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Justice and Outreach Council (JOC)
Monthly Digest
December 2023
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Justice and Outreach Council Newsletter—Share what you have been given. | |
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We share in the Santa Barbara Community
thanks to your generosity.
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JOC Justice and Outreach Action Circles represent the parish by distributing over $45,000 in contributions in our local community at the end of 2023. Specific organizations and amounts will be reported in our January Digest.
We invite you to join us in the Justice and Outreach Action Circles. Our goal is to engage more of you in the outreach and blessings of this work. Speak to us about your particular interest.
Basic Needs (Housing, Food, Homelessness)
Gun Violence Prevention
Climate Change and the Environment
Education and Harding School
Immigration
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Transition House Meal Preparation for December
You can experience a traditional Trinity volunteer activity and serve a meal at Transition House (425 E Cota St) for approximately 60 residents on the 4th Saturday of the month. Help is needed on December 23rd. Contact Teresa Pietsch teresapietsch4@gmail.com for more details or check the online sign-up for how to get involved.
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Dinner in Alameda Park
Trinity will prepare dinner and serve it in the park again on December 28. Join us just once, with an indoor or outdoor task, for this community experience. Check the online sign-up for volunteer opportunities or email Sarah Thomas, sthomas@trinitysb.org.
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Alternative Christmas Market
Thank you to everyone who "justice shopped" on December 3 and made the Alternative Christmas Market a success.
Thanks to our Trinity Youth for representing the following: Heifer International, American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), World Dance for Humanity, and many other worthy programs.
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Our holiday gift drive for PATH involves Trinity gifting wrapped blankets and $10 Amazon gift cards for the residents at the PATH shelter. Please bring your gifts to Trinity by December 15 during business hours.
On December 21st, parishioners are invited to help distribute the gifts at PATH’s winter holiday celebration.
PATH Santa Barbara operates a 100 bed interim shelter. PATH offers housing, outreach, and employment services. Volunteers and donors are critical for success. Please consider getting involved with PATH to end homelessness in Santa Barbara. Contact Gabriella Rigonati, PATH's Community Affairs Coordinator: gabriellar@epath.org.
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Freedom Warming Center Season
Casseroles and Volunteers Welcomed
If the weather is cold or rainy, Trinity will be activated to provide overnight shelter. To remain prepared for the season, Trinity has aluminum pans available. Please consider making a casserole for the freezer. Frozen purchased casseroles are also welcome. If you'd like to participate in this year's Warming Center volunteer team, please contact Mary Ann Paxton at 805-965-7419 or at office@trinitysb.org. For an explanation of this program, visit Trinity's outreach page.
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Care Bag for our Neighbors
Trinity youth and adults regularly assemble Care Bags to distribute to our neighbors in need. Please help in advance by donating the items that go into these bags. Stop by the table at coffee hour and grab a bag to keep in your car.
22nd Santa Barbara Mission Conference!
Saturday, February 3, 2024 at the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara.
This year the theme is Engage and the conference will drive people to act. Keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Robert Chao Romero will lead our conversation along with breakout session speakers. Come ready to take a deep dive into Godly solutions to societal issues. Follow the link below to register now! Registration 2024 — Santa Barbara Mission Conference (sbmissionconference.org)
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All in the diocese are invited to join the historic Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Lincoln Heights, in celebrating the congregation’s January 6 feast day and sharing in a strategic immigration justice forum. Well known as a hub used by activists Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in organizing the United Farmworkers union, Church of the Epiphany continues its legacy of civil rights work, a central focus for the Saturday-afternoon immigration forum and related community resource street fair. For more information contact: media@ladiocese.org
Considering Gaza: For what shall I pray?
For what shall I pray? Amid the horror of the Gaza war, every time I read or hear the news, especially about the injury or death of noncombatants, whenever anger or sadness overtake me, I say to myself: What do I ask of my God in Christ right now? I pray for peace, of course. An end to the war, obviously. That all violence will cease, naturally. But these things don’t happen when people driven by ambition or rage pick up arms...
Read more here diocesela.org.
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Celebrate and Support Justice | |
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A season to celebrate loved ones by using the envelopes in the pews to recognize a special family member or event.
Turn your memories 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.
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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. 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. Or 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 to our celebration donors for November!
Anonymous, Jeannie Christensen, Jean and David Davis, Sarah Fenstermaker,
John and Barbara Larson, Ralph and Becca Lowi, Norma and Glenn Stuck,
Ellen and Justin Whittet
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Land Acknowledgement
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.
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