WORSHIP ASSISTANTS

Third Sunday of Advent

Discretionary Sunday

Sunday, December 15, 2019

8:00 a.m. - Rite I, Holy Eucharist  

Chalice: Mary Donovan, Nancy Pauw

Lector: Sidney Sutton

Intercessor: Marian Wilbur

Usher: Doug Flessing

10:30 a.m. - Rite II, Holy Eucharist

Lectors: Dru Sampson,

Barbara Cook

Chalice: Leslie Foust,

Donna Olson

Verger: Donna Griffin

Acolytes: Abigail Baldwin, Ellie Seybold, Lauren Seybold

Ushers: John Broholm, Alison Myers-Arenth, Craig Myers-Arenth

Altar Guild:

Carl Edwards, Margaret Bearse, Lynn Segebrecht, Carol Hatton, Melissa Padgett

Flower Guild:

Advent Season Team

Hymns

Entrance Hymn: (72) Hark! the glad sound (Richmond)

Sequence Hymn: (65) Prepare the way, O Zion (Bereden väg för Herran)

Offertory Hymn: 380 (v. 3) Praise God, from whom all blessings flow (Old 100th)

Communion Hymn: (640) Watchman, tell us of the night (Aberystwyth)

Closing Hymn: (437) Tell out, my soul, the greatness (Birmingham) 

  Altar Flowers

This Sunday's Altar Flowers are given to the Glory of God

READINGS

 The Liturgy of the Word

View the complete lectionary reading at www.lectionarypage.net

Upcoming Event: Bishop Seabury Academy's annual Lessons and Carols

Date: Friday, Dec. 13

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Location: First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St.

Description: Everyone is invited to Bishop Seabury Academy's annual Lessons and Carols. Choirs featuring grades 6-12 will be accompanied by organist Sharon Hettinger.

Doors open at 7:10 p.m. Free to the public.

Upcoming Event: Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

Date: Sunday, Dec. 15

Time: Following 10:30 service

Location: Parish Hall Description: Practice will begin after a light snack following the 10:30 service. Participation in the Christmas Pageant (Sunday 10:30 service on the 22nd) is open to all children in kindergarten through middle school. We need singers, actors and readers for this lovely tradition. Adult helpers are also needed throughout the season. (Note: It's really, really fun.) Thank you in advance for the help. Contact: Susan Hires [email protected]

Upcoming Event: Trinity Youth Group

Date: Sunday, Dec. 15

Time: 6-7:30 p.m.

Location:  Parish Hall

Description: Please join us at 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, in the Parish Hall for our third Advent meeting. Tacos and salad dinner, decorating our Advent wreath and lighting our third candle along with baking and decorating Christmas cookies. Youth in grades 6 through 12 are invited to attend. Please spread the word.

Upcoming Event: Christian Classics

Date: Wednesday, Dec. 18

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Location: Trinity library

Description: Christian Classics will be discussing " The Essential Writings of CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM" edited by Bernard McGinn.  All are welcome to attend.

From the Rector's desk...

So one of my more unusual personal Advent traditions is that when the readings from Isaiah (11:1-10) appear in our lectionary describing the “Peaceable Kingdom,” I reintroduce myself to the works of American painter Edward Hicks. Hicks (1780-1849) was a Quaker minister and artist who painted a depiction of the Peaceable Kingdom 62 times in his career, and it made up a significant fraction of his work. He was actually not well-received in his own time because of his tendency to engage in this repetition, but eventually became a major figure in Quaker history.

Hick’s interest in the topic of the Peaceable Kingdom reflected his own theological belief that when humanity recognizes and surrenders to the divine presence within themselves that the boundaries that exist between us will cease. He saw the animals referenced in Isaiah as metaphors for the often violent interactions between cultures and nations (especially between the nascent United States and the native nations and peoples).

There is so much to Advent that seems to work on two levels: the remembering of those who anticipated the coming of Jesus Christ, and the immense patience and faithfulness in their hope; and the continued patience, faithfulness, and hope that Christians continue to hold as we await the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.

So check out Edward Hicks and enjoy a bit of American and Christian history during this Advent season.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Rob+

Adult Forum



The Adult Forum is the study of the Book of Hebrews 7 , the High Priest of Jesus this week. Join us as we explore the Letter to the Hebrews from the New Testament chapter by chapter.  This Sunday is an introduction to the book, including its author and intended audience. The Adult Forum meets in the Jackson Kemper Room Sunday mornings at 9:30.

Long newsletter this week due to the holiday events. If you do not see the "This Week at Trinity" at the bottom of the newsletter, there should be an expand button to click to view our complete newsletter.

Holy Stir-It

This year's Holiday Holy Stir-It will be Sunday, Dec. 15, 3-6 p.m., at Bill and Janet Muggy's festively Christmas-decorated home, 2063 N. 1300 Road, Eudora, Kansas 66025. This will be a memorable evening with their 10 trees and extensive artwork collection. Please bring a guest and enjoy fellowship, the festive trees, and wonderful artwork. Hors d'oeuvres will be served; BYOB. You may RSVP or get more information and directions by contacting [email protected], or you may sign up after the 10:30 service.

Lessons and Carols

The Free State Minster is organizing an Advent Choir to perform Lessons and Carols at Trinity Church on the 21st and Grace, Ottawa on the 22nd. Both events will start at 6 p.m. This choir will be made up of members of the various churches and Episcopal institutions in the area and will have a couple of practice times coming up in the next few weeks.



If you are interested, please contact Hurst Coffman at   [email protected]

A Morning Breather

The ladies of Trinity are offering the gift of free child care to Trinity families and their friends on Saturday, Dec. 14, 9-noon. We will watch your little ones, ages infant to 4 in the church nursery, and ages 5 to 9 in the Parish Hall. We will provide snacks, crafts and activities to keep everyone happy. To help us plan, please email Camille Olcese, [email protected], if you would like to take this opportunity for a free morning to shop, enjoy coffee with a friend, wrap gifts, or just breathe. Feel free to invite your friends to participate so we can share the love.

An Advent Quiet Day

Saturday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. David’s, 3916 SW 17th St. in Topeka. The theme for the day will be “Creating Space for God” and will feature meditations on creating space in order to hear the voice of God, as well as time for personal reflections, group sharing and a closing Eucharist.

The retreat leader is the Rev. Ted Blakley, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Hutchinson.

The cost is $10 per person, which covers lunch. The registration form is available at https://edok.formstack.com/forms/advent2019 .

Lay Eucharistic Ministers

If a member of your household would like to receive the Eucharist and because of illness or age cannot come into church, our Lay Eucharistic Team will bring the Sacrament to you.

The Episcopal Church defines a Lay Eucharistic Minister, or LEM, as a layperson who assists the priest in administering the sacraments of Holy Communion, the consecrated bread and wine. They may also take the sacraments to those who are ill or otherwise unable to attend Mass. At Trinity, our Eucharistic Visitors act under the direction of Deacon Deborah Burns. If you need this service, please notify Deacon Burns at: [email protected].  

Vestry Meetings

There will be no Vestry meeting this December.

The minutes of each meeting are posted to the church bulletin board and Trinity Vestry Minutes. Your Vestry can be contacted at [email protected]

Minutes through September have been added to our website.

Everyone is invited to Bishop Seabury Academy's annual Lessons and Carols at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13, at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St. Choirs featuring grades 6-12 will be accompanied by organist Sharon Hettinger. Doors open at 7:10 p.m. Free to the public.

Thank you!

Margie Lawrence

Reminder that articles for our newsletter should be sent to [email protected] by noon Wednesday each week. The newsletters are also available on our website and Facebook page.

Prayer Chain

To add a person's name to the prayer list or to become a prayer chain member, please contact the parish office... Prayers...; or call 785-843-6166) or Carol Hatton, Prayer Chain coordinator ( [email protected]).

The Prayer Chain prays daily for those who are ill, suffering or troubled; who have died; or who wish to offer praise and thanksgivings. Prayer Chain members find that their own private prayer life with God also deepens during this daily practice.

Pray for those who are ill: 

DJ, Judy, Wayne, Eleanor, Charlotte, Julie, Amy, Beth, Alaina, Kurt, Kim, Pat, President Jimmy Carter, Allen, Heather

Pray for those with special intentions: 

The Van Schmus family, Jan, Matt, Pete, the Lessig family, Karen, Julie, Jane, Tim, Naomi, Dane, Natalie, Kate, Peggy, Linda, Patti, Matthew, Emily, Alix, Brend

Pray for those in the hospital: Rita, David, Mary

Pray for the departed: Robert Darlene Mountain, Sister Georgine Boiten-du Rieu

Middle and Senior High

Youth Group

Please join us at 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, in the Parish Hall for our third Advent meeting. Tacos and salad dinner, decorating our Advent wreath and lighting our third candle along with baking and decorating Christmas cookies.

Youth in grades 6 through 12 are invited to attend. Please spread the word.

Children's Christmas Pageant

The pageant is coming soon, but it's not too late to be involved! Open for all children kindergarten age and up, the Pageant this year will be on Sunday morning, Dec. 22, during the 10:30 service. We have two rehearsals left – this coming Sunday from noon to 12:45 in the basement children's music room, and next Saturday, Dec. 21, from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Sanctuary. This Sunday we will assign costumes, so extra hands will be appreciated. The Saturday rehearsal will include one run-through with set and costume, one with set only, and a Christmas lunch in between. We would love to have your child be a part of this tradition at Trinity.

Looking ahead, we are in a great need of Sunday school teachers. If you have an interest in working with our kids in any capacity, please let me know. The plan is to create teams of two or three teachers to work together on a rotation in our new group class model. Everything you need will be there – all you need is a desire to help the children develop their relationship with God. Contact me at [email protected]  for more information.

Thank you for your prayers and support of Christian Education at Trinity.

Susan Hires

Episcopal News links

DioLog - The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas newsletter

Episcopal Diocese of Kansas Youth Ministry

Alternative Christmas Market

What is an Alternative Christmas Market? It is an easy way you can support a worthwhile organization and honor a loved one at the same time.

Please, stop by our table in the Parish Hall between services or after the 10:30 service. We will be open from Dec. 1 through the 22nd. The process is easy – choose an organization, make a donation, pick out a Christmas card and pick up an insert signifying you are donating to honor your loved one. 

This year we are featuring Heifer International (provides animals and care instruction to developing countries) or Episcopal Relief and Development Programs for educating women to read and write or to gain job skills. Both organizations help others in sustainable ways.

Christmas Flowers

Flower Guild is collecting donations for our Christmas Flowers until Dec. 18. Please make your check payable to Trinity Episcopal Church and clearly mark it "Christmas Flowers" when you turn it in along with your donation form. Names from your donation form will be listed in our Christmas Eve Bulletin

Plum Pudding Sale

The Trinity Environmental Stewardship Team (TEST) is selling plum pudding again this Advent season. This year's funds will go toward replacing the 1967 single-pane windows in the kitchen. The puddings are $18 (large, serves eight to 12) and $9 (small, serves four to six), and hard sauce is $1.50 per container. Place orders in the parish hall or contact Vashti Winterburg (785-633-7396). 

Back Snack

Winter weather came early this year and this means more Back Snack students are likely going out each morning with freezing heads and hands. Each year the Back Snack program tries to raise enough funds to add a hat and pair of gloves to each Back Snack during the Christmas season. Can we count on you to help fund this important mission? 

You might consider donating an amount in honor of each child in your family – nieces, nephews, children or grands. Or what about donating in honor of your favorite teacher? The opportunities are endless.

Donating to Back Snack is easy. Write a check and include “Back Snack” on the memo line. You can contact Tod Sutton at [email protected] or Greg Hazen at [email protected] for more information.  They coordinate the program and shop for the gloves and hats. 

To donate online, go to TrinityLawrence.org . Click the blue “Make a Donation” button at the side of the page. You can choose from general fund, food pantry or the Back Snack Fund. If it is your first time donating online, you will be asked a few questions on the next page to make sure your information is secure. The online donation is a great way to support the work at Trinity. 



Let’s all work together to give each Lawrence child a fighting chance to be free from cold and hunger during these winter days.   

Community Christmas Dinner

We need 150 pies of all types to feed more than 1200 guests at our annual 

Community Christmas Dinner, 2019  Pies can be delivered to the First United Methodist Church, 10th and Vermont, any time after 6:00 a.m. on Christmas day or call Deb Engstrom at 785-727-3790 to arrange for them to be picked up. 

Deacons' Discretionary Funds

The Deacon’s Discretionary Fund has helped people in Lawrence with prescriptions, rent and utility bills. There have been many requests for assistance already this month.

Please be generous this Sunday, Dec. 15, when the loose plate and designated checks will be collected for the fund to enable Trinity to continue to support this important ministry.

Your Sister in Christ,

Deacon Deborah S. Burns.

TEST Tidbits: COP 25 Meets

in Madrid

The Climate talks that were scheduled to take place in Chile the first two weeks of December were moved to Madrid because of political unrest in Santiago, the city that was to be the host. This week will focus on financial and policy issues geared to move the world’s leaders toward the Paris Accord’s goal of less than 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global warming.

The first week heard pleas from the scientists worried about the health of the oceans of the world and the plight of indigenous peoples as they strive to adapt to the climate crisis. Many communities of indigenous people are suffering the brunt of change many times more severe than other communities. The scientists present for the talks reported that greenhouse gas emissions had risen by 0.6% in the last year. This was a slightly lower rate of increase, but is not expected to continue. In fact, the U.S., China and other countries are set to gear up fossil fuel production in the future and by 2030 could exceed the Paris Accord’s goals set for their countries from 50% to 120%. 

Although there are political, business and scientific representatives from the U.S. at these talks , the lack of official U.S. leadership is very disheartening. Perhaps, the most important news to date from the COP 25 Summit has been the Global Compact concerning the future health of the oceans of the world. This Ocean Compact sets out five challenges: to study and form guidelines for the sustainability of the food sources from the oceans, to map the ocean (only 5% has been completed), to study the potential of the oceans of the world for production of electricity in a sustainable manner, to make and enforce carbon emission reductions in shipping and in travel on the oceans, and finally to reduce the tremendous problem of waste in our oceans (pesticides, fertilizers, garbage, trash and a huge volume of plastics from flip flops to microfibers). This is a good beginning, as our oceans not only feed us, but also are a carbon sink for green house gasses.

What can we do besides being informed citizens, advocates for the environment and active voters? We can cut our use of plastics of all kinds. First on the list, of course, is to carry a reusable water container and say no to bottled water and plastic straws. We can buy fewer plastic-wrapped items, store our leftovers in glass containers, and remember to bring our reusable bags to the grocery store. At this time of year, we can resist the temptation to overbuy (especially plastic based toys and gifts). These actions may seem small but add up when most of us are aware of our actions.

EARTH STEWARD ACTION: Decide to carry with you a tote bag for small purchases and a kit with a metal straw and eating utensils. Don’t end up using plastic unnecessarily.

SOURCES:  https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/ocean , https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-greta , https://www.guardian.org/cop25-talks   

You can visit the Trinity website for past TEST Articles.

Volunteer Corner

Looking for something to do to help your Church? We have a few positions currently open. Please contact Cathy if you are able to spare a few hours at [email protected].

Sunday School Assistants - Assist Susan once a month with our children during Sunday School class time.

Baptismal Coordinator – This position assists with our baptisms, which occur about four times a year. Duties are to verify with the church office that the service is on the calendar, contact the Sunday hospitality coordinator of the date, contact Deacon Deborah for creating the baptismal certificate, and make sure Father Rob records the event in our Church Baptismal book.

Funeral Reception Coordinator – Bonnie Briscoe coordinates the funeral service and this position helps coordinate the volunteers who provide a small reception following funerals. Many people frequently bring in cookies, etc., as an act of compassion and hospitality, but we need someone to coordinate those efforts.

Vestry Clerk –   This position takes notes for our Vestry meetings and Annual Parish meeting. Please contact Steven King at [email protected] to fill this important position with our Vestry.

Save the Dates

Christmas Pageant

Sunday, Dec. 22, during our 10:30 service

John Bullock Ordination

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020, 10:30 a.m.,

Grace Episcopal Cathedral, 701 SW 8th Ave., Topeka, Kansas 66603