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 Group

Thursday 7:30pm: 9am Choir Rehearsal 

Our Children’s Choir will begin rehearsals this coming Wednesday at 4:30pm in the church. All children are welcome - no experience is necessary! Studies show that children who learn to sing perform better in language and math, and they gain valuable experience and skills in working in groups and building community. If you are interested in learning more about the Children’s Choir, e-mail our Director of Music Brett Judson for more information!

Senior Warden Tovi Abello and his family are hosting a poolside potluck picnic for the parish children and their families this Sunday at 4pm. Bring your swimsuits and a dish to share. Families should have received an Evite this week – if you didn’t, send Fr. Todd or Fr. Charlie an e-mail!

The Trinity Trekkers meet on the first Friday of the month and will be going on their next stroll on September 7th at 8:30am. Our starting point will be outside of Karen's Restaurant (705 Gold Lake Dr.), though if you want to park at the church, a group will heading down from Trinity to Karen's at 8:15. From there, we'll all head down to the walking path that runs alongside the American River Trail. Like most of our outings, it should be a leisurely 2-2.5 miles along "mostly" flat terrain. We’re hoping to beat the heat, but please bring water and a hat. Strollers and dogs are more than welcome! If you have any questions, touch base with Fr. Charlie. Come and pray with your feet!

The parish prayer list is joining the 21st century and becoming a digital ministry. If you have a request to add to the parish prayer list, e-mail prayers@trinityfolsom.org. The new intercessory prayer group (we’re working on a new monthly meeting time) is taking on, as part of its ministry of intercessory prayer, praying for those on the parish prayer list; your prayer request will be kept confidential within the intercessory prayer group. If you’re interested in attending this prayer group, or possibly praying for the names on the parish prayer list even though you can’t attend, e-mail Fr. Charlie. The parish prayer list isn’t read aloud during Sunday services, but if you have a prayer request you would like read during the Prayers of the People, go up to the lectern before the service, flip to the prayers for that service in the white notebook on the lectern, and use one of the pencils on the lectern to write in the name on the blank lines at the end of the prayers.

We’re hosting another night of Bunco on Friday, September 14th, at 6pm in the Parish Hall, and our friends over at Powerhouse Ministries Transformation Center will be joining us again (so if you volunteer at the dinners there, you’ll see plenty of familiar faces!). Tickets are $20, and will be on sale during coffee hour this Sunday and next; you can also e-mail Janice Freeberg to reserve a ticket. This is a FUNraiser, not a fundraiser – ticket sales will pay for free snacks and drinks during play, and cash prizes for winners. If you’ve never played Bunco before, it’s super easy to learn, and super fun to play – you’ll get a chance to play with every person in the room, too, so it’s a great way to meet folks in the parish. We hope you’ll join the parish staff for a fun evening!

We’ll observe the Feast of the Holy Cross on Friday, September 14th, with a Eucharist in the church at noon. The Feast of the Holy Cross marks the day in 335 when the “True Cross” on which Jesus was crucified, having been “discovered” in 326 by St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, was displayed for veneration outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Feast of the Holy Cross also marks one of the four weeks of Ember Days in the Church calendar – seminarians have to write letters home to their bishops at the Ember Days, and so we remember them by this mnemonic: “crux and lux, Lent and Pent” – Holy Cross (crux in Latin), St. Lucy’s Day (associated with light, lux in Latin), Ash Wednesday (Lent), and Pentecost. 

At this past Tuesday night’s vestry meeting, the vestry voted to contribute $2500 from the outreach budget to California wildfire relief. The funds will be distributed by the Outreach Committee to All Saints’, Redding and St. John’s, Lakeport for direct relief to people who have been affected by the fires. Our parish Outreach Committee (Fr. Charlie, Sue Mack, Susan Bentley, Janice Freeberg, and Deborah Goldsmith) makes recommendations to the vestry about distributing the annual outreach budget and then distributes those funds after the vestry votes to accept their recommendation. In 2018, $27,000 is budgeted from pledge income for outreach grants; from this money, we make monthly grants to Powerhouse, Twin Lakes, WIND Youth Services, and HART of Folsom, and make special contributions to other organizations and special relief efforts. This budget does not include special collections and fundraisers, and for the past several years, the vestry has given a tithe of whatever remains at the end of the year to be distributed by the Outreach Committee. So in 2017, we budgeted $27,000 from the parish budget for outreach, but actually contributed $73,780 to outreach! 

We are about a month out from 3Strands Global’s “Break Free Run” an annual fundraiser to build up programs that have educated over 35,000 youth on the dangers of human trafficking and employed more than 80 survivors in Sacramento. The event kicks off on September 22nd at Lakeside Church, where there will be 5k and 10k “races” along the Willow Creek trail, live music, food vendors, a beer garden. If you are able to walk or run 3 miles, please sign-up. 

If that’s not in the cards for you, please consider donating towards Trinity’s fundraising goal by visiting the below link. We already have 14 registered, and would love to have you join the team. To sweeten the deal, you’ll receive a spiffy new Trinity T-Shirt! If you want to participate, please click here and be sure to join (or donate towards) the “Trinity Trekkers”. For more information, check out this video on the Break Free Run.

The annual Folsom Day of Service is September 15th, but we’ve agreed this year to help the Mormons and a few other folks with a huge project that begins a little earlier than that. About a week before the Day of Service, bags need to be dropped off all across Folsom for folks to fill up with donated food, and then retrieved on the 15th. We’ll need drivers to drop off and pick up (you don’t have to do both). If you’re interested in helping out, e-mail  Fr. Charlie.

The Master Site Plan Committee has been quiet over the summer, but they’ve been busy working on cost estimation and a parking study that will be required by the city. Father Todd is planning on presenting an update/reminder about our master site plan on Sunday, October 7th, during the Sunday School for Adults.    

Parishioners Judy and Scott Pinney will be facilitating Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course this fall here at Trinity Folsom. The goal of Financial Peace University is to help participants take control of their finances, get out of debt and achieve financial stability, and become better stewards of their money so that it is a blessing to themselves and to others. Our group will meet on Mondays at 7pm beginning October 1st and conclude on November 26th. The cost for course materials is $99, and scholarships are available for those who need them – talk to  Father Todd.    

The burial office for Mary Anne Wright, mother of Wendy Aspegren, will be held in the church on Saturday, September 1st, at 11am.

The burial office for Elizabeth Crane, longtime parishioner at the 7:30am service, will be held in the church on Saturday, September 8th, at 3pm.

“Father of all, we pray to you for Mary Anne, Elizabeth and Beverly, and for all those whom 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.” ~ from the burial office in the Book of Common Prayer, page 498.  

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