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36 Main Street, Newtown, CT | |
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Special Parish Meeting on Sunday, October 27 After Worship
Voting members of Trinity Church – please check your mailbox for information about a special parish meeting to discuss clergy housing and to vote on a Resolution.
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Clerk Transition
The Vestry of Trinity Church expresses heartfelt appreciation to Tom Swetts, who has resigned from serving as Clerk to attend to personal matters. Vestry has voted with gratitude for Sue Roman to fulfill Tom’s term, serving as Clerk through our next Annual Meeting in late January. We are so thankful for our faithful leaders!
Rev. Andrea
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October 20th is Pantry Appreciation Day!
Come to coffee in the Glover room after service on October 20 for celebratory cake and Pantry stickers!
Let’s all applaud this incredible Ministry that celebrates its first Anniversary on October 22! Everyone at Trinity has contributed in some way!
Thanks to -
• All those who donate items
• The teams of restockers
• The Children’s Ministry for bag decorating
• Ushers who bring the bags for blessings
• The cupboard team, who makes sure the donated items are available and organized
• The landscaping and maintenance team, who continue to improve on the original design
• The Vestry and the Property Commission for believing in the project.
And finally to the team who began the project, including the construction crew. They worked for no pay (except for a few beers from JM) and toiled with dedication to install the box onto the Trinity property in pouring rain last October.
Thanks to Rev Andrea for officiating the blessing of the Little Panty and the crowd of parishioners who were there to witness the event.
We also are grateful to the “Community Food Rescue”, “Faith Food Pantry”, “Trinity Day School” and the many other members of the community who have donated items.
And we welcome your donations on Sunday, October 20th.
As we go into our second year, we’d love to see new faces who would like to contribute in some way. Contact Nancy Cole, Marcia DeBrock or Kim in the office.
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Guest ECCT Preacher
I look forward to welcoming a colleague from Bishop Mello’s staff this Sunday - as guest preacher! The Rev. D Littlepage serves as Canon for Advocacy, Racial Justice & Reconciliation, and it is part of D’s ministry to visit churches in the Episcopal Church of Connecticut.
Our Annual Diocesan Convention is fast approaching – this is a great opportunity for us to learn more about what is happening in our wider Diocese. The Rev. Littlepage and I got to know each other as clergy ‘new to ECCT in the pandemic’ and I look forward to introducing D to Trinity!
See you on Sunday! Rev. Andrea
The Reverend D Littlepage serves on the staff of the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut as the Canon for Mission Advocacy, Racial Justice & Reconciliation.
Prior to becoming a Canon for ECCT, Rev. D served as Rector of Trinity Church,
Hartford. While at Trinity, D was an active member of the Greater Hartford
Interfaith Action Alliance (GHIAA) Clergy Caucus, the Asylum Hill Neighborhood
Association, and the ECCT Title IV Taskforce, among other endeavors. Prior to
serving at Trinity, they served as the Director of Roxbury-Dorchester Power in
Community, a collective founded by three Episcopal parishes and the Diocese of
Massachusetts.
Throughout their ministry, D has served with a clear sense of God’s call to celebrate
the holiness of God in the margins and to equip and support communities in living
the Gospel of God’s love in the world around them. D is blessed to journey through
life with their wife Kristen and their dog Caleb.
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You're Invited to a “Low Country Boil”
Celebrating Stewardship 2025
As we close out the 2025 Stewardship Program, we are thrilled to invite you to a delightful evening filled with food, fellowship, and fun! Join us for a “Low Country Boil”, a wonderful way to celebrate our commitment to the Trinity mission in 2025.
October 26th
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Glover Room - Trinity Church
What’s on the Menu?
Indulge in a traditional Low Country Boil featuring several options including delicious seafood, along with non-seafood and vegetarian dishes to cater to all tastes. Whether you’re a seafood lover or not, there will be something for everyone!
Why Attend?
This gathering not only offers a chance to enjoy fantastic food but also provides an opportunity to connect with fellow parish members and celebrate the wonderful programs your gifts of time and treasure will support for 2025. Together, we can make a difference in our community!
RSVP by October 23rd
To ensure we have enough food for everyone, please RSVP by either signing up at church doorways or going to the Trinity website. Let us know your meal preference so we can accommodate all diets.
We look forward to celebrating with you and expressing our gratitude for your continued support and commitment to Trinity. Let’s come together to make this evening memorable!
Warm regards,
Stewardship Committee & Breakfast Bunch
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Join us for All parish pumpkin carving after church in undercroft on Sunday 10/27. We will display them as part of Trinity’s 9th annual Great pumpkin challenge and ask for $5 per pumpkin. 100% of all donations will go to Hole in the wall gang camp which provides free camp for children with serious illness so they have a chance to experience diverse and transformational friendships that go hand in hand with camp. It was founded in 1988 by legendary actor and philanthropist Paul Newman. The organization serves children and their families with year round programs celebrating the fun, friendship, and spirit of childhood. | |
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Halloween Candy Collection!
Candy collection bins are out at each entrance. Please help us support Newtown's epic Halloween on Main!
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Halloween at Trinity
Trinity is the place to be on Halloween! Every year, we have our front lawn lit up with Jack-O-Lanterns for the Great Pumpkin Challenge (more on that next week!) We need volunteers to hand out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. Please click here to join in the fun!
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"A Future With Hope" - An Invitation to Stewardship
Patrick Corrigan offered an inspiring vision, last Sunday, for our annual giving
to Trinity Church. Thank you, Patrick, for your bold words! A few weeks ago, we received in the mail our autumn Stewardship Appeal, “A Future With Hope.” We invite you to return your Pledge as soon as possible, as we begin to craft our Budget for 2025.
We give of our prayer, our energy, our unique gifts to Trinity’s many ministries – and we
give money! A word for our many newcomers – Trinity Church is fully self-funding. If
you give regularly, prayerfully consider making a Pledge. A financial promise of what
we expect to give next year helps our Vestry to be wise and faithful stewards and
‘forecasters.’
We are in a multi-year pattern of reducing the percentage of what we take from our
inherited endowment, and 2025 is the year we move down to a 3 ½ percent draw. I am
incredibly proud of Trinity for this outstanding commitment to our future. I will be
increasing my pledge, and we invite you to do so as well, as we meet the financial
expectations this reduced draw will entail.
We continue to juggle low staffing hours with an unusual level of growth in ministries
and members. We need you! Pledge online here!
Thank you!! Rev. Andrea and the Trinity Church Vestry
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A Message from our Treasurer - Noel Bellesheim
Reimbursements potentially delayed: Due to the recent storms in the Southeast, our software connection has been sporadic due to power outages. We are in contact with our provider by email and as the access stabilizes we will be able to process reimbursements. Please expect a delay if you are submitting reimbursements.
Stewardship: Please send in your pledge cards as soon as each parishioner has made prayerful decisions. There are several ways:
1. Electronic is preferred.
2. Paper pledge cards can be either mailed to the church, put in the box outside the office or in the collection plate on Sundays.
After receipt, the parishioner will receive a Thank you card confirming your pledge.
Please speak with Noel Bellesheim or any vestry member with any questions.
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Fall Clean Up
This Saturday, 10/19, starting at 8:30am, we will be gathering to finish pruning the rhododendron on Trinity's property. Please bring loppers if you have a pair. I will be out of town this coming weekend and I am sorry I won't be able to join you.
With thanks,
Patrick Corrigan
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The Creation Care Team calls your attention to these upcoming programs at the CH Booth Library:
Climate Change and Connecticut's Forests, Thursday, October 24, 7:00 pm via Zoom
Trent McCann, Executive Director of the Newtown Forest Association, gives an update on the health of our local forests, how climate change is affecting them, and what we can do to help. Register via the CH Booth library events calendar.
CT Lights Out for Migratory Birds, Tuesday, October 22, at 6:30 pm in the Meeting Room
Craig Repasz, Co-founder and Co-chair of Lights Out CT, gives an update on the state of the millions of birds passing through CT during their migration. CT is located along the Atlantic Flyway so many birds use our shorelines and green spaces to rest and refuel. Light pollution emitted by homes, buildings, street lights and bridges confuses and disorients birds, causing them to land near buildings, crash into windows, and circle around for hours until they drop from exhaustion. Find out what you can do to help the birds.
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THANK YOU!
A big thankyou to all who made sandwiches, donated their crock pots, joined us in New Haven for service and giving out
our food. Our line was long with many happy, thankful guests. It is a rewarding ministry, always makes you glad to be a part of it. Thank you ALL.
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The Little Pantry continues to help our community with food
and household needs. Thank you for your continued donations!
This week's needs are:
Cereal, complete pancake mix
Canned beans-- black beans, chili, pinto
Canned fruit
Stove top stuffing, Mac n cheese
Instant potatoes
Canned Ravioli, spaghetti, etc.
Dog food
Pasta sauce
Toilet paper, dish soap, Laundry detergent
Toothpaste, bar soap/body wash, deodorant, shampoo
Boxed milk, salt/pepper, crackers, juice
Grocery or Walmart gift card-
We will do the shopping.
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Mark Your Calendars & Reserve Your Spot: Marking the Ordination of Women
July 29, 2024, marked 50 years since the ordination of eleven Episcopal women priests in Philadelphia, PA. A few months later, on November 10, 1974, one of the "Philadelphia 11" presided at communion in Washington DC and became the first woman in the denomination to publicly celebrate the Eucharist. These momentous events are documented in a new film, The Philadelphia Eleven.
To honor these events and the people who made them possible, Trinity will host a virtual screening of The Philadelphia Eleven on Sunday, November 10, at 3:00 PM. The film runs 90 minutes. Click here to reserve your spot. Feel free to share this link with family and friends. Trinity is sponsoring 250 viewing slots, so there is plenty of room! We will also share this invitation with the ECCT and via the Newtown Bee.
This film might be especially meaningful for younger people who've never known a world without women in positions of leadership both within and beyond the Church. It can be an encouragement to us all that what once was deemed impossible can indeed become "normal."
Contact Lisa Mages at 202-469-2568 with questions.
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Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
1 Peter 4:10
In this month of October, we hear the word “stewardship” a lot at church. Stewardship is a vital part of keeping Trinity alive; functioning efficiently, and at-the-ready to serve the greater community. Stewardship keeps our various ministries running and literally keeps the roof over our heads here in this old building.
As your Music Minister, I am tasked with the stewardship of our musical assets, which would be the vast choral music library and the care and maintenance of our pianos and the magnificent pipe organ we are so well-known for. If that particular stewardship were to fall by the wayside, our pianos would be totally out of tune, and the organ would eventually not function.
And isn’t this also the case with the gifts and talents we have each individually been given in our lives? In choir, we often talk about the stewardship of our voices, because if we don’t take good care of our vocal health, our voices will suffer and eventually not work. Often, if the voice starts to have trouble, then the singer starts to fall into bad muscular habits in order to produce sound. I call this the ‘vocal death wobbles’. You’re doing everything you can to stay upright, but you’re going down! Attentive and proactive care of the voice keeps our singers in good vocal health and ready to minister through music.
As singers, we must be good stewards of our voices and our bodies in order to be effective with our ministry of music. The muscles must be exercised and kept ready. We can think of the stewardship of our gifts in the same way- as a muscle that needs to be continuously cared for and toned. We are told in the passage from Peter to USE our gifts as faithful stewards of God’s grace, and this season is a great opportunity to exercise those stewardship muscles, with whatever gifts you have been given.
In Christ,
Jennifer
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Be sure to join us on Sunday, 10/27, for some Halloween fun! Kids are encouraged to wear their costumes to church school. Kids will play some Halloween games during church school, and march in a Halloween parade during the worship service. Also during worship, kids will sing in a mini concert. Then during coffee hour, kids will paint pumpkins that will be part of a dramatic display on Trinity's front lawn on Halloween night! Donations will be accepted for Hole in the Wall Gang Camp as part of the Great Halloween Challenge. | |
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Upcoming Events:
Sunday, 10/27, Halloween costume parade, Pumpkin painting and carving after worship
Sunday, 11/3, Christmas Pageant Sign Ups start, Clocks fall back
Sunday, 11/10, Christmas Pageant Sign Ups due
Sunday, 11/24, Yoga for Families
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Welcome back youth!
(Grades 7-12th)
Saturday October 26- set up planks and “gut pumpkins” for pumpkin carving after church on 10/27 (time TBD)
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Please Support Hurricane Recovery Efforts
Episcopal Relief & Development is working closely with partners to support people affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The Hurricane Relief Fund is an important tool for responding to immediate needs and supporting long-term recovery. Please contribute to Episcopal Relief & Development’s Hurricane Relief Fund to support long-term recovery efforts.
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The Newtown Lions Club are having a Model Train Show Event to benefit Childhood Cancer Research on Saturday October 26th from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm at the Newtown Community Center, 8 Simpson St. in Newtown. Admission is $10 adults, $25 for a family (three or more), $5 ages 5-12, and free age 4 and under. This event will feature several different operating model railroads encompassing over 1700 square feet and a Pizza Box Railroad constructed by one of Newtown Lions Paul Arneth. For the serious and occasional hobbyist there will also be several vendors selling model railroad equipment, accessories and books on Do-it-Yourself modeling and much more. There will be door prizes, food truck, video presentations and lectures on historic area railroads throughout the day. There will even be attractions for the young at heart with Dr. Cadabra's Magic. Come join us for a great day with a nostalgic look back in time at or railroads with this exciting Model Railroad exhibition. | |
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Christian Yoga
Join Christian Yoga class on alternating Tuesdays at 7 pm for an hour of movement incorporating prayer and scripture. This is a great way to connect to yourself, with others and with God. The next sessions will be held on 10/22 and 11/26. All are welcome!
Free will offering is completely voluntary.
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Weekly Happenings
Trinity's nursery is open every Sunday from 9:15 - 11:15, and is professionally staffed by Wee Care Nanny Agency. Click here to review the nursery guidelines.
Trinity's Grief Support Group runs every first and third Thursday of the month from 4-5:15pm, and is open to all.
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New Process for Vouchers
Thank you to all of you who have seamlessly transitioned over to the new system - it is such a pleasure to be working with Lori Rohrbacher again!
Vouchers can now be submitted virtually. There is a new page on Trinity's website (Vouchers). Please use this online form as a way to submit vouchers. If you need help learning this new system, please contact Kim.
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Praise and Thanksgiving
For those requesting our prayers
Maureen, Janet, Rick, Marie, Jennifer, Joyce, Jacky, Gail, Alveta,
Bode, Gracie, Martha, Daniel, Shirley, Dan, Barbara, Lucille, Caroline,
Eric, Brent, Paula, Karen, Judy, Kathy
For those celebrating a birthday this week
Elaine Breitling, Thomas Traczyk, Prue Cooney, Briella Shier,
atrick Corrigan, Megan Feli, Laurie Veillette, Jan English
For those celebrating an anniversary this week
Joe & Catherine Newell
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