The Trinitarian

Trinity Episcopal Church, 44 North Second Street, Ashland OR 97520 541-482-2656 FAX 541-482-1260 office@trinitychurchashland.org

The Reverend John Goddard, Interim Rector

The Reverend Carol Howser, Deacon June 2011
Trinitarian Online Edition

The Reverend Meredith Pech, Deacon

www.trinitychurchashland.org

Search team update

Well, what a month it has been for the Search Team. Our national search for Trinity Ashlands new rector has been officially launched online! If you know any priests you feel would be a good fit for our parish, please refer them to Trinitys Community Ministry Portfolio on the website www.otmportfolio.org. (This website is available only to clergy who have registered, not to laypersons.) So, here is a recap of recent search developments: April 20: Trinitys Parish Profile received the enthusiastic approval of Bishop Michael Hanley. The Parish Profile is available to all at www.trinitychurchashland.org May 1: The Vestry approved Trinitys Community Ministry Portfolio. This portfolio contains the information necessary for posting our call for a rector on the Episcopal Churchs national website referred to above. The Search Team, Parish Profile Committee chair Kathy Griffin and Senior Warden Mindy Ferris all worked diligently to complete these worksheets. We appreciate everyones efforts, including special meetings held by the Search Team and the Vestry to move the process along as quickly as possible. May 12: After approving our Community Ministry Portfolio, the Bishops Office entered the information into the database of the Episcopal Churchs Office for Transition Ministry (OTM). May 19: The OTM put our Community Ministry Portfolio online, thereby launching our national search. We now enter a very special passage in the search; and if ever there was a time to request some help from everyone, the Holy Spirit included, this is it. Please include the calling for our rector, as well as the discernment skills of your Search Team, in your prayers, whatever form they take. If the previous month is any indication, your support and prayerful energy are being answered, we assure you! This is a time for contemplation, openness, and reception for our search. If you have any suggestions or concerns, please mention them to any member of the Search Team, or leave us a message in the Search Team mailbox in the Church Office. Our pictures and names are posted on a bulletin board in the Parish hall. Our future rector is out there, and we will spend early summer fine tuning our preparations for the next steps in the selection process. It may be mid-July before we actively start the interview process. Ours is a BishopAssisted Search, so priests who respond to our call will be vetted by the Bishops Office before their names are given to us. On Sunday, July 24, The Rev. Neysa Ellgren, Canon for Congregational Development and Staff of the Diocese of Oregon, will be preaching at Trinity and participating in the 9 oclock forum. Please put the date on your calendar as this will be a excellent opportunity for you to learn more about the search process directly from our liaison in the Bishops office. Rest assured we will continue to keep you posted as our process keeps moving forward. Your Search Team Blessings to you all this Eastertide. Your Search Team

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

The Interim Rectors letter to the Trinitarians

June 2011

Dear Friends in Christ,

During the season of Easter we celebrate the new life offered to us in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ has been raised so that we may have life and abundant life. As a community of faith that proclaims this, I find Trinity very vital as a parish that recognizes this change in our status from before to now. One of the powerful examples of this is recognizing the many people that are involved in the community in which we are blessed to live. I know that as a parish Trinity is blessed by a wide range of lay ministry from our Sunday worship, to the groups that meet for learning, to the care expressed in the Pastoral Care in this parish and much more. The gift of sharing being Stewards of God is part of the natural flow of this parish as we share our time and talents in a wide variety of ways. But it goes beyond the walls of Trinity and impacts so many parts of the wider community. My limited observations are of the number of people from the parish involved in many aspects of the life of Ashland and beyond. I wont mention anyone because I know I dont have space for the full list and I, as I said, have limited knowledge. One part of the Gospel that I see as calling us to this engagement in the wider world is the command to take the Good News to the ends of the earth. No one person can do this but as people of faith it can happen. I dont think you have to raise the banner of your faith when you reach out to others, but hopefully if you are asked you can share the core faith that is strengthened and nurtured by your life at Trinity. In the next few months a new priest will be supporting and nurturing this parish in its journey of faith. What a fortunate person this will be, for the support and nurture will be a two way street-- the support of each other and the nurture of the important causes of your lives. We have many opportunities to share the Good News in Christ. Thanks be to God for all who take every opportunity to do just that. Peace,

John Goddard Interim Rector

A DINNER IN YOUR HONOR

If you have been one of the newcomers who has been attending Trinity and have realized that this is the church for you, then we would like to invite you to a special dinner. The evening to put down on your calendar is Monday, June 6th at 6 PM in the Parish Hall. We look forward to celebrating your decision to become part of our church family by holding a dinner in your honor. Every year we have two opportunities for those new to Trinity to officially be welcomed as members of our parish family. The next Service of Welcome is part of our celebration on Trinity Sunday, June 19th. If you are ready to join and have not received a letter from Father John or a phone call from our newcomers committee, please contact or the office at 541-482-2656. We are delighted you are with us and we dont want to miss you! Trinity Newcomers Committee

REMINDER -- Fr. Johns Schedule

Fr. John is away for a large part of June. During July and August he will be here on a more normal schedule. This next month he attends the Interim Ministry Network conference in Nashville TN where he is a small part of the presentations that week. His presentation on Stewardship What are we afraid to talk about? will be offered to an ecumenical group of clergy who serve as interims across the country. Immediately following this time, John will be home part of his time away each month and then spend some vacation time during which he plans a trip to Mendocino CA and the coast of northern California. In addition, hell spend some days here in Ashland where he and his wife Carol will become tourists enjoying the plays at the Festival and other events in the area. Sr. Warden Mindy Ferris will be here during most of this time and pastoral care needs may be addressed by calling the parish office for a clergy person to assist.

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

An Invitation to Join our Search Team...

As I mentioned in the May Trinitarian, our Search Team is practicing the Awareness Examen. This classic spiritual practice, created by St. Ignatius in the 15th century, has been written into more contemporary language below, and it invites each of us to grow into a deeper awareness of the Spirit's movement in our lives, individually and as a parish. As a way to discern our lives, it can help us recognize where in our lives we are most alive with God, ourselves, others and our world, and also where in our lives we are not experiencing being fully alive. And that can help us see more clearly and know how we wish to spend our time and live our lives. If you try this practice, it may surprise you Nancy Linton Personal discernment is not a practice that can be easily systematized into any formula, especially not a simple oneSpiritual listening is not listening to words, to arguments, to pros and cons, to positions and opinions. It involves listening to the delicate intersections of the human heart, with its desires and dreams, and the vast and silent mystery that is God. (Desert Listening, 125)

The Awareness Examen

(From St. Ignatius) Light a candle, or devise some other simple ritual to mark the time as prayer and invite the Spirit (or however you name God) to be present with you. Take about 8-10 minutes to quietly reflect on two questions: When did I feel most alive today, most connected to myself, others and God? When did I feel life draining out of me, or feel numb, or disconnected? These two questions can be put a number of ways, so choose what feels authentic for you: For what moment today am I most grateful? For what moment today am I least grateful? When did I give and receive the most love today? When did I give and receive the least love today? When today did I have the greatest sense of belonging to myself, others and God; When did I have the least sense of belonging? What was todays high point? What was todays low point? First, review or scroll through your day (or the time period youre using), noticing the moments for which you are most grateful (Ignatius called these consolations). Then do the same for the moments for which you are least grateful (Ignatius called these desolations). Now for the remainder of your silent time, allow one moment (from either the consolations or desolations) to bubble up, to come to your attention, to shimmer. Try to simply notice, not judge it, particularly the moments for which you are least grateful. Notice your feelings and using your senses, allow that moment to come into the present and experience it again. As you conclude the practice, you may wish to return to a few more minutes of silence in order to become aware of the Spirits invitation to you in this remembering. (For example: To increase what gives you life, to become aware of patterns, etc.) You may want to journal or share your experience with another person. --Adapted by Mark Yacconelli, from Sleeping With Bread, Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, Matthew Linn

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

Worship Team Adult Forums in June and the rest of Summer

First thanks for the good response over the past few months. The attendance and the engagement of many in our discussions build a community strong in its faith. On June 5 and 12 at 9am we will have two very special Adult Forums to which all are invited. Our own Gary Woodring will present, "Urban & Wilderness Mysticism, a meditative/reflective experience.Gary is a member of the Diocese Environmental Commission. The Sunday of June 19 we will not have a forum as we prepare for the Annual Trinity Sunday picnic which will follow the 10:00 AM Eucharist. We are open to anyone leading Adult Forums during the remainder of summer. Please watch the weekly announcements for details of upcoming events. On Sunday that we dont have any specific topic we will reflect on the Bible readings of the day. If you are interested in presenting your passion on any of the Sundays please talk with Fr. John before June 12. One special Adult Forum that you will not want to miss will be on July 24 when The Rev Canon Neysa Ellgren, our consultant for the search process and Canon for Congregational Development and Staff will join us to answer any and all questions concerning the next few weeks of our search process and what will be happening and also how we might consider welcoming our new rector. MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THIS SPECIAL ADULT FORUM JULY 24. The monthly meeting of the Worship Team is focused on several points of the worship of the parish. We addressed the change of having the Eucharistic Minister serve at the altar unvested. The discussion revolved around the breakdown in formality by following this practice and the modeling that we are all present at the altar with the orders of ministry, clergy and lay being gathered around the table of God. This model will continue through Pentecost Sunday June 12 and then return for the summer months to vesting anyone serving at the altar. This is a common practice of interim ministry to change and then revert back to what the parish knows. This sets a model for the leadership of the new rector who may differ in this and other parts of worship from the previous rector or the interim. Another topic was the symbols that shape our worship. One of these symbols is the closing of the gate, or closing the communion rail before the consecration prayer. The symbol that is part of our worship is that the worship space is all one including the people in the pews and the altar and those serving--there is no area shut off or divided. This gating of the altar space for some is unnoticeable due to the insignificance of the rail. But when the presiding priest stops and waits for the gate to be put into place, this breaks the natural flow of the high point of the worship. So for now we are asking that the communion rail gate remain open until after the prayer of consecration at all worship. Worship Team Members are Chris Amorelli, James Johnson, Chris Bogh, Carol Howser, Meredith Pech, Morgan Silbaugh, Tom Murphy, Tharwat Ghaly and John Goddard. Next month we will examine the receiving of communion by the altar party: Is it before as is the tradition or after as a sign of hospitality? The worship team invites us to share the top three favorite hymns, which will then be tallied, and the results shared in the next Trinitarian. These hymns will be part of our worship in June, July and August. So have fun and submit your top three favorites to the office by June 10 (All suggestions need to be found in our 1982 Hymnal).

Answering the call

In my volunteer work as a mentor to high school students preparing for the next chapter of life, I always think of Jesus expression, Ask and it shall be given you and I urge them to find what their strengths and passions are and to ask accordingly for what path they are to follow. I was reminded of this when Patti Chase, whos mothered several children and grandchildren herself and knows what its like, asked that we bring diapers for the Food Bank on Mothers Day. Though I forgot my own package of diapers, I couldnt help but think how one simple request was fully granted. I thought of this as I helped Patti take four huge and fully loaded garbage bags of diapers out to her car. Because our church family was asked, they responded, and because of that response in trust, many infants and young children will be helped in the coming months by this simple request and response. Thank you Patti, thank you Trinitarians, and thank you, Lord. Ann Magill

ve th Coming Event eD at Annual Trinity Parish Picnic

Trinity Sunday, June 19 Upper Lithia Park - Cotton Meadows Following the 10 am service Bring the whole family for a Lively Time

Sa

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Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

Your VESTRY
SENIOR WARDEN Mindy Ferris (2011) JUNIOR WARDEN Milt Morgan (2012) Jeff LaLande Kathy Griffin Rhonda Loftis Jean McDonald Ward Wilson Vicki Gardner Greg Gonzalez Tom Harrington Carol Harvey Donna Ritchie (2011) (2011) (2011) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2013) (2013) (2013) (2013)

Senior Wardens Report

It already feels like we are settling into summer mode. Soon it will be Trinity Sunday, the choir will start their well-earned break and we will once again gather in Lithia Park for our traditional Sunday picnic. Although we are a church in transition our traditions go on. Come to the park on June 19th and enjoy a meal outside with your parish family. As you enjoy your summertime please take a few minutes each day or week and pray for our search team as they enter into the heart of their mission. All the preparation has been done. Our Parish Profile is on our new website and the national church has posted our opening. Now we wait. Its an odd sort of time as we look inward and continue being who we are as a parish while at the same time looking forward toward a different time with a new rector. Remember that all questions are welcome. Stop and talk to me or any member of the Vestry anytime. We want every one of you to feel a part of this transition. We are a community and I feel that more strongly now than ever before. Happy summer, Mindy Ferris

JUNIOR WARDENS REPORT

Several of you have asked me recently about the courtyard area under the large spruce tree between the church and the office. Last September we commissioned our landscape architect, Greg Covey, of Covey & Pardee Landscape Architects to prepare a plan for that area. (They designed the labyrinth garden.) The plan was completed and on October 7, 2010 I took bids and presented the plan and bids at the October 2010 Vestry meeting. The bids included all the necessary topsoil, amendments, mulch, shrubs, plants and flowers, as well as rearranging the irrigation system to accommodate the new plants. The idea was that autumn would be the best time to put new landscaping in that area and give it the winter season to take root. An essential part of that plan is to protect the surface roots of the existing spruce tree. We will jeopardize the life of that tree if we plant directly on the hardened soil currently there and rearrange the sprinklers. Before we do anything in that area the landscape architect has specified that we spread 6 inches of topsoil and amendments over the entire area and 3 inches of mulch. This will protect the spruce tree surface roots. Once that is done our landscape architect has prepared a very attractive selection of plants and groundcover for the area which I think would be quite beautiful. With several unknown expenditures facing the Vestry last autumn, it was decided to defer any approval for landscaping the courtyard under the Spruce tree until the autumn of 2011. In summary we have a wonderful and very attractive plan for the area prepared by Greg Covey, our landscape architect. We are prepared to install once the Vestry has approved the expenditure. Our landscape architect has cautioned that we should do the planting in the autumn and that the additional topsoil and amendments are an absolute requirement to protect the surface roots of the spruce tree and to provide proper planting materials for the new shrubs, flowers and groundcover. The Vestry has agreed to revisit approval of landscaping this area under the spruce in September or October of this year. Milt Morgan, Junior Warden

Your Vestry meets the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Parish Hall. Parish members are welcome to attend. Submit written proposals for Vestry action to the Rector or

This is the online PDF version of The Trinitarian. Personal contact information has been edited out of this version. If you have any questions or need to contact someone in regards to an article, please call the Parish Office at 482-2656.

VESTRY HIGHLIGHTS
May 18, 2011 The monthly financial report was reviewed at length with Treasurer Jim Littlefield. Milt Morgan, Kathy Griffin and David Clements were approved as members of the Endowment Committee. The Parochial Report was approved as amended to conform to national church rules in the manner of reporting carryover income. A lengthy discussion was had concerning the health of the parish and how things have been going throughout the transition. Mindy Ferris, Senior Warden

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

Outreach Funding Committee Decking the hall Its always good to know Trinitys Parish Hall is sanctified by many events. Its used for 12 step meetings, for Outreach parties, for celebrations of peoples lives, for weekly fellowship, and for meetings by vestry and others where individuals find better decisions made by earnest listening in one anothers company and through Gods grace. On Saturday night, May 21, it became a candlelit cabaret following the choirs concert in the church. Joy and festivity, fine spirits and tasty morsels abounded there, and the Friends of Music fulfilled their goal of raising $1500 that evening. And on Friday night May 6, as part of the monthly Art Walk, the Parish Hall became the setting for the Empty Bowls Project, sponsored by the local Soroptimists. Potters and other craftspeople, educators and others work with the community to create handcrafted bowls. Guests are invited to a simple meal of soup and bread. In exchange for a cash donation, guests are asked to keep a bowl as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world. We are grateful for this message:
Trinity Episcopal Church, The Ashland Soroptimists are grateful for all you did to make the EmptyBowls project a success. Your facility and location were perfect. Although we do not have the final calculation yet, the event generated about $3800 which will be divided between the four local food banks. You definitely made a difference. With much gratitude, Sue Kurth Co-Chair The OFC will be meeting with representatives of direct service providers on Wednesday June 8 at 7 p.m. and on Saturday June 11 at 10 a.m. in the parish hall. The OFC provides funding to nonprofit organizations directly helping those in need. If you know of a non-profit that might want to apply for funds, please invite a representative to contact Carolyn Anderson at to get on the schedule.

Do servants grow up?

[Second in a series of how individuals deepen their faith and belonging at Trinity and ways they respond as stewards] Stewardship in my mind stands for a lot more than money. My childhood upbringing, as well as more recent experiences, has prompted me to view Stewardship as encompassing the entirety of ones life. The easy part of my attempts to live a life of stewardship has been committing to financial responsibilities as well as taking on various jobs related to Church governance and Pastoral work. By far the toughest part has been following the commandment of loving others as oneself. It has been easy to see the evil in this World and respond in a very judgmental way. It has not been as if my actions have been all that bad; however, my get behind me Satan feelings have frequently caught me up. Yes, maintaining a sustained and unwavering view that everyone be loved as Gods people has been difficult for me; but, with a lot of work, my success rate seems to be improving. Perhaps, I am growing up..With Gods help! - Stewart McCollom Who is Stewart McCollom? Occasionally during the week you can find Stewart downhill skiing on Mt.Ashland. On Saturday he is usually at the Rotary Club Community Garden growing vegetables for the Food Bank. Tuesdays, he is a volunteer counselor with Jackson County Mental Health. On other days, his wife, Anne drags him out to do home deliveries with Food and Friends. Once in a while he will run away from home to dig razor clams on the North Oregon Coast.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
The Four Months Ended April 2011 INCOME EXPENSES Budget this year $89,130 $83,828 Actual this year 89,467 71,805 Actual last year 91,726 86,636 Financial Reports are posted monthly on the Vestry Bulletin Board in the Parish Library. Jim Littlefield

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

FAVORITE HYMN CONTEST

Tear out, or just write your choice on a separate piece of paper, and return it to the office by June 10.

My top three favorite hymns (name or number) are: 1. Hymn No.______ Name/Title ___________________________________ 2. Hymn No.______ Name/Title ___________________________________ 3. Hymn No.______ Name/Title ___________________________________

Lambeth Palace Library exhibition to celebrate 400th anniversary of King James Bible
By ENS staff, May 16, 2011 [Episcopal News Service] Lambeth Palace Library is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible with an exhibition, titled "Out of the Original Sacred Tongues," that will from May 25-July 29 offer the general public the opportunity to see some of the library's historic collections. Lambeth Palace Library is responsible for the archives of the archbishops of Canterbury, as well as the historic collection of early printed books. "The new exhibition sets in historical context the translation of the sacred texts of the Bible into the languages of everyday life, the controversies and discoveries, scholarly endeavors and apparatus, the influences and motives behind the many great versions of the Bible that have been produced over the centuries," according to a press release from the library. The Authorized King James Version is an English translation of the Bible begun in 1604 and published in 1611. James I, who instructed the translation, was king of England at the time. At the center of the exhibition is The Holy Bible Conteyning the Old Testament and the New, London 1611, the first edition of the Authorized King James Version, which is open at the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans. The volume will be on show alongside the translators' manuscript drafts. Other highlights of the exhibition include: Medieval English Bible translations and documents relating to their suppression; The landmark editions which drew on the new textual scholarship of the Renaissance and Reformation, including the first edition of Erasmus' New Testament in Greek (1516); Early printed vernacular translations in a variety of languages such as the first edition of Luther's German Bible, as well as the first complete Bible in Icelandic; Translations intended for missions, such as Gospel editions in Maori and Mohawk; and Documents showing the drive towards modern English translations for the 20th century. Admission to the exhibition is by pre-booking only at www.lambethpalacelibrary.org or by telephone 0871 230 1107. Lambeth Palace Library also opened its doors to the general public in 2010 to celebrate 400 years since its foundation.

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinitarian Online Edition

Trinity Episcopal Church 44 North Second Street Ashland, Oregon 97520

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the Trinitarian June 2011

Trinity Episcopal Church, 44 North Second Street, Ashland OR 97520 publishes The Trinitarian monthly. James Johnson and Ann Magill, Editors. Submit articles to or office@trinitychurchashland.org at the church office by the 20th of the month. For more information, visit Trinity Episcopal Churchs website at www.trinitychurchashland.org.

Trinity worship
Sunday Mornings 8:00 AM, Holy Eucharist, Rite II 10:00 AM, Holy Eucharist, Rite II 10:00 - 11:30 AM, Infant care 5:00 PM Contemplative Eucharist (Sunday, June 5 only)

The trinity vision

Special Events
Sunday, May 19 Newcomers Welcome 10:00am

To be the Episcopal presence in Ashland, welcoming all who seek Christ in a parish family, where all of Gods children can find, celebrate, and grow in Gods grace.

Annual Parish Picnic Following 10:00am worship

CONTENTS
Trinity Office Hours Monday Thursday, 9:00a 12:00p Closed on Fridays (541) 482-2656

Thursdays 12:00 PM Holy Eucharist with Healing

Interim Rector Office Hours Monday Thursday, 9:00a 4:00p Monday, June 6 Friday June 10

Search Team Report ................ Front Interim Rectors Letter ...............p. 2 Search Team Invitation...............p. 3 Forums ,Worship ........................p. 4 Wardens and Vestry ...................p. 5 Outreach, Financial.....................p. 6 Hymn Requests, KJV 400th Anniversary Exhibit ...........................p. 7
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