February 2025: Supporting Ascentria Care Aliance

In the winter, it is a time of staying inside more….perhaps more inside oneself as well. How do you center yourself in Christ each day as changes evolve quicker than our brains, spirit, and hearts can process? Is there something you do physically, mentally, or spiritually or someone you talk to or see that grounds you?

Sometimes for me it is taking the small steps in moving forward in a grounded fashion…reading a daily meditation, being grateful for cutting our morning fruit bowl and hearing from my sister as she drives to work. Sometimes it is helping to move our intentions as a church body forward in concrete ways. In this regard, I would like to share a few of the steps we have taken.

First, the Council fully supported Pastor’s request of using his raise of $3,500 to support Ascentria Care Alliance. Ascentria Care Alliance suffered recent budget cuts and are in the midst of trying to find home sharing for refugee families. (See the email below from Jillian Decker, Director of Development, Ascentria Care Alliance for more details).

Secondly, Scott Carson was a guest at our last Council meeting. He proposed that he would be responsible for caring for the lawn this summer and reach out to other members for help. The Council decided to accept Scott’s proposal for this year. Thank you Scott and for the Property Task Force who is working on creating a viable team who can care for our property. We will keep the money designated for lawn care under the Property Line, should other needs develop this year.

Thirdly, the Task Force for our Mission Outreach Project has been formed and they have already met once. The Task Force comprises of Leslie Carsen, VJ Strehl, and Jo Whiting.

Philippians 3:13-14 New International Version (NIV)

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

It feels good to move forward. Sometimes we do not know where we are specifically going but we know our energies are directed for the common good.

Peace,

Erlinde Beliveau

Email from Jillian Decker:

Hi Erlinde,

It was wonderful to speak with you last week! Thank you for your interest in volunteering with refugees. Here is a quick word about the home share support we are looking for as well. I have also added my colleague Juli Pruden from the NH office who is the best contact for other volunteer opportunities.

The idea of Home Sharing is to provide temporary housing to UN-designated refugee families while Ascentria works to secure permanent housing. It is especially important at this time as we are unable to house families in hotel for much longer without access to our normal funding sources.

How It Works: Hosts: House can be shared with host or standalone, they just need enough rooms to accommodate, usually 2-3 rooms per family. Background Checks: All household members will pass a Sterling background check administrated by Ascentria. Safety Inspection: A case manager will assess the home for suitability. Family Matching: We’ll work with you to match a family based on space and needs. Ongoing Support: Each family has a dedicated case manager for assistance and to find them a long-term housing placement. Financial Responsibility: Hosts are not expected to cover costs; families receive state assistance for food and can contribute to utilities as well. We prioritize building independence. I hope this is helpful!

Jillian Decker Director of Development Development Team Ascentria Care Alliance 11 Shattuck St Worcester MA 01605

January 2025: Looking to the Budget Meeting and Annual Meeting

Happy New Year! In addition to this traditional greeting, I recognize these words do not carry the depth of my intention for each of you individually or collectively. I pray and hope that we all experience good health and joy in our lives, yet I also pray and hope this January can be a time of reflection. The winter season invites me to draw inward to reflect upon my beliefs in the power Jesus has in our lives to heal and make new, what we cannot. Here are some of the questions I pose to myself: What is my intention or prayer for this New Year? Will a word come to me this year that will embed me in God’s love and will resonate in my actions? What will help me clear energy that is stagnating in my body and heart to make room for Jesus? What are my practices to ensure this happens even when I do not “feel” like it or “feel” closer to Jesus in the process?

So my thoughts move from the heart and spirit and back to the “minding” of our church body. Our Advent was engaging and strong in preparing for our Lord’s coming in to our world. We had Christmas Eve services that ushered Jesus in to our lives with joy filled hearts. Out next step is ….. to be aware enough and rooted enough in God’s love to “witness” the epiphanies surrounding us?

January is a full month of planning for our journey and determining the path we want to follow. The Church Council is meeting on January 7th to further define our budget recommendations. We meet with all of you on Sunday, January 19th to share and discuss our budget and planning recommendations. We gather the following Sunday on January 26th for our Annual Meeting to firm up our plan and vote. It is an action month, perhaps based on the questions I and we answer from the first paragraph.

I look forward to co-creating and envisioning a path with you for the New Year!

Peace,

Erlinde

November 21, 2024: Our Active Ministry Teams

Thank you for all who attended the Adult Forum titled “Refining our Shared Ministry with Pastor Luther”. The Council appreciates your thoughts, comments and questions. As we ponder how we better live into this ministry, we are beginning to take action as well.

One of the comments that came up during our Adult Forum was to better communicate what we presently “do” as a church both in serving Our Community inside and Our Community outside our walls as well as where needs are. Below is a list of what we do.

The items with an asterisk, means more support of human resources is needed to be sustainable for those already in the various roles.

Caring Connections Team: Promotes the care and wellbeing of members and their families. * A chairperson is needed.

Prayer Shawl Ministry: Knits shawls for those with a serious illness, death in the family or any other situation in which the receiver would benefit from a prayer shawl Facilitator: Cheryl Brigham

Prayer Email Tree Ministry: Any member can ask to be on this prayer email tree, either for a prayer need or to provide prayer for others. Leader: Linda Edwards

Card/Mail Communications Ministry: Written messages of support for those who are ill or homebound. Leader: Susan Bock

Home Meal Ministry: Meals provided for those at home in need.  Leader: Nancy Hansen

Programs no longer in existence due to lack of team members: College Care packages, Health Team, and Driving Daisies

Pastoral Care Team: Outreach program of visitation, communion, and prayer within the church community for those who cannot attend church. Leaders: Yvonne Topping. Pam Brouker, and VJ Strehl

Social Ministry: Church’s response to human needs in the Seacoast area and outside of our church community Leader: Jessica Feeley has been serving for 4 years.

Operation Blessing: Donated food is collected throughout the year and for Thanksgiving baskets, Jessica Feeley. Holy Trinity has been supporting this ministry for many years.

Dover Friendly Kitchen: Holy Trinity provides a home cooked meal on the last Tuesday of the Month between 4:00-6:00pm. A Co-leader is needed to organize the other Holy Trinity individuals who are serving. Jessica can lead the Soup Kitchen on the odd months of the year (e.g., January, March). We need a Co-leader for the even months (e.g., February, April). Setting up, preparing food, serving food, and cleaning up are all tasks that are needed on a monthly or occasional time frame. Cookies are baked by HT parishioners and “cookie bakers” are needed. Joan Bauer is heading up the cookie collection. Holy Trinity has been supporting this ministry for more than 20 years.

Mitten/Hat Tree: New and gently used mittens, gloves, and hats are collected and given to an organization in need. Collection takes place in late Fall through Christmas. *A person is needed to bring the items to an organization in need. Jessica Feeley is the contact person. Holy Trinity has been supporting this ministry for many, many years.

End 68 Hours of Hunger: This National organization provides easy-to prepare-foods for children/teens over the weekends when school does not provide meals. This ministry involves the packaging up of the food bags in a church in Portsmouth. This ministry occurs on the 2nd Tuesday in late afternoon for approximately 2 hours. Food bag packers are needed on an occasional or consistent basis. Jessica Feeley is the contact person. Holy Trinity has been supporting this ministry for about 20 years.

Tanzania: Various types of support of our “sister” congregation include the purchasing of their handicrafts when displayed at Church, monetary support for educational scholarships, and travel to Tanzania for fellowship and learning. Kurt and Dot Kasik, Russ Hilliard and Jo Whiting are the contact people. Holy Trinity has been supporting this ministry for many years.

Other programs are identified, initiated, and supported throughout the year!

Christian Education: Support faith practices and development in the church and home Children Education/Confirmation: Lara Scammon *We need team members as well as teachers for confirmation and young children. Adult Education: Mark Edwards and Russ Hilliard

Women’s Retreat Ministry: Once a year, our Women’s group will go to Camp Calumet in Freedom, NH (about a 70-minute drive from Holy Trinity), and stay for the weekend. Holy Trinity develops a theme to reflect on for the weekend through dialogue and conversation, enhancing our faith walk. There is also time to enjoy food, hiking, relaxing by the beach, and other activities that Calumet has to offer, such as Calumet’s Church service on Sunday mornings. Contact: Leslie Carson

Property Team: Maintenance and improvement of Church’s building and property. Advisory Property Task Force members: Scott Carson, Jeff Morrison, Russ Hilliard, and Cristina Dolcino

*Need includes individuals who would like to serve on the Property Advisory Team (this is a different team than the above Task Force Team). This Team decides what tasks are needed to be worked on and how these tasks will be completed, either by the church members or hiring out tasks to contractors. Congregational members are invited to complete tasks of repair, maintenance, or beautification in the future on an “as-needed” basis. The Advisory Team individuals do not necessarily complete the task, but they can do so if desired.

Financial Team: Responsible for all the finances including but not limited to budgeting, disbursement and financial reports, receipts and individual member giving reports. Treasurer: Dan Scammon

Plan: Pursue hiring an accountant to relieve Barry Philbrick of his role as assistant treasurer, as he wishes to step down after more than 20 years of faithful service. Dan continues to serve 2 roles. * We need a financial secretary. Dan has been covering this job as well as his responsibilities as a treasurer.

Worship Team: Arrangement and planning of worship throughout the church year. Meets on the first Wednesday of the month at 11 am. Leader: Dot Kasik Altar Guild Team leader: Julie Moore *Looking for new members to serve on Altar Guild.

Welcoming Committee: Responsible for creating a hospitable place through our environment and actions. Leader: Betty Smith

*We invite you to join in taking on various roles in worship including those of deacons, lectors, greeters, ushers, counters, coffee preparation and clean up and bakers, choir members and instrumentalists.

Plan: Members will be able to sing up for these various roles next Sunday after church, with training to follow at a designated time/date.

Stewardship Team: Coordinate the spirit of giving and stewardship campaign Team Leader: Dave Arrington* - single person led ministry *We are in need of 1-2 additional members on this team.

Library Team: Organizes and maintains the church’s library of books and other resources. Leader: Dot Kasik and Pam Shaw

Creation Care Team: Responsible for exploring and identifying how our church can take actions to become better environmental stewards. Task Force Facilitator: Glenn Oswald *This team would love to have another 1-3 members join their efforts.

WOW! As you can see, we have many wonderful ministries and faithful leaders and participants that are adequately supported. We also have some roles in ministries that need to be filled and where more volunteers are needed. We hope you consider sharing your time and talents in these areas. If you want to talk with a Team leader and don’t know who they are, you can ask Pastor, a Council Member, or Mark in the Office to connect you with them!

Holy Trinity has a long history of embracing new ideas that spring up organically from members. This will continue because God is working through us as individuals and as a community. Let us embrace this next chapter…

With a grateful heart,

Erlinde

November 10, 2024: Refining Our Shared Ministry with Pastor Luther

Our Adult Forum this Sunday will focus on the second session in our series about “Refining Our Shared Ministry with Pastor Luther”. Pastor Luther, Russ Hilliard and I will do a quick recap if you missed the Adult Forum on October 13th.

This coming Sunday we will spend our time reflecting on what we as a congregation have learned and how we can be an integral part of sharing our ministry with Pastor Luther. How do we adapt and take this opportunity to move forward body given our changing demographics and our limited resource of human time or chronos? I ask that as you listen, you also prayerfully consider how this can be done for you individually and as a community. I recently read somewhere, “that when our thinking or minds end, grace begins”. Although I resonated with this thought, I also believe that as we ponder and pray, sometimes we allow some breaking from what was done. This breaking may create “cracks” or “fissures” where grace can enter into our thinking and create a new foundation to work from. Your Church Council is exploring and pursuing some options, especially in areas of Finance and Property where members have been serving in roles for more than 20 years.

So I invite you to please come, listen, and ask questions as we embark in new ways of thinking to faithfully serve our Lord with the resources we have available to us.

Peace,

Erlinde

November 10 2024: Review and Refinement of Shared Ministry with Pastor Luther

This past Sunday in our Adult Forum, we celebrated the first-year anniversary of Pastor Luther beginning his call with Holy Trinity. We spent time discussing the blessings of this past year, what we have learned, and then how Pastor’s role will be refined going forward. When we called Pastor Luther, we recognized that this call would be a “living experiment” as we have never before shared a pastor with another congregation. The refinements we are making now are in this sense adjustments we knew we would likely need to make as we lived more deeply into our “shared ministry.” Attached is a two-page handout that summarizes what Pastor Luther, Russ Hilliard, and I shared. I also strongly encourage you to listen to the Adult Forum if you missed it, as the forum included a sharing of personal experiences, some thoughtful discussion, and many good questions and responses among those who attended. The next segment of our discussion—which is an adult forum scheduled for November 10—will focus on how we as a congregation can become more involved in sharing some of the ministry opportunities that Pastor Luther will be unable to continue. This is an exciting time during which we are being called by the Holy Spirit into new and creative ways of “being church.” Such change can be scary at first, of course; but it almost always is a catalyst for meaningful growth, learning, and fresh opportunities to serve God and our community.

Erlinde

October 3, 2024: Reflections on the Shared Ministry with Pastor Luther

President’s Article

We have intentionally made the decision to take the time to celebrate and reflect on the Shared Ministry Holy Trinity entered into with Pastor Luther one year ago. Why? Because anniversaries are times to celebrate and reflect on what our joys and challenges have been and where we hope to go in the next year. The decision to do so is done deliberately because we have never had to share a Pastor with another church. This is new to us and we are living into it. See below for a summary of why our relationship is innovative.

Anne Lamott wrote a book titled: Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers twelve years ago. She is an American novelist and writes non-fiction.

In this book, Anne writes, “When we are stunned to the place beyond words, we’re finally starting to get somewhere. It is so much more comfortable to think that we know what it all means, what to expect and how it all hangs together. When we are stunned to the place beyond words, when an aspect of life takes us away from being able to chip away at something until it’s down to a manageable size and then to file it away nicely, when all we can say in response is “Wow,” that’s a prayer.”

We prayed fervently for the future of our church and for a special person to lead us into the next chapter of our faith lives. This was not an easy time for Holy Trinity, and we prayed. One year ago, with hearts filled with gratitude, we received and welcomed Pastor Luther.

In this past year, we give thanks for many blessings. We will share some of these blessings next Sunday, during our Adult Forum on October 6th. We will set aside some time to simply say “Wow”. We hope you can join us for this time of reflection. We will also share our refinement of Pastor Luther’s role as we live into our covenant in the next year. Then on Sunday, November 10th, we will reflect and refine our role as a congregation as we live into this covenant as well.

August 2024: Exciting Plans for the Fall!

I would like to share some of our exciting plans for the fall as well as some logistics. Let’s not let this stop us from soaking in the last couple of weeks of summer though.

First of all, it is with a very grateful heart we say good bye to Pastor Larsen on his last Sunday with us on September 1st (Labor Day weekend). His presence and service as our Summer Supply Pastor is a gift. On September 8th, we welcome Pastor Dave Snyder to lead us in worship. He served as our pastor from 1989 to 1997 and now resides with his wife, Susan in New Jersey. On September 15th, we welcome back Pastor Luther! I look forward to see how God will work through us with Pastor Luther in the next year!

In the fall, Adult Forums will be held on the first and second Sundays of the month after the service. This will begin in October and continue through December. At this point, we will re-evaluate to see if the schedule needs any modifications. Mark Edwards and Russ Hilliard are the coordinators. Please contact them if you have ideas or thoughts for future forums. At times, we may have an activity or ministry team event at the same time as a forum, expanding the choices available to members.

The third and fourth Sundays will be used for special meetings or events. Some of these may be Council-led, and some maybe team ministry led. One special meeting has already been set for October 20th. The Council will review proposed changes to our Bylaws. We will be voting on these changes next January.

Erlinde

August 2024: "Pollinators"

We have a beautiful Tulip tree outside of our kitchen window. Earlier this summer, many tulips blossomed and fell to the ground. With the tulips in the branches came many bumblebees carrying out their pollinating business. I do love metaphors, and I think of all of us as pollinators. We fertilize a community or the people in our life with the pollen of God’s love. Some fun facts: Pollinators are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies in a vital interaction that allows the transfer of genetic material vital to most flowering plants so they can reproduce. As you witness the next bumblebee buzzing around, perhaps think of yourself as a pollinator touching one person with God’s affirming and edifying love and then doing the same to the next person you meet.

How will we pollinate one another as our needs change? How do we go about doing this inside of our church family and outside in the community? We, as a Church Council are exploring where can we effectively pollinate as a congregation. Over the next few weeks, we will be having meetings to explore with you how we will direct our pollination efforts to best use the gifts God has given to us. Meetings include discussing our Tanzania ministry and our Music/Choir ministry. We are also in the process of developing an Advisory Team to evaluate and make recommendations for the next steps in caring for our property. Pollinating may be done one bee at a time but the fruits become more visible if they work from their hive as a team. So it is with our community.

Erlinde Beliveau

June 2024: Prayer is our most powerful tool

This article is intended to be a reminder, in hopes of increasing our awareness of the life we are embracing at Holy Trinity. When we agreed to share in our ministry with Pastor Luther, a large part of our understanding and commitment was the need for members to become more involved in all aspects of church life, particularly post-covid. This is our first summer together. Pastor Luther is leading Emmanuel Congregation in Manchester by the Sea and continuing to serve at Holy Trinity. My observation is that it can be done, yet the elasticity is much tighter in terms of adding more during the summer. “More’ happens as life happens: deaths, spiritual needs, etc. Pastor Luther would not miss these moments of connection and doing God’s work. So, let us simply be more aware of this.

I find many of you are giving of your resources generously. So is this a call to action? No it isn’t. It is a call to pray and reflect on how we will be inspired to change to embrace our new model of carrying out God’s work and how we use our resources. I cannot help but reflect on how this parallels my own life. What I once did quickly and efficiently, I am now looking to hire someone to help us with. Yes it means less resources for other things, yet it also means we are good stewards of what we have: respecting our bodies’ limitations and still continue to participate in life in a different and full way.

Thank you for praying….it is still our most powerful tool as we embrace change, stay open to the possibilities, and love each other.

Erlinde

May 2024: Notice of Proposed Amendments to the Holy Trinity Constitution

The Council is proposing to update our present Constitution so as to include mandatory changes as put forward by the ELCA. These changes primarily relate to updating our mission and references to disabilities.

The Council is also proposing some changes to reflect current practices and clarify provisions. In C13.03, we propose changing the structure of the audit process, designating up to three members to conduct a financial audit annually. In C14.01, we propose clarifying the submission of written reports by Ministry Teams.

Earlier this year, Pam Shaw resigned from her position as the Ministry Team Leader of "Serve the Lord". At the Mid-Year meeting, we also will be formally voting Cristina Dolcino onto the Council in this position. Thank you Cristina for being willing to serve and thank you Pam for your service.

The other voting items include renaming and redesignating in/out funds or balance sheet items (not in our budget) so we can put them to good use. The changes are:

"Sabbatical Fund Reserve" to "Hospitality Fund". Holds $4,000.

"Flowers" to "Beautification Fund". Holds $4066.

"Organ Fund" to "Audio Sound System Fund" Holds $1,405.

You can read the proposed updated HTELC Constituion by clicking this link. I hope to see many of you at this meeting as well as the picnic that follows!

Erlinde