Easter 2021: Things Which Were Cast Down, Are Being Raised Up

 

Dear Trinity Church and friends,

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

 

Grace and Peace and Resurrection greetings! I hope this message finds you and yours staying safe and well.

 

I give thanks to God for the engaging worship that enriched our Holy Week, and I pray you found the experiences meaningful. In steps measured by our commitment to keep one another safe, we continued our procession back to Copley Square with in-person, outdoor events on both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Between those West Porch moments, we shared creative liturgies leveraging the best of the “From Home” format – a deliberate pandemic strategy we have preferred to attempting mere re-creations of our customary services. Thereby, we cooked and suppered together on Maundy Thursday; we prayed the Good Friday Passion entirely in song; and, on Easter afternoon, we walked with the disciples and Jesus on our way to Emmaus.  In this way, we have learned new skills and shared new experiences that I trust God will use in unexpected, enlivening ways when the pandemic finally recedes.

 

In the weeks ahead, we will continue our in-person procession and our innovative digital engagements.

 

Register now for Eastertide “Touching Home”

To celebrate this spring season of Resurrection, we invite you to our next round of “Touching Home” pilgrimages on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, beginning April 14. During these visits, parishioners can make a scheduled visit to the church, pray our sacred space, and receive Communion for home.  Sign up is easy, and can be accomplished here.

 

Scheduling Baptisms, Weddings, and Funerals

As foreshadowed in my Annual Parish Address, our first indoor services will also take place on days other than Sunday, and we will focus these initial opportunities on those whose baptisms, weddings, and funerals have been postponed by the pandemic. We have kept careful track of those known to us to have been impacted, and, in the next week, we will be reaching out to those affected about scheduling for May and June. When the time comes, the constraints for these small-group services will be informed by the state of the pandemic in Boston and the Commonwealth, the recommendations of engineers expert in the virus’ transmission, and our Regathering Task Force. So that our outreach may be as complete as possible, I invite all who have had one of these services delayed to email the Director of the Rector’s Office, Alison Poor.

 

Adult Formation Continues at 7 pm on Spring Sundays

Between now and summer, our formation opportunities continue. Beginning this Sunday, April 11, our Adult Forum will return to 7 pm and we will explore the theme “Into The Acts: The After-Easter Lives of the First Disciples.” Together, we will study the very beginnings of Christian identity through a close look at scripture and art.

 

ABBS: Space, Sound, and now Spirit, with the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows

Finally, please mark your calendars for Sunday, May 16, for the third and final installment of our Anne Berry Bonnyman Symposium Forums. Organized annually, the ABBS invites Trinity Church and our Boston community into deeper understanding of systemic racism and its impacts.  At 7 pm on May 16, we will welcome the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows for a discussion of “Spirit,” as we experience its movement in our liturgy and sacraments.

 

A native of New York City, Bishop Baskerville-Burrows serves as the Bishop of Indianapolis – the first African-American woman elected to serve as a bishop-diocesan in The Episcopal Church.  Holding a bachelor’s degree in architecture with a minor in urban studies from Smith College, an M.A. in historic preservation planning from Cornell University, and an M.Div. degree from Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in 1997, she will bring to us and the ABBS her expertise in the historic preservation of religious buildings, stewardship and development, race and class reconciliation, and spiritual direction.

 

In all the above, I hope you will take heart in everything ahead of us – as a parish and as a world.  This pandemic crucible has touched and tested every micron of our being, yet God has been with us in every endeavor, every struggle, and – now – in every promise of our fellowship’s fullest return.  As we look forward to the glad time, I invite you to pray with me this powerful collect from Good Friday:

 

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 

The Lord is risen, indeed.  Alleluia!

 

Easter blessings,

The Rev. Morgan S. Allen

Rector