The Reverend Donald L. Hamer
May 18, 2008
Trinity Sunday, Year A

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Mt. 18:18-20.

It is a blessing and an honor to present to you this morning my fifth Annual Report as your rector. This is our first Annual Meeting to be held on our congregation’s feast day, Trinity Sunday. And there is a theological significance to holding our annual meeting on this day. Traditionally, preachers scramble on this day to find some new magical formula to explain the doctrine of the Trinity – and the problem, of course, is that, much like trying to explain the square root of Pi, you are left trying to put into words something that is, in its essence, unfathomable. Because it is our custom for the Rector to deliver his Annual Report to the parish on the Annual Meeting, the theological significance struck me: We heard in Matthew’s Gospel this morning Jesus’ Great Commission to his disciples – the last words he says to them in the Gospel of Matthew – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . In delivering my annual report – essentially my report on what has happened during the past year and my vision for the future – I am sharing with you the theology of Trinity: What we have done during the past year to live out Christ’s Great Commission to his disciples, and how we hope to grow deeper in living out that Great Commission in the years to come. What we do as a congregation, the way we live our lives, the ways in which we reflect the love of Christ in the world – these are the ways that the people whose lives we touch come to understand the Trinity.

As Christians, we know that we are invited into this creative process through Jesus Christ, and there is no clearer call to the Christian Community than Jesus’ “Great Commission” that is given in this morning’s Gospel passage: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 18:18-20. It is both a command – not a suggestion . . . not an invitation to talk it over at tea or over a beer –d and at the same time an assurance – an assurance that Jesus does not leave us alone, but is forever with us in the mission that he sets before us.

And so with this as our foundation, what is it that we have to talk about today at the Parish of Trinity Church in Hartford, Connecticut? Well, we could go on for hours. Thanks be to God, we won’t, but we could. Last week, if you were here, you all received the annual reports prepared by the leaders of our various ministry teams reporting on how they have been carrying out Jesus’ Great Commission during this past year. And while it may sound self-serving to say so, I think those reports detail a stunning array of ministries – both those that enrich our common life together and those which reach out to others who may or may not be a part of this community of faith. Highlights of this past year certainly would include the beginning of the Choir School of Hartford, the continuing growth and development of our Journey to Adulthood Program, the introduction of Godly Play worship on the first Sunday of each month, the strengthening of our support of the students and staff at the West Middle Elementary School, and the introduction of preaching series during Pentecost, Advent, and Lent, among others. The former Sexton’s apartment upstairs has been completely renovated and is ready to become rental housing for Hartford Seminary students. While we are talking about property issues, our long-planned project to replace the slate roof on the south side of the church received a huge boost when the State of Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism granted our application for a grant of $200,000 toward the replacements costs. Those bids will be going out next week. Our Planned Giving campaign was formally initiated, with the creation of the Trinity Heritage Society. This followed the most successful annual appeal that Trinity has had in anyone’s memory, and for this special mention goes to Mark MacGougan, Percy Boucher Williamson, Steve Smith, Martha Freimuth and Sara Carson. But while it is customary to highlight these ministries at our annual meeting, this morning I want to focus more on the future, and leave it to you to read for yourselves all the good work that these ministry teams have been doing in God’s vineyard.

Much of our work during this past year has been organizational – looking at how we operate as the human hands of Jesus Christ. One of the laments I hear most frequently from our lay leadership is that we are a very active parish in need of more laborers in the vineyard. We have a tremendous number of ministries, including an increasing number of outreach ministries that are absolutely the types of work to which Jesus calls us. What is not always so clear is how these ministries relate to one another, and how all of these ministries, taken together, make a coherent statement about who and what Trinity Episcopal Church stands for as the Anglican presence on Asylum Hill. For too long, it seems to me, we have been content to wrap ourselves in the mantle of “diversity” without, I venture to say, engaging in deep discussion about the radical implications of living more deeply into that diversity. From a ministry standpoint, there has also been a sense among our leadership that we need to improve our process of discerning among multiple ministry opportunities before assuming we should do all of them because, well, they are things Jesus would have approved of.

Central to this process has been the work done at our weekend-long Futuring Conference held here at the end of January 2007. We prepared, along with our consultant, Hartford Seminary’s Cynthia Woolever, for over six months, with an enormous number of you participating in one way or another. For the past 15 months, I have been privileged to work with a dedicated “Futuring Team” consisting of Chairperson Penny Pearson, former Warden, Linda MacGougan, Ray Esponda, Jacqui Johnson, Daniel Dollar and Pam Williams. Under Penny’s leadership, that committee has organized the more than 60 recommendations that came out of the Futuring Conference. Some were prioritized as high priorities, others made lower priorities. Some were assigned to staff to complete, some were assigned to the Vestry, and some were assigned to various ministry teams of the parish. Some of them involved the start-up of new ministry teams that had only existed informally before. I am delighted to report to you today that of those recommendations, nearly half have been successfully completed and many more are nearly complete. Of these suggestions, two stand out as particularly significant:

1. The staff has been reorganized, with the assistance of a mutual ministry committee consisting of the wardens, Penny Pearson and Janet Wilkinson. The front office staff was realigned – including a reduction of hours – to reflect budget realities and to more clearly define roles and responsibilities. Over the next several weeks we will be evaluating how and whether that change has been successful and where it requires further adjustment. We went from two full-time sextons to one plus a cleaning service. An important factor of which I need to remind the congregation is that there are now only three full-time employees of Trinity: The Rector, The Director of Music Ministry, and the Sexton. The other two stipended clergy and the office staff are either ¾ time or, in the case of our Financial Manager, ½ time.

2. The second major initiative out of the Futuring Conference has been to reorganize more than 30 different autonomous ministries under the auspices of six general committees that serve as an umbrella for similar ministries. These six new committees are Outreach, Worship, Christian Formation, Nurture, Property and Finance. Under these six umbrellas are grouped those 30+ ministries, and while the ministry teams meet as often as necessary, the Committees meet only four times per year, to assist in coordinating the work of the ministry teams but also to look for trends, common issues that are better addressed from a systemic approach than by each ministry trying to find its own way. The Vestry realized this would be a growing process when it decided to implement the committee scheme last fall, and the committees are coming to better understand their role in the governance structure of the church. You will notice for the first time that there are reports from the committee conveners in this year’s Annual Report. This coordinating function of our new committees will become even more important during the coming year for reasons I will explain in a moment, and particular thanks goes to Sara Carson for her perseverance in helping us to grow into our new committee structure. And over-all, with respect to the outcomes of our Futuring Conference, we all owe a debt of gratitude to our Futuring Team, our Vestry, and the leaders of our various ministries for working so hard to begin the process of better coordinating the tremendous amount of ministry that goes on at this place.

Sharing Space with St. Monica’s

Every once in a while, God will surprise us with a ministry opportunity that seemingly comes from out of the blue. It happened several years ago when we had the opportunity to welcome Fred Bohlen and his family, Elizabeth Moore and Joshua Ghandour into our congregation as refugees from oppression in Liberia and Ivory Coast. It happened again last fall when the family of Chit Aye and several other families arrived as refugees, this time from their home country of Burma, or Myanmar as it is now known under the military junta that controls it.

A similar opportunity has arisen in the past several weeks, not with someone coming from the other side of the world, but this time with brothers and sisters who are less than a mile away. When I met with Fr. Charles Davidson, the new rector at St. Monica’s Episcopal Church on Mather Street off of Albany Avenue, he told me that his parish was in a bind: They had committed some time ago to sell their church building and community center to another church, but their own long-planned building has not even been started. Would Trinity, he asked, be willing to provide hospitality for his congregation for a period of time until they are ready to move into their new building?

My immediate instinct was to see God’s hand in this and to respond immediately, “Of Course!” My initial instinct was affirmed and strengthened when I shared the request with lay leadership and with the pastoral staff, all of whom were excited not only about the ability to extend our radical hospitality to another Episcopal congregation, but about the possibilities of sharing in some ministries with them as well. I think Al Shuckra summed it up when he asked, “How can we say no?” I have met with the St. Monica’s vestry and several times with Fr. Davidson. This Tuesday our Vestry will begin wrestling with such issues as accommodating a St. Monica’s service schedule, cost sharing, coordinating altar guilds and flower guilds, and a host of other questions that will be attendant to two active and vital congregations’ working more closely with one another. With seven Episcopal churches in this city – not to mention three others right across our borders in West Hartford and Bloomfield – I think God is presenting us a gracious opportunity to share in ministry with our brothers and sisters from a neighboring Episcopal Church. We need not be hasty and ask questions about the long term – we need to be open to the movement of God’s spirit as we live out our own ministries one day at a time, and grow in mutual love and commitment to minister with our friends from St. Monica’s. Obviously, much more to come on this subject.

Don’s Sabbatical – February 1, 2009 to May 14, 2009

As I mentioned at the very beginning of this report, this is my fifth annual report as your rector. Since I was called, it has been understood that in my sixth year as rector, I would, per diocesan policy, engage in a period of professional development leave – commonly known as a “sabbatical” or “renewal leave.” Contrary to popular assumption, this is not a time to take three months to lie on a beach in the Virgin Islands, although there is re-creational time built in. While I will be sharing more about this renewal leave in future months, the important thing for me to share with you this morning is that if properly approached, a rector’s sabbatical leave time can and should be a time of growth, reflection, and re-commitment to ministry for the congregation as a whole. One of the ideas behind our new committee structure of which I spoke earlier is that in my absence, the six committee conveners will be equipped to work closely with the wardens, with the assisting clergy and with all the various ministry teams to assure continued growth in the Spirit, and continued growth in service to God through the ministries of this place.

You may well be asking, “So who is paying for this?” That’s a good question. By the terms of my letter of agreement and Diocesan policy, the Diocese and Vestry will approve my proposal for sabbatical and, once approved, will agree to share the costs equally – 1/3 each from the Diocese, Parish and me. I am pleased to share with you that, with the blessed assistance of Sara Carson, Al Shuckra, Kathie Wilson, Ron Kolanowski and Frank Kirkpatrick, we sent off on Wednesday evening a proposal to the Lilly Endowment in the hope of receiving one of 120 grants they provide each year for clergy renewal leave. If our proposal is funded, it will meet 100% of the costs of the proposed leave. Again, much more on this to come as we get closer to the time.

Trinity 150th anniversary Celebration – September 2009 – June 2010

With nearly a year and a half to go, it is not too early for us to start planning for the 150th birthday of our parish. Operating from some materials that I received at a workshop at the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, a small committee has been meeting already for several months to plan a forward looking, dynamic celebration of Trinity’s 150 years of mission and ministry on Asylum Hill. We have extended an invitation to the presiding bishop to join us for either an opening or a closing celebration, and the plans are beginning to take shape. There will be innumerable opportunities to participate and take leadership in this undertaking, and I hope that each of you will offer your gifts to this important work of celebrating who and what Trinity represents in its mission and ministry.

At our Vestry retreat at the end of this month, one focus for us will be trying to articulate a vision for Trinity to guide us into the future. Our Futuring Team has drafted such a statement to help us focus our discussion, and that statement was developed out of our strengths identified at the Futuring Conference. I believe that vision should be rooted in our shared values of faithfulness, of mutual respect, of seeking unity in diversity, of mercy, love, gratitude, justice, and Christ Centeredness. These shared values will be evidenced in our common life together in the areas of our greatest strengths: faithful stewardship, our worship, spiritual formation, music and the arts, hospitality, service to our community, and welcoming our community in.

I look to a future in which we are known for devoting ourselves to making Trinity a sanctuary of welcome, hope and healing to all who seek God or a closer relationship with God; to making Trinity a parish devoted to our urban neighborhood and to welcoming all of God’s children, whoever they are and wherever they may be on their journey of faith, to join us as fellow pilgrims on this journey called life. And I hope that we will be known for using the gifts that God has given us to humbly seek God’s will for ourselves and for our community, faithfully working to make it a reality. Taken together, ultimately our vision is to be a church that proclaims, by word and example, the good news of God in Jesus Christ.

Our collect this morning sums up our task at hand: By God’s grace, acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of God’s divine majesty, worship the unity. That is who we are: Diverse by background and experiences, yet unified in our worship of God and in our commitment to carrying out the mission to which God calls us. As we look forward to celebrating our 150th anniversary, we do so not looking backward, but in following the sometimes gentle, sometimes surprising, but always Christ-centered leading of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.