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Justice and Outreach Council

Monthly Digest

December 2022

Welcome to the Justice and Outreach Council (JOC)'s monthly newsletter.

A place to find all the happenings of this active ministry at Trinity.

Alternative Christmas Market

Thank you to everyone who "justice shopped" on December 4th and made the Alternative Christmas Market a success.

Trinity raised $8,614 through donations made and gifts purchased at the following booths:

Heifer International, American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), Angels Bearing Gifts, Children of Joy, Unite to Light, World Dance for Humanity, and Trinity children’s crafts.

JOC’s Annual Grant Gifting

Every October and November, JOC discerns where to spend our grants account funds. We will have approximately $32,000 in our grant account to allot to local initiatives. At our October meeting, we voted to fulfill our commitment of $2,000 each for 2 years to St. Mike’s, Sarah House, Harding Elementary School, and Transition House, totaling $8,000, this year and again for next year. We voted to fund $5,000 each to CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy), ILDC (Immigrant Legal Defense Center), and Foodbank of Santa Barbara County for next year. 

At our November meeting, our discussion of the approximate $9,000 in remaining funds was as follows: $4000 will be allocated to the Mental Wellness Center, $2500 to Showers of Blessing, and $2500 to SB Transgender Advocacy Network. 

If we happen to have more funds by the end of the year, we plan to give an additional $1000 to Mental Wellness Center and to divide the remaining amount between Showers of Blessings and SB Transgender Advocacy. These proposals, of course, will be reviewed by the vestry.

Thank you for your generosity in pledges and celebration offerings, which enables these JOC grants to be possible.

Guests welcome at JOC Meetings

We welcomed new JOC members Kaye Cantù and Helene Gardner to our November meeting. We are blessed that they’ve chosen to join us. Our guests were Libby Patberg, Ann Robinson, and John Draper. Come and visit a monthly meeting (the third Monday at 6pm) and consider joining the council. Contact Jeffrey Krutzsch at: jskrutsch@gmail.com for more information.

Border Compassion

Opportunity to Love our Neighbors

The Border Project, under the umbrella of Interfaith Sanctuary Alliance, is a group which gathers contributions for La Cobina Posada shelter in Mexicali, Mexico. The shelter houses approximately 400 immigrants awaiting asylum in the United States and protects them from living in tent cities which are rife with cartel activity, kidnapping, theft, and human trafficking. The residents are parents with children.

JOC is fundraising to cover the cost of the English teacher, school supplies, internet access, and one event per month. The English classes ensure greater success for the refugees once they cross the border to the US. The expenses come to $11,000 for the year of 2023, and we hope to raise this by January 1, 2023. Please join us in supporting this important work as we are called to love our neighbors. Time is of the essence! Here are more reasons to support this worthy project:

• Building a Child, Building an Economy: We learned from our first experience that donating cash instead of goods supports families as well as the local economy.

• Linking local neighbors to help distant neighbors: Trinity, The Unitarian Society, the Church of the Beatitudes, and youth groups at Trinity and UCSB have collaborated to support this border project.

• Respect and empowerment of project managers: Sister Suzanne has the main responsibility for deciding what is needed for the families

Action: If you wish to donate in support of our immigrant neighbors, please send donations to SB ACT and specify "Border Project." or donate online.

Persons interested in crossing the border in January 2023 please contact Laurinda Marshall at laurindax@yahoo.com.

Trinity’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, a New JOC Committee

Trinity's Gun Violence Prevention Task Force was convened in response to two existing realities - one diocesan, one national: 1) the creation and publication by our diocese of the Gun Violence Prevention Tool Kit on the heels of the mass shooting in San Bernadino in 2015; 2) the recent Bruen decision by the Supreme Court. The former calls on all congregations in our diocese to establish local task forces in pursuit of minimizing and responding to gun violence in their respective communities; the latter prompted our response to the Court's limiting if not eliminating States' abilities to legislate open-carry restrictions.

Almost immediately after its first meeting, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force sent letters to Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta congratulating and thanking them upon the passage of two pieces of legislation aimed at making California an even safer community: AB 2552 and SB 1327. At the same time steps were taken to locate and contact parishes and persons in the Los Angeles diocese who have been continuously active in the issue of gun violence prevention to ascertain actions which might prove most effective for Trinity's task force to take.

The results of these steps are pending.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Johnson

For more information on the Task Force, contact Ken Johnson at 41omaha73@gmail.com. Please enter TASK FORCE INFO In the Subject line.

Santa Barbara Feeding Ministries

Transition House. A large crew prepared and served dinner on November 28. Volunteers were Kathleen Dyre, Bruce Eldridge, Heidi Casper, Aubrey Toole, Ann Robinson, and Teresa Pietsch. The green enchiladas, beans, rice, green salad, mixed vegetables and cookies were enjoyed by 65 residents. Please contact Teresa Pietsch at teresapietsch4@gmail.com if you would like to get involved.

Dinner in Alameda Park. We will preparing dinner and serving in the park again on Thursday, December 22. Check the online sign-up for volunteer opportunities or email Sarah Thomas, sthomas@trinitysb.org. Trinity's next dinner will be on January 26.

Warming Center Casseroles Needed Again in the New Year. Thank you to the many parishioners and friends who helped with the December 1st activation of the Warming Center at Trinity. We will need a few more casseroles for the freezer. Our next chance to be activated to serve dinner and host an overnight stay in the Parish Hall is the week of January 15. If you'd like to participate with the Warming Center volunteer team, please contact Mary Ann Paxton in the church office at 805-965-7419 or office@trinitysb.org. 

PATH Holiday Dinner: Volunteers Needed

Wednesday, December 21

PATH's holiday dinner will be their big event of the season. A team is in place to hand out all the presents. They are in need of 4-6 volunteers to serve dinner, arriving at 5pm and helping till 7:30pm with set-up, last minute food prep, serving dinner, and clean-up. Not all volunteers will be needed on the food line, some will be needed in the back of the kitchen.

Support is needed throughout the holiday season with dinner meals. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact:

John "JB" Bowlin, Associate Director of Philanthropy & Community Affairs at PATH Santa Barbara, (805) 979-8710, JohnB@epath.org.

Adopt a Resident at WillBridge

It's not too late to support WillBridge's Adopt-a-Resident program. WillBridge has five residences housing 37 individuals that transitioned from homelessness with mental health challenges.

Your gift of $25 will bring a smile to someone's face and fill the home with laughter this holiday season. See the flyer and donate here.

PFLAG Connects: Virtual Support Meetings

PFLAG meets online every month, on the second Monday. Meetings are run by trusted PFLAG Santa Barbara leaders, exploring topics relevant to the LGBTQ+ community, followed by sharing and support. Visit the website for registration information.

Next Meeting: January 9 at 7pm on Zoom

2023 Homeless Point-in Time Count Wednesday, January 25, 5:30-8:30am

Volunteers needed to help obtain a snapshot census of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County on a single night. To volunteer, sign up by January 19. For more information visit the recent Noozhawk article.

Every month we publish a story of justice, ministry and volunteerism from a Trinity parishioner. This month we feature one of our long-time Trinity members, Terre Sanitate. We hope you will be inspired by her actions over the years and interested to learn some of Trinity’s history.

I can only calculate how many years I've been at Trinity by asking Carrie Brothers how old Isaiah is now. She was pregnant on the day I arrived 25 years ago. (What will I do now?)

All Saints was my home for 8 years. I did all the social justice activities and religious studies available. Keep reading to learn more about Terre's time here at Trinity.

The Sonder, a Documentary about Homelessness in Santa Barbara

In November, Jeff Shaffer, our colleague serving those without homes and co-founder of SBACT, led an early morning State Street walk to acquaint us with the needs of our neighbors and created this documentary. In just 22 minutes, it captures solutions to homelessness in SB. 

This is a main reason that JOC has nominated Mental Wellness Center to receive to receive a Trinity SB donation in 2023. We at JOC urge you to take a reality check on our community needs and watch this revealing documentary.

Look for the blue celebration envelopes in the pews!

CELEBRATE!...a birthday, an anniversary, a special event of any sort for which you are thankful.

Turn your “celebration” into a donation to the Justice and Outreach Council. We will use these funds to provide comfort and safety to those in need—food, education for children, assistance to immigrants—any of our neighbors needing support . . . so they can celebrate. Together, these gifts make possible our community of welcome, reconciliation and service.

We thank Barbara and John Larson, Alice Noble, Julia Hayes-Nadler, Jeannie Christensen, and Sarah Fenstermaker for their generosity in November.

The Justice and Outreach Council (JOC) continues its important work in our community and beyond. Funding for the JOC comes from your pledges and Celebration offerings. The JOC’s funding is part of our annual operating budget where five percent (5%) of all pledges received during the year is put in the JOC account. As pledge income has remained steady this year, these funds continue to be set aside for justice work.

There are two ways you can continue to celebrate and support our justice work in addition to your pledges both now and in the future. You can send in a check made out to Trinity and simply note “Justice” in the memo line and provide the names of the persons or occasion you want to celebrate. You can also donate via Trinity’s PayPal account, select "Justice Fund" and under “special instructions” provide the names of the persons or occasion you want to celebrate.

Thank you for supporting our justice work through your pledges, donations, prayers, and most of all, the work you do in your lives to make this a more loving, peaceful, and just world.

Kathryn Dean, JOC

Michael Dean, Treasurer

Land Acknowledgement

The JOC committee devised this Land Acknowledgment statement to be read before meetings at Trinity.

We honor and acknowledge the Chumash people, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to the Chumash elders, past, present, and future, who call this land on which we sit their home. We appreciate their wisdom, their culture, and their presence among us today as the host people of this land. We lament the injustices done to the original inhabitants and the injustices done to this land in the centuries since. We seek the courage and wisdom to heal the wounds of the past and build a better future together, in deep solidarity.

1500 State St, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101 | 805-965-7419 | office@trinitysb.org