HTBlog
Third Tuesday of the month, 7:00 - 8:15pm
Each month we ask you to read an article or book excerpt which will explore a spirituality-related theme. The Zoom gatherings will include conversation in large and small groups, and will conclude with Compline (Prayer at the Close of the Day).
For group continuity, we ask you to sign up for these four dates: January 19, February 16, March 16, April 20
On the day of your baptism, God said “yes” to you. You are wanted, loved, forgiven and chosen to live among God’s faithful people with grace and purpose. On each person’s baptism day, God’s people gather to add their “yes!” to God’s “yes!” for the newly baptized. As baptized Christians participating in another’s baptism during worship, we promise to receive them as wanted, loved, forgiven, and chosen people.
And we make promises to be in relationship together with God’s people as they develop in Christian faith and life.
The pandemic has for now suspended our usual collection and mailing of used books to several prisons and personal visits to the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center for Women in Aurora IL: visits which have included resume and job interview seminars conducted by Ryan LaHurd and hygiene kits donated and delivered by Patrice Macken.
In February, then Holy Trinity Seminarian Sarah Krolak started her ministry project at HTLoop. In a variety of different interactive formats, she collected stories from the community about the things that matter to us and how we see God in the world. She then used those stories to write this offertory song! And since it can't be sung in person (yet!), she recorded it! This morning the song was debuted in Holy Trinity’s online worship.
There are many losses that I grieve in not being together in person for the multisensory liturgy that we treasure. At the same time, these next months and years will be an opportunity for us to see our homes as a locus of ritual and spirituality. I envy Jews for the rich ritual experience centered in their homes: Passover seders, lighting Chanukah candles, and of course, the weekly Shabbat meal that ushers in the Sabbath. Throughout the day faithful Jews recite blessings, connecting faith and their everyday lives.
Holy Trinity has been involved with ONE: Northside (ONS) and its predecessor organization, the Lakeview Action Coalition, since the mid-to-late 1990s. Our involvement over the years has been to work for fair housing, police accountability, healthcare access, and the like. Currently, we are being asked to join our partnership on educating people on the Fair Tax. Over the course of the next few weeks as we move closer to the November election we'll be providing opportunities for you to learn more about the implications of the Fair Tax for us and all Illinoisans. Over the last two months we, Kerry Fleming and Ken Duckmann, have had presentations to our congregation council. Currently, the plan is to provide a workshop on Sunday, September 27 after the 9:30am service, via Zoom. Stay tuned for further details.
Set a table as if you were hosting a special guest, which in this case is the Risen Christ. Put out a tablecloth or piece of fabric. Choose a small plate and a wine glass or cup. Light a candle. Place other sacred items on the table such as a bible, icon, or flowers.
BREAD. One option is to purchase a small baguette or dinner roll. Or consider baking bread, which is a holy experience in and of itself. Though any recipe for bread is fine (even without yeast), you may want to make the Holy Trinity communion bread recipe, perhaps making half of the recipe. You could freeze some of the loaves for future services.
WINE/JUICE. You may use a bottle of wine and drink the rest of it over the next few days. Some wineries (such as Sutter Home) make small 187 ml bottles. Grape juice (or another kind of juice) is fine, too.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began and we closed the building at HTLakeview and ceased all in-person events we paused the composting service for a variety of reasons. Even though it isn’t yet safe for us to gather together in large groups in our buildings, things are opening up in the state of Illinois, people are getting around the city for medical appointments and errands, and HTLC staff are more frequently working in the building, so we have now resumed our composting service with biweekly instead of weekly pickup.
June 24 is a summer festival! June 24 is the feast commemorating the birth of John the Baptist. The feast brings together images of sun, solstice, and midsummer. According to Luke's gospel, John was six months older than Jesus, so this festival is exactly six months before December 24. The nativity of John was established very early in the church's history, about the same time as Christmas.
While the stay-at-home/social distancing order continues, I gently invite us all into our own interiority via our nightly dreams. Our busy outside life is quieter and our inner awareness has space to beckon us more clearly. Interest in dreams during the pandemic has increased greatly, attesting to what we are all experiencing.
Volunteers Needed: Since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the city, visitors to Lakeview Pantry, Chicago’s largest food pantry, including all of the Pantry’s food programs (physical sites, Online Market and Home Delivery) have increased by over 80%. To help keep up with demand, and offer a safe space for volunteers to help sort and pack food, the Pantry will be setting up and managing a temporary satellite food distribution center on the main concourse at Wrigley Field. They are in need of more volunteers to meet demand, visit lakeviewpantry.org/volunteer/ to learn more and sign up. Can’t volunteer? Consider making a donation to help those in need.
One warm summer day in the 1950s, when I was about four years old, our family drove the 25 miles from our small East Tennessee town to shop at the Sears Roebuck store in Knoxville. My most vivid memory from that “big city” excursion was seeing the two drinking fountains in Sears: a refrigerated one with a big “whites only” sign and a smaller, non-refrigerated bubbler labeled “coloreds.” I am grateful for my parents’ efforts so many years ago to help their very young child comprehend this injustice.
During these days of COVID-19 (coronavirus) concerns, there are several best practices that we can undertake to protect each other, especially the most vulnerable among us, from illness as much as possible:
Come to church as long as you are free of symptoms and have not been in conscious contact with persons and places of known exposure to the virus. If you are sick, please stay home from worship. This is a practice of “thinking beyond ourselves” and caring for all members of our community, particularly the most vulnerable. More and more we are offering livestreaming of services and sermons and service recordings are posted on Mondays.
Wash your hands often. Soap and water are your best defense. Wash your hands long enough to say the Lord’s Prayer. Hand sanitizer is always available for your use before receiving communion. Your pastors will wash their hands immediately before communion and those who administer the wine will use hand sanitizer before receiving the cup.
Consider a no-touch sharing of the peace. A simple bow is a wonderful no-touch way to recognize the presence of God in each other at the peace. It is always a best practice to ask before touching one another during the peace at any time (read more about consent culture in the church here).
Drinking from the common cup is the most sanitary way to receive the wine at communion. Intinction (dipping the bread in the wine) is discouraged. AT HTLOOP, because we don’t have separate cups for common cup and intinction, we ask you to REFRAIN FROM INTICTION and either drink from the common cup or receive only the bread. Receiving the bread or gluten-free wafer alone is a full and complete reception of communion.
This Lent season we are happy to be offering the devotional, Living Well Through Lent 2020: Practicing Courage With All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind. The devotional includes reflections from: The Very Rev. Dominic Barrington, The Rev. Theodora Nmade Brooks, The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Anna Fitch Courie, The Rev. Jenifer Gamber, The Rev. Heidi Haverkamp, The Rev. Jan Kwiatkowski, The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman, and The Rev. Dr. Scott Stoner.
