The All-Church Retreat is this Sunday, August 27th! So don't show up at 10am at the Trinity Building, as worship is happening on the beach at Sound View Camp! Even if you can't stay for the whole day, consider joining us just for worship for the morning.
If you haven’t registered, please sign up today, so we know how many are coming.
Directions to Sound View Camp
Bring supplies to church on Sunday, or donate money directly (from the drop down menu, choose Back to School Night).
Crayola Thin Washable Markers
3-pronged, 2-pocket folders
Crayola Colored Pencils
Black Flair Pens
Pink Erasers
Wide-ruled Composition Notebooks
Highlighters
Ziploc bags
Pencil Sharpeners w/ cover
Wide-ruled spiral notebooks
It was busy at the Bryant Neighborhood Center July 31-Aug 4! The BNC partnered with Club B, an afterschool program from SAMI, SOTA, and IDEA to put on the first ever Neighbor Camp, a STEM and Arts weeklong day camp for 1st-5th graders from the Bryant neighborhood. High school students were the awesome counselors who led every STEM and Arts activity; middle school volunteers were the helpful junior counselors. We had 24 campers who were very, very busy creating and experimenting the whole week with many fun and cool activities like decorating their lab coats, squeegee art, making volcanoes, and playing games in a fun field water day. Thanks to Mica and Shannon the amazing Club B staff leaders, Kyle M the Master of Fun and Games, Roseann the Creative Chef Extraordinaire, and Kelly H who had so much fun helping out being a family liaison, taking pictures, and being around these great kids! Thanks also to Nikki, our BNC Senior Director for her outside-the-box vision and planning.
Sammie Jackson
The self-acclaimed "Concierge of Clean," we are excited to welcome Sammie Jackson aboard as our new Custodian. Originally from Chicago, Sammie has been living in the Tacoma area for the last five years. Fun facts - Sammie is a drummer and was an actor in the movie The Meteor Man. He's very excited to join the team and support everything that's going on at Trinity and the BNC by keeping us clean. Be sure to say "hi" if you see him around. Welcome Sammie!
Charin Hedstrom
Charin joins the Trinity team as their new Administrative Coordinator, serving as the point person in the office. Born and raised in Tacoma, Charin has a heart for this city and its changes and challenges through the years. Reach her at 253-272-8819 (press 1) or admin@tpctacoma.org
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this year's BNC Auction - Growing Together! What a wonderful night! It could not have happened without the many volunteers, Silent and Live Auction donors, and dozens of generous supporters in the room! $35,000 was raised! All of which will go directly to supporting the partners, people, and programs of the BNC! Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is a joy to be growing this garden together!
This past Sunday was special in the life of our congregation as we celebrated five teenagers, Ashley Brewster, Phineas McNeely, Elise Bouchard, Leo Haferbecker, and Maddie Cramer finishing an 8-month-long journey of faith exploration called Catechumenate. We honored the journey they've all been on, and celebrated as three of them made professions of faith in Christ, and two of them were baptized.
It was wonderful having friends from Mending Wings visit us last weekend. They led us in worship through prayer, dancing, drama, and an important sermon from director, Corey Greaves. A huge thank you to the five families who opened their homes to host the team, and all those who helped prepare meals for their visit. We look forward to connecting with these friends again in the future. If you didn't get a chance and would like to support the important work that Mending Wings is doing "helping our native youth fly again" then check out the Send 10 challenge here.
For a long time now, Hagar's Community Church at the WCCW, a ministry of our Olympia Presbytery, hasn't been able to meet in person. We're excited to announce that as of this Sunday, April 2nd, Hagar's will be able to gather every week on Sunday nights! If you want more information about how to become a regular volunteer with HCC and attend worship services at WCCW, please email Hagar's. "THANK YOU to all those who have prayed with us! God is good."
Trinity's long-time partner school, Bryant, is getting re-built this year and next. Check out these new architectural renderings of the new building, as they continue the design process.
Palm/Passion Sunday - Sunday, April 2nd at 10am. Bring a new or lightly used coat to donate.
Maundy Thursday Meal - Thursday, April 6th, 5-6:15 pm. Come and enjoy a simple soup supper in the BNC. Please RSVP here for your household so we know how many plan to attend.
Maundy Thursday - Thursday, April 6th at 6:30pm. Worship including the Lord’s Supper, the bearing of the cross, and the Tenebrae (service of shadows).
Easter - Sunday, April 9th at 10am. A resurrection celebration, including the flowering of the cross!
On Sunday, April 16th Trinity will host a group from Mending Wings, a ministry located on the Yakama Indian Reservation. They will lead us in worship with a service called "Dancing Our Prayers." We are excited to host many of the students that our high schoolers met on our SLAM Trip last summer. In order to prepare ourselves as hosts, Kyle is looking for host families to house 8 students and leaders from the evening of Saturday April 15th to Sunday morning, April 16th. We will host a dinner for the group when they arrive on Saturday night. Hosts will provide a space for the students to sleep and a simple breakfast on Sunday morning.
We need hosts for about 8 people. Email Kyle if interested.
Trinity’s Session & Pastor Matt are applying this month to a Sabbatical Renewal Grant program through Christian Theological Seminary (Indianapolis) that seeks to “strengthen Christian congregations through renewal and reflection.” The grant provides resources for a renewal leave time for the pastor (including a pastor during the leave), and a renewal program for the congregation. The theme of our proposed program is “Renewed in God’s Abundance,” and will be centered around the 23rd Psalm. We’ve been through quite a season over the past five years or so at Trinity, and we want to really lean into God’s provision and care and renewal in this season. The Trinity Session and Pastor Matt are already planning for a Summer 2024 Sabbatical for the Robbins-Ghormleys, and that time will be set aside whether or not we receive this grant. If you have any questions, you can contact Session members Lana Rocke, Nalani Linder, or Renata McNeely, or Pastor Matt. Thanks for your prayers as we put the finishing touches on our application!
We are excited to participate in the Whitworth Summer Fellowship Program. We will host Kyle Marquez, a Sophomore Political Science and Theology Major from Bremerton, WA. Kyle will be with us for 10-12 weeks this summer exploring and engaging in a variety of Trinity programs, and focusing on working with our youth. One way we need to prepare for Kyle joining us this summer is to find a homestay for him from early June to mid-August. The goal is for Kyle to be an involved member of his homestay for the summer. If you have space and are interested in hosting our fellow, please email Kyle Bradshaw for more information.
We were glad to host 40 participants for the Native Blanket Exercise on Saturday, February 18th in the BNC. It's the first of a series of workshops coming up in the next few months. Plan to be a part of "Never Again,” the reading of a play by our own Aya Hagayashi Clark, followed by a facilitated conversation. This workshop will take place on Zoom, and you can pre-register here. “Never Again” weaves together first-hand, personal testimonies of Japanese Americans living in Tacoma who were incarcerated in WWII internment camps to tell the story of this tragic event in US history.
Please enjoy some photos from the Native Blanket Exercise this past Saturday.
So often Jesus asked questions rather than providing answers. And he wasn’t just using questions as a teaching technique (‘Socratic method’ or something), you get the impression that Jesus is genuinely curious about the person in front of him. Pastor & Author Winn Collier writes this: “Curiosity speaks to our deep human need for connection, for relationship - we humans simply aren’t curious enough of one another’s stories, and Jesus models for us another way.” During the Sundays of Lent at Trinity, we’ll be listening afresh to some of Jesus’ curious questions, and wondering about how those questions hit us in our moment, in our story, in our context - and consider where those questions might lead us.
Join us February 26th - April 2nd.
Last weekend, 25-38 men (depending on the day and time) from Trinity and a couple of friends close to Trinity joined in for a deep and meaningful retreat along with lots of laughter, some beer, and some dad jokes. We were considering spiritual formation as it takes shape in the midst of life. Family, vocation, and crisis, according to Richard Foster, have a way of shaping us or inviting us to pay attention to what God might be doing or saying to us in those places of ordinary life. Seven men shared honestly their stories from these three areas. In small groups, we talked with each other about these three areas and experiences that have shaped us along the journey. Awesome, honest. open, relaxed, meaningful, tender, real, and authentic were all some of the adjectives used as we talked about our weekend experience at the close of the weekend around the communion table. Yes, there was "Moody Ball", ping pong, and just sitting around the fireplace and talking, too. But "keeping it real" had center stage.
Learn more about where Trinity is going with our Vision 2027.
“As the Father sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21)
Most of us don’t presume that our very ordinary day-to-day lives as parents and electricians and students and neighbors are deeply connected with God’s cosmic plan to redeem the world. And yet, if we take seriously all that Jesus has to say, maybe we really are - and we just can’t see it. Sometimes we can think that it’s only people who have some formal religious job who are really following ‘the call.’ But nothing could be further from the truth. All of us are loved. All of us are called. All of us are sent.
What might just come as a surprise is that this ‘sent-ness’ is not a heavy burden, or something forced, but rather it comes to us in freedom, and comes in the shape of our own lives. As we start 2023 at Trinity, we’ll be exploring identity and calling, discerning the voice of the Spirit, and coming to understand ourselves as those ‘sent’ by God into all the corners of our lives.
Jan 15 “Sent: Primary Calling”
Jan 22 "Sent: No More Lay People"
Jan 29 "Sent: In the Shape of My Life"
Feb 5 "Sent: What is Your Great Gladness?"
Feb 12 "Sent: What is the World's Great Hunger?"
Feb 19 "Sent: Who is Your Community of Friends?"
