A MESSAGE FROM THE PASTOR
NOVEMBER 2024
TRINITY U.C.C. VISION STATEMENT:
All will know the love of God through the teaching of Jesus!!
Trinity U.C.C. is called by
God to:
–Share God’s love with our
community
–Serve God’s children
–Bring healing and
wholeness to those in need
–Share the Gospel in
liturgy, music and study
God to:
–Share God’s love with our
community
–Serve God’s children
–Bring healing and
wholeness to those in need
–Share the Gospel in
liturgy, music and study
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
(Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, & 4)
(Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, & 4)
Catch the Vision,
Share the Joy!!
Dear Friends,
On November 3, will remember the members and friends of Trinity Church who have died since last November. As I read the names during the worship services, we pause to give thanks to God for the gift of each person and for the many ways they enriched our lives. As a pastor, it is always emotional to read the names of the parishioners I buried over the last year. I am always grateful for their Christian witness and for their involvement in the life of Trinity Church!
Earlier this year, I formed a small group to look at various types of grief. We discussed how death is just one aspect of grief. We grieve when we change jobs, move from one home to another, lose a friendship or other relationship, and when we experience any changes in life. The group read Praying Our Goodbyes: A Spiritual Companion Through Life’s Losses and Sorrows by Joyce Rupp. She focused on how we can say goodbye to the things in life that have given us meaning and purpose. Saying goodbye to these precious things allows us to say hello to a new beginning.
I want to share with you one of the poems that Joyce Rupp wrote in this book:
The trees grow more restless:
October wind weaves through them;
They shake their arms in dismay
As if to fight the coming cold
And the grief of leaves going.
The trees grow more restless:
October wind weaves through them;
They shake their arms in dismay
As if to fight the coming cold
And the grief of leaves going.
Autumn air does a heart-dance
On branches already gone barren;
The misty air clings to golden leaves.
Making the trees bend even lower.
On branches already gone barren;
The misty air clings to golden leaves.
Making the trees bend even lower.
It is a season to hold the trees close.
To stand with them in their grieving.
It is a time to pen my inner being
To the misty truths of my own goodbyes.
To stand with them in their grieving.
It is a time to pen my inner being
To the misty truths of my own goodbyes.
Autumn comes. It always does.
Goodbye comes. It always does.
The trees struggle with this truth today.
And in my deepest of being, so do I.
Goodbye comes. It always does.
The trees struggle with this truth today.
And in my deepest of being, so do I.
Every autumn, nostalgia fills me:
Every autumn, yearning holds me.
I cling to the ripeness of summer,
Knowing it will be many long months
Before I can catch a breath of lilac,
Or the green of freshly mown grass.
Every autumn, yearning holds me.
I cling to the ripeness of summer,
Knowing it will be many long months
Before I can catch a breath of lilac,
Or the green of freshly mown grass.
And so I begin my fallow vigil.
Remembering the truth of the ages:
Unless the wheat seed dies
It cannot sing a new birth.
Unless summer gives in to autumn
Springtime will never embrace me.
Blessings,
Pastor Chris
EOV
