Dear family, friends, acquaintances, artistic collaborators, business associates, colleagues, co-workers, and anyone else I've encountered on this life's journey and whose email I happen to have collected along the way . . .
I am contacting you all "en masse" to ask for your support-- both your spiritual support and also, wherever possible, monetary support for an important cause. The link below will take you to my personalized fund-raising webpage for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Fundraiser. Team in Training is a fundraising campaign whereby individuals train to participate in endurance events while raising money for the society.
As a testament to the power of God at work in the human spirit (and hopefully, this human body, too!!), I have embarked on an adventure to train for and run in the Lewis and Clark 1/2-Marathon in September. I had been considering doing something like this for a while-- just to prove it can be done (because if I can do it, anybody can do it!) but my decision to run this fall was solidified when I attended the LLS Team in Training informational meeting and met the coaches, mentors, staff members and honorary participants who are involved with the team's training and fundraising.
The cause-- to raise funds for this society that is dedicated to finding a cure for blood cancers-- is a great one and the fundraising commitment is a challenge to rival my physical challenge of learning how to run 13+ miles. I need your help to do it! Please consider contributing as generously as you are able-- the link to the website makes it easy and donations can be made online quickly and securely. You will receive email confirmation of your donation and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation. I thank you in advance for your support, and really appreciate your kindness. (The marathon itself isn't until September, but as I train I have fundraising deadlines all along the way-my first is the end of May! So if you're considering donating, don't delay.)
http://www.active.com/donate
Thank you for your generous support as well as your prayers and words of encouragement along the way. Here we go!
As we kick-off our Psalm 150 Fund Campaign, you are encouraged you to give joyfully and generously to this special offering. You will help to provide for guest musicians throughout the year and also give support to creative and meaningful musical endeavors that enrich and strengthen our faith. These financial resources also allow us to continue reaching out, giving witness to a faith that is deeply connected to the community and the world in which we live. In the coming weeks, you will receive a letter and envelope by mail that can be returned to the church office. Or simply write Psalm 150 Fund in the memo line of your check and drop it in the offering plate. Thank you, as always, for your enthusiastic support!
Everyone is invited to join Mid-County Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) to discuss responsible development. We will discuss safe-guarding affordable housing, the use of eminent domain, and how development impacts our schools and communities. The potluck dinner and meeting will be Monday, June 4th, from 6:00 - 7:30 pm at 1st Congregational UCC. The church is at 6501 Wydown Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63105. Parking is available in the lot next to the church building. Questions can be directed to the Metropolitan Congregations United office at 314-367-3484.
Please speak with Keith Fischer if you are interested in writing and offering one of the weekly peace prayers that are an important part of our service.
The Presbyterian Women's Friendship dinner and Quilt Display will be held at Jane Rand's home on Tuesday, May 29th . The group will gather at 5pm and eat by 6pm. A $5 contribution and an RSVP to the church office (725-3840) by May 24th (Thursday) will guarantee a box dinner, a time of fellowship and a viewing of Jane's wonderful collection of quilts. If you would like to carpool, please let the office know.
...has been set up in the area outside Weems Chapel and the office. In addition to our magnetic calendar, we now have the flower sign-up sheet and usher sign-up sheets, as well as a "Fellowship" board listing numerous ministry and fellowship opportunities. Take a look and get involved!
One of the joys and challenges of being church together is discovering how we can meet as many needs as possible--this is especially true on Sunday mornings. Our current Sunday morning schedule works extremely well for some members, but is not working as well for others. On June 3, after worship we are planning a time of Discussion and Discovery about our Sunday morning schedule. This is a time to share our hopes, dreams and needs for a Sunday morning schedule that meets as many needs as possible and strengthens and supports the entire community of faith. We will meet in the Dining for no more than an hour and refreshments will be served. Childcare will be provided so parents can participate in the conversation. Please plan to attend this important event, not only to share your perspective, but hear those of your fellow Trinity members.
If you're not able to attend, you can share your input via an online survey form.
"We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." Hebrews 12:1
On Sunday, May 6, we will come together as the family of Trinity Presbyterian Church to thank God for the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, leaving their imprint of life and faith upon each of us, and upon our world. We will celebrate the lives of our saints, those in our congregation who are 75 years old and older, to thank these wise and faithful members for their years of love and service, for their continuing contribution to the life of the church, and for their collective heritage as role models to us all.
This fun and festive event will begin with worship at 9:30, in which we will recognize and bless the lives of our saints for their witness to faith in Jesus Christ here at Trinity. This will be followed after education hour with a noon luncheon, during which we will celebrate the gifts, service to the church and community and the pathways of spiritual growth that our older members have laid for us to follow.
Mark your calendars now to attend the worship service and to share fellowship at the luncheon on Sunday, May 6, as we celebrate our saints. Please let the church office know if you will attend the luncheon, so that we may plan for the preparation of the meal.
Sunday, May 13 is Mother's Day, and the Trinity "Green Team" (AKA - Floral Committee) is inviting anyone interested in honoring mothers to contribute funds for the Green Team to purchase flowering shrubs and perennials. The purchased plants will be used to decorate the chancel and sanctuary on Mother's Day and subsequently will be donated to Gateway Greening for distribution to their community gardens projects. Please look for the order forms in the pew pads and this information in the church bulletin in the coming Sundays. The contribution may also be given to Liz Nelson in the church office Monday through Thursday, 8:30-4:30 p.m., 725-3840. The deadline for donations and ordering will be Wednesday, May 9. Please indicate the name of the mother(s) the donation is honoring and the name of the donor(s).
Gateway Greening is a nonprofit organization dedicated to community development through community gardening. Since 1984, Gateway Greening has helped transform neglected and abandoned lots in St. Louis into productive gardens and beautiful landscaped areas. Our mission is to provide resources and training to neighborhood groups who believe in their communities and want to reclaim them from urban decay. See www.gatewaygreening.org for more information.
On Sunday, May 20, a group of young people who have completed their two-year confirmation class experience will be joining our flock as members of Trinity Presbyterian Church. Confirmation is a vital part of Trinity's future, and an important step in the lives of each of these young people who have made a commitment of faith, dedication, love and questioning. Their journey is not ending with their time in confirmation class, it is continuing on a new path of discovery and searching. Please join us on May 20 to witness their public declaration of faith.
After worship, join the Trinity community for the annual church picnic! Just follow the crowd outside to Washington Avenue for food, fun, and fellowship. Watch for more details in the mid-month Trinity News.
The City-Wide University Chorale will perform spirituals, gospel and other music from the sacred African-American tradition. Sanctuary. Free. A reception will follow.
The City-Wide Chorale joined a group of Trinity singers to form the African Chorus Community Partnership Choir that traveled to Chicago in April. Look for stories of that trip in June's Trinity News. Support this wonderful group of young musicians!
Sunday, May 20 at 4 p.m.
The St. Louis Trombone Quartet (aka The Original Boneheads) will amaze you with their performances in a wide variety of musical styles. Sanctuary. Free. A reception will follow.
The basis of world peace is the teaching which runs through almost all the great religions of the world. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Christ, some of the other great Jewish teachers, Buddha, all preached it. Their followers forgot it. What is the trouble between capital and labor, what is the trouble in many of our communities, but rather a universal forgetting that this teaching is one of our first obligations. - Eleanor Roosevelt
This exciting series expands on the Great Religions Roundtable Discussions which were held in the Fall, 2006. This should prove to be an exceptional opportunity for us to come together to learn and ask questions.
"The reformed witness to the world today is that God's grace is the last word in every human situation whether that situation is a historical event that overwhelms us or a natural event that threatens us with destruction." - John Leith
Many of our Christian Educators gathered on Saturday, April 21, to begin discerning God's call and claim on Trinity church as we plan for a new year of educational ministry. As a "reformed" people we are able to expand our vision from "We've always done it this way" to "What is God calling us to do next?"
We want to hear your thoughts! In the coming weeks you will have the opportunity to respond to a survey/evaluation of our current educational ministry - and, any other time you have something to say, share, suggest or critique just drop a note, an e-mail, or call Susan Hayes (725-3840; s827hayes@sbcglobal.net) or any member of the Christian Education Core Team (George Philips, Karen Mayberry, Stacy Shupe, Rhonda Dunbar, Megan Merritt, Kathie Cahoon).
This has been one of the busiest and most fulfilling years I have experienced at Trinity. We have accomplished much and there are many powerful stories to share about how our music ministry enlivens and enriches our worship life and touches the lives of individuals in our community and beyond.
This spring, a group of singers from Trinity partnered with the St. Louis African Chorus and the City-wide University Chorale, an African-American collegiate choir. After two performances locally, we were invited to perform several pieces of African choral music on a nationally-broadcast television program in Chicago. Watch for details about the broadcast in June.
Amazingly, these are events that have happened outside of worship. The list doesn't include the consistently beautiful and diverse musical offerings that our choirs share with us weekly. We are also blessed to have a steady stream of guest musicians grace our worship services, including strings for a Bach cantata, bagpipes on Palm Sunday, joyous percussion on Easter Sunday, Dan Rubright's bluesy settings of the psalms, and solo instruments ranging from flute to contrabassoon. Additionally, this year's Good Friday service, featuring the Durufle Requiem, provided a powerful opportunity to experience the Passion story through music. All of this is due to you! Your gifts to the Psalm 150 Fund provided the resources for these wonderful and diverse events!
Building on the success of last year's offering and your ongoing support, I have already begun dreaming and planning for the coming year. Next year's World Communion service will feature Klezmer music, led by musicians from Saint Louis' Jewish community. We will host the Muungano National Choir of Nairobi, Kenya, continuing our relationship with African music and musicians. These are just a few of the experiences that I hope we will share together, experiences that can be realized through your gifts to the Psalm 150 Fund.
As we kick-off this year's campaign on April 29, I encourage you to again give joyfully and generously to this special offering. You will help to provide for guest musicians throughout the year and also give support to creative and meaningful musical endeavors that enrich and strengthen our faith. These financial resources also allow us to continue reaching out, giving witness to a faith that is deeply connected to the community and the world in which we live.
In the coming weeks, you will receive a letter and envelope by mail that can be returned to the church office. Or simply write Psalm 150 Fund in the memo line of your check and drop it in the offering plate on Sunday morning. Thank you, as always, for your enthusiastic support!
The late John Vavra, M.D. will be honored by a lecture in his name on May 10 at 2:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Eric Newman Educational Center on the Washington University Medical School campus. The lecture itself will be given by Dr. Lawrence Kahn on a medical delivery program instituted at the medical school several decades ago. Dr. Vavra was an active member of Trinity beginning in 1950. He was an elder, choir member, and leader of the adult education classes. He died 20 years ago. The lecture is part of the offerings for medical school alumni who will be returning that week for their class reunions. Another Trinity connection is the promoter of the named lecture. He is Dr. Ira Kodner, Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values at Washington University. Dr. Kodner presented a class on medical ethics for our adult education series last spring. He had been a student of Dr. Vavra's. Dr. Vavra was a pioneer in the area of medical ethics on the campus and the first chairman of the Human Studies Committee. The lecture is free and open to friends.
On Saturday, April 14, Trinity Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy celebrated a most extraordinary ordination. Our sister Damayanthi Niles, after a long and arduous journey, was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Damayanthi will continue to serve as a Professor of Theology at Eden Theological Seminary.
The road to ordination is long one, and I believe it is worth reflecting because it teaches us a great deal about how we live as a church and how we understand how God calls each of us to ministry. Here is a brief roadmap of what it takes to be ordained:
In addition to these formal steps, a few other things are necessary in order to be ordained.
With the departure of the "floral goddess" Ruth Cobb, the need for oversight and direction of the church's floral decorations became apparent. It was also recognized that a single person would not be able to fulfill this mission or fill the large void left by Ruth. We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere gratitude to Ruth for the decades of service she provided to Trinity in this role. I served as apprentice to Ruth during the past year, and am pleased to try to continue to provide outstanding floral decorations. However, due to my many other roles outside the church, I could not serve alone in this function. I sought help from Dan and Julie to organize a committee. Hence, the Green Team was created. Team members besides myself are Do Kirk, Luise Hoffman, and Julie March.
The Green Team wishes to do more than provide beautiful visuals in the chancel and sanctuary each week. The team plans to integrate the vision of this committee with the church's greater mission and with the liturgical (and Trinity's) calendar. We wish to continue the option of individual families or groups of members ordering flowers or plants for specific Sundays to celebrate events or individuals. Sign up sheets will continue to be provided. In addition, the team plans to utilize live plants that can be donated to members or to charitable organizations as much as possible. The team is also interested in utilizing sources for plants that are known to operate consistently with a "green" model, meaning that their practices are ecologically sound. We welcome the input and assistance of other Trinity members in fulfilling the vision and mission of the Green Team. Please look for opportunities to support the mission as they arise.
The call came at 4:45 a.m. The nurse's gentle voice said simply: "Your Uncle Art has gone to Heaven." There is no doubt in my mind that that is where he is. He was more than an uncle to me; he was my mentor, my rock, my father-figure, my friend. For his generation, he was a big, muscular, Nordic man standing six feet tall. In his prime, it was easy for him to pick up a 100-pound calf and set it gently down out of harm's way. During World War II, even though he was in his late thirties, he was drafted and served in the infantry. He marched all over Europe for two years, but never spoke of the war except to say things like: "Paris was a dirty city, but the children were beautiful." When he moved from his apartment to the nursing home, I found his Bronze Star. I asked what that was for, and he modestly replied: "Oh, everyone got one of them at the end." I don't think so.
During my growing up years, Art lived with my mother (his sister) and me on a small farm in Minnesota. He did the farming and my mom worked at the Good Samaritan Home in town. When my mother worked the long 3-11 night shift at the nursing home, Art was there when I got home from school. We would make supper together and then go to the barn to do chores. While he milked the cows, I would tell him in minute detail about my day at school. He would listen attentively, asking an occasional question and (unknown to me) memorizing everything I said so that he could repeat it to my mother the next day. He did not want her to be left out.
Art was a man of few words, a deep thinker, and a great lover of history and reading. By is example, I learned the joy of finding answers in books. We could sit in the same room for hours in companionable silence, he reading his books and I reading mine. He taught me love and respect for nature, for all animals and growing things. We always searched out the first spring flower together and had the last picnic at the home place with my mom before the snow fell. In the fall we went for long Sunday afternoon rides to see the changing colors of the leaves.
He said to me once, about ten years ago, that he hadn't done much with his life. I quickly reminded him that he had nurtured my cousins and me all of our growing-up years, that we cherished every minute with him, and were much better people because of him. He never raised his voice or hand in anger, but we all knew that if he called us by our whole names, we had really done something to disappoint him - and we never did It again. We simply didn't want to hurt him. He taught us patience by his example. He never preached; he simply lived what he believed.
The day before the funeral, I took a wander out among the leafless trees, not really knowing whether it was time for the first spring blossoms to be out. (I hadn't been home to northern Minnesota in April since my college days.) As I walked through the dead, dusty brown leaves, I spied the fuzzy stems and the tiny bluish-white petals of the Hepaticas (May flowers as the locals call them). I picked a nosegay of the tiny flowers and brought them to the cabin. At first, I thought I could find a small vase and then put them next to the casket, Instead, I tied them with string and when Brian and I walked up to the casket, I put them in Art's dear, work-worn hands, the same hands that used to pick those flowers with me all those years.
We buried him with full military honors in the little cemetery outside Pine River. The legionnaires are not as young as they used to be, but they proudly wore their uniforms and performed their tasks well. This quiet, gentle man is gone from the earth, but his legacy lives on. I see his gentleness, humor, love of learning, and respect for nature in all of my children. His greatest gift to us was showing us how to live what we believe. How could he ever doubt how much he did with his life?
Franklin August DeLano was born March 31, 2007, to proud parents Tom and Anna DeLano in Chicago, Illinois. Grandmother is Karen Coletti.
This is a list of Trinity Members who need our prayers. If you would like to be added to the prayer list or know of a member in need of prayer, please call the church office, 314-725-3840.
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Prayers for Homebound Members
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Prayers for Health Concerns
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The nursery is in need of a new or gently used rocking chair or rocker glider to help comfort our littlest ones. If you are able to help out, please contact the church office at 725-3840.
The Trinity News article that encouraged members to pay the per capita fee of $21.36 per person noted that the fees add up to $1,000 for Trinity Church. The correct amount is $10,000. Members can send a check made out to Trinity Presbyterian Church to help defray the cost.