Wednesday 11am: Bible Study

Wednesday 4:30pm: Children’s Choir Rehearsal

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 vestry. The vestry is the governing board of the parish, and we’ll be electing three new vestry members (see below!) at our Annual Parish Meeting this Sunday. 

The Burial Office and Requiem Eucharist for CaSandra Papa will be held this Saturday, January 19th, at 2pm in the church.

The Burial Office and Requiem Eucharist for JoAnn Juelch will be held on Saturday, February 16th, at noon in the church.

“Father of all, we pray to you for CaSandra and JoAnn, and for all those who we love but see no longer. Grant to them eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them. May their souls, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.” (Burial Office, BCP p. 498)

Our Annual Parish Meeting is this Sunday, January 20th, at 10:30am. You’ll hear a “state of the parish” style report from Fr. Todd, see the final 2019 budget, get an overview of our finances, hear a little bit about where we are on our master site plan to preserve, renovate, and expand our buildings and grounds, elect three new members of the vestry, and elect delegates to diocesan convention. If you generally avoid annual meetings because they take too long and you don’t like hearing dry reports read, we promise you our annual meeting is very different, and it has to be finished by 11:10 so that Fr. Todd can go do the next service. Sunday School classes for children and adults will be cancelled that day so that everyone can attend the meeting, but we will have activities for the children (K-5th grades in the Parish Hall Annex; 6th-12th grades in the Vestry Room in Trinity House).

Many thanks to those who volunteered to be delegates to the 2019 Diocesan Convention: Joanie Cahill, Gerry Cutler, Doris Gibson, Richard Hitchcock, Sue Mack, Lynn Steen, and Judy Utter; and Graham Breck, who will serve as alternate. We will elect these delegates at the Annual Parish Meeting this Sunday.    

This Sunday at the Annual Parish Meeting we’ll be electing three new vestry members (Shannon Dillon, Deb Goldsmith, and Jared Kwek) to replace the three whose terms end at the meeting (Tovi Abello, Sue Mack, and John Wright). Bios for Deb and Jared were in last week’s Tidings (you can find it on our website here: https://www.trinityfolsom.org/fellowship/newsletter/ if you missed them), and read below for Shannon’s! 

Shannon Dillon swears that she wasn’t an ugly baby. During a baptism at Trinity Folsom, Father Todd mentioned that the baptismal candidate was a particularly adorable baby, but that all Episcopalian babies are, because if they’re ugly, we send them to the Presbyterians (Father Todd likes to tease the Presbyterians because they fought against the Church of England, and executed the Anglican king and the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the English Civil War). Later that summer, when the Dillons were on vacation in Shannon’s hometown in Michigan, Shannon pointed out the church in which she grew up, a Presbyterian church. A few minutes later, her young daughter Sarah, with existential angst, asked seriously, “Mom, were you an ugly baby?” Sarah was comforted by being told that her mom wasn’t an ugly baby after all, and Father Todd is more mindful about the jokes he makes with little pitchers in the room, but he takes some smug satisfaction in thinking that he has ensured that any generations to come in Sarah’s future will be baptized in The Episcopal Church.

Shannon grew up Presbyterian in the perfectly flat town of Mount Pleasant, Michigan; the Carey family, including twin sister Erin who sometimes joins our choir during holiday visits, was very active in their church. Shannon was graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in biology and psychology, and attended medical school in Ann Arbor, too, where she met and married fellow medical student and native Californian Mark Dillon. Shannon was confirmed in The Episcopal Church in 2015, and Mark, who was raised in the United Methodist Church, was confirmed in 2016. Shannon is a pediatrician, and Mark is an orthopedic surgeon, both with Kaiser; they live in Folsom with daughter Sarah and son James. In addition to previously having served on the vestry, Shannon sings in the choir at the 9am service and serves as a lector and intercessor. Sarah serves as an acolyte and sings in the Children’s Choir, James is a faithful attendee of the Children’s Chapel, and both are students in the Sunday School. Mark is part of Tovi Abello’s “dad squad” work crew and very graciously serves as Father Todd’s on-call physician for various gym-related mistakes and mishaps.  

A lot has changed at Trinity Folsom since the Dillons joined in 2011. “We’re doing so many new things,” Shannon says, “and what I really appreciate it how the congregation has embraced the change. We’re running so many more programs, children’s programs, new choirs, the prayer groups and the Trekkers, and all that takes so much work on lots of people’s parts, and people have stepped up, and very willingly.” Shannon is especially excited to serve on our vestry as we begin considering implementation of the master site plan for our buildings and grounds to support the growth in our attendance and activities. “I really love the church building – it’s unique in Folsom. Our parish is at a crossroads where the changes we are making right now, to our buildings and our programs, are going to affect people for a really long time to come, so we have this opportunity, if we do it right, to build an amazing future, a gift for the generations that follow us. We have an extraordinary opportunity before us because we are doing so well as a congregation and have all these possibilities, and I’m excited to take the time to discern a way forward.”  

In February, our diocese will be electing a new bishop. The slate of candidates has been finalized, and you can read more about them, and watch a video message from them, here. And next week, they will be in our diocese for the “walkabouts,” when we have a chance to meet them and ask questions. The closest walkabout to us is at Trinity Cathedral in Midtown on Friday, January 25th, at 6:30pm. The full walkabout schedule is here, and one of the walkabouts will be broadcast on Facebook for those who can’t attend any of the evenings – see the link for details. 

We have several parishioners who are Kaiser employees, and one of them (thanks Sean!) sent us a notice that in February, KPGives, through the Giving with Heart annual match campaign, will match up to $200 in donations to community organizations. Trinity Folsom is already registered with KPGives, but if you need help with it, contact Barbara.  

Mark your calendars and save the date for another Bunco fellowship night on Saturday, February 16th, from 5:30pm-8:30pm. We’ll have lots of snacks, and winners will take home cash prizes. You don’t need to know how to play – it’s easy to learn – and it’s a great way to meet new people and make new friends. 

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. 

Each Sunday, the flowers behind the altar are given to the glory of God, and in memory of the dead, or in thanksgiving for living loved ones, for answered prayers, or for life events like births, graduations, weddings, and anniversaries. The suggested donation is $50. If you’re wondering what happens to the flowers, they don’t go to waste! After the Sunday evening service, they are divided into smaller bouquets and taken to parishioners, and to non-parishioners in local nursing homes. You can donate altar flowers on the website.

Trinity Episcopal Church

 801 Figueroa Street

Folsom, CA 95630

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