Dear People of Trinity Parish of Seattle at 8th and James, my siblings in Christ,
Greetings in the name of the one, holy, and indivisible God. I give thanks for you every day, and for the gift and privilege of proclaiming the Good News of God’s forgiveness and healing love with you.
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Think for a moment about your most favorite road trip you’ve ever taken.
How long was it? Was it an afternoon, or days, or weeks?
Was it a round-trip or one-way?
Did you have a destination in mind?
Or was it purely to explore and learn about a different place?
Who was along for the ride?
Were you with family or friends or was it a solo adventure?
pause
What stories did you tell people about it afterward?
What did you learn or realize later as you reflected on it?
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My last big road trip was 7.5 years ago. 5 weeks. 5,500 miles. We tuned up the car, made sure the a/c was working, and the tires were in good shape. We piled the kids (then 6 and 8) in the back seat with SO MUCH STUFF. We were moving cross-country, and also wanting to see lots of family and friends along the way. We set out with a general idea of where we were going and how to get here. AND we left ourselves the freedom to be curious and explore interesting side trips along the way. Some of those unexpected detours led to the most memorable experiences of the trip (like the gold mine ghost town on top of a mountain in Idaho).
Road trips open our hearts and minds. They shift the lens through which we see ourselves and our home places. We see the beauty of less familiar landscapes. We admire the art, marvel at the architecture, learn the stories, hear the music of other people. All the while, perhaps unconsciously, adjusting our mental picture of ourselves and our place in the world. If we spend more than about 72 hours in a place, my spouse and I find ourselves having a conversation about “could we see ourselves living here?” Does it match, or improve upon, who we aspire to be in this world?
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At the end of the Gospel reading today, Jesus invites his disciples on a road trip.
It’s the end of Jesus’ first full day of public ministry. It’s the Sabbath and he started the day teaching in the synagogue with surprising authority. An evil spirit recognizes him as the “Holy One of God” and Jesus invites that spirit to leave the human host, bringing healing and freedom to the man. After all that, he goes with his friends for dinner at the home of Simon Peter and Andrew, where his touch heals Simon’s mother-in-law from a fever. Rising up from her bed, she returns to her ministry of hospitality. After sunset, when people can labor again, the whole city brings their sick and possessed loved ones to be healed.
Jesus must be exhausted! Mark says he retreats to a lonely place to pray, to remember his center, to be renewed. When the disciples find him, they want to hang around Capernaum a little longer. Jesus says, “I have a better idea. Let’s hit the road and spread this Good News of healing, restoration, and hope for all people. That’s what I’m here to do. Come on, it’ll be fun. We’ll see some great places, meet some interesting people.”
In Mark’s narrative, this all happens “immediately.” Most of us would spend a little more time figuring out important logistics like:
Who is bringing snacks? Salty or sweet?
Who is making the play list?
Windows or a/c, and who controls the thermostat?
Are we rotating drivers? Who navigates?
How will we decide if we take any sidetrips?
Who pays for gas?
How often do we need to take breaks?
How big a bag can each person bring?
Jesus and his friends don’t worry about all those details. They are off to tour Galilee: Jesus proclaiming God’s good news by healing people and casting out demons, and his friends watching and learning.
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Trinity friends and siblings, as disciples of Jesus, following in his footsteps of proclaiming Good News in word and action, this year, 2024, Trinity is taking a Road Trip!
We’re not piling into vehicles, or even leaving the neighborhood. Vestry conversations in 2023 revealed that we want to know more about our congregation and our neighbors. We want to understand how Trinity can be a better neighbor, can strengthen the fabric of our neighborhood, and be more faithful bearers of God’s unfailing love for all people and creation.
You may be wondering why take this road trip now.
The 2023 Vestry observed Trinity slowly getting stronger post-pandemic, and that it doesn’t look like Trinity (or many churches) will return to the same pattern of life we had pre-pandemic. Road Trip 2024 equips the Vestry with information as we discern God’s desires for Trinity and how to provide a foundation for Trinity to thrive into the future.
Everyone in the Trinity universe is invited on Road Trip 2024. Let’s go spread some Good News, explore our corner of Seattle, meet some interesting people, and learn more about ourselves. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’re going to learn some fascinating new things!
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All road trips start somewhere. To take stock of where we begin Road Trip 2024, let’s look at Trinity as we end 2023.
Worship is the heart of our community life. We gather every week, finding, as Jesus did, a place of renewal and respite from the world that affirms our vital relationships with God and with one another. Worship feeds and strengthens us, and reminds us that we have good news to share with the world. In 2023 we saw worship steadily increasing. We welcome 3-6 visitors every week, and the choir is growing. In 2023, we added this coloring table to keep little hands busy while our youngest members can see the action of worship unfolding. In 2023, we also celebrated as our deacon intern Lisa was ordained and joined the Trinity clergy ministry team. We continue to train and welcome more people as readers and Eucharistic Ministers. If you would like to join one of those ministries, please let me know.
As we started 2023, we were working on post-pandemic renewal of our life together. The Vestry focus for mission and ministry a year ago was Reinvigorating Fellowship. Through 2023, more opportunities for social time that builds relationships developed - through Coffee Hour, Bookmarks! Book group, Caring Community, Trinity Young Adults, and adult spiritual formation. More ideas keep coming my way - and I invite anyone who is interested in coordinating a small piece of these ministries to contact me.
With Reinvigorating Fellowship launched, the 2023 Vestry identified Stewardship of Neighborhood as a focus for Trinity’s life together. Stewardship of Neighborhood includes stewardship of our buildings and property, our finances, our volunteers, and our engagement with the people who live and work closest to us.
The list of dreams about stewardship of our neighborhood included:
hosting Night Out on August 1, which was a huge success of energy from inside Trinity, connecting with other organizations in our neighborhood, and engaging with our neighbors by (among other things) feeding 300 people
Instituting regular neighborhood trash clean up days
Focus on safety: for pedestrians, and a desire to have Narcan available and people trained to use it, as well as First Aid and CPR training
T-shirts so people can associate us with Trinity when we’re doing things in the neighborhood
And a desire to continue expanding how we get to know our neighbors, understand their needs, and become part of the fabric of our neighborhood
In terms of stewardship of our buildings and property, we are in relatively good shape for being 120 years old (sanctuary) or 94 (Parish House) and somewhere in between (Rectory). Carl McNabb has been our Junior Warden overseeing property matters for the past 3 years, and taking exceptional care of our aging facilities. When he was in a car accident in January, Betsy Severtsen stepped in as Interim Junior Warden. You can read her detailed report on the status of our physical property in the Annual Report.
Stewardship of our property includes the proposed development of approximately half of it. In March, the selected developer notified the Development Committee and Vestry that they were pausing the project indefinitely because of unstable financial markets and high cost of construction in Seattle. The Vestry and Development Committee have used this year to learn more about other church-related development projects in our diocese.
Extending the stewardship lens to our finances, let’s begin with celebration! In 2023, congregational giving exceeded budget by about $50K. THANK YOU!! Your generosity is beautiful! Many of you increased your pledges for 2024. THANK YOU!!
As we enter 2024, Trinity’s budget is tighter than it was a year ago as we live into the realities of church post-COVID. The Vestry is jugging inherited priorities and systems, overdue maintenance, and justice for staff with limited revenue sources. The significant draw on Trinity’s endowment in this year’s budget reflects an honest assessment of how Trinity will cover expenses. It was not a decision made lightly, and the Vestry shares any anxiety you may be feeling. I hope you will join us for the Annual Meeting to hear from the Vestry.
Trinity’s Vestry, Trinity is a blessing of amazing, gifted, generous, and faithful group of leaders. They work together beautifully, each bringing their own wisdom and experience, stepping into gaps with energy and fresh ideas. As they made some big decisions for safety and sustainability this year, it was clear that we had the right voices and experience and skills in the room. I am so grateful for the time and commitment of each of them.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our AMAZING STAFF here at Trinity. Sister Jo came back from her summer sabbatical with a mischievous smile and renewed energy for liturgy and music. Markdavin shared several original compositions in worship this year, started a monthly Compline service, and is delighted with a growing choir. Section leaders Margaret, Sarra, Ruth, Robin, and Orrin bring delight to our ears every Sunday as cantors and leaders in the Trinity Choir. Auxiliary Sexton David stepped up his hours when Eric unexpectedly left Trinity in September. Kristy continues to be the Wonder Woman of Parish Administrators - invaluable in her skills and wisdom and grace. We could not do what we do without all of them.
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Whoo! What a great place to start our Road Trip 2024!
So many strengths, clarity about our challenges, and great leaders (with more to be elected today).
A good bit of the fun of road trips is being with people you love and enjoy! I always find it interesting to notice how our particular preferences for sweet or salty snacks, a/c or windows, dance tunes or singer-songwriters, fall away as we admire the scenery, and share the different things we noticed and learned at various stops along the way. Whether we choose our companions on the way or we are thrown together by circumstances - like those people who find themselves stranded by the airlines and invite total strangers to share a car with them - our community grows stronger in faith and wisdom when we road trip together.
The Road Trip 2024 plan, as much as we have so far is:
Spring
getting ready: Vestry decides the route, the stops, the food and playlist, and keeps everyone informed about what’s happening
Summer
taking trip: Everyone in the Trinity community will be invited along with the Vestry as tour guides - to be part of learning and noticing and reflecting
Vestry will gather all the learnings and keep praying with them
Fall
Destination Reveal: In some ways, we will be right back where we started. Like the disciples returning home after road tripping with Jesus, it looks different after we’ve learned more about our context, how others view us, and listened for what God desires for us as kingdom-builders
I love a road trip for the adventure, the possibility of discovering some cool new places, spending time with friends AND meeting new people, learning about other ways of seeing life that stretch my own assumptions and privileges. And the snacks.
As we get ready to head out, I invite you to wonder with me:
What sort of life do we aspire to live in this place?
What sort of life does God dream for us to live in this place?
How might we, in faith and hope, bring our gifts of wisdom, works, and wealth, to live into that dream?
Big questions.
The kind you take into the wilderness to pray about. Or on a road trip, when you’ll have time let your heart and mind chew on them while you marvel at God’s handiwork of mountains and trees, water and flowers and wild creatures. Or stand in front of a monument that remembers some cruelty inflicted by one group of humans on another.
I am so glad we are taking Road Trip 2024 together! I am so excited for the Vestry who are continuing on and those to be elected today to take shifts driving, making navigation decisions, and bringing the licorice and spicy cheese puffs. And I’m looking forward to getting to know more of you as we walk and talk along the way.
We’re in this together, with Jesus and Peter and Andrew, James and John, and all the rest of the faithful followers who answered the invitation to “come and follow.” The same God who loves us, blesses us and calls us beloved at our baptisms, gives us power and courage to rebuke evil and bring healing and hope into the world, that God is ever-present on this Road Trip. Revealing the hopes and dreams of the kingdom of God. Inviting us into partnership proclaiming the message that the kingdom of God has come near. And living that message by showing the world and our neighbors what it looks like to bring healing and hope, to confront the evils of systemic racism, classism, misogyny and homophobia.
2024 is going to be a busy and exciting year. We will see and learn new things about ourselves and our community. We will take time to pray and reflect on the Good News of God’s love and God’s desires for Trinity.
This comes with my love and prayers, Sabeth+
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