The first Adult Education spiritual growth opportunity will begin on Sunday, September 14, at 9:30 a.m. with an exciting series, entitled "Saving Jesus." This is a 12-session DVD-based exploration of Jesus through the ages, featuring leading religious voices of our times. Utilizing the powerful DVD presentations, we will explore through discussion of open-ended questions what we traditionally believe about Jesus and then move on to being challenged or affirmed by some new ideas about Jesus. Rick Hasler will facilitate the series.

If you cannot attend all 12 programs, please come when you can. You can "enter" the series at any point because each session is self-contained. So, come when you can and don't worry about catching up! In fact, we feel this series is so potent that we are planning to have it repeated on a weekday evening (TBA) if this is of interest to the congregation. Please let the office know (725-3840) if you are interested.

Please join us in the Chapel September 14 - November 30 for good conversations, good coffee and snacks and enjoyable fellowship! You are most welcome to bring a friend, too!

Series Contributors

Marcus Borg - Jesus scholar, author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, and The Heart of Christianity.

Rita Nakashima Brock - Director of Faith Voices for the Common Good, co-author of Proverbs of Ashes.

John Dominic Crossan - Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at De Paul University, premier historical Jesus scholar. Author of Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, Who Killed Jesus? and The Birth of Christianity. A Roman Catholic monk for nineteen years and a priest for twelve years, Crossan is a former co-chair of the Jesus Seminar and chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

James Forbes - Senior Pastor of Riverside Church in NYC, the first African American to serve as Senior Minister of one of the largest multicultural congregations in the nation.

Matthew Fox - Episcopal priest, author of Original Blessing, Creation Spirituality, and The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.

Amy-Jill Levine - Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

Rebecca Ann Parker - Seminary President, Professor of Theology of Starr King School, co-author of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us and author of a book of collected essays Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now.

Helen Prejean - Roman Catholic Sister and leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Author of Dead Man Walking

Bernard Brandon Scott - Professor of New Testament at the Phillips Theological Seminary, University of Tulsa, OK, charter member of the Jesus Seminar, author of Re-Imagine the World and Hear Then the Parable.

...with further contributions by Jon Cobb, Walter Brueggemann , Lloyd Geering, Hans Küng, Tex Sample, Luther Smith, Pat Mc Mahon, Stephen Patterson, John Shelby Spong, Jim & Jean Strathdee, and Emilie Townes

October topics include:

• October 5: What Can we Know About Jesus (and How)?
• October12: The World Into Which Jesus was Born
• October 19: Jesus' Birth: Incarnation
• October 26: Teachings of Jesus: Wisdom Tradition.

Please join us on Sunday, October 5th as we gather with our brothers and sisters around the world to celebrate World Communion Sunday. At Trinity we will lift up members who have lived in or have had a particular involvement with another country and hear some of their experiences on their faith journey. We will commune with breads of many countries as we observe this special day with Christians world wide.

Break the Bread of New Creation; Peacemaking on World Communion Sunday:"Then they told what had happened on the road to Emmaus, and how Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you'."

Each year members of Trinity Presbyterian Church join other churches in The Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.) to bring peace to God's children in God's world. We declare that peacemaking is the believer's calling, that all our joint ministries should proclaim peacemaking and that Presbyterians will work for peace in their own lives, their families, their community and the world. We also join with the entire Presbyterian family and the Peacemaking Program to provide financial means to bring peace on earth. The Peacemaking Offering will be taken on Sunday, October 5, the day of Worldwide Communion, as we celebrate with brothers and sisters around the world the many great gifts given to us by God. These next three weeks you will find in your worship bulletin examples of ministries in the world made possible by our joint Peacemaking efforts and dollars.

We have a number of ways in which we can minimize our footprint in the world at Trinity--recycling, energy changes (light bulbs, heating/cooling), eco-palms, paper consumption, etc. Especially now that we have our report of recommendations from our recent energy audit, the time is ripe to develop this Team idea further (a handful of members have been discussing this since the mission fair last fall). If you are interested, please let Liz know in the office.

- Stacy Shupe, Chair, Spiritual Growth Commission

Many of you may be wondering what we have in store for children and youth this fall. We have decided to have an intentional focus on group-building this fall for our education hour at church. Each of the teachers of the K-12 classrooms have committed to at least one semester to provide consistency with the kids. We will again use the liturgy-based Seasons of the Spirit curriculum, but our primary focus will be on creating a small group feel within each Sunday morning class. Each class will also plan some fellowship activities outside of Sunday mornings and will participate in some kind of service project together. We hope this will help our children to feel more connected to one another.

The current schedule of lead teachers for the fall is as follows:

• K-1 - Dave Nelson
• 2-4 - Jayne Howard
• 5-6 - Diane O'Brien
• 7- 8 - Mary McKown and John Pfeifer
• 9-12 - Brian and Carrie Muegge

Each class will also need a fairly regular helper and people to help plan the fellowship and service opportunities. We will also undoubtedly need substitutes at some point. If you would like to help in any of these areas, please contact the teacher of the class, Stacy Shupe, or Julie March.

Jesus' question continues to confront us: "Who do you say that I am?" Is he the gracious savior? A wise teacher? A miracle worker? A prophet? The Son of God? In this final Interfaith Exploration, we will explore these questions in a lively, interactive format. Good food and warm hospitality are also promised. We will meet in the Chapel on Monday, September 8 at 7 p.m.

Mark your calendars now for the 2008 CROP Walk, scheduled for Sunday, October 26 at Forest Park. More church teams from all over the city joined together last year to raise more money to feed the poor than any other city in the U.S.A! Plan to join the Trinity Trotters this year for a bigger and better CROP Walk for our city. Talk to Julie March about joining the team as we walk to serve those in need.

- Pat Gibbons

"....I want to help Mom get a home where she can raise her children, encourage them, invite their friends to come and play, or work on school projects. I can do this, thanks to Trinity and Habitat for Humanity."

We had our first build day at the Habitat home (two blocks east of Grand Boulevard and two blocks north of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive) on Thursday, August 21. Thank you to Stacey Carman, Vicki Carmichael, Pat Courtney, Curt March, Rob Peglar, Jim Person, Art Platt, Bob Wagoner, and Nancy Wagoner, who joined me that day. We got a lot done.

Consider signing up for our next day: (tentatively) Saturday, October 25, and on another Saturday in October to be determined later. Email me at pcg@wustl.edu, or call at 314-727-1471 (home) or 314-935-6271 (work) with any questions. And please keep all the staff and volunteers at Habitat in your prayers as this year's ambitious build goes on.

I need people to usher on the following dates:

- Rev. Dr. Daniel Anderson-Little, Pastor

Caring Bridge Entry from August 4, 2008:

When this cancer nightmare started in late November of last year, we had little idea of what the future held. We knew Linda had cancer, we had some ideas about how serious it was, but there were so many questions, so many uncertainties. We had a date for surgery, a date for chemo, and if all went according to plan, a date for radiation. But other than that, we didn't know how Linda would recover, what effects the treatments would have on her - we didn't even know if the cancer had spread anywhere else. The one date that we dared to dream about was August 8, 2008. That was the date for Linda's brother Doug and his fiancee Linda's wedding. We didn't know if Linda would be up to making the trip, but we placed a stake in the ground (or a pin in the calendar) and thought, "Maybe. Maybe we will make it. Maybe we will be emerging from this treacherous ride." As a way to sacramentalize that hope, I even chose a password for the CaringBridge site that expressed that hope. And today, that maybe of November became a certainty of August. Right about now Linda and Leah are taking off for San Jose. They will arrive in a few hours, spend a few days with a friend from middle school and then on to the wedding on Friday. More than a year ago, Doug and Linda picked 08-08-08 as the day to get married, as the day to be the first day of the rest of their lives. Turns out it is also that date for Linda and our family.

Post Script: Linda returned to her full-time pastorate at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on August 17, 2008.

- Rev. Julie March, Associate Pastor

I recently attended a Continuing Education seminar, led by Church Historian Diana Butler Bass, about the future of the church - specifically about the future of mainline Protestant congregations. We have read and been told by prognosticators that our congregations are shrinking, and, to quote nurse Nellie in the musical South Pacific, "We haven't very far to go." We can see this in our own Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denomination, but we also know that some congregations continue to thrive. To investigate this phenomenon, Bass did an extensive, three year study of congregations that are successful and vital in order to find out what they are doing that is different. She discovered that these congregations are deeply involved in the intentional engagement of Christian practices. The conclusion of her study is that, "Christian practices lead to deeper vitality in the church."

In my almost two years as Associate Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church, I have experienced this congregation as a vital and energetic bunch. So, I asked myself, "How do we compare with these vital churches who engage in Christian practices?" Bass divides her study into three categories - Practices, Tradition and Remembering.

Practices - Doing - Christian practices are those shared activities that address fundamental human needs and that, woven together, form a way of life. Christian practices include:

• Prayer, contemplative prayer, prayers of the people, corporate prayer, intercessory prayer
• Worship, sacraments, music, singing, preaching, proclamation, celebration, recognition
• Fellowship, life together, Bible study, education
• Spiritual practice individually and in groups, spiritual writing and journaling
• Seeking God's presence and God's actions in one's life and in the world
• Practicing gratitude and humility in conflict

Tradition - Remembering - Tradition is a partnership of the living, the dead and those not yet born. Some congregational traditions are:

• Small groups for telling stories and reconnecting with memory
• Exploration of past spiritual and Christian practices
• Exploring other religious traditions
• Asking who we are in history, what our place is in the pilgrimage through time
• Exploring where Christians have gone before

Wisdom - Knowing - Hearing the words of our ancestors in the faith. Wisdom encompasses:

• Practicing an ethical approach to all things
• Engaging in outreach, actionable knowledge
• Mission activities, serving others
• Searching for truth
• Seeking wisdom that will change the world
• Teaching, talking, sharing with others.

It seems to me that as we move into the future, we can all think of ways that these vital practices can become more real and present in our life together here at Trinity. Envisioning our own future includes the Interfaith Explorations adventure, and engagement in mission outreach. The Peace Prayer team will reach out into the community and the world to connect us with those around the world who also seek peace and reconciliation. A new small group will focus on prayer, and another on spiritual writing and journaling. In Spiritual growth we join together in study and sharing, searching for wisdom and truth. The future of the church lies in God's imagination and can this can lead us as we seek God's transforming presence for our congregation.

What are your ideas that can add to the vital future of Trinity Presbyterian Church?

- Bonnie Roy

Trinity Garden Clean-Up! Sunday, September 28th. We need as many helping hands as we can get. Please bring a change of clothes, your gloves and gardening tools. We'll be cleaning up the beds outside in preparation for new plantings. With several hands this should only take a few hours - we can walk up to Bread Co for a celebratory lunch when our work is done. If you own a truck and would be willing to assist, please contact me at bonniecarinroy@yahoo.com or 314-771-0395.

Have a Recycled Trinity Vase Sitting at Home? As a gentle reminder, if you've signed up to order flowers and may still have the recycled vase at home, kindly return them back to the church office. These vases should be marked Trinity or TPC on the bottom.

Interested in Donating Flowers this Fall? If you have flowers or foliage you can cut from your own garden or you would like to donate a purchased arrangement, please sign up across from the library.

- Stacy Shupe

As the school year begins again, the younger members of our Trinity family - our children - will return to worship. A year ago, the Session agreed that to be a welcoming congregation, we need to make sure that children feel welcome in worship. We began adapting our worship last year to include children more. We now have children serve as liturgists and ushers. Our Sunday-school curriculum connects to the lectionary that we are using during worship, so children learn about a passage before hearing it in worship. We have worship bags to provide a more child-centered focus to the service. We have shortened the service to an hour, which is more in line with the attention span of young children.

However, I believe there is more we can do to help children learn to appreciate and understand how we worship God. Here are some ideas I have, along with ministry opportunities for those of you who would like to help. These are only a few ideas - I would love to hear more!

- Bill Wade, Interim Minister of Music - Organist

There are exciting opportunities in progress for participation in the Trinity Presbyterian music program. We offer people of all ages an opportunity to find a place to share their musical gifts and talents. We need you! Please contact Vicki or me to let us know if you want to sing, ring, play an instrument, help out at the organ, play the piano, lead an ensemble, play a chime, or beat time.

As we program a wide variety of music, we are mindful of the many opinions recently expressed in our music ministry needs assessment. Our intent is not to present music for the sake of entertainment, but to be ever vigilant to the importance of music as a component of worship. The goal of the musical offerings is to embrace the diversity of creation and incorporate that diversity within the context of worship using music of all ages and genre. As worshippers ourselves, we can become distracted by the worry about the mechanics of the style and trappings of worship and lose sight of the importance of the deep meaning and spiritual purpose of worship.

Please know that your musical leaders respectfully approach our responsibility with these established core values of worship in mind:

1) A vivid awareness of the beauty, majesty, mystery, and holiness of God

2) The full, conscious, active participation of all worshippers, in the context of a fully intergenerational community

3) Deep engagement with scripture

4) Joyful and solemn celebrations of the sacraments

5) Balanced approach to culture

6) Disciplined creativity in the arts

7) Collaboration with congregational ministries

8) Hospitality and welcoming to all

9) Integration of worship and life

10) Collaborative planning and evaluation

Grace and Peace,
Bill Wade (drwewade@gmail.com)

- Vicki Carmichael, Interim Minister of Music - Choir Director

Do you like to SING? Ever thought about joining a choir? How about the Trinity Choir? The Trinity Choir consists of high school age through adult members, and is open to anyone willing to sing for worship services. The ability to read music is not required, although helpful (see blurb in this TN about a sight-singing class for beginners!). More importantly, it's what is in the heart and the dedication to the group that makes a good choir member.

The Trinity Choir sings most Sundays during the traditional "school year," as well as special services on Christmas Eve. We'll be singing a cantata this advent season and have plans for other special performances as well. The repertoire has a good mix of styles, from classical to modern.

While it is helpful to have everyone present throughout the year, life does happen, and so we have an open door policy: you are always welcome! Our philosophy is quite simple: We sing to glorify our God and Lord. If you have further questions about the Trinity Choir, please contact me at vcarmichael44@gmail.com or by phone at (314) 620-0111. Or, better yet, come to a rehearsal (7:30-9:15 on Thursdays) and find out first-hand. We hope to meet you there!

Calling all 5^th thru 8^th graders who want to SING!! Karen Coletti will be working with a youth choir this fall. The youth will get to sing in worship several times this fall as well as participate in special services throughout the church year, like Palm Sunday and Christmas Eve! What are we calling this group of enthusiastic young musicians? You'll have to show up to rehearsal to find out!! Meet Ms. Coletti in Room 206 following worship from 11:30-12:00 on Sunday, October 5^th to get this fun group started.

- Margy Brown

The Music Ministry Needs Assessment - Dream Team has essentially completed its work. We had a great response to the luncheon with approximately 75 people attending. Given that this occurred in the middle of the summer, we think this represents confirmation of how important the music ministry is to Trinity. Probably not surprisingly, given the diversity of our congregation, the feedback that we've received covers a wide territory and some desires are in direct conflict with others. This report will attempt to distill the data into some general themes and then provide some data from our survey to attempt to show the range of opinions.

The major themes that we heard were:

Diversity - Most of the people we heard from value the diversity of musical styles that we experience. Some would like more or less of certain styles but the majority wants more than one kind of music on a regular basis.

Inclusion/Ability to Participate - We want everyone to have the opportunity to be a part of the music ministry - young and old, instrumentalists as well as vocal music, even people without innate musical talent. We particularly want to include children and have their gifts integrated into the program as a whole.

Meaning and Integration - We want music that is deeply connected to our spirituality. Music should be an integral part of the service and serve to reinforce the message being delivered. We aren't looking to be entertained; we want our music to help us connect to God and to one another. We want to experience a sense of joy. Program notes that help us to understand the background of a piece of music and/or the reason it was selected for a particular service help us to connect and can help us to appreciate music that isn't exactly to our taste.

It seems important to have someone who can coordinate multiple choirs and many different types of musical offerings. We want our music program to be overseen by the minister(s) of music, even if he or she does not personally direct each group. It may not be realistic to think that one person could lead every type of choir and instrumental group desired but it is important to ensure that our music program is delivering a consistent message and that it allows for broad intergeneration participation from the congregation. It isn't possible to please everyone all the time but we want to try and have something for everyone. We want someone who is open to new ideas but also comfortable with traditional and classical music. And we want someone who is a minister of music, who cares deeply about the church and its message.

We would like to offer our thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the survey or provide comments. This information will be passed on to the search committee for their use in finding our next minister(s) of music. But please feel free to continue to pass along comments and suggestions to our team or to the search committee once it is formed.

In Your Own Words - Survey Responses Grouped by Themes

I love it when we:

Diversity

1. Have lots of diversity

2. Enjoy a mix of well known hymns and new songs

3. Encourage people to try new things

4. Variation/Diversity - traditional as well as new

5. Freshness of bringing in music from other countries

6. Have instrumentalists and choral music

7. I like the combination of piano and organ

8. I love it when we open our sanctuary for a wide variety of musical and other arts groups

9. I love a wider range of classical, contemporary, gospel, ethnic, Klezmer, Jazz, Ragtime, and whatever else is out there for us to learn

10. Have the various instruments, brass, etc. taking part and the music is lively

11. Love the harmonizing trios, they rock

12. Have diversity, different cultures, involve members in instrumentalism

13. Variation

14. Drums, Gospel, Bluegrass

15. Mixture of new and old

16. Variety

17. Have diverse musical offerings

18. Lots of genres of music, old and new; African

19. Bringing in outside talents, like African Singers

20. Lots of different styles

21. Sing ethnic or world music and have instruments other than organ. Even though I like organ also, it's not my favorite.

22. Have varied Instrumentation during worship. My husband and I really enjoy gospel, drumming, guitar, and children's singing.

23. Have gospel and different genres

24. Have varied instrumentation during worship.

25. Had the St. Louis Stompers. The church was really alive that day

26. Have money to bring in soloists periodically

27. Virtuoso Instrumentalists

28. Having outside performers (play and sing) during worship

29. Bringing in outside musicians (Psalm 150)

30. Have instrumentalists

31. When we bring in special musicians

32. When the musicians play instruments

33. The instruments play the harmony to our singing

34. Bell choir

35. Have orchestral accompaniment of many ages but not for every service (such as today, July 13)

36. Include "old standards" and sing with excitement

37. Traditional Hymns and Musical forms

38. Classical formal music and Traditional old hymns

39. The organ is used! Why spend $250,000 repairing it if it is not used?

40. Have more traditional music

41. JS Bach organ works

42. When we do a great big piece such as Faure Requiem - something to look forward to

43. Return to an emphasis of more church/classical music.

44. Sing the older familiar songs - the Easter and Christmas music.

45. Have classical music

46. Have a Gospel choir

47. Sing gospel music

48. Include Spirituals and other music that touches my heart by being less "cerebral" and more attuned to feelings and emotions.

49. Have Dixieland music

50. Inclusion

51. Use inclusive language

52. I also love it that we don't always sing the same Doxology, but change to one (or some?) with gender - inclusive language...

53. Can applaud in church

54. Clapped and Cheered

55. Inclusion of children and youth

56. Bringing in the Kids

57. Have opportunities for children to sing and lead worship in song

58. Children have a chance to show their talent as well as our congregation members who play instruments and those who sing

59. Involve Kids

60. have children's choirs participation more often and children musicians, too

61. We include kids of all ages who sing or play instruments

62. Could participate (like drumming)

63. We have a variety of choirs requiring varying levels of time commitment

64. involving members - instrumental and choral

65. Doesn't all have to be perfect or "professional grade"

66. Choirs with different levels of commitment (e.g. Trinity choir, Festival Choir)

67. Home grown musicians

68. Have short term commitment opportunities

69. Trade off choir with other churches - not just in emergencies with 1^st Pres

70. Talented members of the congregation

71. Be invitational rather than overbearing

Meaning

72. When the music and theme are so connected

73. The performer get into the music

74. Use music to worship, not for entertainment

75. Can interact with the music, not just listen

76. Spirit filled music - rhythm, etc.

77. Integrate Bible and Faith into Music

Other

78. Play the bells to start the service and signal the beginning

79. Need enthusiastic leadership (help us move)

80. When Paul's enthusiasm drew us out.

81. Use introits and benedictions

82. Singing

83. The Trinity Choir Sings

84. The congregation sings a chorus of the hymns a capella

85. When postlude is so engaging that people stay in their seats

- Vicki Carmichael

Can you "carry a tune in a bucket?" How about in church? Do you long to sing out on the hymns in church but worry that you won't sound good? Have you ever thought about singing with the Trinity Choir but are unsure of your vocal/musical skills? Do you sing "by ear" but want to learn how to read musical notation? Watch the bulletin insert in the coming month for information about a BEGINNER SIGHT-SINGING CLASS to be held this fall (beginning late September or early October). For more information, contact me at vcarmichael44@gmail.com or call the church on a Tuesday and ask for me.

-Liz Nelson, Church Administrator

Thanks to Blair Klostermeier who gave many hours of time this summer entering data, doing general office work, and providing childcare. Good luck to her as she starts her freshman year at UW-Madison. Thanks also to James Kerr, who is working on an Eagle Scout project: designing a new storage and delivery system for the Winger Food Pantry food bags. Finally, thanks as always to the "Office Angels" -kids at heart-who give of their time to help with office projects.