Dear Ones,

I am delighted to share with you that Trinity has called a new Associate Rector for Children's and Youth Ministries, the Rev. Sabrina LaBelle . She officially begins her new role on August 15 and will join us by Zoom for worship on Sunday, August 16.

Moved in part by a desire to be closer to her New Jersey family, Pastor Sabrina is coming to Swarthmore with her husband and young children to take up two positions. In addition to serving the Trinity community, she begins at Swarthmore College on Aug. 1 as the new Protestant Christian Advisor. This means she will have a set of responsibilities and relationship with Trinity much like the Rev. Joyce Tompkins had. However, the roles at the College and with Trinity will not be precisely the same as with Rev. Joyce. We will need to leave room for Pastor Sabrina to be her own person as well as for me to work with her in refining the role according to her unique gifts and abilities. On that note, I should mention that she is a highly capable person and pastor, and I am eager to have her join us. Her bio is now posted on our website, and a direct link to the page can be found here .

I want to thank especially two groups. The first is the Children and Youth Committee, who not only critically discerned the staffing need, but also gave many hours to the search process. The second is your vestry, which voted the funding for this call at a time when it would have been easy to retreat in fear. I hope you will join me in expressing gratitude to them. I also want to thank each of you who have contributed to the finances of Trinity Church. Your support was also critical in making this decision possible. There will be more work to do on that front in 2021, but with support thus far, we were ready to take this step.

So, thanks to those closely involved, thanks to all of you, and thanks be to God! This is an answer to prayer. Let us now keep the LaBelle family in our prayers as they make their way to Swarthmore and enter upon this new chapter of their lives.

Yours in Christ, with love,
Ted+

The Rev. Dr. Edward E. Thompson, Rector