A Message from the House of Deputies

View the enewsletter in its entirety here.

Beloved Siblings in Christ, Thank you for joining us for the annual meeting and vestry elections last Sunday. We reviewed the annual report with financials, heard a little about the current building renovation project, and elected new vestry members and delegates. Thank you to the Vestry members rolling off - Joe Wilkinson (Junior Warden,) Jennifer Grassmyer, and Rusty Renfrow - your service is much appreciated. And congratulations to our new vestry members Michael Towner (Junior Warden), Eric Saulnier, Jane Faulkenberry, and Caroline Crain. For those of you not familiar with the governance of the national Episcopal Church (called the General Convention), our national leadership is bicameral, with a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies. The current president of the House of Deputies is from Norman, OK, and spoke at the national Episcopal formation (Forma) conference in VA last month. Julia Ayala Harris is the first woman of color, and the first Latina, to serve as president and delivered a powerful sermon, stating, in part: As formation professionals, you all know that the 2,000-year Christian tradition of formation involves repentance, reflection, and practice. What does this tradition mean for us as Episcopalians today? It means that we need to take a hard look at ourselves and our history. To come to grips with how we used oppressive systems to gain power and wealth because this is a key element in our repentance. What is relevant for our society today is This type of authentic repentance. We are in a time of truth-telling in our culture where we are being called to be honest about: · How our parishes accumulated their wealth and acquired their land. · How we were not only been complicit in slavery, but have directly invested in and benefited from the slave trade. This wealth became the basis for many of our church’s endowments that we now draw upon in order to keep our doors open as we face decline. · How when we sing hymns about how the oppressed will be freed from the abuses of the empire, we have been the empire. We must face these historical realities because they affect who we are making to feel comfortable in our pews today. This is the intergenerational sickness of elitism at work. In the coming weeks we will be sharing more from our time at the 2023 Forma Conference, beginning with the Forma Forum this Sunday at 10:00am. Join Deacon Deborah, Hannah Middlebrook, and Becky Moseman to learn the key themes and some of the exciting ways we hope to implement some of them at Trinity. The Staff and Clergy of Trinity Episcopal Church +