Trinity Episcopal Church 316 ADAMS STREET, TOLEDO, OH 43604
419.243.1231 trinitytoledo.org
Beloved Friends,
June 2021
Even though it was just last month we wrote with an update of our steps moving towards regathering, I write again now in response to Bishop Hollingsworth’s updated In-Person Gathering Guidelines to the diocese effective this past Sunday, June 13, 2021. In short, our diocesan bishop has shifted the responsibility to make decisions regarding the use of masks, singing, serving food, feeding programs, communion and physical separation to each congregation’s clergy and lay leaders. The churches in our diocese span a wide range of sizes and contexts so I appreciate his sensitivity calling out that it is “increasingly difficult to provide a one-size-fits-all set of protocols that adequately responds” to the varied contexts. Since March 2020, your vestry and I have been singularly focused and guided in all our decisions by the Good News of the Gospel. We remain united and convicted as Followers of the Way by a faith calling us to stay out of the center of our own lives preferencing the health, safety and well-being of the broadest definition of our community. To that end we have invested in Trinity@Home as a way to gather and pray together every week; we have hosted a weekly coffee hour; we have lifted up lay leaders offering new classes and groups through Sacred Ground, Book Club, Book Studies and various Workshops; we have welcomed 45 new members home, we have buried and married beloved friends, we have invested in the restoration of the sanctuary attending to deferred maintenance; we have found new ways to meet and work together via Zoom and driveway meetings- in all, we have developed muscles of faithful resilience humbling us all and deepening our sense of gratitude for this community. It has been a season like no other to be sure, and one that is not quite over yet! And we are also excited to share what we believe will be a vibrant, exciting and faithful new Sunday schedule as we continue to anticipate we will be able to safely return to Sunday in-person worship in September.
NEW Sunday Schedule In-Person 9:00 Community Breakfast 10:00 Formation/Engagement/Choir
11:00 Worship
Trinity@Home 9:00 Trinity@Home 10:00
Trinity@Home Coffee Hour
12:00 Coffee Hour (& Section leader rehearsal/recording)
Guidelines/Objectives
2 services of equal “weight”/importance that don’t overlap Our intent has been to craft a new • Sunday schedule reflecting the importance of both • Additional time on Sundays after breakfast for fuller participation & Trinity@Home and our Sunday in-personformation worship. We are also excited about exploring what (youth & adult)
the 10:00-11:00 hour might afford those of us who gather for in-person worship on Sundays. We have lots of ideas and look forward to exploring your ideas as well. The rest of our May 2021 update remains accurate: End of month all-parish picnics are scheduled for June, July and August, Pop-Up Dinners are beginning in July, Wednesday 12:00noon Eucharist has begun. We are moving, safely, forward, and together- Praise God from whom all blessings flow! And may you never forget that you are loved. Lisa The Rev. Dr. Lisa Tucker-Gray, Rector Progressive
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