email protected]
Heider, the Sauceda and Villegas families).
Episcopal Diocese of Ohio
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2499
800.551.4815 216.771.4815
vision & mission
Trinity is called to be a progressive, inclusive and creative urban community.
The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., Bishop Ordinary We will practice radical hospitality.
We will be engaged in the life of our city.
Next-to-New Thrift Shop We will stand with those in need: the poor, the sick, the friendless, the marginalized.
Mon & Thurs, 9:30 am – 3 pm; We will actively invite all to experience and celebrate God’s living presence.
Jeanne Mitchell, Manager We will journey together toward a Christ-centered life, pursuing personal ministries
that connect us to God, to one another, and to the world around us.