My friends, we need to stay connected to one another, and we need to become better connected to our Diocese. We are in for a long journey towards the repair and renovation of our building, so we must strengthen the communal support the building once provided.

So please make every effort to be present at worship every Sunday. Vacations and sick leave of course are understood. But it's really important that we remain vital, engaged, and that we give evidence of that by the attendance numbers. Those numbers are important to our parochial report, which goes to the Diocese and the National Church. They are evidence of our strength and resilience. Those numbers are also important to us. They build and maintain morale. Attendance inspires attendance. We have been blessed with visitors recently, and any visitor always makes judgments about whether they return based on the liveliness, friendliness, and number of people present.

Also, if in the future, we seek grants to help with the restoration of our building, many (if not most) of the grant requirements will include narrative and statistical evidence of our stability and vitality. We will need to provide numbers that show strong and growing attendance when we seek the generosity of granting institutions.

I want to reaffirm, though, how proud I have been of your attendance, your participation, your care, and your enthusiasm for the process that awaits us. You have been doing so well, and worship has been lovely and engaging, and we have had opportunities to make our church better known in the community around us. So we just need to keep and increase that momentum as we move through the even more challenging process ahead of us.

It's not easy to maintain energy over a long journey. We need to support each other and we need the support and care of our diocesan siblings in faith. It's good to know other Episcopalians around us, and to be able to count on their prayers for us. To that end, I encourage each of you to go to Gather 24 on May 4 in Scranton. It will be a day-long event for lay people, and it offers a lot of wonderful, interesting workshops to help you grow in your faith and expand your leadership capacity. We all need to be leaders now. As much as possible. So look below, follow the link, and attend Gather 24. We can carpool if possible, AND, I will pay the attendance fee for anyone who wants to go. Just let me know, and I will register you.

Friends, we are going to go the distance together on this! Let's do everything we can to be stronger at the end than when we began. Because that "ending" will be a new beginning. Let's get ready for it!

Blessings,

Be with us Sunday to worship and then to catch up on all the new information about our building restoration. As Ken has mentioned at previous meetings, and I have mentioned in worship, two teams are being convened to address two aspects in moving forward. Those teams are the Trinity Restoration Team and the Trinity Congregational Engagement Team.

The Restoration team will soon be seeking your input about the repair/renovation of the church building. This will be a great opportunity for everyone to offer their ideas, dreams, objectives for how the building might become better suited to our mission and our future. Stay tuned to how you may respond. There will be several ways of submitting your ideas that you may choose from.

It's for you, after all, lay people of our church. A great time to get to know other lay people in the Diocese and a great way to tap into your own interests and creativity. God is calling YOU to become a leader at Trinity Church. This event will help! To register, click here. See Pam for financial assistance!

Trinity's Sunday worship services take place at 8:30 a.m. at Christ UCC.

Limited parking may be available in Trinity's parking lot. You may also park in the James Funeral Home parking lot, 527 Center Street, right next door to Christ UCC. Otherwise, please park on the street.

We are so grateful to Christ UCC for their generosity and flexibility in helping us in our time of need.

Please do not hesitate to send your pledges and gifts to the church via snail mail (USPS). We have made arrangements with the Post Office to pick up all mail, so when you address anything to Trinity Church, it will be received!

You may also send gifts and offerings via Pay-Pay. Click here to pay online at our website.

We are making plans to return to livestreaming at Trinity Episcopal Church in the near future.

As soon as we have this on the calendar, we will let you know!

Sermons may be listened to via audio. The last one recorded was Christmas Eve Service, December25. These sermons were recorded and available on the website.

Gretchen Tarby, April 1

Ann Thompson, April 4

Suzanne Boundy, April 6

Barbara Kearns, April 6

Bill Vitalos, April 7

Flex Illick, April 8

Michelle Mills, April 18

Aliana Roman, April 19

Sara Phillips King, April 22

Tom Molinaro, April 24

Joanne and David Gulya, April 15

Maryann and Amedeo DiEdwardo, April 22

Charmaine and Christopher Roman, April 23