Dear Family and Friends of Trinity Everett,

Transcription

1

2 Dear Family and Friends of Trinity Everett, Easter Greetings to you! I hope that you re Easter Day will hold much joy and refreshment for you. I also hope that you will have time during the coming fifty days of the Easter Season to spend time with those you love, to enjoy activities with good friends and to rest well, in the assurance that God your Creator has done all things through Christ, so that your joy may be complete. Holy Week is always such a blessed yet busy time for those whose labors go towards putting the special in our special services at this time of year. I would like to extend my particular thanks to the members of St. Mary s Altar Guild and the conscientious leadership of Nancy Stengele. I saw several members of the altar guild team every day, and I know how blessed we are by the faithful dedication of its members. Your contribution and role during our Holy Week and Easter services is as vital to the life of our community as the Holy Spirit, for surely, in many ways your ministry reveals the oft overlooked creative presence of God that is always with us as faithful care, nurture and inspiration. My thanks also go to our many music program participants, whose hours of rehearsal time have yielded some of the most powerful music of our liturgical year. From child soloists (Wolfgang, you were amazing on Maundy Thursday!), adult and children s choirs, bell choir, and instrumentalists, our Holy Week and Easter were formed as much by notes in a score as by God s word in the Gospel and that is precisely the worship we are to give to God through the talents given by him. I am grateful for David Spring s leadership and choral direction, for Heidi Napolitino s direction of the adult bell choir and for Bonnie Beth Derby s mentoring and direction of our children s bell choir. In addition to our music ministers, my thanks also go to the ushers, greeters, readers, our verger, acolytes and Eucharistic ministers who came early and stayed late in order to participate in this week s many services. For the first time ever, we had acolytes participating in the Great Triduum services; their presence and contribution help shape the spirit of us all. Thank you! Finally, as some of you who interact with the church office regularly may be aware, our Parish Administrator, Kelly DiCicco, has been out of town for the past three weeks while attending a critical family emergency. Our collective love and prayers have been with him, and you should know that there has been no one as supportive of Kelly s needful absence as Dianne McCormack. Over the past three weeks, Dianne has stepped up and into the responsibilities of office role with an authentic desire to be of service to all of us. She has finalized and printed all the bulletins for all of our Holy Week and Easter services, provided vital leadership to the office during the busiest week of our church year, and she has maintained both fortitude and patience in the face of the many demands placed upon her. I am deeply grateful for her skills, understanding and support, and I hope that you will join me in thanking her when next you see her. May the Peace and Blessing of the Risen Lord be yours on this precious Easter Day, and may you always find joy abundantly within the New Life that is our Lord, Brother and Friend Jesus Christ. Sincerely, Pastor Rachel+

3 Click Here To View Video

4 And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in: This is, as you probably know, part of the post communion prayer that we recite each service. It has a great deal of meaning for me because I do believe that God prepares us for service and without that preparation we aren t as successful at whatever it is we are trying to do. Of course we need to choose to do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in. I feel that I know whether or not I have been prepared for a given task or challenge and many parts of my life have been in preparation for other parts of life I am sure. Interpreting life in this way only comes from having a relationship with God, through Christ in his grace, and this is only possible because of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. I give thanks to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for this. Have a blessed Easter and may God s grace assist you to do all such good works as you have been prepared for. In your service, Bob

5 An Easter Memory from the Jr. Warden: Easter Sunday, Mel with her two children, Leslie (5) and Christopher (3) EASTER for my family and I always revolved around church, family dinners and Easter festivities. As a family, we attended Sunrise Service, enjoyed Easter breakfast and attended the 10 a.m. service at our beautiful Episcopal church in Birmingham, AL. Then it was off to the home of friends for the afternoon - enjoying the day in the yard (we lived in Alabama - typically sunny and warm); sharing in a lovely dinner and then, seemingly from nowhere (but I think from the back bedroom), the Easter Bunny appeared and chaos in the backyard prevailed. May we remember the message of this holy period -- that we all share in the new life of our risen Lord. Gods Peace, Mel.

6 Once again, I am grateful to be part of a worshipping community who collectively understand and support the essential role of quality music in worship. Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul. (Author unknown.) Musical offerings this week vary from Taizè chant, to acapella choral music, a chorus from Handel s Messiah, Barber s Adagio for Strings (Good Friday), chants ancient and new (with flugelhorn) at the Great Vigil of Easter (Satutrday night.) There will be full brass, percussion, and bells, with adult and children s choirs for *both services on Easter Sunday. (Children will sing only at the 10:00.) The Trinity Parish Choir and Brass will present a special festival anthem, one of the most famous in all of Anglican church music, Ralph Vaughan Williams O Clap Your Hands. Please join us to celebrate the gift of Resurrection and God s promise to each of us. O, clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises, every one that hath understanding. God reigneth over the heathen, God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. Sing praises unto our King. Sing praises. (Psalm 47) Heidi, Bonnie Beth, John Heberling Ruth Madden Parents of Junior Choir

7 Dear Trinity Friends, In my childhood, a homemade breakfast pastry featuring apricots, Easter dinner and dressing up were my favorite parts of Easter, In adulthood, I enjoyed making my son s celebration special. One year he won a prize at the park district egg hunt! In late adulthood, I am grateful for the opportunities that four days of services, reflection and meditation on Mary s great Loss offers because by now, I have suffered many losses and disappointments. So the wonderful hope of the resurrection and God s promises fulfilled is the celebration for me. May you all have a happy Easter and may the Resurrection have real meaning for you. Sincerely, Leah Timberlake Director of Christian Formation 2016