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Dear Friends,

Peter Higgs’ obituary was in The New York Times on Wednesday. In 1964, Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle that would explain how other particles acquire mass. That’s as far as I’m going to go in trying to explain his contribution to what’s known as the Standard Model – a model that captures all human knowledge acquired to date about elementary particles and the forces by which they shaped the universe. My paltry understanding of physics is limited to the long-running (and now syndicated) sitcom, “The Big Bang Theory.”

Dr. Higgs died at the age of 94, sixty years after he suggested the existence of the boson that now bears his name. The Higgs boson is known popularly by another name – “The God Particle.” This name was coined by the media, not because Peter Higgs was particularly religious. The story goes that the name was derived from the title of a book written by the Nobel-prize winning physicist, Leon Lederman. Lederman was frustrated by how hard it was to detect the Higgs boson, so he proposed that the title of the book he had written be “The Goddamn Particle.” The publishers – as publishers will do – changed this to “The God Particle,” and a connection with religion was drawn, one which bothers physicists to this day (and certainly bothered Peter Higgs.)

The announcement of the detection of the Higgs boson was made at the European particle physics laboratory CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland on July 4, 2012. It took until March the following year to confirm that the detected particle was indeed the Higgs boson. Peter Higgs and another scientist, François Englert, were subsequently awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics, for their Higgs field theory.

The news of Higgs’ death in Edinburgh came during the same week that people across North America observed a total eclipse of the sun. Traffic backed up for miles on interstate highways; Chambers of Commerce calculated the economic impact of visitors to places like Findlay, Tiffin, and Toledo; and businesses, museums, and churches all planned special events. Our “Totality at Trinity” event on the restored Plaza was well-attended, and it was a special gift to welcome guests from St. James Episcopal Church in Grosse Ile, Michigan. (Now there’s a faith community that raises the church potluck to a whole new level!)

As I read articles about the eclipse afterward and scrolled through Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok, the overwhelming reactions people shared were of awe and wonder – emotions usually associated with religious/spiritual experiences.

We live in an amazing universe, and we have – at least some of us have – the ability to conceive of subatomic particles and forces that help us understand the cosmos. When was the last time you experienced awe and wonder? Maybe it was this past week during the eclipse. Maybe it was when a child or grandchild was born. Maybe, just maybe, it was in church.

A week like this leads me to give thanks for the extraordinary complexity of the created order and how the glory of God is manifested in it. The opening verses of Psalm 19 come to mind:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows his handiwork.

2 One day tells its tale to another, *
and one night imparts knowledge to another.

3 Although they have no words or language, *
and their voices are not heard,

4 Their sound has gone out into all lands, *
and their message to the ends of the world.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! We’re still in the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season that began on Easter Day and continues through the Day of Pentecost. This is the most joyous and celebrative season of the Christian Year! Our celebration continues this coming Sunday with four baptisms at the 10:00 am service.

St. Paul connected baptism to Easter in his letter to the Christians in Rome, “When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus.” As we do at every service of Holy Baptism, we’ll renew our own baptismal covenant and be reminded that, through baptism, we are raised to new life with Christ.

Another metaphor for baptism is re-birth. The prayer the priest uses to bless the water at a baptism service says that through water “we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.” In Orthodox churches, the baptismal font is often referred to as “the Divine Womb,” since, in the font, we receive the second birth as child of God.

These female metaphors of womb and birth, borrowed from our Orthodox siblings, are a helpful counterbalance to the Western Church’s theology and symbolism which are often dominated by male metaphors.

The fact is the Good News of Easter came to women first. The Gospel accounts may differ in the details, but they agree that God chose a small group of women to share the greatest news of all time. And it was the women who told Jesus’ male disciples, “He is Risen!” Luke’s Gospel captures how the disciples responded, “they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Not a very good look!

In the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday we meet the apostle we know as Doubting Thomas, but Thomas was not the only one who had trouble believing. Jesus’ words to Thomas could well have been addressed to the others: ““Have you believed because you have seen me?”

Having spoken directly to the apostles, Jesus then turned his attention to us. He said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” May his blessing be on those who are being baptized this Sunday and on all of us who believe without seeing.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This letter will arrive in your inbox early on Good Friday morning. Trinity is offering two ways to observe this most solemn of days:

• The Liturgy of Good Friday at 12:00 noon
• Stations of the Cross at 7:00 pm (this service will be livestreamed)

Easter is still three days away. So it seems premature to bring the Alleluias out of mothballs where they’ve been during Lent. What to write is a conundrum but let me give it a shot.

Years ago, Tony Campolo preached a sermon that has since become famous. The sermon, which later became the title of one of his books, was “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Comin’”. For those of you who have never heard of Tony Campolo, he’s a sociologist and a Baptist pastor who has been one of the most influential leaders of the evangelical left. He’s been a huge proponent of progressive thought and reform.

Dr. Campolo’s sermon is really a sermon about a sermon. He tells the story of a “preach off” that occurred in the church he attended. A “preach off “ is when several preachers get together and try to top each other’s preaching. Of course, it’s never said that it’s a competition. It’s all for the glory of God! But every preacher knows it’s game on!

According to the story, Tony Campolo preached first and, he says modestly, preached well. He sat down after his sermon and said to the old preacher sitting next to him, “You’re turn. See if you can beat that.” The old man looked at Tony and said, “I’m going to do you in.” And that’s just what he did.

He started with the two phrases “It was Friday . . . but Sunday’s comin’” and built his sermon from there.

Friday. . . Jesus was dead on the cross, but that’s because it was Friday. Sunday’s comin’

Friday. . . people are sayin,’ “as things have been, so they shall be. You can’t change things in this world. But I’m here to give you the Good News. It’s only Friday. . . Sunday’s comin’”

It’s Friday, and they’re saying that a bunch of old people sittin’ in church can’t change the world. That’s because it’s Friday. . . Sunday’s comin’”

People of Trinity, these days it can feel like we are living in more and more of a Good Friday world. Innocents are suffering unspeakable horrors because of conflicts around the world. Bridges – both real and metaphorical – are collapsing. And, if the pundits are right, we are heading into one of the most contentious and bitter election seasons in recent memory.

But Sunday’s comin.’

For every Good Friday, God’s answer always is, “Sunday’s comin’!”

Please join us when Sunday arrives – Easter Day at 10:00 am in person or on our livestream.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

In her 2009 book, The Case for God, Karen Armstrong argued that religion is a practical discipline that teaches us to discover new capacities of the mind and heart. What new capacities of the mind and heart might we cultivate during the holiest week of the Christian Year?

Holy Week begins this Sunday, Palm Sunday. Most of the scriptural “airtime” on Palm Sunday is given over to the stories of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent passion, suffering and death. Because of this, we might miss the practical discipline St. Paul offers us. In his letter to converts in Philippi in what is now Asia Minor, Paul quotes a hymn that was, evidently, already well-known to Christian communities. Armstrong writes, “. . . from this very early date (c. 54-57) Christians saw Jesus’ life as a kenosis, a humble ‘self-emptying.’”

Here’s what Paul wrote to the Philippians – in contemporary English: “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death – and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.”

This coming Sunday morning, bread will be broken, and wine poured out in remembrance of the one who emptied himself for our sake. He did not seek to save his own life but lost it and is alive for evermore. If we can begin to imitate Jesus’ kenosis – his self-emptying – in the details of our own lives, our hearts will open in response to Christ’s great love for us. They will open to the pain and suffering we see all around us. They will open to those who are on the margins of society. And they will even open to our enemies and those who wish us harm.

Imitating Christ is not without cost, but Jesus tells us that “those who lose their lives for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, will find them.”

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

The three traditional practices for Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I want to talk about the first of the three – prayer.

Each Sunday, the person leading the Prayers of the People references those on “the Trinity prayer list.” I thought recently, “I wonder where that prayer list is and who keeps it?” Yes, I’m in my sixth month as your interim, but I’m still discovering things about the way Trinity works. (Remember this when your new rector arrives – it will take time for them to learn about the parish’s people and practices. There will be a learning curve!)

I decided to find out more about the parish prayer list. So I conducted an investigation. Guess what? We don’t have one. The reference in the Prayers of the People is a vestige of another time in Trinity’s life. This discovery was enough motivation for me to address this absence and the need for a simple way for parishioners to request prayer.

People preparing for confirmation or reception in the Episcopal Church often are taught the acronym, ACTIP, as a way of remembering the different kinds of prayer. Here’s what each letter stands for: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Intercession, and Petition. Our Prayers of the People are prayers of intercession – we pray for the church, for our nation and those in authority around the world, for those who suffer in body, mind or spirit, and for those who have died.

One of the bishops in whose diocese I served was adamant that people should stand for the Prayers of the People. He believed that lay people were exercising the priesthood of all believers as they prayed on behalf of others. So, they should stand just as priests stand to celebrate Holy Communion. I am less concerned about people’s postures and more about whether they have what they need to perform this very important ministry. Some adjustments are in order.

Here are the adjustments I’m suggesting we make:

• We re-establish a parish prayer list. We’ll make it easy to request prayers for people or situations through our website: www.trinitytoledo.org or by emailing or calling the parish office. Email is trinity@trinitytoledo.org. Phone is (419) 243-1231.
• When a request comes in, it will remain on the prayer list for four weeks before it’ll be taken off. Requests can always be renewed or submitted again. However, having an “expiration date” will prevent the list from overflowing with prayer requests that are out of date.
• When a request is received, the requester will be asked whether they want it to appear on the public prayer list, which will be read out loud at Sunday services, or be added to a private list. In order for a request to be included in the public prayer list on Sunday, please contact the church office no later than the end of the day on Wednesday. And if we’re praying publicly for someone you know, be sure you’ve gotten their permission to be named aloud.
• If the request is designated to remain private or discrete, the parish clergy and a small prayer team will offer prayer. The request will not go public.
• A small prayer team has already agreed to say prayers of intercession. The team members will pray on their own for now. This is not a closed group. You may ask to join the prayer team by emailing me at stephen@trinitytoledo.org.

The goal is two-fold – to make it easier for people to make prayer requests and to involve more parishioners in the practice of praying for others.

Let me end with a portion of a prayer written by the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor, author, and public theologian. Her online publication, newsletter, and community is called “The Corners.” It’s a reminder to me that nothing is out of bounds when it comes to praying for others:

“Bless the things we mistakenly think are already dead. Bless that which we have already begun to carry out of town to bury. Bless our rocky marriages and our college age kids who smoke too much pot. Bless the person at work who we love to hate. Bless the young adult who wonders if they are too young to really be an alcoholic, and bless the 6o year old woman who’s had too much work done. Bless the public school lunch ladies and the guy who stole my kid’s bike. Bless the chronically sick. Bless the one who has no one. Bless what we call insignificant and which you call magnificent. Bless it all and love what only you can love: the ugly, and abandoned and unsanitary in the wash of humanity upon which you have nothing but a gleaming compassion when we have none.”

And let us all say, Amen!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Since Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has so much going on, I’m not sure when he has time to sleep.

Professor Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Most people know him from the popular program, “Finding Your Roots,” which has been broadcast on PBS since 2012. In each episode, celebrities learn about their ancestral histories, discovered by a combination of paper trails, DNA analysis, and forensic genealogy.

“Finding Your Roots” is only one of Dr. Gates’ projects. He’s been the executive producer, host, and writer of “The Black Church,” in which he traces the 400-year history of how Black people have worshiped in America.

His most recent offering is, “Gospel,” a program that honors the legacy of Gospel music in America. Trinity’s staff is tired of hearing me tell them to watch the four-part series, so I’m expanding my evangelistic efforts to you – the readers of Trinity Topics. My message is simple: Spend the four hours it will take you to watch all four episodes. You’ll be glad you did. It’s streaming on PBS Passport, or you can find it here: https://www.pbs.org/show/gospel/.

As a lifelong Episcopalian, I didn’t grow up with Gospel music in church. We sang hymns from the Episcopal Church’s hymnals and anthems from the English Choral Tradition. This genre of music is beautiful, and I will love it to the end of my life. For years, this was the only music one heard in the Episcopal Church. “The Republican party at prayer” is the way Americans used to snicker at the Episcopal Church, the snobby, worldly US branch of the Anglican communion. But the church, like this country, has changed. It’s becoming multi-cultural – thank goodness! – more open and inclusive. And that includes the music we sing.

My introduction to Gospel music happened when I served my first interim assignment at St. Andrew’s Church in Cincinnati. The Director of Music there was Mrs. Irma Tillery, a force of nature and one of the editors of our church’s African American Hymnal, Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Although Trinity doesn’t have these hymnals in pew racks, Chelsie and Grace draw music from the book all the time – songs like “Precious Lord, take my hand,” and “I come to the garden alone.” But Mrs. Tillery took things a step further. She designated the first Sunday of every month as Gospel Sunday. On Gospel Sunday, Mrs. Tillery turned over the keyboard to Jerome, picked up her tambourine (although she was 80, she still played a mean tambourine), and sang in the Gospel Choir. Like the choir here at Trinity, the Gospel Choir at St. Andrew’s regularly brought down the house.

I’ve learned a lot about the origins of Gospel music from watching Dr. Gates’ series – about the emergence of Gospel music in Chicago and then, Detroit – and about the key figures in its development: Thomas A Dorsey, Jr., Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Aretha Franklin, the Winans, Andre Crouch and many others; and about its power to comfort, inspire, and empower.

If you’re looking for a different way to observe Lent, “Gospel” might be just the thing.

And again, when does Henry Louis Gates sleep? All these PBS programs and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at Harvard. Wow! I look forward to the next project he has in the pipeline.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Spring training began this past week as baseball teams reported to Florida – the Grapefruit League – or Arizona – the Cactus League. Pitchers and catchers always show up first. Then the position players arrive, some of them grizzled veterans, some of them rookies hoping to be in the lineup come Opening Day.

I’ve loved baseball since I was a boy. My grandfather Applegate was a huge baseball fan. He spent summers living with us for several years, and he parked himself in front of the TV set in the living room so he could see and hear the games. Although he wasn’t totally blind or deaf, his eyesight and hearing had suffered considerable decline in his old age. One didn’t need to be in the living room to know what was going on with the Yankees. Mel Allen, Red Barber, and Phil Rizzuto’s voices on WPIX could be heard throughout the house.

These days, I rely on the MLB app on my phone, or watch one of the games on MLB.TV to get my baseball fix. A recent email reminded me that I needed to update my credit card so my subscription will renew without interruption.

Here’s a story about spring training and Lent that’s circulated for a long time: Many years ago, a popular Roman Catholic priest was invited to celebrate Mass for a men’s club as they were entering the season of Lent. Like most people, the men thought of the 40-day period as just a time for increased prayer and fasting. The priest changed the thinking of the men that evening as he presented a talk on “Lent, a time of spring training for people of faith.”

“Lent is like spring training in baseball,” the priest said. “We get out of spring training what we put into it. We need to do this yearly to be on God’s team.”

You may not be a baseball fan, or even pay any attention to the sport, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how much eye-hand coordination it takes to hit a sphere that’s only 9-9.25” in circumference traveling at you from 60’ 6” away at 100 mph.

Instead of seeing Lent as a dreary season when we give up things we like for reasons we don’t understand, I’d like to offer another view of Lent – a view from our National Pastime. Lent is the time to ensure that our spiritual life is in top-notch coordination. But in the case of our spiritual lives, it’s not eye-hand coordination; it’s mind, heart and hand coordination.

In place of taking batting practice and fielding ground balls as players do during baseball’s spring training, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the essentials of spiritual spring training. They result in the coordination of mind, heart and hand.

Opening Day will be here before you know it, and so will Easter. Will you be ready when the umpire says, “Play ball”?

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Late last Saturday afternoon, I drove from Columbus to Toledo following the Ordination & Consecration of the 10th Bishop of Southern Ohio. After two very full days – one of them converting the Short North Ballroom of the Greater Columbus Convention Center into a church, the other serving as the Minister of Ceremonies for the service – I was grateful for time alone in the car. If I answered one question during the time I was in Columbus, I answered a hundred. So, I thoroughly enjoyed what the old hymn calls, “blessed quietness, holy quietness.” No radio, no CDs, no Spotify.

When I arrived at my office early the next morning, I found my desk covered with papers, files, books, and empty coffee cups. What a mess! I don’t claim to be the neatest person when it comes to my office, but I’d clearly let things get out of control in the days before the consecration. I’m still clearing the clutter as a write this – still digging out of the pile.

Albert Einstein famously pointed out that “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” Thomas Edison, who had a famously messy desk, must have agreed. And Steve Jobs. While our cluttered desks may not prove we are brilliant, they do show that we might be geniuses. . . or that the desks need some attention!!

Lent is the season of the church year to clear off our desks, to do some holy housekeeping – some spring cleaning – to open the windows of our souls enough for the strong breeze of God’s Holy Spirit to clear out the clutter that’s piled up over the winter. Our resentments, our uncharitable thoughts about others, and our sins all keep piling up on the flat surfaces of our lives.

Repentance is the word traditionally used to describe what Christians need to do to clear off those surfaces – to create enough space for there to be room for God. The famous preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor, writes that repentance “calls individuals to take responsibility for what is wrong with the world – beginning with what is wrong with them – and to join with other people who are dedicated to turning things around.”

What does the top of your spiritual “desk” look like? Take a few moments now to see the clutter that is crowding God out, ask God’s help to clear some space, and then join with others who are dedicated to turning things around. The invitation to a Holy Lent awaits your RSVP.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

One of the images for the season of Lent is wilderness. It’s easy to see why. According to the Gospels, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness after his baptism by John in the Jordan River. The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. Although we, who live in North America, often think of wilderness areas as being heavily forested, the wildernesses of the Middle East are deserts – dry, desolate places with little to sustain life.

Many years ago, a priest friend gave me a book of sermons by H.A. Williams entitled The True Wilderness. The title comes from one of the sermons – the one Williams preached on Ash Wednesday in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. Here’s how he began the sermon: “It is a pity that we think of Lent as a time to make ourselves uncomfortable in some fiddling but irritating way. And it’s more than a pity, it’s a tragic disaster, that we also think of it as a time to indulge in the secret and destructive pleasure of doing a good orthodox grovel to a pseudo-Lord, the pharisee in each of us we call God and who despises the rest of what we are.”

Ouch! I remember thinking, is this what I’ve been doing all these years I’ve been giving things up – like alcohol or chocolate – for Lent? Was I just making myself “uncomfortable in some fiddling but irritating way”?

H.A. Williams went on to say that what Lent should be about is entering the true wilderness that’s inside each of us – a wilderness that isn’t so much about our wickedness (although some people are indeed wicked) but is rather about how incapable we are of establishing communion with each other and, therefore, how alone and isolated we are.

This past Christmas Eve, USA Today published an article about how loneliness has become epidemic in the United States. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General, gives this definition of loneliness: he says loneliness occurs when the connections a person needs in life are greater than the connections they have.

If loneliness is not your wilderness, you are blessed. If the connections you have are greater than the connections you need in life, give thanks. But if loneliness is your wilderness, Lent offers forty days to reestablish communion with others and with God.

Here are ways we offer “holy communion” – ways to connect – at Trinity during Lent: the 10 o’clock Sunday service (in-person or online), the Wednesday service of Holy Eucharist at noon or the three Wednesday evening offerings: Evening Prayer at 5:30 pm., supper with others at 6:15 pm, and the class I’m teaching at 7:00 pm about St. Mark’s account of Holy Week.

Celebrity doctor Daniel Amen recommends minimizing screen time while maximizing in-person interactions to combat loneliness. He especially recommends church. “So it’s back to church,” he says. “Go back to church. Get involved. Get involved with groups. We have to go back. And really, no better place to solve [loneliness] than the church.”

The good news is that the Biblical accounts about wilderness end with stories of new beginnings, of new life, of new connections. The season of Lent ends this way, too, on Easter morning . . . . But for now, we’re just getting started.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This Sunday, February 11, promises to be a special one at Trinity. First, the Reverend Anna Sutterisch, Canon for Formation for the Diocese of Ohio, will be our guest preacher. Anna and her husband, Noah (who was recently instituted as Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Parma) are the proud parents of the adorable 15-month-old Martin. Her role on the diocesan staff includes thinking a lot about how the church – ‘big C’ institutional church and ‘little c’ faith community church – can best teach and shape Christians amidst the brokenness of the world. She asks, “How can we form communities of courage and hope, when it’s easier to just disappear into apathy and Instagram, putting trust in no one because everyone is a disappointment?” Anna loves to cook, grow and eat plants, and run!

Following the 10:00 am service, all are invited upstairs to My Brother’s Place on the second floor of the Parish House for a Mardi Gras/Shrove Sunday party. We’ll combine the best of the English tradition of Shrove Tuesday – think pancakes! – and the best of the Latin tradition of Mardi Gras (which means Fat Tuesday) and Carnival (which means Farewell to Meat) – both ways to mark the shift to the 40-day penitential season of Lent that begins on Ash Wednesday, February 14. Below are all Trinity’s offerings to help you observe an intentional and holy Lent. – from worship opportunities, to classes and gatherings, to practices you can undertake at home on your own schedule.

We say goodbye to the word, “Alleluia” this Sunday – “fasting” from the celebrations it represents in order to prepare for the great celebration of Easter on March 31 this year when we we’ll sing “Alleluia” joyfully!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Breakfast is nigh!

On February 25th at 8:30am we will be opening our doors to members of our outside community for our first soft breakfast opening. Between now and then, there is a lot to do, but nothing that we can’t get done by carrying the load together. As Stephen said in his announcement of this “reboot”, this is going to be Trinity’s signature ministry that is outward oriented.

With food as the catalyst to deeper relationships with our neighbors and friends, we will be enriching our lives in ways known and unknown. But first- we must prepare the way! This Sunday after service we will be meeting in the room known as My Brother’s Place for two reasons:

1. Inventorying what we currently have so we can build an efficient list of needs.
2. Cleaning the kitchen with a good scrub.

If we can have 22 volunteers, 11 on cleaning and 11 on inventory, this will be done quickly. Knowing how well Trinity shows up when the ask is on the line, I am confident in our ability to get this done. Please click here for our signup genius for this event, and I will look forward to seeing you Sunday with some refreshments, a smile, and all-around good time.

Never forget, by rebooting this ministry we are becoming the hands and feet of God in a tangible way within our small corner of the Kin-dom.

Grace and peace my friends.
George (he/him)

Dear Friends,

Deep in the bowels of Trinity are a number of rooms that are and have been used for different purposes: the room where AA meets every weekday at noon, the wood-paneled room complete with fireplace that was once the youth room, and the large space where Trinity’s Next-to-New resale shop was housed until the COVID pandemic changed everything.

Heather Meyer, Trinity’s Director of Operations, gave me a guided tour the afternoon of the day I met with the Vestry about serving as your Interim Rector. Since my memory of the space was blurred, I ventured back to the lower level of the church this week to remind myself.

In the Next-to-New space, Lynzi Miller, who served as manager, had posted a timeline of key events in the life of Trinity. Interspersed on the timeline were national events that provide context, for example, the assassination of President Kennedy. I’m told that one Sunday, after mining the parish archives, Lynzi hosted a coffee hour where people could view the timeline along with a photo album she’d created that contained decades of images.

In interim work, we call an event like Lynzi hosted a “heritage event.” Search Committees need to know the parish’s heritage so they can share it with candidates for rector.

What do I mean when I talk about heritage? It’s reviewing how the congregation has been shaped and formed. The congregation’s heritage, both corporate and individual, is the foundation upon which the present rests. Paying attention to heritage means encouraging and hearing all of the stories about the congregation’s past, and embracing the rich variety that makes up this particular congregation. The Annual Meeting this Sunday following the 10:00 am service will be Trinity 181st Annual Meeting. That’s a lot of heritage!

Soon the Search Committee will be scheduling “listening sessions” to hear your stories about your time at Trinity. In March a specific “heritage event” is being scheduled to help us all know about the ways Trinity has been molded.

What do you know about Trinity’s history? Whether you’ve been attending for thirty years or thirty minutes, I hope you have a hunger to learn more about our heritage as we move through this time of transition. And, if you ever want to take a field trip to the “bowels” of Trinity to see the timeline, I’d be happy to be your guide.

See you this Sunday at church and at the Annual Meeting following.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Trinity will be holding a couple of very important meetings after the 10:00 am service during the next two Sundays.

The first – this coming Sunday, January 21 – is the annual presentation about church finances. Margaret Baehren, the parish’s Treasurer, will lead the presentation along with other members of the Finance Committee. Together, we’ll review the financial report for 2023 – our income and expenses, and whether we ended the year in the “red” or in the “black” – and then go over the vestry-approved 2024 Budget.

Numbers aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the finances of a parish aren’t just about numbers. They’re about ministry and mission and our priorities when it comes to the work we’ve been called to do – that is, God’s work. Trinity has certainly been blessed by the generosity of our forebears, who left substantial legacies that support our excellent programs in music and the arts, allow us to experiment with new ministry initiatives, and preserve our buildings. But Trinity also receives significant support from today’s members. The stewardship of our financial resources is ultimately the responsibility of the Wardens & Vestry, but it isn’t only their responsibility. So, plan to get a cup of coffee at the end of the service and take a seat in the front of the church. You’ll gain important insight into the dollars and cents (not to mention the sense) it takes to do ministry in and from Trinity.

The second important meeting – on Sunday, January 28 – is the Annual Meeting of Trinity Episcopal Church of Toledo, Ohio (the official name of our church.) Having covered the finances of the parish the week before, we’ll turn our attention to celebrating the year just completed and elect three people to serve terms on the Vestry. The Annual Meeting of an Episcopal parish is a business meeting to be sure, but it’s also a time to look back with gratitude for all the ways the Holy Spirit has moved in and through us as well as to look ahead to the coming year. Given that Trinity is in the midst of a rector transition, your leadership will review the steps the parish will be taking to identify and call a priest as your next rector.

Some find it difficult to think of a church as a “business.” For many of us, our parish is our spiritual home, where we are renewed each week by Word and Sacrament. And we ask, why should I come to meetings that are mostly about parish administration. The answer is that administration is holy work, too.

In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul cites “administrators” as one of God’s gifts to the Christian community (1 Corinthians 12:28). The word translated administrating in 1 Corinthians is κυβέρνησις, which means “to steer a ship.” That seems like just the right image for a progressive, inclusive, creative community of faith located in downtown Toledo – one of the busiest ports on the Great Lakes! So, please steer your ship to church the next two Sundays and, then, to the meetings that will follow worship.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This coming Monday, January 15, the nation will observe the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He would have been 95 this year. He was only 39 when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. It’s difficult to think of how young he was when he died.

Many churches, including Trinity, will mark Dr. King’s birthday a day earlier – on Sunday – with prayers, readings, and music that reflect his values and ideals: among them, the principle of non-violent resistance to racist oppression and the dream of Beloved Community.

The Episcopal Church, inspired by our own Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, is guided by the long-term commitment to Becoming Beloved Community in its work toward racial reconciliation, healing and justice. Our ministries are organized around four things:

• Truth-telling: Telling the Truth about Our Churches and Race
• Proclamation: Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community
• Formation: Practicing Jesus’ Way of Healing Love
• Justice: Repairing the Breach in Society and Institutions

None of these is easy. Just take the first – Truth-telling – and think about all the ways many people, including some political leaders, try to deny the truth about Black history in America and attempt to rewrite that history by requiring teachers to give – or stay away from – certain lessons, on penalty of possibly losing their jobs. In July, The Washington Post reported that “A 2022 law [in Florida] mandates students may not be made to ‘feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress’ because they were forced to reflect on bad acts committed in the past by members of their race. And now, according to curriculum standards released last week, Florida students must learn that enslaved people ‘developed skills’ that ‘could be applied for their personal benefit.. . . ‘”

Trinity’s own recent unwelcome visit from an avowed white supremacist, who took issue with our Black Lives Matter banner, was a stark reminder of the persistence of racism in our society.

A dozen years ago, a parishioner in the parish where I was rector wanted to find a way to observe the King holiday that would involve the community. He had been part of the King Center in Atlanta in its early days, and had worked with Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow. His goal was to make the holiday more than a day off. He decided to help the local food pantry network by organizing a food drive that would gather a ton of food on Dr. King’s birthday.

Since he was a marketing guy, he called it Feed the Dream. Feed the Dream’s slogan, “One Day, One Ton,” captured the simple idea – and the slogan became the URL for the drive’s website: onedayoneton.org. The idea caught on, and has subsequently received volunteer support from the local public schools, Denison University, service clubs, the local IGA grocery store, and others.

For whatever reason, the King holiday always seems to fall on the coldest day of the year. This year, January 15 is predicted to have temperatures down in the single digits. While we are all trying to stay warm, may I suggest we find a way to make this year’s King holiday more than a day off. I plan to attend the celebration at Glenwood Lutheran Church, 2545 Monroe St., this Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm and then contribute to The Toledo NW Ohio Food Bank. I invite you to join me, or to find another way to help Dr. King’s dream of Beloved Community become a reality.

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

This Sunday after the 10am service we will be meeting on the second floor in the room known as My Brother’s Place about the launch of our new ministry “Breakfast at Trinity.” As quite a few of you remember, we had a weekly breakfast program before the pandemic that served members of Trinity as well as the unhoused living in and around downtown Toledo. Due to the pandemic, it went away, and we’ve spent the past year working on bringing it back. In September, Karen Keune submitted a grant to the Diocese of Ohio for $5,000 in funding, while including that we’d try and match the grant through our own funding. While we still have not heard about the grant, I can tell you we’ve received a $5,000 anonymous donation for funding Breakfast at Trinity.

To be sure, there is still a need for a Sunday morning meal downtown for those on the margins which is why we are relaunching this breakfast. But providing a meal is only meant to be a catalyst for relationship building.

Welcoming home new friends and family members who don’t know what they’ve missed is who Trinity is, and this breakfast will provide a great opportunity to expand on that. That said, there are a few logistics that we’ll be going over in more detail at this Sunday’s meeting that I will touch on here:

1. This will be a weekly ministry.
2. Breakfast will be served café style from 8:45-9:15am.
3. We will be asking for six (6) volunteers every week to help make this happen.

We’re not simply relaunching the breakfast program; we are creating a new ministry that honors the spirit of what was in order to make way for what can be. There will be some carryover from the previous iteration of our community breakfast, however. For example, it’ll still be an incredibly fun time where we meet new friends and forge deep bonds. Also, our Director of Music and the Arts, Chelsie Cree, has a few fun things up her sleeves that are going to make this unlike any other breakfast you may have been to. Here are some save the dates to put on your calendars now. We’ll go over them again Sunday:

1. Sign-up Genius going live on 2/1
2. Deep clean of the kitchen on 2/4 after service
3. Volunteer training on 2/18 after service
4. Soft launch on 2/25

I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday after church!

Grace and peace.
George M. Benson (he/him)
Director of Community Engagement

Dear Friends,

Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? You know the ones I’m talking about – the ones about getting more exercise, spending less time on social media, or finally getting organized. You haven’t? Me neither. It’s not because I have nothing to work on (the list is long!) It’s because I would be setting myself up to fail at keeping any of my resolutions past Groundhog Day.

The practice of making New Year’s resolutions is an ancient one. Archeologists believe that the first recorded people to make them were the Babylonians some 4,000 years ago. For them, the New Year began in March when crops were planted. Kings were crowned during the festival, or subjects renewed their loyalty to the reigning king. Commitments were made to pay any debts owed to the gods, and promises were made to returned anything that had been borrowed. Keeping promises meant that the gods would bestow favor on you. Failing to keep promises. . . well, that was no something one dared do in the ancient world where the gods could be capricious and the consequences dire.

The early Christians picked up on the religious aspect of making resolutions, and the first day of the year became a time when one thought about past mistakes and committed to doing better in the future. John Wesley, the Anglican priest (and co-founder of the Methodist Church) pioneered what we now know as “watch night” services. He intended the services to be an alternative to the boisterous celebrations. It was, he thought, much better to be singing hymns and reading scripture than to have people partake of the alcohol-soaked parties common at the time (and, of course, afterwards.)

Resolution-making these days is mostly a secular thing, with people making promises to themselves rather than to a deity. And what we typically resolve involves some kind of self-improvement. If we are honest, it’s hard for most of us to change patterns and habits even when we want to.

Here’s my alternative proposal – and quelle surprise, it is a throwback to the time when people’s resolutions were religious in nature:

Set a pattern of when you will attend church in person and follow it. (Note that I didn’t say, attend church more often – although I could get on board with that. No, what I am saying is set a pattern and stick with it.

When I was a first-year seminarian my advisor, Dick Norris, gathered his new advisees and told us to create a matrix of when we would attend services in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. If I remember correctly, there were 19 services each week while school was in session (it was seminary after all, where clergy are formed for their lives of prayer.) Dr. Norris said, pick the ones you will attend and then go to those services whether you feel like it or not. Don’t go to the services that aren’t on your matrix even if you feel like it. Sounds strange, I suspect.

His point was our prayer lives should not be dependent on our feelings – that we ought to pray because God wants to be in relationship with us no matter what’s going on with us or how we are feeling – good days and bad days, happy times and sad times, times when we weren’t “feeling it” and times when we were. The point wasn’t our feelings. The point was responding to God’s deep desire to connect with us.

You may not be preparing for ordination, but Dick Norris’ counsel still pertains. At Trinity, we don’t have 19 services a week, we have (mostly) 8 each month. Pick some and show up.

How many should I pick, you ask? To give you a baseline, the Pew Research Center reports that 62% of Christians attend church once or twice a month. You know your current pattern. Maybe you want to continue it in 2024. If you attend Trinity once a month – to put it in percentages – if you attend one service a month, you are here for 12.5% of the services offered. No matter how many services you commit to attending in a month, stick with it.

By the way, what I’ve been talking about is not some kind of self-improvement program. The resolution is about you, to be sure, but it’s about your relationship with God through Jesus Christ and your relationship with your fellow members here at Trinity.

A lot will happen at Trinity in the next twelve months, and you get to decide how much you want to be part of it – anywhere from 0% to 100%. Have fun thinking and praying about it. Whatever you decide, Happy New Year!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

In the early 1980’s. I served on the staff of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, NY. Priests who serve at cathedrals are called Canons, so I was known as Canon Applegate. (And yes, there were a lot of jokes made about my being a “big gun.”)

The cathedral in Buffalo had a long-standing tradition of musical excellence based on the English model of having a choir of men and boys and a separate girls choir. Both choirs toured regularly in England and the United States. In return, choirs on tour frequently made a stop at the cathedral.

One Advent, St. Paul’s hosted the famous choir of King’s College, Cambridge, the choir known for the annual broadcast of the Service of Nine Lessons & Carols. Needless to say, the event drew a huge crowd; the church was packed.

Toward the end of their program, the choristers and gentlemen of the choir sang seasonal favorites – many of them carols well-known to aficionados of the English choral tradition. As many times as I had listened to recordings or tuned in to the Service of Lessons and Carols on Christmas Day, nothing prepared me for hearing the choir sing live in a beautiful space with wonderful acoustics.

The last piece Kings College choir sang was “O Little Town of Bethlehem” to the English tune Forest Green rather than the tune that’s more familiar to Americans, St. Louis. The words to the hymn were written by Phillips Brooks, who served as rector of another Trinity Episcopal Church – this one in Boston. The last stanza of the hymn is a prayer, and it is my prayer for all of us here at Trinity Toledo as we celebrate Christmas 2023:

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

Merry Christmas on behalf of the Wardens & Vestry and Staff of Trinity!

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

Today, the Alcoholic Anonymous group that meets at Trinity celebrates its thirty-second anniversary of gathering here. This church, like many other churches, has opened its doors to A.A., recognizing that the way A.A. helps alcoholics recover – built on the simple idea of one alcoholic sharing with another – has made it possible for thousands of people to gain and maintain sobriety.

The A.A. group at Trinity meets Monday – Friday at noon. Like every other A.A. group, the one that meets here welcomes anyone who has a desire to stop drinking, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, income or profession. Participation is free.

A.A.’s program begins with the first step: “We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable” and continues through the twelfth step – the Twelve Steps, as they are known. Combined with the Twelve Traditions, they provide a path to personal recovery and the basis for the organization of the group.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob are recognized as A.A.’s founders. Both had initially been members of the Oxford Group, a non-denominational movement modeled after first-century Christianity. The tenets and practices of an American Oxford Group greatly influenced the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

An Episcopal priest also had a significant role in A.A.’s founding. Sam Shoemaker was rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City which was the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group. Bill W. attended Oxford Group meetings there and became close friends with Shoemaker. Shoemaker helped start other Oxford Group chapters including one in Akron, Ohio, where Dr. Bob, a surgeon, became involved. Bill W. met Dr. Bob during a business trip to Akron. He worked with Dr. Bob, who had been unable to stay sober, for 30 days – one alcoholic helping another – the model that has continued throughout the organization’s history. Dr. Bob drank his last drink on June 10, 1935, marked by A.A. as the date of its founding.

How significant was Shoemaker in A.A.’s founding? Bill W. once wrote that “Sam Shoemaker was one of A.A.’s indispensables. Had it not been for his ministry to us in our early time, our Fellowship would not be in existence today.” In another place, he wrote: “The early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else.”

For people who have a problem with alcohol, A.A. has a simple program that works. How blessed Trinity is to have them as one of our building partners! Happy 32nd anniversary.

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate