Wednesday 11am: Bible Study

Wednesday 4:30pm: Children’s Choir Rehearsal

Wednesday 5:30pm: Lenten Soup Supper

Wednesday 6pm: Lenten Book Group

Wednesday 7pm: Bible Study

Wednesday 7pm: 11:15am Choir Rehearsal

Thursday 5:30pm: Contemplative Prayer 

Thursday 7:30pm: 9am Choir Rehearsal

Thrift Shop: Monday 10am-Noon, Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-1pm

Our word of the week from The Episcopal Church glossary is Lent.

It’s Fr. Todd’s least favorite day of the year: don’t forget to set your clocks an hour ahead this Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Sunday School classes for children and adults are from 10:30am-11:10am. This Sunday, the class for adults will hear a story of incest, rape, murder, political intrigue, and a coup…and that’s in just the first ten minutes!

A small change of which I wish you all to be aware. It was the practice here in the past for the chalices to pause in front of people with their arms crossed at the altar rail and say “The Blood of Christ” even though that person was not going to drink the wine. Somehow, too, some chalices began offering blessings, like the priest does, to those people; an honest mistake, and possibly even something they were taught to do by another priest who served here in the past. I’ve asked the chalices, from now on, to say nothing to those with their arms crossed and not to pause in front of them. We’re not giving you the cold shoulder, I promise; blessings in lieu of receiving the wine are reserved for priests to give, and presenting the wine to those who do not wish to receive it seems to result in some confusion for people, and possibly even feels like pressure to take it. The Church teaches that the grace of the sacrament is received whether a communicant receives the bread and wine or just one of them, so you do whatever you feel called to do. If you cross your arms to indicate that you do not wish to receive the wine, from now on the chalice will simply move past you. You could also leave the rail after you’ve taken the bread, though the normal custom is to remain at the rail until the person after you has received so as not to disturb them. ~ Todd+ 

The liturgies on Sunday mornings will change in a few ways for the season of Lent. The Prayer Book requires us to change the opening acclamation and to avoid saying alleluia during Lent. We have these past few years used some of the older prayers from the Prayer Book tradition in addition to or in place of the prayers we usually use; as we have been doing, we will follow the custom of saying the Prayer for Humble Access before taking Communion, and in place of the usual post-Communion prayer, we’ll be using the grand old General Thanksgiving, a prayer most Episcopalians used to know by heart, but which hasn’t been used much since the “new” (two years before I was born!) Prayer Book came out. This year, we’ll also begin our services with the (shorter version of the) Penitential Order from the Book of Common Prayer, in keeping with the penitential nature of the season, and because it’s an older, traditional way of doing things, and we’re always curious about that. 

The big change in the liturgy during the season of Lent, besides the addition of the Penitential Order, is that, at our 11:15am service only, we will use Rite I. Rite I is most notable for the use of “thy/thee/thou” pronouns and -eth verb endings, but it also has a very fine Eucharistic prayer that is different from than Rite II prayers not only in language but also in tone. Some people really like Rite I, and other people really don’t like it; I like it but think it has limited appeal. In my former parish in Kansas City, we used Rite I every Sunday at the early service, and never at the main service later in the morning. Using it at only one of our morning services seems to be the best compromise, and the folks at 11:15am have the most interest in it, so if you’re a Rite I groupie, come to the 11:15 during Lent! If you’re not familiar with Rite I, give it a try, or if you have experienced it before elsewhere and found it be dry, give it another chance – to be frank, many priests don’t like Rite I or don’t understand it, and so the elegance and beauty of its language is lost. I’m not saying we do it perfectly, but we do it well, with love and with passion. Also, for the First Sunday of Lent only, and only at the 11:15am liturgy, we’ll begin by chanting the Great Litany. 

During Lent, we don’t have flowers on the altar, so if you wish to make a donation to celebrate an important life event, give thanks for someone or something, or to remember a loved one who has died, you can instead give the six candles that we have on the altar for this season. The suggested donation is $50, but you can donate any amount. These donations go directly to the Altar Guild to support their work in honoring God by making our altar a beautiful focus of our worship. You can donate altar candles on the website.

Nadia Bolz-Weber’s new book on Christianity, gender, and sexuality is out, and we’re going to read it for a special Lenten book group this year. The book is called Shameless, and you can pick it up at your local bookstore or order it online. We’ll meet on Wednesdays, beginning with a soup supper at 5:30 (kids are welcome to join us for supper!), and then meet to discuss the book from 6pm-7pm. Here’s a link to sign up to bring a soup:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4caaab23a6ff2-lenten. The nursery will be open and fully staffed so that parents (infants and up to age 12) can attend. If you’re interested, e-mail Fr. Charlie to let him know to expect you, and go ahead and start reading! Our first meeting will be on Wednesday, March 13th, and try to read the first three chapters (they’re short!) in advance.

The Trinity Thrift Shop Spring Sale begins March 16th with the Half Price Sale, and continues throughout the following week, culminating in the $8 Bag Sale on March 22nd! The Thrift Shop is also looking for volunteers to help empty the shop on the 22nd after the sale ends, contact the church office if you would like to volunteer, or contact Sue Mack directly. And most of all, we’ll need new items to restock the shop for the re-opening on March 28th, so if you’re watching the Marie Kondo series or just doing your spring cleaning, donate those gently used treasures to the Thrift Shop so that they can spark joy for someone else!

If you have a middle-school or high-school aged youth who might enjoy meeting other kids, growing spiritually, and serving others by working on construction projects in an underserved community, please consider joining Karen and Emma Harvey the week of July 14-19 as they head to Chiloquin, Oregon with the Sierra Service Project! Karen has participated in three of these trips, and our own Emma Harvey will be one of the construction supervisors. Cost is about $450 each, but the church should be able to offset that cost if a young person wants to go. If you have any questions or are interested, please contact Karen Harvey or 916-849-1693.

Many of the children and youth from Trinity Folsom attend one of the local Episcopal summer camps, and it’s the time of year to begin looking at the various offerings and to sign up. Between the two of them, Fr. Todd and Fr. Charlie have been to all the summer camps, and Fr. Charlie will be serving as guest chaplain for a week at Galilee this summer. Feel free to ask them questions. The majority of Trinitarians head to Camp Galilee on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe (and it just so happens that the chaplain at Camp Galilee, the Rev’d Mikayla Dunfee, is the fiancée of our Fr. Charlie!). You can read more about Camp Galilee and its programs here.

Our older youth (finishing grades 7-12 in 2019) may be interested in attending the diocesan pilgrimage program, Pathways. This year’s focus will be on social and ecological justice, and home base will be Humboldt State University. Read more about it here.

Two summer camps owned and operated by the Episcopal Diocese of California (San Francisco and the East Bay) are within our diocesan boundaries and are happy to accept children and youth from the Diocese of Northern California. St. Dorothy’s Rest is in the redwoods near Occidental, and you can read more about it here, and Bishop’s Ranch is just outside Healdsburg and offers the BREAD camp for children and youth, and you can read more about it here. 

Last year, the Diocese of Northern California offered a $200 “campership” per camper; we don’t know yet if they will be offering a campership program this year. Fr. Todd is able to help those needing some financial assistance (camp is expensive!), and does not want the cost to stand in the way of any child who wishes to attend camp, so just let him know and he will see what he can do. And even if you aren’t applying for a campership, if you sign up for any of the camps, let Fr. Todd and Fr. Charlie know so we can know where our kids are this summer!

me will be “Who is my neighbor?” and the program will help kids understand how to better love God and neighbor by learning about neighbors from all over the globe. VBS will run from Monday, July 22nd thru Friday July 26th, and will be filled with interactive storytelling, music, games, and creative art experiences. Though VBS is geared towards grades K-5, all are welcome, and we will have volunteer opportunities for older children, youth, and adults. 

Note: Since many neighboring churches will not be offering VBS this summer, we anticipate that our roster will be much larger than last year. To help us plan ahead, if your children are planning on attending, please email  Karen Van Winkle.

Have you ever thought about being a chaplain? Sutter Roseville has a need for some volunteer chaplains, and there's a training coming up for those who might be interested. The training is 20 hours, held over the course of 3 Saturdays. After completion, volunteers can be on call 1 or 2 nights per month if they wish. If you'd like more information, please contact Karen Harvey, and she can put you in touch with the trainer and give you more information. 916-849-1693.

We have several families with children with special needs, and our new vestry member Deb Goldsmith and Fr. Todd met to begin a discussion about how we can better serve these families. We’re wondering if there aren’t other children with special needs we don’t know about, too. We’re wondering what might be helpful for the church to provide to make attending church and Sunday School a better experience for these children. If you have a child with special needs, we would love it, if you’re comfortable doing so, identifying yourself to  Deb or Fr. Todd in order to join the conversation. Thanks so much!

If you have a request to add to the parish prayer list, e-mail prayers@trinityfolsom.org. Prayer request will be kept confidential within the intercessory prayer group. If you’re interested in joining this prayer group, e-mail Fr. Charlie. 

Trinity Episcopal Church

 801 Figueroa Street

Folsom, CA 95630

(916) 985-2495 ~ www.trinityfolsom.org