Trinity Topics

The Newsletter of Trinity Episcopal Church in Toledo, Ohio

MARCH 2010

Lent
When your soul whispers of its deepest longings,
may you quiet yourself to listen.
May you follow the path of yearning to the One who
alone blends the uneven edges into a life of meaning.
May you meet and be united with God
and give thanks for the whispers that led you there.
 liturgy & events SonoNovo Chamber Ensemble
BALLET THEATRE OF TOLEDO
Friday, March 12, 7p / Saturday, March 13, 2p
Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Anthony A Narnian Fantasy
Nigel Burgoine’s Ballet Theatre of Toledo performs
original choreography to Vivaldi’s timeless master-
piece, as well as the premier of a new ballet by Trinity’s
own Wayne Anthony, inspired by C.S. Lewis’s The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Tickets $20/$15

The Toledo Rep

THE DESIGNATED MOURNER
Saturday, March 13 8p
An Edgy Rep reading of Wallace Shawn’s new masterful
drama about self, politics and the pursuit of aesthetic
subtleties in brutal times. Woven out of three mono-
logues, the play takes place in present or near future in
an unnamed western country undergoing political con-
flict. Tickets: $12 419.243.9277

Canterbury Choir
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
Good Friday, April 2 7p

A community walk with Christ on the Via Dolorosa

combining scripture, music and ritual in a solemn
remembrance of this most holy of days.

Free Admission

SUNDAY, MARCH 7—LENT 3 C SUNDAY, MARCH 28—PALM SUNDAY

Exodus 3:1-15; 1 Cor 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 Isaiah 50;4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 22:14—23:56
9:30a Children’s Formation 9:30a Children’s Formation
10a Parish Eucharist 10a Parish Eucharist

SUNDAY, MARCH 14—LENT 4C SUNDAY, APRIL 4 — EASTER

Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Cor 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Acts 10:34-43; 1 Cor 15:19-26; John 20:1-18
9:30a Children’s Formation 9:30a Children’s Formation
10a Parish Eucharist 10a Parish Eucharist

SUNDAY, MARCH 21—LENT 5 C SUNDAY, APRIL 11 — 2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER

Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4b-1; John 12:1-8 Acts 5:27-32; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20-19-31
9:30a Children’s Formation 9:30a Children’s Formation
10a Parish Eucharist 10a Parish Eucharist

2

Singing Scripture
As we began our book discussion series last month
on Marcus Borg’s Reading the Bible Again for the First
Time, we introduced ourselves and said where we had
learned about the Bible. Some had heard Bible stories
and memorized scripture from pre-school, others
never had to. Some had had daily religion classes in
Catholic school. We were about to have our Sunday
school lessons challenged.
I thought I did not have to worry about that part,
as I was kicked out of Sunday school. In my own pre-
lude to Marcus Borg, a teacher I’ll call Mrs. Dorr once
told us that Methuselah was the oldest person in the
Bible, and had lived to be over 900 years old. When I
yelled, “That’s b#))$#*t!” I found myself out in the hall
being told that no third grader should know that word,
let alone say it in Sunday school.
Not long after that, I was asked to be in the chil-
dren’s choir, which met at the same time as Sunday
school.
It was the best thing that could have happened to
my religious education. We sang lots of songs with
Biblical texts. This time in my life was very rough—
my mom had just died, my dad and stepmother were
starting a family and I did not know what to do or be
or feel. Somehow I got the message through singing all
of that scripture that God created me and loved me. So
I just kept singing.
from the rector
resolution between the parts, were as much a
part of the meaning to me as the words them-
selves.
As important as WHAT we sang was HOW
we sang. Our director, Peter Jarjisian, always
told us to make sure we could hear the voices on
either side of us. This lesson stuck. I still need to
hear those voices beside me in order to study
scripture. If all I can hear is my own voice, my
own translation and response, I may well drift
into a key that had nothing to do with the
writer’s intent.
So now, all of these years later, I’m sitting
with a group of faithful friends as we listen to
each other talk about how we learned about the
Bible. Some of us never questioned Methuselah’s
age; others, like me, yelled…you know. We may
learn to question even more than that. But we all
heard, and will continue to believe, that God
loves us and that nothing can separate us from
that love. May we all listen to each other so that
we may sing it faithfully.
Liddy

Many years and choirs later, I found my-

self in the Ohio University Singers. Again, we
sang lots and lots of scripture. We spent an
entire year memorizing Bach’s Jesu, meine
Freude, a motet based upon the eighth chapter
of Paul’s letter to the Romans and the writer‘s
response. We were so marinated in the words,
the fugues, and the resolutions that twenty-
five years later, I bet I can still sing most of the
first alto part. At that time I wasn’t sure how
much was from the Bible, but I understood
from the text that nothing could separate me
from the love of God. Finally, I cracked open
the text itself, and learned that no language,
no voice, really had the full meaning. Greek,
Latin, Luther’s German, English--even the
most inspired linguists could not capture all of it, due
to the strengths and limitations of each language. I
found that the structure of a fugue, the tension and

3
 congregation/world Pi(e) Sunday Vestry Meeting Minutes
The second Sunday of March is 3.14, which The February 20, 2010 meeting opened with prayer.
starts the mathematical expression known as Minutes of the last meeting were approved.
pi. It’s also the fourth Sun-
day of Lent, traditionally Election of officers for 2010 was held. Elected were
known as Refreshment Senior Warden, Jeff Albright; Junior Warden, Jason
Sunday. Rahe; and Clerk, Peggy Heider.

We prefer pie to pi, so Parishioners are welcome to attend all regular

bring your crusty favorite meetings of the Vestry and to read meeting minutes
to share during coffee hour. and financial reports. Condensed minutes will be pub-
Anything from apple crumb to zucchini lished in Topics and on the Trinity Website.
quiche is welcome—this is hospitality by all.
Topics discussed:
Parish work day planned for February 21
You stacked, you Food for Thought, CaterMe, My Brother’s Place
swept, you organized! Policy for weddings at Trinity and building use for
Many thanks to all outside events
those who helped Security during Sunday services
with the parish work Possible use of PayPal for pledges and donations
day last month. You
accomplished a huge
The Vestry will be commissioned at the February
amount in record
time, leaving plenty of 21 worship service.
opportunity for pizza
with friends (as shown Next vestry meeting: Friday, March 26 at 5:45 P.M.
by Alexis Bueche-Hall
and Derick Oyler Jr.).

Spring Ahead
Daylight Saving time
returns at 2:00am on Sun-
MEMBER MATTERS
day, March 14. Move your
Michael Gartz, son of Bud & Mary Gartz and clocks forward one hour
the organist at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, will before you go to bed on
present a free faculty organ recital at Adrian March 13 - you don’t
College on Monday, March 15 at 8:00pm. want to be late for church.

Birthday Blessings Easter Flower Memorials

March 1 ......... ...........Ruth Miller
March 8 ......... ...........Jeff Habib Remember to make
........................ ...........Jordan Zechman your donation to honor
March 13 ....... ...........David Heider friends and relatives this
March 15 ....... ...........Alina Garcia Easter. The donations are
March 16 ....... ...........Karen Wabeke used to offset the extra
March 19 ....... ...........Sally Key costs of flowers and music
........................ ...........Joseph Mason for Holy Week and Easter
March 20 ....... ...........Sue McClay Day.
March 25 ....... ...........Ann Chen
........................ ...........Jamie Paul An envelope is included in this issue of Topics for
March 26 ....... ...........Katharine Jefferts Schori your use. The deadline for inclusion in the Easter bul-
March 28 ....... ...........Andrew Garcia letin is Monday, March 29.

4
Community Care
We say we're a faith
community… now we need to
help each other out!
Needs in our community can
arise very quickly, and we want
hands and hearts prepared to re-
spond. If you can cook (or even order out), call, or
drive, we could use your help.
Callers: Check in with people, find out their needs
Cooks: Prepare or buy a simple meal
Drivers: Deliver food from source to recipient
Budget Update
January had no large unexpected expenses, and
we found that we were right on budget. Like many
of you, I'm anxiously looking forward to spring
when our costs for snow removal and natural gas
will fall as the temperatures rise.
In the meantime, please help us manage these
winter costs by keeping your pledge current.
Respectfully submitted,
Jane Bueche
Parish Accountant

Talk to vestry members Solveig Barnes, Peggy

Heider or Karen Wabeke if you can help with this
important ministry.
The financial health of our community is a shared
responsibility, and we welcome your questions or
Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon comments. Contact Jane Bueche, Parish Accountant,
at jane@epworth.com.
The 2010 Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon,
an intergenerational conference jointly hosted by the
dioceses of Ohio and Southern Ohio, will take place Jan. Jan.
Thursday, June 24 through Sunday, June 27 on the YTD YTD
campus of Kenyon College in Gambier (northeast of 2010 Budget Budget Actual Variance
Columbus). The theme is “Power and Truth” and the Revenue
keynote speaker is Walter Brueggemann, the noted
Plate Offering 208 113 (95)
Hebrew Scripture scholar and author. Special pro-
grams for children and youth will be available. Pledge Payments 12,191 7,431 (4,759)

Watch future issues of Topics for more details. Combined Investment

Income 18,334 15,000 (3,334)

Outreach Bulletin Board Other Operating Income 83 0 (83)

Trinity receives numerous letters of thanks in

Total Revenues 30,816 22,544 (8,272)
response to our outreach projects. These include
handwritten notes, drawings from children and
official letters from organizations. They are posted Expenditures
on the Outreach bulletin board, just outside the Personnel 18,392 19,936 1,543
nursery. New items
Buildings & Grounds 11,803 13,329 1,526
are put up as they
come in and old ones Operations 1,946 739 (1,208)
are taken down.
Diocesan Assessment 3,356 3,500 144
Please check the Out- Local Outreach 385 137 (248)
reach bulletin board
Programs 2,282 532 (1,749)
for these heartfelt notes of thanks. We recently re-
ceived notes from several of our Christmas Angel Loan Interest Payment 833 695 (139)
families. Trinity is involved in many projects to
benefit our community and our world; this bulletin Total Expenditures 38,998 38,868 (130)
board contains evidence of the impact of those pro-
jects on the lives of others.
Net Surplus/(Deficit) (8,182) (16,323) (8,141)

5
 Signs and Wonders
The Diocese of Ohio has purchased billboard ads
in the Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, and Mansfield areas.
The first ones appeared on February 1. The locations
change in each city every month.
There are four versions of the billboard, each with
a different phrase. They are:
• Love God. Love your neighbor. Change the
world.
• Welcome... regardless.
• If you're looking for a sign from God... here it is.
• God loves you. No exceptions.
Look for these billboards in Toledo or as you
travel. The two Toledo billboards for March are slated
for Reynolds Road north of Airport Highway, and
Secor Road north of Sylvania Avenue.
Developing Small Group Prayers
As we continue in the Natural Church Development
process, it’s vital that we continually invite the Spirit to
be an integral part of our journey. Prayer is central to
our effort; we will not succeed without God’s help.
Prayer will open us to all that God is calling our
community to do, is waiting for us to do.
In the next phase of nurturing our passionate
spirituality, each small group in the Trinity community
(Altar Guild, ushers, Next-to-New workers and many
more) is being asked to develop a short prayer for itself,
specific to its ministry. The group and its members will
then be asked to pray its prayer every time it gathers/
ministers. If a group doesn’t meet together to do its
ministry (like the Bread Guild), members of that group
should pray the prayer individually every time they
minister.
6
Got More Bags?
If you’re feeling guilty about not carrying reusable
shopping bags to the grocery store with you, let Food
for Thought help! FFT has found a way to recycle
plastic grocery bags while creating something useful,
and they need your bags.
They’ve started transforming
plastic shopping bags into “bag-
mats,” lightweight water-resistant
T
sleeping mats for the unhoused FF
people they meet and serve. These
bag-mats are being trialed right now,
to see if they are functional and
suitable. As an alternative, the bags
may be used to make… reusable
shopping bags!
So gather up your shopping bags and bring them
to Trinity. We’ll put a collection container in the
Living Room for your bag donations. FFT will also
happily take the Blade and Free Press bags, to add
some bright orange, blue and yellow to their designs.
But note these requests:
♦ Make sure all bags are clean, empty and odor-
free.
♦ Make sure the bags don’t have large holes in
them.
♦ Store your bags in a clean, dry place (not with
the mop or next to the Drano).
For example, here’s a
choir’s prayer:
Loving God, open our
minds to your creative
Spirit. Help us to find and
use the gifts you’ve given
us, and grant that what we
sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts and show in
our lives. Amen.
Each small group will be contacted by a member of
the Church Health Team to answer any questions about
this project. Every group is asked to provide a copy of
its prayer to Mike Lowrey, chair of the Church Health
Team, by Mother’s Day, May 9. The collected prayers
will then be shared with the community on Pentecost.

Personal Hygiene Packs
During Lent, we’re collect-
ing personal hygiene items for
men, women and children
staying in local shelters. Bags
containing a list of the needed
hygiene items are available on
Sunday mornings from Out-
reach Committee members.
Please take a bag or two, fill them with the re-
quested items, and bring them to church on Sunday,
March 21 to be blessed. We’ll get the delivered to the
shelter residents who need them.
“Perhaps there is no more dangerous
place for a Christian to be than in safety
and comfort, detached from the suffering
of others.”
Shane Claiborne
First Babies Arrive at Emanuel Children’s Home
Four infants were welcomed to the new nursery
at Emanuel Children's Home in early February. They
are Zahid, a one-year old boy; Nayheli, an 8-month old
girl; and 6-week old twins, Carla and Carlos. Please
pray for these four precious additions to the Emanuel
family, and for the orphanage as it works to meet their
needs. They are dearly wanted, well loved and well
cared for.
The nursery at Emanuel Children’s Home was built
with financial support from Trinity. Help is still
needed to pay for baby supplies and the cost of em-
ployees to staff the nursery. If you can, consider par-
ticipating in their “Virtual Baby Shower” by sending a
monetary gift representing the cost of much-needed
infant supplies. Whether it’s the value of a high chair
($30), cloth diapers ($20) or a nanny’s salary for a
month ($350), all are very welcome gifts. Please do
NOT purchase these items; the Children’s Home can
avoid shipping costs and heavy import taxes by buying
the items in Honduras, thereby stretching your dollars
dramatically.
Make your tax-deductible check payable to
“Western PA District Church of the Brethren” and mail
it to 115 Spring Rd., Hollsopple, PA 15935. Your
outreachings
Sharing Personal Ministries
Are you involved in a volunteer ministry
(not a paid position) in the Toledo metro area
that’s organized or sponsored by a group
other than Trinity? If so, we’d like to know
about it.
There may be people in the Trinity com-
munity who’d love to know more about an
organization you serve, or who may share
your passion but be unaware of local ways to
get involved.
Help us get even more engaged in the life
of our city and pursue personal ministries,
two elements of our mission statement. Take
a few minutes to provide your information to
Susan Lowrey, our Associate for Community
Life. We’ll figure out a way to share the min-
istry connections within our community, and
then watch what blossoms as a result.
designated gift will be purchased in Honduras
and delivered to the Home on your behalf.
For more information, or a list of the most needed
nursery items, contact Lucia Cooper.
These are newborn twins
Carla and Carlos, two of
the first four infants to be
welcomed into Emanuel
Children’s Home, Trinity’s
ministry partner in San
Pedro Sula, Honduras.
The offertory from David S.
Nelson’s ordination service
in late January collected
over $755 for Emanuel
Children’s Home.
7
 HOLY WEEK 2010
A personal journey of faith
Holy Week is the time when, as a community, we walk with Jesus through his final days. As we
feast, wash feet, tell stories, keep watch and pray, we experience God’s nearness both in our
personal lives and in the community. You are invited to participate fully and give yourself to
God in ways that reveal the true meaning of the Pascal journey.

Palm/Passion Sunday
Sunday, March 28 10:00am
Come early in order to join the festive procession that begins this service. We need readers
to take parts in the Passion Gospel. The service ends with the veneration of the Cross, a
chance to enter into the Passion mystery personally.

THE TRIDUUM: THE THREE GREAT DAYS

Feast of Friends/Maundy Service
Thursday, April 1 7:00pm
We gather to share a meal, and
this year we are inviting every-
one to prepare the food. Your
last name lets you know what to
bring:
A to F: salad or appetizer
G to M: side dish
N to T: main dish of pasta
U to Z: dessert.
Afterwards, we show our love
for each other in an act of humil-
ity, strip the church in prepara-
tion for Good Friday, and then
finish with Christ’s Agony in the
Garden. Help is needed with the
stripping of the church.
Choral Meditation on the Passion
Friday, April 2 12:00n
A meditative Good Friday
service of lessons and hymns
using prophecy from Hebrew
Scriptures to foretell the journey
of Christ’s passion.
Stations of the Cross
Friday, April 2 7:00pm
A participatory Good Friday
service in which we use our
senses to walk the “Via
Dolorosa” (“Way of Grief” or
“Way of Suffering”). Readers are
needed for this service.
Easter Vigil
Saturday, April 3 7:00pm
We recount the history of our
salvation and celebrate the
raising of Christ from the dead.
We renew our baptismal vows
in a festive Eucharist A recep-
tion follows; bring a dish of
finger food to share.
Easter Liturgy
Sunday, April 4 10:00am
Our festive Easter service with
organ. Following is a celebratory
coffee hour and a special activity
for the kids. We need you and
your talents: please bring a dish
of finger food to share.

THE GREAT VIGIL AT THE TOMB

Thursday, April 1 9:00pm to Saturday, April 3 7:00pm
From the ending of the Maundy service on Thursday until the beginning of the Vigil service on Saturday,
we will keep a 46-hour vigil of the resurrection by reading the Bible. All this requires is a willingness to
read and keep watch. Please sign up for a one-hour time slot, come to the church at your appointed time,
begin reading where the last person left off and continue until the next scheduled person arrives. Those
who’ve participated in past years describe this as one of the most moving things they did during Holy
Week. It’s impossible to explain—you just have to experience it. Keep watch at the tomb by adding your
voice in quiet remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice.

8
Spiritual Practices 101 Returns
Are you interested in learning about spiritual
practices that you can use to turn your focus toward
God on a more regular basis? Join Mary Figgins and
other community members
for another short, 3-week
video & discussion series on
spiritual practices.
The practices we’ll be
learning about in this round
are Friendliness (March 7),
Zeal (March 14) and Mystery
(March 21). The sessions will
be offered on Sundays at
11:30am in the Walbridge
Room, and each will last 60-
90 minutes.
Website Offers Prayer Options
Trinity’s website has recently been enhanced to
offer new choices for making prayer requests. There’s
a new “Prayers” link from the home page that will
take you to our Prayer Requests page.
As always, you can call the Trinity office (419.
243.1231), and your prayer request will be passed on
to the Trinity Prayer Group, members of our commu-
nity whose ministry is a commitment to regular
prayer for the requests of others. If you prefer, you
can email PrayerRequests@trinitytoledo.org with
your request, and it will go to the Prayer Group.
Another, somewhat more
public way of requesting
prayers is through Facebook.
If you have a Facebook ac-
count, you can join Trinity’s
Facebook group. Under the
“Discussions” tab is a “Prayer
Requests” topic. Any prayers
you request there will be seen
and considered by all the
members of our FB group.
A last, completely public option is to click the link
on Trinity’s Prayer Requests page to go to the Gera-
nium Farm, the website of Barbara Crafton. At this
website you can light a prayer candle and submit
your prayer request which will be read and prayed
for by thousands of people daily.
Trinity’s NCD Prayer
Merciful Creator, we invite you to be with us
here and now. As we embrace Natural Church
Development, keep us mindful of our purpose
in this work – to empower your people, grow
and strengthen your church, and glorify your
name. Fill us with your Spirit of Wisdom and
Truth as we humbly examine ourselves and
our community. Help us to embrace new op-
portunities for growth and improvement. Re-
new our energy, guide our work, and lead us
to new life in you, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Reading the Bible with Marcus
Borg
Martin Luther helped make the Bible accessible for
people in the sixteenth century. Marcus Borg’s book
Reading The Bible Again For The First Time is an attempt
to do the same for people in the twenty-first.
We’ll continue discussing
Borg’s book on Wednesdays
at 6:30pm in the Walbridge
Room through March 24. If
you’re interested in making
sense of the Bible, dig into
Reading The Bible Again For
The First Time and share in the
soup and conversation.
Centering Prayer
All are invited to participate in Centering Prayer
every Monday evening at 7:00pm at Washington
Church, 3925 W. Central Ave. (enter the building
through the back door). This is an on-going, year-
round group prayer practice.
Centering Prayer is a practice that helps us bring
our whole being to God, beyond words, thoughts, or
images. During Lent, it is being followed by lectio
divina, another style of contemplative prayer. During
the rest of the year, it is followed by a brief teaching
and discussion period. You can stay for both parts or
just for the Centering Prayer.
For more details, contact Washington Church at
419.536.3789 or office@washingtonchurch.org.
9
 Simplicity Itself
by Bob Sitze
At this moment in history, the world God loves is
groaning under the weight of injustice and slowly be-
ing robbed of its capacity to sustain life. All around
you, the people God loves are increasingly burdened
by lifestyles they can't keep up for very much longer.
You and your congregation are called to help turn that
around.
Many people yearn for simpler lives. They see
themselves as just a little strange, moving against the
mainstream of American consumerism, odd ducks in a
world of too much, too fast, too
many. In bringing simple life- It would be easy to think
styles to the center of your faith-
filled conversations, think of of simplicity as a lifestyle
Jesus's own lifestyle, the things switch permanently fixed
he said and did. The things he
didn't do. Consider the fact that in the NO position.
the human Jesus also woke up in
the morning, yawned, had a cup of fair-trade coffee,
and tried to make sense out of his e-mails.
In concentrating only on Jesus-as-God, you may
miss the fact that the very human Jesus chose a life-
style that fit the mission he received at his baptism.
The healer and preacher also had to think about his
next meal, his friendships, his enemies. He faced dan-
ger, he laughed, he sat around and talked with folks.
He walked everywhere he wanted to go. He criticized
religious authorities and the government, and he lis-
tened to farmers. He went to big dinners with very
important people. He observed spiritual practices but
didn't spend lots of time at his local synagogue. The
point here is not only that Jesus was human but also
that in his lifestyle and career choices—yes, he made
them just like you do—Jesus chose to live simply and
joyfully in service to others.
It would be easy to think of simplicity as a lifestyle
switch permanently fixed in the NO position. That
way of living can be seen in the tenets of fundamental-
ism, which draws its adherents into frames of mind
that fear, abhor, or avoid many elements of life. But
lifestyles based only on "Thou shalt not" break down
soon enough and lose their sensitivity to God's abun-
dance. When any part of a law-only system—law en-
forcer, judge, jury, jailer—loses its power, law-based
lifestyles can't fulfill their promise of a meaningful,
purposeful life.
Part of the joy—and perhaps the lure—of simple
10
living is that you choose to manage only what lies
within the scope of your actual capabilities, and not to
live under the pretext of unlimited assets or "purpose-
greed"—wanting to fulfill all God's commands for the
entire Christian church. The result of that choice: A life
that's possible, and a life that lasts.
One way you can measure your practice of simplic-
ity is by answering this question: What holds your at-
tention? Jesus put the matter nicely: "Your heart will
always be where your treasure is" (Matt. 6:21). Here’s a
little lesson in New Testament
Greek: thesauros (treasure) de-
notes both valued things and
the box or receptacle in which
they are placed. The location of
your treasure influences where
your kardia (heart) is located.
Heart was the first century
way of describing the center of your will, understand-
ing, motivation, purposes, intelligence, or affections.
One way to translate Jesus's words might be: "The box
in which you place your treasure is also the place
where you put your brain."
Your attention is literally held by your treasure.
Jesus understood that your mind has a way of being
influenced heavily by your surroundings. Given the
way your brain works, pleasurable stuff easily holds
your attention. Your emotions and values also come
along with your attention, as do your behaviors and
even your identity.
For the most part, you can still choose where to put
your treasure. Most folks call that choice "paying atten-
tion." The way your brain works is that you give that
attention to only one thing at a time. After awhile,
what you pay attention to gradually determines what
(Continued on page 11)
(Continued from page 10)
you will not pay attention to. (Jesus again: "You cannot
be the slave of two masters!" [Matt. 6:24].)
So as you consider the way you live, you can judge it
as joyfully simple, satisfying, and manageable by the
You can measure your practice
of simplicity by answering this
question: What holds your
attention?
amount and quality of the attention you devote to vari-
ous aspects of your life. (You can also measure the sim-
plicity of your life by what you choose not to attend to.)
Here’s an example from my daily life: My wife and I
have come to see that dinnertime is a precious opportu-
nity to converse together earnestly and quietly about
what's important in our lives and our relationship. Be-
cause we want to hold each other's attention while we
eat and talk, we do not watch television news, read
magazines, answer the phone, or listen to the radio. We
measure our dinnertimes not by an increased knowl-
edge of world news but by the bonds of friendship, de-
cision making, or shared wisdom that hold our atten-
tion during supper. We could describe our treasures
and our hearts as the gifts of delicious food, delightful
conversation, precious insight, and quiet laughter . Our
relationship, not our television, holds our attention.
Considering theological and practical fundamentals
about living simply is a first step in starting to think and
talk about simplicity. Simplicity as more than a harsh
attack on every aspect of life in the Western world; this
way of thinking and behaving is helpful, life sustaining,
deeply spiritual, and eminently possible. It really is sim-
plicity itself.
Adapted from Alban Weekly, 02-22-10
http://www.alban.org

God Moment
Where have I seen God lately? Just this past Sunday, it was in church, but long after the
liturgy had ended. We had finished cleaning the basement and enjoying all the pizza,
when I spied a little toddler heading for the ramp by the curved wall. No one else no-
ticed immediately, so I thought it would be best if I just followed along behind him.

I stayed far enough back so that I didn’t crowd him, and he looked behind at me and
seemed unconcerned with my coming along. As he headed out into the hall and took
off toward the window I instinctively sped up and found myself standing practically on
top of him. As I looked down, I saw his little blonde head and ears popping out, and
the profile of his face.

In that moment, I saw that it was my little nephew Henry that I was escorting. Henry died in January of this year,
at the age of 21. But at that moment, I was walking with my nephew at 2 years old. The image of Henry was so
vivid in me, that I just let myself be with Henry in that moment, staring down at him, and remembering his sweet
nature and his tentative early steps. It lasted for more than a glance. It lasted long enough for me to fully recog-
nize this “God moment” and take a breath and say, “Thank you for this.”

Then in a flash the little guy’s mom burst frantically onto the scene and our eyes met; she sighed in relief and we
both smiled.
~Cathy Johns

Got a God moment?

Has there been a time recently when you noticed the presence of God in your life? If you’re willing to share a brief “God
moment” with the Trinity community, you’re invited to submit several paragraphs (no more than half a page, up to 300 words,
subject to editing for clarity) to Topics@trinitytoledo.org.

11
 The Last Week
A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem
Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan
HarperSanFrancisco

Marcus Borg (Reading the Bible Again for the First Time) and John Dominic Crossan
(Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography) set out to explore the last week in Jesus' life against
the backdrop of Roman imperial control. Their purpose is not to attempt a historical
reconstruction of what has become known as the "Passion" or suffering of Jesus, but to
probe the things Jesus was passionate about. The text they use is the Gospel of Mark,
the earliest to be written, the most succinct, and the one with the most time markers for
the week's events.

In their comments on Palm Sunday, Borg and Crossan discuss the domination
system in Jerusalem that was characterized by political oppression, economic exploita-
tion, and religious legitimation. Jesus was sharply critical of the temple in the city and its collaboration with the
domination system. His message was to repent, not in the sense of contrition, but "to embark upon a way that goes
beyond the mind that you have." Jesus brought hope to peasants who desperately needed a way out of their
misery. His preaching about the Kingdom of God emphasizes the present moment, not life after death...

The passion of Jesus for the kingdom of God was a threat to the men atop the domination systems. He also
spoke about God's passion for justice, something that doesn't seem to go down well in our times either. Borg and
Crossan conclude, "Good Friday and Easter, death and resurrection together, are a central image in the New
Testament for the path to a transformed self. The path involves dying to an old way of being and being reborn into
a new way of being. Good Friday and Easter are about this path, the path of dying rising, of being born again."

Once again Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have given progressives and other Christians insights into
Jesus that expand upon the more common understandings of the meaning of his life and death. Their journey
through the last week of his life is challenging and profoundly inspiring. To walk in this Jesus' footsteps would
really be something!
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
www.spiritualityandpractice.com

An excerpt from The Last Week

by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan

"For us Lent is a transformative journey in time from Ash
Wednesday to Easter Sunday. For Mark, 'Lent' was a transforma-
tive journey in space from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem. During
that journey, in Mark's story, Jesus tried to prepare his disciples
for what would happen to him when he demonstrated against
Roman imperial power concerning its violence and against Jewish
high-priestly authority concerning its injustice. Also, and even
more important, Jesus attempted to prepare them for their indi-
vidual and communal participation in that death and resurrec-
tion, that end-as-beginning. But, as we shall see, Peter, James,
and John, then the Twelve as a group, and finally Judas all fail
tragically but not irrevocably (except for Judas) to accept their
destiny alongside Jesus.
We emphasize and cannot emphasize enough one
point about this very, very prominent theme in Mark.
His story of failed discipleship is his warning gift to all
who ever hear or read his narrative. We must think of Lent
today as a penitential season because we know that, like those
first disciples, we would like to avoid the implications of this jour-
ney with Jesus. We would like its Holy Week conclusion to be
about the interior rather than the exterior life, about heaven
rather than earth, about the future rather than the present, and
above all else, about religion safety and securely quarantined
from politics. Confronting violent political power and unjust reli-
gious collaboration is dangerous in most times and most places,
first century and twenty-first century alike."

12

Lent isn’t about denial — it’s about transformation
by Julie Clawson
02-17-2010
The point of Lent is not denial.
But for a long time I thought it was. Everything I
heard about Lent revolved around acts of self-denial.
It was all about what object or habit one would give
up and how hard it was to deny oneself of that thing.
Of course that denial was meant to help one think
about God and Christ’s sacrifice, but in truth the focus
was always on the act of denial itself.
The question always is, “what are you
giving up for Lent?” as if that is what
the season is about.
On one hand it’s understandable
that we miss the point of Lent. In our
religious traditions rituals and legal-
ism are far easier to promote, under-
stand, and implement than spiritual-
ity and faith. We can grasp rules. It is
far easier to tell kids to obey rules
than to explain to them why they
should desire to act rightly. They then
end up following the rules simply
because the rules exist. When it comes to Lent we of-
ten do the same, denying ourselves something for the
sake of denial. We give up chocolate or Facebook,
thinking the act of denial is the purpose of Lent. And
we end up missing the point.
But Lent isn’t about denial; it is about transforma-
tion. It is the season in which we prepare to encounter
The question for Lent is not “What
am I giving up?” but “What can I
do to allow God to transform me?”
Christ’s sacrifice by endeavoring to become more
Christlike ourselves. Transformation is about letting
ourselves be filled with God’s presence so that we can
be shaped by God’s grace. Our acts of kenosis — de-
nying ourselves in order to empty ourselves enough to
allow God to fill us — are means to an end. They are
disciplines that prepare us to be transformed. We deny
ourselves so that we can be reborn as new creations —
to live more fully as the kingdom citizens God desires
us to be.
So I am very tentative in choosing what disciplines
I will follow during Lent to open myself up to God’s
transforming power. I’ve discovered that for me per-
around the kingdom
sonally, legalistic denial for the sake of denial
often achieves the opposite purpose. Giving up
coffee doesn’t make me a better follower of
Christ, it just makes me more irritable. Giving
up Facebook doesn’t help me build community
in the body of Christ; it simply helps me as a
detached introverted person creep further into
my shell. Those disciplines don’t assist me in
emptying myself in order to let God in; they
simply fill me with more of me.
I’ve come to learn that in order to become
more fully the person God wants me to be, I
instead need to make sacrifices that actually
allow me to achieve those ends. Often those sacrifices
are less about personal denial, and more about follow-
ing disciplines that encourage me to love others more.
In the past I’ve attempted to eat more ethically or shop
fairly — which of course required discipline and sacri-
fice on my part (and a bit of denial as well), but the
outcome of these outwardly focused changes was far
more personally transformative than if I had just
eliminated something from my life for forty days.
So for me the question for Lent is not “what am I
giving up?” but instead “what can I do to allow God
to transform me this season?” The answers to those
questions might be the same for some people; for me,
changing the question shifted how I observed Lent.
Whatever the case, I think it is important to under-
stand what the ultimate purpose is behind why we
engage in certain disciplines unless we miss their very
point.
Julie Clawson is the author of Everyday Justice:
The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices.
From http://blog.sojo.net/
13
 Good Friday: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
by Barbara Brown Taylor
Today is the quietest day of the
church year. On no other day do we
sit together for so long with so little to
say to one another, like family mem-
bers gathered around the bed of the
Beloved, who is dying. Hour after
hour, we just sit here, with sounds no
larger than a cough or a dropped
book echoing through all this air.
There is the sound of feet too—shoe
heels on stone—as people come to
pay their respects and go. Even the
occasional siren has its place. It is the
sound some of us would make with
our own mouths, if we ever began to
let our sorrow come out—not only
our sorrow for him, the Beloved, but
also our sorrow for ourselves and for
the whole broken, bleeding world.
Who named this Friday "Good"?
Instead of wailing, we will sing
some songs, say a few prayers. We are
adults, after all, and this is a public
place. Plus, we need the ballast of
sound to keep us sitting upright in our
seats. We need spoken attempts at
meaning—however futile—to keep
our anxiety at bay. But it is the silence
we are really here for—that, and the
story.
It was God's will for Jesus to be fully
who he was every day of his life—
even if the fullness of that life short-
ened the length of it.
The Bible contains not one but four
accounts of Jesus' death. They agree
on the essentials: Jesus died on a cross
at a place called Golgotha, hung up
between two other men with a sign
above his head. "King of the Jews," it
said. The charge was treason against
the Empire. The method of execution
was Roman. People were so sure he
was not coming down that they di-
vided up his clothes where he could
see them. He was offered some sour
14
wine before he died and then he died,
just before sundown on the day before
the sabbath.
Those are the bones of the story,
which each gospel writer fills out in a
different way. Matthew and Mark's
accounts are almost identical, except
for a few differences in phrasing.
Their Jesus is a broken man, who is so
injured in every way that he needs
help carrying his cross and whose
only word from the cross is a cry of
abandonment at the end.
In Luke's gospel, Jesus has more to
say. Luke adds a word of pardon from
the cross—"Father forgive them, for
they do not know what they are
doing"—as well as a conversation
between Jesus and the two men dying
with him that the other gospel writers
do not mention. When Jesus dies, he
does not ask where God has gone.
Instead, he uses his last few breaths to
commend his spirit to God. Luke's
Jesus is as gentle and forgiving in
death as he was all his life.
In John's gospel, however, Jesus is
neither broken nor particularly gentle.
He is brave,
omniscient, and in
charge all the way.
John does not say
anything about
Simon of Cyrene
carrying Jesus'
cross for him. Jesus
is strong enough to
do that for himself. Nor does John
allow anyone to mock Jesus while he
dies. Even on the cross, Jesus is in
charge. He arranges for his mother's
care, says he is thirsty (in order to
fulfill the scriptures), and when he
dies there is no question about where
God is. God is on the cross,
pronouncing that "It is finished."
While all four of these accounts
report the same event, they are not
easily harmonized. They are four al-
ternative readings of that event, so
different from one another and yet so
faithfully told that the editors of the
New Testament decided that none of
them could be left out. By including
all four, those early shapers of the
gospel sent us a message between the
lines: namely, that there is more than
one way to view what happened on
the cross, and all of them are right.
Even if they do not agree on
everything—not even something as
important as Jesus' last words—their
very disagreement preserves the mys-
tery of what happened on this day.
There is no one definitive word. There
is no one answer to the awful ques-
tions raised by this day—chief among
which is why God allows the innocent
to suffer. In the case of Jesus, we are
asked to believe that God not only
allowed the suffering but willed the
tortured, humiliating death of the
Beloved.
You have heard the same explana-
tions I have heard. Before Jesus, sinful
humanity was so deep in debt to God
that no human being could pay it all.
So God sent Jesus to die for our sins,
erasing the debt once and for all. This
is the most traditional view of the
cross, but it does not answer the
question of suffering. What kind of
father demands the death of a son in
order to pay off a debt to himself?
According to another view, it was
God who died on the cross, putting an
end to divine bookkeeping through
the voluntary sacrifice of divine
power. But if Jesus was God, then
whom was he talking to in the garden
and from the cross? He clearly
believed that someone else had the
power to remove the cup of suffering
from him, or at least to be with him
while he drank it down--but who, in

both cases, declined to do so.
I don't pretend to understand any of
it. Sometimes I think that the suffering
of Jesus was not God's will at all. It was,
instead, the will of those who were
arrayed against him—those whose
patriotic values he had offended, whose
sense of God he had betrayed. It was
the will of ordinary people like you and
me, who prefer dead messiahs to living
ones, since living ones are so much
harder to tame.
It seems entirely possible to me that
God's will for Jesus was a long and
fruitful life, brimming over with the
divine justice and love he was born to
embody. When the world opposed that
justice, however—when the world
reviled that love—God's will did not
give Jesus license to stop being Jesus.
God's will supported him to go on
doing justice and loving mercy even in
the face of deadly opposition. So in that
sense, I suppose, it was God's will that
Jesus suffer and die—since suffering
and death turned out to be the
unavoidable consequences of being
who he was. It was God's will for Jesus
to be fully who he was every day of his
life—even if the fullness of that life
shortened the length of it.
But if that was the case, then where
was God at the end? According to at
least two gospels. Jesus believed
himself forsaken by heaven as well as
earth. Couldn't God have spared one
angel there at the end? Couldn't God
have whispered one comforting word
in Jesus' ear, just to help him get
through the last few awful, parched
hours? It happened at his baptism in
the river Jordan. It happened on the
Mount of the Transfiguration with
Peter, James and John. "This is my son,
the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased." Where was that same voice at
the end, when the Beloved was panting
his last few breaths? What difference
might a word have made?
But there was no word, except Jesus'
own. "My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?" It was a quiet day for
him too—the quietest day of his whole
life, when he asked for bread and got a
stone. Whatever else it was, it was the
death of hope—that God might
intervene, might stop the suffering,
might at least say a word that would
make the suffering bearable. None of
that happened. God was, for all
practical purposes, gone—and yet Jesus
died seeking God. He died talking to
the Abba who would not talk back to
him, giving us the stripped down
vision of faith that remains at the heart
of our tradition.
When all of our own hopes have
died, we still have this faith that seeks
nothing for itself—not wisdom, not
spiritual power, not rescue from
suffering. "Success" is not in its
vocabulary. This faith seeks nothing but
God, to whom it is willing to surrender
everything—up to and including its
own cherished beliefs about who God
is and how God should act. This faith is
willing to sell all that it owns and bet
the farm on one chance for union with
God. If God plays hard to get, then this
faith will never stop its wooing.
Purged of all illusion, weaned from
everything that is not God, this
relentless faith will devote itself to
doing justice and loving mercy no
matter what the consequences are, and
around the kingdom
if the consequences turn out to
be a cross, then this faith will
hang there for however long
is necessary, asking God to be
present, asking God to speak,
regardless of whether or not
God chooses to answer. This
kind of faith, embodied by
Jesus, is what makes him the
Christ—God's own Being of
Light, God's own Anointed
One—whose self-annihilating
love for us and for all creation
is never more vivid than it is
on this day.
I actually know people
who come to church on Good
Friday and who don't come
back on Easter. Easter is too
pretty, they say. Easter is too
cleaned-up. It is where they
hope to live one day, in the
land of milk and honey, but
right now Good Friday is a
better match for their souls,
with its ruthless truth about
the stench of death and the
high price of love. It isn't that
they don't care about what
happens on Sunday. They do.
They just don't believe that God is
saving all the good news until then.
Today, on the quietest day of the year,
we have come to sit in the presence of one
who was fully who God created him to be
every day of his life—who loved God with
all his heart, and with all his soul, and with
all his strength, and with all his mind—and
who loved his friends so much that he
stepped into the oncoming traffic of death in
order to push them out of the way. He
furthermore did it all with no more than the
basic human equipment—a beating heart,
two good hands, a holy vision, and some
companions who could see it too—thereby
showing the rest of us humans that such a
life is not beyond our reach. Whatever else
happens on Sunday, here is enough reason
to call this Friday Good. Amen.
~from www.explorefaith.org
15
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Parish Staff
Elizabeth M. Hoster, Rector
services
Wayne F. Anthony, Associate for Music and the Arts SUNDAYS 10:00 am, Holy Eucharist
Susan Lowrey, Associate for Community Life HOLY DAYS as announced
Virginia Shafer, Executive Secretary
Jane Bueche, Parish Accountant
Bridget Blanchard, Organist prayers
Parish Vestry
Remember those for whom our prayers have been requested: Dale Belnap,
Jeff Albright, senior warden; Jason Rahe, junior
Brian & Rhonda, Alexis Bueche-Hall, Barbara Clarke, Linda & Joseph Keblesh, Laboe/Rick
warden; Peggy Heider, clerk; Solveig Barnes, Cathy
family, Herb Landis, Susan Lowrey, Gordon McIntosh, Nancy Paulas, Peg Sammons, and
Johns, Jennifer Siebold, Karen Wabeke, Jim Zechman.
Jessica Snyder; the children and staff of Emanuel Children’s Home, especially David and
Parish Offices Estrella; the vestry and wardens; the Church Health Team; those on death row, including
Lawrence Reynolds, who is scheduled to be executed by the state of Ohio on March 9;
Mon thru Fri, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
all victims of war and violence; our ministry with Cater Me; Sara & Todd Alcroft,
Phone 419.243.1231 Fax 419.243.0920
awaiting the birth of their first child.
Email: trinity@trinitytoledo.org
Prayers for those who have died: John Theis (Sara & Todd Alcroft)
Episcopal Diocese of Ohio
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2499
800.551.4815 216.771.4815
The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., Bishop Ordinary
vision & mission
Trinity is called to be a progressive, inclusive, creative urban faith community.
Next-to-New Thrift Shop  We will practice radical hospitality.
Mon & Thurs, 9:30 am – 3 pm;  We will be engaged in the life of our city.
Jeanne Mitchell, Manager  We will stand with those in need: the poor, the sick, the friendless, the marginalized.
 We will actively invite all to experience and celebrate God’s living presence.
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Becky Roth, Editor that connect us to God, to one another, and to the world around us.
Email: topics@trinitytoledo.org