- Vicki Carmichael, Minister of Music - Choir Director

All Youth, grades 6-12 Sign up now for our fall retreat at Camp RockyVine November 5-7th.

We will join youth from two other area churches for a weekend of fun, fellowship, and discussing our faith. If you have not yet been on a Trinity retreat, ask youth who have! They will tell you what a great experience it is!

Contact Dawn for more info or to sign up: 24.dawn@gmail.com

 This Saturday, October 2, 5-8pm

We will be visiting another church worship service and reflecting on our experience.

- Dawn Fleishman, Minister of Spiritual Growth

Trinity's own Shanthi Phillips is serving in the Peace Corp in Lesotho, an African nation bordering on South Africa. Trinity's children and youth are collecting books for Shanti's school. Please bring in gently used paperback books (preferably 4th and 5th grade level or younger) for this book drive. Baby board books, children's school text books, and paperback dictionaries are also appreciated. We hope to collect 1,000 books plus $500 to cover shipping charges. Books will be collected throughout October. Drop off is in the box in the children's area in the basement.

- Dawn Fleishman

College Students: undergrad and graduate level are invited to attend...

Convergence The intersection of faith, our lives, and the issues of the world Saturday, October 9 5:30pm

Dinner, Film, & Discussion Bring college friends for this free dinner and movie night. Contact Dawn Fleischman (24.dawn@gmail.com) for information about the movie.

- Julie March, Associate Pastor of Equipping Ministry

Dear Trinity members and friends,

My last day at Trinity is coming soon, and I want to say again what a joy it has been to be your Associate Pastor of Equipping Ministry. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

A number of you have asked about my plans for the future. I will leave soon for a trip to Scotland and England, to visit family and friends, and when I return to St.Louis I will seek another ministerial call in the area. Until I am called to a permanent position at a church, I will serve as a supply pastor to an area church that currently does not have ministerial leadership. As many of you know, the Presbytery asks that former pastors do not continue to worship with the congregations in which they served. Therefore, if at some time in the future I attend worship at Trinity, this will happen in conversation with the Session.

Peace and Blessings to you all,
Julie

- from Robert Souza, who has played trumpet for Trinity's Easter services...

Please join us for our first concert of the season!

Meramec's chamber series, "Making Music," presents the Gateway Brass Quintet on Saturday, October 2nd at 3:00! The Gateway Brass Quintet will perform "Music from the 60s!"

The Gateway Brass Quintet was founded in 1975 and continuously perform a variety of wonderful repertoire in various venues. Please visit their website for more details: http://www.gatewaybrassquintet.com.

The concert begins will be held in the Humanities West building on Meramec's campus: room 102.

As always, the concert is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there, and are very pleased to kick off our third season of this series! We appreciate your attendance very much!

Saturday, October 9th @ Trinity.

Are you a college or grad school student visiting Trinity? We'd also love to take you to lunch. Ask someone to point you in the direction of Dawn Fleishman for more info, or speak with Dan or Julie, the pastors. Glad you're here!

Every time our congregation receives the Lord's Supper, there is opportunity to remember other Christians around the world who are also receiving these gifts of God. But we make a special point of remembering our unity with Christians worldwide on World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October. It is a day to be mindful of the love of Christ, who draws us all together despite our many differences.

As Presbyterians, we recognize that Christ taught us to be peacemakers, and that being peacemakers is part of being Christ's followers. So on World Communion Sunday, we receive the bread and cup of heaven, and we bring our gifts of self, service, and money to be put to work for Christ's peace in the world.

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Peacemaking Offering. The Offering was set up in a way to encourage all levels of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to work for peace. Each congregation is invited to find ways to promote peace within the congregation and within the community. For that reason, our church will retain 25 percent of the Offering we receive, and we will decide how best to put this money to work. Another 25 percent goes to our presbytery or synod, and the remaining 50 percent goes to the General Assembly for peacemaking involvement throughout the world.

Join us on October 3 as our church celebrates World Communion Sunday and as we commit to being instruments of the peace we find in Christ. Come ready to give generously to the Peacemaking Offering.

- Dawn Fleishman, Minister of Spiritual Growth

- Dan Anderson-Little, Pastor

Starting in October, Trinity will have a new meeting structure moving all commissions, committees, boards and teams (with the exception of the Session and perhaps the Endowment Board) to Monday nights.

I put this proposal forward a year ago and asked for responses from elders, deacons, and other commission members. The input I received was thoughtful, raising both advantages of and concerns with the plan. The responses last year ran about 50-50-half the respondents favoring this new plan and about half preferring our current approach to meetings which encourages commissions and teams to meet only as needed and at times that are mutually convenient to the members of the commission.

After hearing from everyone, I made the decision last year to stay with our current practice, recognizing that flexibility is an important component of our life at Trinity. As we have worked our way through this year with our current meeting schedule, I have more and more noticed the shortcomings of our current approach. There is a lack of coordination between commissions; we spend (waste?) a good deal of time trying to find convenient meeting times; sometimes commissions and teams aren't meeting when they need to because there is no regular meeting time; and ideas and opportunities which come to the church by way of the staff (for mission projects, special worship services, collaborations with other churches) frequently don't have a place to go because commissions and teams are not meeting on a regular schedule.

As a way to address these issues, we will switch over to this new plan. We will begin to implement this plan in October, knowing that this switch over will take some time as commissions and teams may already have meeting schedules set for this year. By January 2011, I would like every team, commission, and board on this new schedule.

The Plan:

• The spiritual framework for this plan is taken from Micah 6:8 where we read, "And what does the Lord require of you but that you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God." These three requirements of discipleship (do justice, love kindness, walk humbly) describe the three major areas of every church's ministry. Commissions and teams will be clustered according to these three areas. We will also have a fourth night of meetings for teams that are concerned with Institutional Support (money, personnel and facilities).

The Monday Night Schedule:

• First Monday of the Month - Do Justice
• Food Pantry
• Local Mission Funding
• God's Child
• Habitat for Humanity
• Other Mission projects
• Second Monday of the Month - Love Kindness
• Board of Deacons
• Evangelism/Welcoming
• Third Monday of the Month - Walk Humbly
• Worship & Music
• Spiritual Growth
• Adult Education
• Equipping
• Stewardship
• Fourth Monday of the Month - Institutional Support
• Corporate Affairs
• Facilities
• Personnel
• Endowment Board (the Endowment Board which has always met separately from other commissions and teams of the church is currently considering this proposal)

Monday evening meetings will be divided into three sections:

• Opening time for learning and prayer. This time will be led either by an elder or a staff member (20 minutes)
• Time for joint planning and coordination. Teams will share what they are working on, will seek points of collaboration and will lend support to one another. (10 minutes)
• Breakout time for specific commissions and teams (depending on what each team is working on, this could be very short and no longer than 90 minutes)

All elders will be asked to attach themselves to one of the groupings. Elders will be as evenly divided between the four groupings as possible. Elders may elect to attend more than one grouping, but that is not encouraged so elders can focus their energy in one area.

Appropriate staff persons will attend if their schedules allow (most staff members are part-time and sometimes have other commitments on Monday evenings).

• Do Justice - Pastor
• Love Kindness - Pastor
• Walk Humbly - Minister of Spiritual Growth, Ministers of Music, Pastor
• Institutional Support - Church Administrator, Financial Administrator, Pastor

Advantages:

• consistent meeting times so commissions and teams aren't going through the exercise of having to find meeting times.
• allows commissions and teams working in the same ministry area the opportunity to coordinate and collaborate.
• Gives opportunity for commission and team members to learn and pray together.
• Allow staff to plan for set meeting times making for better use of their time
• Gives consistent places for new ideas to be delegated

Disadvantages:

• A lack of flexibility will limit some members' ability to participate in commissions and teams
• Commissions right now tend not to meet when there aren't important items on their agenda. This plan will ask all teams and commissions to meet monthly, so some groups may feel like they are meeting more often than they need. However, each month will have a time of important learning and prayer which will strengthen each person and the work of each area.

Challenge:

• For those who cannot meet on Monday nights, we will need to find ways for them to meaningfully participate in the work of our commissions and teams. We will need to seek out folks who stop participating because meetings have moved to Monday, and we will need to be creative in finding ways to help them stayed meaningfully involved.

Dear Trinity members and friends,

Psalm 150 invites us to "Praise the Lord!" in a variety of musical ways, with many different instruments and with dancing. At Trinity we praise with congregational singing, organ music, choirs, vocalists, handbell ringers, contemporary bands, pianists, flautists, percussionists, chamber orchestras, brass quartets and anything else we get inspired to try. I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to minister to and with my friends and companions by leading music that moves us to praise, to thanksgiving, to confession and repentance, to expressions of utter grief and blissful joy.

Every Sunday someone comments to me about the worship music at Trinity. Sometimes they want to comment on a specific piece of music the choir performed or a hymn that was chosen; other times they comment about the high quality of the worship music in general; occasionally, someone will remind me of a preferred musical style and request more of it in worship; or they want to express their appreciation for the leadership and tell me how the music connects with them. As I reflect on these conversations I begin to understand what being a "minister" of this music program means to me.

These conversations remind me that meaningful, quality music in worship is vital. There is simultaneously an incredible intimacy and an overwhelming vastness to the relationship of individual human beings with their Creator and Sustainer, God. Music is an invaluable gift with which God reaches into this both vast and deeply personal space. God is ever-present in the composition of the melodies and harmonies and in the poetry of the words. God creates, guides and transforms every person who comes into contact with each piece of earthly music. God shapes the lives of not only composers, poets, instrumentalists, conductors, and singers but also of each beloved child who will hear and be moved by the music.

It is awesome and wonderful to know that in our music making we are carrying out God's will to bring us all into deeper relationship with each other, with ourselves and with our all-loving God. To minister to each of you through the gift of music is an honor I do not take lightly and yet, the load is light - God equips me with a love for all kinds of music and a deep yearning to share what I love.

In supporting the Psalm 150 fund each year, you contribute to the creativity of this music ministry and to opening possibilities for deeper relationships with others and with God. I hope that as you consider how the music in worship touches you, you will find value therein and give as generously as you are able. Your gifts allow us to dream of and plan even more special worship experiences and supports the tools we need to bring the music to you.

We will collect your gifts for the Psalm 150 fund in worship this Sunday, September 26 - just specify "Psalm 150" in the check memo. Some ideas that Bill and I have for use of the funds include a larger choral work with chamber orchestra during advent; special music and musicians during lent, on Easter and other holidays; new (and badly needed) table covers for the bell choir, and other possibilities. Thank you for participating in our music ministry by supporting the Psalm 150 fund.

Yours in love and service,

Vicki Carmichael
Minister of Music, Choir Director

with

Bill Wade
Minister of Music, Organist

- Dana Brown, Scot Brown

Dear Trinity Friends,

 I was called to Trinity 4 years ago to be your Associate Pastor of Equipping Ministry, and in just a short time I will have completed that call. Before I leave, I want to let all of you know how much you and Trinity have meant to me.

Although I'm an older adult, this was my first call out of seminary, and you patiently allowed me to learn how to be a pastor here. You greeted me warmly, shared your lives with me, listened to my sermons, included me in committees and responded to Equipping Ministry efforts. You enthusiastically welcomed me and my husband, Curt, and gave Curt one of the best church experiences of his life. You stood with me through my grief and shock at his death, and your compassion enabled me to move on.

You have shown me how important it is when church members care for one another, and reach out in compassion to those in need. You have taught me that I still have much to learn, and that God will continue to lead me. Working with the Trinity staff has been one of the best experiences of my life. Dan, Liz, Dawn, Bill, Vicki and Birty have become close friends as well as colleagues, and are models for how all staff relationships should be. I pray for the staff and for each and every Trinity member as you move onward in the service of Jesus Christ in this place and at this time.

Blessings and Love,
Rev. Julie March
Associate Pastor of Equipping Ministry

- Dawn Fleishman

- Elaine Pontious

Each Sunday morning a Trinity member takes part in our worship service by serving as a liturgist. This worship leadership role in reading Scripture, congregational prayers and liturgy helps us all leave the world aside for a while, and concentrate on God and life's deepest meanings. Have you every considered being a Trinity liturgist? There are currently 4 openings on our list of liturgists, and you are welcome to talk to Dan or Julie at any time about this fulfilling role in the life of the Church.

- Diane Berry - Executive Director, Health Protection and Education Services

Saturday September 18, 2010
University City Library
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM registration

HPES is dedicated to protecting the health and wellness of the medically underserved in our communities. We are a group of volunteer professionals, including medical doctors, dentists, nurses, medical students, and many others.

Melanie always felt it important to give to those in need; and as a result, she spent years volunteering helping others. She and her husband, Jeff, had never been without health insurance. Not until Jeff suffered a major illness and lost his job. "You think it will never happen to you," Melanie lamented. "It was very emotional time, and I began to understand that you can indeed receive what you once gave. I saw the tables turn in life."

"I want to encourage those who find themselves without adequate health insurance or just need the medical testing services of HPES. My visit was an incredibly uplifting experience. The volunteers were encouraging; and there was not a hint of condemnation or judgment. I was so humbled by the manner of the volunteers and astonished at their professionalism. I was also surprised that there were people receiving services of all ages and socioeconomic status. I realized this downturn in the economy levels the playing field for all of us. More than that, I realize now that HPES is a service that trains future doctors. The highlight of my visit was the unbelievable grace I received to get over $500 in medical testing free of charge."

If you need medical testing, feel free to come. We serve anyone who would like medical testing and one-on-one consultation with a doctor. If you have any questions, call Diane at 599-0477.

Plan now to sign up for Trinity's small group ministry, B&B's for Bonding and Bridging. In our small groups we gather weekly to share fellowship, study and prayer together, and complete a service project at church or in our community. B&B's are an excellent way to meet new people, share meaningful time with church members and friends, and build Trinity friendships. Each group meets one time per week for 6 weeks, and the B&B online blog provides weekly information to members. More than 50 Trinity members and friends have already participated in a small group as we build links of connection among our congregation.

Two groups are now open for members, beginning the week of September 27:

• One morning group, beginning on September 27
• One evening group, beginning on the evening that members choose

Are you interested in learning more or in joining a B&B? Simply contact Associate Pastor Julie March by talking to her at church or emailing juliammc@sbcglobal.net. You may also sign up when you are at Trinity, and you will find pink sign up sheets, in the Narthex (back of the sanctuary) on the table in front of the Church office, or in the office. Trinity Equipping Ministry team members Dave Nelson, John Merker and Rick Jeter can also tell you more about Bonding and Bridging groups.

- Independence Center

The Independence Center is an award-winning St. Louis psychiatric rehabilitation program for adults with serious and persistent mental illnesses...

Please save the date to join us for our 5th Annual Estate Sale on October 23rd from 9 am - 3 pm. We will have lovely old antique pieces as well as other fine furniture. You will find china, crystal, and other collectibles. Last year we had quite a crowd waiting to get in prior to 9:00 am, so get here early to find the best buys.

The Clubhouse Shop is located at 4245 Forest Park and you can find out more about the shop by visiting our website or calling 314-880-5484.

- Brian Schroer

- Liz Nelson

- David Nelson

Saturdays: Sept. 25 (landscaping), October 2 (interior finishes), 9, 16, 23, 30

Email Pat Gibbons (pcg@wustl.edu) or sign up in the Narthex and come help build our house!

To members and friends of Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery...

Dear Colleagues in Ministry,

On Saturday, September 11^th, there will be a prayer vigil at Christ's Church Cathedral in downtown Saint Louis beginning at 3 pm sponsored by the faith community. It is called "Praying with the World Community: A Stand Against Religious Intolerance."

Jim Cook, our Interim Presbytery Executive, will represent Giddings Lovejoy Presbytery and say a few words. Many religious leaders will participate in the interfaith event.

If you are able, I would encourage you to be present. We all have many commitments on our calendars on Saturday, but few will be as important as standing up and being counted in the struggle against religious intolerance. I encourage parents to bring their children and make this a teachable moment.

Please forward this email to friends and members of your congregation-and to other faith leaders. Help us get the word out.

Shalom,

Mary Gene Boteler
Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church

Sarah Lukes Varick and David Pollard Rand were married Sunday September 5, 2010 at Heritage Prairie Farm in Elburn, IL. Sarah and David's wedding party consisted of several good friends, her two brother's, Ben and Dan, and David's brother, Matt who escorted his wife Penny. Ryleigh (7) and Harper (4), David's nieces were the flower girls. The parents, Barb and Tim Rand and Susan and Steve Varick, held the four posts of a Chuppa and waited as Sarah and David walked the grassy aisle to their place under the Chuppa and then the parents and the bridal couple walked the rest of the way together. The parents planted the poles of the Chuppa, hugged their children and then seated themselves.

...will be held in the Dining Room on Sunday, October 3 after our worship celebrating World Communion Sunday.

Sunday, September 26 will be Julie's final sermon at Trinity.

Art Platt is organizing this adult/child doubles tournament for Sat. September 25^th, $30/team. Contact Art for more information.

The coffee we are now serving is roasted fresh for us by Arthouse Coffees and the proceeds support the Turner center for the Arts in Maplewood, which provides art opportunities for people of all abilities.

Trinity members can also purchase roasted beans directly from Barry Larson, bean roaster: 306-7626 or www.arthousecoffees.com.

- Liz Nelson, Church Administrator

- Liz Nelson

....small groups are usually the place where your spirituality is ignited and deeper connections with others are made. There are plenty of small group opportunities at Trinity and others are being considered. Where do you see yourself?

Current Groups: B&Bs (usually 2 Bonding & Bridging groups running at a time), Wild with Words, Monthly Young Families Getting Together, Presbyterian Women, Retired Men, Trinity Retirees, periodic Bible studies led by Dan, and a number of "un-official" groups meeting to discuss books, cook together, etc.

Groups being Discussed: Women's group, Men's Group, Parent group (want to revive this on Sunday mornings?).

(Should we continue to consider these groups? Interested in helping or joining? I would like to know).