The link for registering for this week is below. You will need to enter an email address or phone number for contact tracing purposes: https://tinyurl.com/July25CHTRegistration

 A Service of Holy Communion

To participate in Online Worship: Click here

We will be live streaming worship at 11:00 am on Sundays on Facebook Live. You will be able to view this worship at any time after it uploads. The video will be at the top of the page when you click the link above. Click here for a digital bulletin.

Please use the registration link above.

Join us on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Please note there is no Evening Prayer on the following dates: 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18.

Take a 10-minute break to end the day in quiet and prayer.

Click Here for Compline Service.

Click Here to participate.

BYOC Coffee Hour

We’d love to see everyone for a socially distanced gathering. Whether you worshipped online or in-person, we can all meet for BYOC.

Children and Youth Sunday Zooms 

Contact Soozung Rankin, Program Director at srankin@htrit.org with questions or to get on the family listserve. Following Safeguarding our Children best practice, Soozung will send families password-protected Zoom links prior to Sunday’s Zoom sessions. Zoom sessions last about 40 minutes. We love seeing you in our Zoom Rooms!

We will follow the same model as last summer and meet on Zoom once a month for a check-in.

Children of all ages, join at 4p for the first 10 minutes of the 4p "CHT Kids Connect" Zoom for synchronous music-making. At about 4:15p, we will dismiss our toddlers.

If you have a piece to submit, please contact Soozung Rankin at srankin@htrit.org. It’s not too late to submit!

Season 1 with 60 episodes has come to an end. An episode with Footnotes and CHT’s face reveal was this week. Next week is a surprise! Tune in at 12p Noon on Monday to find out what is next. All episodes are available on-demand as a series on our church FB. For the youngest members of our church family and for the young at heart of all ages. 

CHT Puppet Story Time, Season 1, with 60 episodes, has ended. It's time to reveal the voice, face, and puppeteering behind Carter Harper Taylor (CHT) and talk about what is next!

by The Rev. John Gardner

Happiness is overrated.

I write this as somebody who has chased happiness on and off for most of my life. Based on what culture and media tell me, I feel like I should be happy, most of the time. If not, I must be doing something wrong.

Maybe I need to buy some more things. People in advertisements usually seem happy—new phone, new shoes, new car. Maybe I need to eat more salad. Have you seen this? Just google “laughing while eating salad.” It’s a real thing. Salad always seems to be telling people jokes.

Happiness can be bought—I did it last week with a great album—but it doesn’t last. Happiness can come from friendships and love and doing well at work—but it doesn’t last. In fact, sometimes the true and lasting work in relationships happens in times of loss and conflict. Early in our relationship, Rachel once said to me, “I love you more after we fight.” When we are not happy, we are often pushed to strive harder, to understand better, to listen more. That’s, as Robin Williams put it in Good Will Hunting, “the good stuff.”

Happiness can be fun, but it’s not everything. There is a deeper, more lasting good feeling, and it’s called joy. Jesus talked a lot about joy—the Son of God was very joyful (even though he was at times tired, moody, testy, even prejudiced—like all of us). Jesus spends much of John’s sixteenth chapter talking about joy. Here’s what he said: Joy grows from grief. Joy cannot be taken away by anybody. If we ask for anything in Jesus’ name, our joy will be complete. Finally, Jesus takes joy in us.

So what is this great feeling Jesus wants to share with us? It sounds a lot like happiness with deeper roots and a spiritual component. Joy is that feeling of the divine spirit deep in our being, deeper than any surface emotion we may be feeling. I could be deep in the throes of grief or anger or frustration and still have joy in my heart. Joy is a deep gratitude for our creation and for the creation of this beautiful and painful world in which we live. Joy is a sense of fulfillment gained from pursuing meaning in our relationship with God, not happiness in our relationship with things.

Happiness is fleeting, but joy lasts because joy takes cultivation. The more we delve the soil of the dark (and light) places of our heart, the more we will find God and God’s gift of grace dwelling in us. God created us, God takes delight in God’s creation, and we can share in that divine delight.

So, I will continue to try to cultivate joy within myself. Until then, I will be laughing while eating salad.

More information about this position can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/CHTDirectorofFamilyMinistry

To apply for this position send resume, cover letter and references to: applications@htrit.org

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