Dear Friends,
After church this Sunday I’ll begin a three-month sabbatical. I am so grateful to you and to the leadership of Trinity Cathedral for creating the space of rest and renewal. I will share a bit of my hopes for sabbatical – and post-sabbatical – at the Dean’s Forum this Sunday. I will return on Sunday, August 3rd.
In the meantime, I have some important homework for you!
This summer we’ll be doing some work on building our ministries of hospitality and community care. One of my favorite writers, Jane Jacobs, speaks of the “small change” interactions that build a city: sure, highways and high-rises have their place, but without everyday conversations on the street or familiar run-ins around town, a city can’t grow or thrive. I believe – not only that the same is true of a church but – that ministries of community and hospitality are essential to the flourishing of other things like social justice work and transformative liturgy.
We’re exploring two things in the coming months to make our hospitality more robust…indeed, I challenge you all to raise up hospitality as a core value of a cathedral congregation, and to help us to express God’s welcome in large and small ways.
First, starting this Sunday, we’ll rearrange the commons and piazza space to better accommodate Sunday morning fellowship. We’ll have only one class, in conference room A/B, and we’ll open up C/D as a space for folks to sit and enjoy one another’s company. (Or just sit with their coffee). The coffee service itself will be in the chapter room.
Second, we are creating hospitality teams that we’d like be become a part of a new Hospitality Guild, to help support our Sunday morning fellowship time. We’ll have more information on this soon (we’re starting in summertime) but look for communications from John Chapman and Wendy Miano about this important new opportunity to help Trinity thrive.
This week I’ll share more via email about how ministry will continue in my absence and how we’ll handle pastoral and ministry needs that may arise.
Most importantly, I ask for your prayers over the next few months. You will be in mine and, though I look forward to this sabbath time, I am excited about the work that will continue and the work we’ll do together together when I return in August.
Faithfully,
The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens