March 28, 2024: Council Updates

As a church we have walked along the Lenten way together through worship, study, and the breaking of bread together during our soup suppers. We are in the midst of Holy Week, a time that stirs up who we are, who we think we are, and whose we are. I am grateful this stirring is happening in a community…our community of Holy Trinity. May we always welcome more to this pot of the Lord’s making.

There are a few Council updates to be shared with you (not in any particular order):

• We are reviewing our Constitution and Bylaws as updated by Russ Hilliard, Judy Evans, and Mark Beliveau. Our goal is to have this ready by the Mid-Year meeting in June.
• The financial audit is in the process of being completed by Tim Althof.
• Our insurance review is being worked on by Dave Smith.
• Thus far no one has inquired about our Music Director position. We have posted the job description at various music educational schools and music organizations. Please continue to pray about this and directly talk with people you may know who are gifted in this area. Thank you all for supporting the ministry of Holy Trinity!

Peace,

Erlinde

March 2024: Life Together in Christian Community

I have been at the church often in the last month for meetings and completing various tasks. Whenever I am there, I come across someone doing a task to maintain or move the church forward. Some tasks are big and some are small. I also realize many others are completing tasks from their home or by visiting members or making phone calls or writing emails. The strings of our “Christ’s web” reach out to many places. To witness this is humbling and powerful.

I have found Bonhoeffer’s book, Life Together to be a reality check for myself, particularly chapter one on “Community”. I appreciate when I am given “an uplifting experience of genuine Christian community” (page 39). However, as Bonhoeffer points out we do not live in Christian community for these experiences. We live and work together by our faith that we have been given, not what we humanly experience. My reality check is to ask myself, “Who am I doing this for?” I can easily get caught up with the humanness of my role...the list of things to do and people to talk to. This reality check may not change the list BUT it does change my perspective, because I am now inviting Christ to be present in all of this.

Nineteen women participated in the Women’s Retreat this past weekend. Yes, it was an uplifting experience…… there was laughter, collegiality, the breaking of bread together, and the beauty of nature surrounded us. There were also stories shared. Stories of women walking in faith. As a wise woman once shared with me, life is like a coin. On one side, the coin tells the stories of all of our joys and on the other side, the coin tells the stories of all of our losses and sorrows. Faith allows us to hold this coin in our precious palms. Life together in Christian community strengthens us to hold each other’s palms through Christ’s presence.

January 18, 2024: Budget Meeting & Annual Meeting

This Sunday, January 21, 2024, we will be holding the annual budget forum as we prepare for the annual meeting scheduled for the next Sunday, January 28. For those of you who are not familiar with this tradition, we introduced this annual session several years back to allow for more discussion time about our planned spending for the upcoming year. The budget forum provides the opportunity for everyone to study the spending plan proposed by the congregation council for the upcoming year, to ask questions, and make suggestions. This session is for discussion only; no motions will be entertained. If you are unable to attend the session in person, you will be able to participate virtually. Please watch for directions describing how to access the meeting on Sunday morning.

The following Sunday, January 28 we will hold our annual meeting. In order to conduct business at the meeting, we must have a quorum of members who sign in and are present. Only members of Holy Trinity are eligible to vote. Several motions related to the budget along with a vote to accept new council members will be held at the meeting. If you are unable to attend the annual meting in person, you will be able to attend and vote virtually. Please watch for directions describing how to access the meeting.

October 26, 2023: Our upcoming retreat at Calumet

It’s been a busy fall for all of us at Holy Trinity. Pastor Luther began his ministry with us in September, we celebrated his installation in early October, and sadly said good bye to several beloved members of the Holy Trinity family in September and October. During that same time, Council members guided by Pastor Luther began to cautiously identify priorities to shape this new ministry. At a recent Adult Forum discussion Pastor Luther shared the basic outline of priorities on which we believe we should focus in these first few months of this new ministry: enhancing worship, family and youth ministry, adult education, caring for others in our congregation, and stewardship and membership. And now, we are taking the next steps. On Friday evening and Saturday, the Council and Pastor Luther will be gathering at Camp Calumet for a retreat intended to develop strategies to make these priorities a reality. We plan to discuss these questions:

• How can we provide ways to enhance our Sunday morning time together to grow our faith, our families, and our community?
• How do we create opportunities for hospitality within the church and for those outside the church?
• What does our vision look like in 6 months? In 12 months?

One day provides only brief amount of time to discuss all the areas we would like to discuss, or answer all the questions that are posed. But it’s a beginning, and we will continue this work for a long time to come. We’ll be writing more about our work in the upcoming Tidings. Please pray for us as we strive to learn God’s pathway for our congregation, that we listen, have compassion, and take bold steps where appropriate.

September 5, 2023: A Letter to the Congregation

Dear Friends, We at Holy Trinity are beginning a new and as yet unknown path to live our faith in a world that knows little stability. Over these past several months since we voted unanimously to call Pastor Luther Zeigler as our permanent Pastor, we have been “dipping our collective toes” into the unknowns of the future. We know that Pastor Luther has been called to lead two congregations with somewhat different polities and traditions: Episcopal and Lutheran. Even though no builder of houses would begin a new project without architectural plans for guidance, it may feel like we are doing just that.

But we share some basic tenets. Lutherans and Episcopalians have walked together more and more closely over the years. We have entered into this process knowing that:

• one of the highlights of our community is a strong shared bond of ministry;
• mutual trust is a critical ingredient;
• the love and support of each partner in ministry is essential; and
• the way we’ve always done things won’t necessarily work in the future.

We will be challenged to find new ways to shape our ministry. We will find new pathways, new relationships, new avenues to share our joy. We also know that the future is an unknown, and that we will need to practice patience and resilience. We are also confident that joy and love await us as we move ahead.

I believe that I would not be able to find any person in 2023 who would tell me that his or her life is unchanged since the pandemic. In fact, in many of our conversations, we still hear phrases like “it used to be” or “before the pandemic we did….”. The notion that our world is spinning rapidly is as true of the church as it is in every other arena of our lives. However, the constant in the story of Holy Trinity is the bedrock of God’s love for us. We are truly blessed to share our faith, love, and trust in the risen Christ with each other and the world around us! Our faith emboldens us to act courageously and walk confidently together into God’s future for us, even when we see change on the horizon.

There is a role for everyone to play in this exciting new ministry model, and we invite each of you to share in a celebration to honor this new era of ministry as Pastor Luther is installed as the pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. This “Celebration of New Ministry” will be held on Sunday, October 1 at 4:00 PM, followed by a reception in our gathering area. We invite you to share in this joyful ceremony.

Sincerely,

Judy Evans,

Holy Trinity Congregation Council President

June 29, 2023: Celebration of New Ministry Date

It was 2 months ago today that we met together following our Sunday worship service, and agreed unanimously to call Pastor Luther Zeigler to be with us, to be our spiritual leader, to take a journey that has yet to be charted, and to “grow” a new ministry. During the coming 2 months which will go by quickly, we will begin to talk about what could be, what might be, and how we can work together to forge a new path. The Worship Team together with Pastor Don and Pastor Luther are planning what may be the first obvious demonstration of this new partnership, the Installation of Pastor Luther as our called minister which is scheduled to take place on October 1 at 4PM. The title for this worship service when we will publicly acknowledge our new path will be “Celebration of New Ministry.” I’m struck by how perfectly those words form a virtual image of this future: exciting, stimulating, a bit intimidating, and both celebratory and new. Several Holy Trinity friends have commented to me about how they are feeling a new and different sense of excitement of what lies ahead. Yes, I totally agree. Beginnings are both exciting and unsettling. Over these next months, we need to look inwardly to ascertain what gifts each of us can bring to share in our new ministry. Do you have the gift of compassion, or teaching, or leadership, or music, or writing, or speaking, or fixing things, or organizing, or cooking, or art, or finance, or planning, or working with young people. All types of gifts are needed to make our vision a reality. Let us all pray that we might know our gifts and find ways to share those gifts with others. As I prepared this message, I was drawn to the words of Julian of Norwich –‘all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well’. I believe it to be true. Please note the date of October 1 on your calendar so you can join the celebration of this new ministry at Holy Trinity.

May 25, 2023: Planning for the Installation of Pastor Luther

Slightly less than a month ago we joined together in voting unanimously to call Pastor Luther Zeigler to be our next pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. This spirit driven decision is leading us to exciting new directions for our ministry. The first Sunday Pastor Luther will be with us in worship in this new role will be September. Shortly after he joins us in the fall, we will all join together in officially acknowledging Pastor Luther’s ministry with us at an installation worship service The installation will formally mark the relationship between Pastor Luther and our congregation. This week, I had the privilege of meeting with the Worship Team to begin to plan some of the aspects of this event. As the weeks go by, we will be asking for volunteers to share in the planning and execution of this event such as joining in musical offerings, helping with invitations, assisting at the worship service, or preparing for a reception. We will publicize the date of the installation as soon as we know so that you can mark your calendar. This event will be symbolic in several ways. Clergy from both the Lutheran and the Episcopal traditions will be participating. We also plan to invite representatives from many seacoast religious groups, as well as representatives from a variety of community organizations with which we share ministry goals. This will be an exciting time to formally acknowledge our ministry partnerships and lay the foundation for future endeavors. We are embarking on an exciting and challenging new pathway in our shared ministry at Holy Trinity, and hope you are able to attend this installation service to mark our pathway. Please continue to pray for Pastor Luther and his wife Pat as they prepare for this new time in their ministry.

Call Committee has recommended a Pastoral Candidate

Dear Holy Trinity Friends,

Over the past months, the Church Council together with the Call Committee have been praying, studying, and discussing how to best prepare for the next chapter of our congregational journey. We are all beginning to understand that we are living in a world that is not the same as our pre-pandemic world. Despite frequent references in the media to “getting back to normal” after the pandemic, we know the normal of years ago will not be returning. We have seen changes in our church, our nation, our world view, our neighborhoods, our work, and our play. Seeking out ways for our church to thrive in this new world that is still evolving is indeed challenging.

We believe we have a plan that will help us to best thrive in this new world, and meet the challenges it poses. Our plan doesn’t look like a “typical” call, but one that we are convinced will provide Holy Trinity with a firm foundation for the future. The Call Committee has unanimously recommended that we call Pastor Luther Zeigler as a part-time, “three season” pastor. We believe most of you will join us in enthusiastically affirming that over the past year Pastor Luther has provided us with spiritual direction and growth to us individually and collectively. The model we are suggesting is having Pastor Luther with us on Sundays and Wednesdays as we have up until now, with additional time to expand his ministry to provide leadership in areas such as faith formation, worship, property use and management, and administration. He will meet regularly with a Mutual Ministry Team to ensure that both his needs and those of the Congregation are continually evaluated and met. Pastor Luther will be continuing his work with the summer congregation in Massachusetts, which includes summer Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Christmas Eve, and Easter services. We will be working to determine how best to maintain our worship schedule at HTELC when Pastor Luther cannot be with us. During the summer of 2023, Pastor Don Larsen will be with us on Sundays and Wednesdays. Next summer, Pastor Luther has said he could be with us for a mid-week eucharist service and work with us to design alternative worship formats.

This is certainly not a “normal” call, nor has it been a “normal” call process but these are not the “normal” times of before. We can say with certainty that the Synod has walked with us on this journey and is supporting this effort 100%. Council and call committee are embracing this venture and believe it will provide an avenue to lead us to a new era of spiritual growth, love and service at Holy Trinity. The specifics of how this arrangement will evolve will change over time. It will require many of us here to become more involved on Committees and Teams. Pastor Luther will guide us, but we will need to do much of the work. We have all had many questions as we started this journey, as most likely do you. We will hold a meeting to answer questions on April 16 after worship. Pastor Luther will be worshipping with us at the service on the 16th and will join us for the discussion. On April 30 Pastor Steven Wilco from the NE Synod will be with us at the vote to call Pastor Luther Zeigler to Holy Trinity.
We look forward to being with you during Holy Week and at the meeting on April 16, and formal Call process on April 30. We will be providing more specific information in the coming weeks.

With Joy and Hope,

Dick Topping, Chair Call Committee
Judy Evans, President, Congregation Council

March 2023: Rev. Don Larsen returns on Easter Sunday.

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind”, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Over the years, our Holy Trinity family has been blessed with wonderful and inspiring pastoral leadership. We’re about to turn another page in our collective history, while we continue to honor the past and look with joy to the future. On Easter Sunday, Pastor Don Larsen will be joining us as a temporary, part-time interim pastor, while Pastor Luther returns to the summer congregation in Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts. Pastor Larsen will be with us beginning Easter Sunday, and will be with us throughout the summer. During these summer weeks, he will be with us for Sunday worship, join us for Bible Study on Wednesdays, and be available for other pastoral concerns.

Some of you may remember Pastor Larsen from last year when he was with us during the month of August preaching on the book of Hebrews. Pastor Larsen has been active in ministry in a variety of roles, including congregation pastor, instructor of Biblical studies in Hartford Seminary and Harvard Divinity School, and has been involved with interfaith and synodical efforts. Prepare yourself for a lively summer at Holy Trinity. And stay tuned for word coming soon about the Fall and beyond!

January 2023: Budget Meeting

Beginning before Christmas, the church council has devoted many hours to studying our finances - looking backward to see whether our projections from last year were accurate, and looking forward to prepare the budget for 2023. Perhaps some of you were doing the same sort of work to prepare your personal or family budget. It’s likely we all encountered some similar challenges. It costs more to provide electricity to our buildings, it costs more to heat our structures, and the cost of almost everything is significantly more than it was a year ago. The additional challenge to projecting our church budget is that we don’t know when we will be entering into a relationship with a permanent pastor. The good news is that we ended 2022 in a strong financial position. This Sunday, January 22, we will be holding a session immediately after worship to discuss financial projections for next year. We need everyone’s input in order to develop the financial plan that best reflects our ministries. If you attend worship in person on Sunday, please get a cup of coffee and something to eat and join us in the sanctuary prepared to share your thoughts.