Transition News: Celebrating Mother Karen & Kevin DePrey

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Beloveds of Christ ,

Resurrection joy to you! I hope this Eastertide season finds you basking in some spring sunlight, long awaited and much anticipated. I write with some updates about our impending transitions at Trinity.

At the annual meeting in January, I announced that two treasured members of our staff will be ending their time at Trinity at the end of May—Parish Administrator Kevin DePrey and Senior Associate Rector Mother Karen King.

Please save two important dates to celebrate Kevin and Mother Karen and their years of service at Trinity.

Mother Karen will be honored at the all-Parish Picnic, on the Feast of Pentecost, Sunday May 20, after the 10am service. As it will be Mother Karen’s last Sunday with us, I hope you will all plan to attend to celebrate her fifteen-plus years of ministry at Trinity. If possible, please plan to bring a side dish or dessert, as is our tradition for parish picnics. The Guild of Unexceptionable Cuisiniers will be serving some of Mother Karen’s favorite dishes in the School Gym.

It is a tradition of the Church for parishioners to contribute to a “purse,” or monetary gift, for departing longtime clergy. She will be presented with the purse, as well as other gifts and remembrances, at her celebration on May 20.

If you would like to give a gift towards Mother Karen L. King’s purse, please make the check out to National Bank of Indianapolis and put “For Karen L. King” in the memo line.

You can mail the check out to:
The National Bank of Indianapolis
c/o Tricia Anthony
Or, if you prefer, you can drop your check in the collection plate or leave it at the parish office and we can take it to the bank for deposit.

Just four days later, on Thursday May 24, we will celebrate Kevin DePrey’s almost fifteen years of service at a reception honoring his retirement. Please join us for a libation and light bite, from 6 until 8pm in the Fortune Room. Nursery and childcare will be provided. To RSVP, both for the reception and childcare, please send an email to: [email protected], “Kevin DePrey Celebration” in the subject line. Please let us know if you need child-care, including ages of children.

Separate communications about future staff and clergy at Trinity will be provided in weeks and months to come. For now, please hold Kevin, Mother Karen and our whole Trinity community in your prayers during this time of transition.

Faithfully, and with love,

 

The Rev’d Julia E. Whitworth, Rector

Register for Missional Voices: April 19-21, 2018

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Missional Voices will be a weekend of thinking, planning, and dreaming about the future of missional communities and innovative ministries in The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. This will be a place where dynamic incubation of new ideas is the norm – not the exception – and where people doing uncommon ministry find support and encouragement.

The National Gathering is filled with church leaders (clergy and lay people) sharing stories of their experiences of ministry, new ideas they are trying, and honest conversations about ministry today. Creative worship centers us around God’s presence. Multiple opportunities to engage in workshops and conversation about particular aspects of ministry foster new and deeper connections.

We hope you will join us!

Missional Voices, a gathering of Episcopal leaders interested in changing local communities and neighborhoods through mission and innovative ministry, will take place at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis on April 19-21. 

Women’s Week at Waycross (w/out daycampers and child-care)

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WOMEN’S WEEK (w/out daycampers and child care)

Women’s Week is an inter generational event.  The only requirement is that you be a woman and at least 18 years old.  There will be a time for worship, reflection, to break bread together, creativity, to play, and relaxation. The sessions are designed to encourage spiritual reflection and conversation among the participants and are enhanced by the opportunity to participate in group activities, sample some new spiritual practices, and enjoy crafts. No child care will be offered but you can register your child for Adventure Camp or Hickory Hill Wilderness Camp.

Please call Jenifer at 812-597-4241 with any questions.

Presiding Bishop reflects on Holy Week

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On Maundy Thursday afternoon, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reflected on what he has seen and heard since arriving in the Holy Land March 23 to make a Holy Week pilgrimage.

In the week that we’ve been here, we have spent time, and some of it in depth, with Archbishop Suheil and our Anglican brothers and sisters. In the course of our time we have seen and visited holy places where our Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, spoke Beatitudes on the hills of Galilee and then entered Jerusalem in a procession that proclaimed that God has a better way for humanity than the way of power politics and greed and hatred.

And we have walked the streets of Jerusalem where Jesus was unjustly arrested, tortured and killed – the streets where he willingly sacrificed his life for the cause of God’s love, which ultimately is the only hope for us all.

As we have seen the places of his suffering, we have seen the suffering of the children of God today.

We heard the cries of Christian refugees from Iraq, people who have lost virtually everything save their own lives, mainly because they are followers of Jesus.

We have heard the cries of people in Gaza, where the church here provides an oasis in a hospital, and oasis in the midst of a war zone through a hospital built on the teachings and spirit of Jesus, where healing and care is made available to all regardless of religion, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of politics.

We have heard the cries of Palestinian Christians throughout the land, who thrive only for equal treatment and kindness and justice for all regardless of race or religion.

We have heard the cries of people in Palestine in the West Bank where the Diocese of Jerusalem is present in St. Luke’s Hospital and its clinic and its churches. Following the teachings of Jesus again, no one is turned away because of inability to pay or because of religion or politics or ethnicity.

We have heard the cries of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem who yearn as all people yearn to breathe free in true human equality.

We have heard the cries of Israeli youths whose longings are the same, to breathe free, safe and secure.

We will visit Yad Vashem, where the end result of hatred and bigotry and inequality and injustice is there for all to see. Jesus sacrificed his life to save us from the sins and arrogance and indifference and injustice, bigotry, hatred; he came to show us the way, to be saved from the human nightmare.

As we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, as the Bible teaches us, we must find ways to work for the peace of Jerusalem, which will be found where there is true equality for all, true justice for all and true freedom for everyone. Here it is clear that this is not simply an idealistic dream. It is the only hope, and we must not rest until it is realized.

 

[Episcopal News Service – Jerusalem]

Rector’s Holy Week Message

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Beloveds —

 

It is almost here:  that sacred walk through the drama and mysticism of Holy Week.  In the days ahead, we don’t just remember the way of the Cross in a distant and intellectual way; we endeavor to engage it with our whole selves, through liturgies which are experiential, sensory, and emotional. Time collapses as we live into the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’s life, Passion, and ultimately, Resurrection. Please see the schedule here.

 

We begin this Sunday with Palm Sunday, the Feast which marks Jesus’s seemingly triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The 10:00 a.m. service will begin in the Lemler garden, and the 8:00 a.m. service in the Tower of the Church, with Hosanna’s and the waving of palms, a sacred procession and joyful anticipation. Don’t miss it — we’ve added a few creative bits to attempt to capture the festive nature of the Palm Procession. Hosanna!  Once inside the church, however, the mood shifts quickly with a dramatic reading of the Passion according to Mark. There will not be Sunday School, so the kids can experience the drama of the day. They may even help me with a little reflection time afterwards. The nursery will be open, however, for the littlest among us.

 

Later in the week, the drama unfolds with the sacred services of the Triduum, a three-part journey which dates back to 5th-century Palestine—from Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the  Easter Vigil.

 

  •  At  7:00 p.m. on Maundy Thursday, I invite you to experience the Foot Washing, Reservation of the Sacrament, Agape Supper, and Stripping of the Altar. It’s a powerful and moving service. Afterwards, many will be sitting vigil with the Reserved Sacrament by the beautiful Altar of Repose in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents.  You can sign up to take a Vigil shift here  — or just show up.
  • The central worship on Good Friday is the Noon Liturgy, with a sung Passion of John and the Veneration of the Cross. Additionally, we will offer Communion from the Reserved Sacrament at 7:00 a.m. on Good Friday as well as after the noon service. For children of all ages, there will be an interactive Stations of the Cross offered at 10:00 a.m. in the Church. The day concludes with our new Service of Lament — a quiet service of music, readings, silence, and prayers.
  •  If you have never experienced Saturday’s Easter Vigil, this is a good year to do so. One of the oldest liturgies of the Church, we light a New Fire to represent the coming of Light into the world, and we listen to the saving deeds of God throughout Scripture. We renew our baptismal vows and ring bells at the arrival of Easter. Afterwards, our Guild of Unexceptionable Cuisiniers hosts a magnificent reception!

 

Sunday morning finds us back together again, celebrating the paschal feast of Easter. There are two identical services at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. with full choir and brass (although no incense at  the 9:00 a.m. service). And an Easter Egg Hunt after the 11:00 a.m. service, of course.

 

It is a rich and full time to be an Episcopalian.  We are blessed with ancient, sacred practices to bring us to the Foot of the Cross and, finally, to the Empty Tomb. I invite you to join me for a most Holy Week.

 

With love,

 

 

The Rev’d Julia E. Whitworth

Eucharist in the Garden 2017

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Waking Up White Book Series

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