Mothers' Day service in Memorial Garden |
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Our hope of a summer closer to "normal" is not only budding at Christ Trinity, it is blossoming!
On Mothers' Day, May 9th, weather permitting, we will hold a simple worship service in the Memorial Garden. Please bring your mother, your lawn chairs and please wear a face mask. Thanks to our valiant digital missioner, we will also be live-streaming the service.
Rain will cancel the outdoor worship, however, you will still be able to view it from home. Check out our website www.christtrinitychurch.org for livestream information and stay tuned to SEEDS for updates about outdoor worship.
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We celebrate our rural Nature |
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Cyclist Hospitality Station
A small church group of very committed bicyclists is developing a Hospitality Station in our churchyard.
With water, a picnic area, bicycle tools, a pump, and a porta-potty, we will welcome folks from near and far to launch their exploration of our beautiful Berkshire back roads from our parking lot.
We plan to open up this latest
CORNER OF KINDNESS by Memorial Day.
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Concert under the Pavilion |
Saturday June 12th will be the first of what we plan to be an annual series of summer concerts in Sheffield Town Park. The string quartet gathered by our own Jorge Avila will return and for this inaugural concert, they will welcome the principal clarinetist from the BSO, Bill Hudgins, to join them for half of the program with Johannes Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor.
Tickets for seats both under the pavilion and on the lawn will be available soon!
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On June 21st we kick off our annual ministry to hikers on the Appalachian Trail with our partners at Old Parish. This year we will staff the tent with local volunteers for three days per week and then invite other faith communities and volunteer groups from near and far to staff the tent for a one-time "Mini Mission Day Trip" to hopefully cover three additional days each week. If you would like to coordinate volunteers from Christ Trinity for this season, let Pastor Erik know today!
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Tuesday Bible Study – New Series April 27 – May 18 7:00 – 8:00 pm
“A Portrait of Love” – The Letters of John
Throughout this Easter Season, our first scripture reading each Sunday is from the First Letter of John. This four-week Bible Study Series led by the Rev. Libby Wade will explore all three Letters of John. No book to purchase and no advance preparation necessary, but be sure to have a Bible with you each week as we gather on Zoom for discussion and Compline.
Meeting ID: 826 0996 0553
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In case you missed it: Sabbatical in 2022 |
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It's hard to believe but we will have been together as pastor and parish for FOUR years come this summer! In my mind we're still on our honeymoon and every day I am overwhelmingly grateful that the Spirit has put us together.
With our four year anniversary comes your gift to me of a three month sabbatical. I have never been given a sabbatical in all my years in ministry so this is an amazing gift for which I am so very thankful! The Vestry Council has been faithfully stashing away the funds to provide coverage for my time away. The Diocese will also partially fund the sabbatical as well. I have also recently submitted a grant application to the Lilly Foundation for clergy renewal, which if awarded, will fund a grand adventure around the world. If I am not awarded that grant it will be somewhat less grand, but no less an adventure!
Many clergy take their sabbaticals during the summer since for many parishes that is a slow time of year. That is certainly not true for us! That is when "The Church of What's Happening Now" is most happening! The time that makes the most sense is to leave right after Christmas and be back at the end of March, 2022 in time for Holy Week and Easter. If we as a church even have a "slow" time I think that's probably it and heading South over those three cold, dark months sounds like a good idea to me!
Thank you again for our partnership in ministry and this incredible anniversary gift! Please ask any questions you have... I'd love to share the plans that the Vestry Council team and I have created for this time of renewal. - Pastor Erik
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This week we read an essay about the work of the theologian Robert Hughes who developed a compelling schematic for melding modern cosmology with our conception of God as Trinity and the place of human beings in the known scientific architecture of the cosmos. Rooted in our ancient understanding of ‘from ashes to ashes and dust to dust,’ Hughes conceives of the human spirit as comprising ‘beloved dust’ with four dimensions, animated, spirited, estranged, and redeemed.
He writes, “We are dust, but we are only a particular kind of animal assembled from the dust of material elements that make up the universe. Admittedly this means a lot more than the dust under the bed. It is, quite literally, star dust, the dust from the great clouds born in the Big Bang, shaped and reshaped by physics and chemistry until atoms, molecules and finally snippets of RNA and DNA emerge in organic life.” In Hughes’ framework, the journey to God of our ‘dusty’ selves, takes place in three simultaneous dimensions, ("pitch, yaw and roll”) encompassing the ‘tides of the spirit,’ conversion, transfiguration, and glory.
Our reflection centered on the following image from NASA, of a Helix Nebula when a star like the Sun runs out of fuel, it expands and its outer layers - dust - puff off, and then the core of the star shrinks.
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God, grand architect of the universe,
We are but tiny specks of stardust, reflecting the cosmos.
We come together in awe and wonder at the interconnection of all creation.
We pray for humility, understanding, and revelation as we swim in the tides of the spirit.
AMEN
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CoVid-19 Vaccine
There are spaces still available for the COVID-19 Vaccine for the
Saturday, May 1st Clinic in Great Barrington at the W.E.B. Dubois Middle School.
Community Health Program Mobile Unit will also be here at the Senior Center on Thursday, April 29th.
If you need a vaccine please call the center at (413) 229-7037 and we can help you register for one of these clinics.
Kathie Loring, Executive Director
Senior Center and Council on Aging
25 Cook Road
Sheffield, MA 01257
(413) 229-7037
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Volunteers needed to help pack boxes! |
There are still local families struggling to obtain sufficient food. Southern Berkshire Regional School District has asked us to put together 25+ family food boxes, once a week until summer. With the help of People's Pantry and Rural Health Network, we are forming a small team of food box packers who will meet at Old Parish with the Sheffield Food Assistance Program to pack these boxes and deliver them to the school. Details still being worked out. Please call Jean as soon as possible at Old Parish if you can help
413-229-8173
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A peek at the pizza oven at Roberto's on the Sheffield Green! Firing up very soon! |
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Altar Flowers
We have just a few openings for the donation of altar flowers in the upcoming months. Call Jean on Mondays or Wednesdays to see about getting put on the schedule. 229-8811. The suggested donation is $60, which you may send in noting altar flowers in the memo line of your check. You may also donate using the Online Giving button from the front page of our website. Drop down to Altar Flowers in the Give to menu on the right.
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Christ Trinity Church 413-229-8811
180 Main Street
PO Box 127
Sheffield, MA 01257
Our virtual worship services are Sundays at 10:00
Previous sermons, our livestreams and great service music on:
Many photos appear on Instagram at CTCSheffieldMA and sometimes, nowhere else. Please follow us.
Questions you may have about us will probably be answered at:
If you have a loved one who you would like us to remember in our Sunday prayers, please email us Monday morning before 11:00.
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