Trinity Stories

Dear Friends,

I may hold the record for attending the most school holiday concerts of anyone you know. Our eldest child is 18 years older than our youngest. That means that – starting with elementary school concerts and ending with the last high school concert – we were in school gyms and theaters for a lot of years listening to kids sing or play in an orchestra or band. Not that I am complaining. I enjoyed all of the concerts – with the possible exception of the performances by those young people who were learning to play strings: violin, viola, cello, and bass. Heaven holds special reservations for middle school string teachers.

For seven of the above-mentioned years, we were able to secure tickets for the Granville High School Holiday Concert. These are as hard to come by as the tickets for Hamilton were when the original cast was performing on Broadway. The reason is simple – the music program is terrific, the percentage of the school’s kids participating is astronomical, and the performing arts center simply doesn’t have enough seats to accommodate everyone who wants to attend.

The culmination of every holiday concert was the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Somehow, they were able to get every single kid on the stage – the choirs, members of the orchestra, and concert band members. It took two conductors to pull it off – one for the instrumentalists and one for the choirs!

Perhaps sometime between now and Christmas, you will hear the Hallelujah Chorus sung live – or if not live – on your record player, CD player, or streaming service. It was always a showstopper at the end of the concert at Granville High. I’m guessing you already know the words. The lyrics are quite repetitive – stop and count the number of times “hallelujah” is sung!

But there’s more there than a bunch of hallelujahs – and the more there underscores that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I know you can hear the music as you read these words: And he shall reign for ever and ever. The kingdom of this world/Is become/The kingdom of our Lord/And of His Christ.

It’s unclear how the Hallelujah Chorus became associated with Christmas. It actually appears in Part II of the oratorio – the part that covers the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus – rather than Part I, the part that draws its texts from the Christmas readings. It’s probably included because it’s a much more exciting way to bring a concert to its climatic conclusion than the chorus with which Part I ends: “His yoke is easy” – great music, but one wouldn’t fill a stage with teenage musicians to sing it!

The Hallelujah Chorus will be going through my head this Sunday – not because Chelsie has the choir singing it – but because the theme of this Sunday – the Last Sunday after Pentecost – is Christ the King (or if you prefer a less-gendered name: the Reign of Christ).

What does it mean to talk about Christ as King? To call him King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And if the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, how come it so often feels as if someone else is ruling or, perhaps equally troubling, no one is ruling over the darkness and the chaos?

I hope you’ll come this Sunday as we celebrate Christ the King and as we pray our way through what it might mean to acknowledge his reign.

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

On Sunday, November 3, we invited people to bring their loose change for a “Day of Change” fundraiser to benefit Breakfast at Trinity. I am happy to announce that it was a rousing success, and we received $3,701.60 in total donations. This amount will continue to bolster and support our rapidly growing signature ministry. Thank you so much. Over the past month we have averaged about 100 people a Sunday, and this past week we served our 2,500th meal. For a ministry that has been in full operation since Easter, I am constantly impressed with its growth – not just in numbers of people, but, more importantly, in the relational aspect that we value the most. Our incredible volunteers, who show up every week and continue to listen to the stories of those present, are an important part of who we are at Trinity.

Before we know it, it will be time to decorate our houses for Advent and Christmas. Trinity, at one point, had a history of making custom ornaments. This is something we are bringing back in the form of another fundraiser for Breakfast at Trinity. Starting this Sunday, November 17, you will be able to purchase custom-designed ornaments for $30 (about what it costs to feed a table of eight people on Sunday). All proceeds will support Breakfast at Trinity. It is getting colder, and as the number of guests on Sunday climbs due to inflation affecting the cost of groceries, your purchase of an ornament will help put us further ahead of our financial goals as we wait to hear whether we will be the recipients of another Episcopal Community Service (ECS) grant for Breakfast at Trinity.

Finally, as has been announced in a previous issue of Topics and on Sunday in church, we received a gift from a long time Trinity member to provide meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our Thanksgiving meal will be served 11:30 am-12:30 pm on Thanksgiving Day. Most of the food we need has already been purchased. However, if you are interested in volunteering and want to bring something as well, please feel free to do so! We are asking for volunteers to arrive by 10:30 am to help set up and to review some brief training about serving the meal. We expect 100 guests to come and eat, so we could use all the help we can get! Please sign up to help by clicking here.

This is the stuff that matters in the times we are in. Shine bright my friends.

Grace and peace,

George Benson
Director of Community Engagement

Dear Friends,

The deadline each week for Trinity Topics, our weekly e-newsletter, is Wednesday at 5:00 pm. This means that I am writing my “Dear Friends” letter on the day after the election.

I’ve had little time to process my own feelings, much less reflect on the meaning of all the election results. Although I follow politics and economics closely, I don’t have formal training in either. My training is in scripture, church history, and theology. So, rather than opine about what the election might portend in terms of the political or economic implications of one-party rule at the level of the federal government, I’ll write about what I know.

First, scripture contains story after story of the ways human beings have thwarted God’s hopes and dreams for the world. The list is long. I know that some who call themselves Christians believe with all their hearts that the election results match God’s hopes for the world. I respectfully disagree. What scripture also says is that God can take the ways we have thwarted God’s hopes and dreams and redeem them. Exhibit A: We crucified Jesus of Nazareth. And God raised Jesus on the third day. What this means, in part, is that everything Jesus stood for – and stands for – ultimately wins: love, joy, compassion, kindness, life. . . .

Second, church history, which begins with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to a tiny community in Jerusalem, tells how that community – and every faithful community of Christians ever since – has kept hope alive, stood with the marginalized, and actively resisted evil. Sometimes, as a result, members of the Jesus Movement have given their lives rather than capitulate to “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” What this means is that, come what may, we must hold fast to the Baptismal Covenant: persevering in resisting evil, seeking and serving Christ in all persons, and striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being. Trinity Toledo is linked by its witness to faithful Christian communities throughout history and to faithful Christian communities that exist now in the country and around the world. The work continues.

Third, theology, which is, in part, trying to discern what God is up to. Years ago, one of my clergy colleagues, Jim Hanisian, decided that he would ask his parish to focus on a single question: “Where do you find God in this?” The question completely transformed the Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati. Every time something happened in that congregation, whether it was tragic or joyous, the question, “where do you find God in this?” caused people to look for where God was at work. I will be honest: I don’t know where God is at work in this, but I know it’s the question I need to be asking today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future.

We gather again this Sunday, as the Trinity community does every Sunday, to remember who we are and whose we are, and to ask ourselves and each other where we find God. I hope to see you.

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate

Dear Friends,

I’ve been thinking about my sermon. This is something I do every week I’m preaching, of course, but so much is going on this Sunday that I’m having trouble narrowing the focus. And since the professor of my advance preaching class in seminary told us students not to start writing a sermon until we could complete the statement, “what I want this congregation to do is . . .” I find that I’m paralyzed. Here are the strands I’m supposed to weave into a coherent sermon:

• The Day of Change – two things to remember – the first is to set your clocks back one hour – “fall back.” If you don’t you’ll be an hour early for church! Related to the time change is our request for you to bring in your loose change (Day of Change – get it?) Every quarter, dime, nickel, and penny will go to support our Community Breakfast program – a program that welcomes more and more of our neighbors every week.
• Ingathering Sunday – Thanks to everyone who has already turned in their pledge card for the 2025 Annual Pledge Drive. The tally of pledges is encouraging: Trinity hopes to receive $215,000 in pledge commitments from 80 households. As of this writing, we have $142,704 from 38 households. Thirty-two additional households pledged $63,708 for this fiscal year. If those households renewed their pledges, we’d only be $8,588 shy of our goal. Let’s do this!!
• All Saints’ Sunday – one of my favorite church holy days. We’ll remember the giants of the faith – apostles, prophets, and martyrs – and we’ll also remember loved ones whom we hold dear in our hearts. Those you want to have remembered in the parish’s prayers will be chanted by the choir as we begin the service. Please email their names to heather@trinitytoledo.org no later than today at 5:00 pm
• Baptisms – two adults will be baptized during this Sunday’s service, and we’ll all have the opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant. Congratulations to Taylor Marshall and Alyssa Thomas as they take this step in faith!
• Garage Black Out – as if Halloween weren’t scary enough, the lights will be out in the Four Seagate garage this Sunday as the building undergoes necessary maintenance. You may want to bring a flashlight or have your cell phone handy to find your way to one of the two entrances from the garage to Trinity.
• Election Day on Tuesday – a consequential day under normal conditions, this Election Day on November 5 feels particularly significant. Remember that there will be a prayer vigil at St. Andrew’s, 2770 West Central Ave, across from FoodTown, on Monday, November 4, at 7:00 pm. Trinity will have its usual noon celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Wednesday, November 6 – the day after the election – in St. Mark’s Chapel.

You can see where my problem lies. What do I want this congregation to do? All the things I’ve listed above! And if you have trouble remembering them, most – if not all – of these will be repeated below.

See you this Sunday. And if you want to volunteer to preach, let me know. I’d be grateful for the help 🙂

Blessings,
Stephen Applegate