The Voice of First Trinity

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In This Issue… Our Commitments..………………….…3-6 Young Adult Retreat…………………….…7 Church Happenings……………………8-11 Lifeline Partnership…………………12-13 All In The Family………………….…14-15 A Message from the Council President………………….…………………..16 Pastor Knoll Celebration……………….17 A Message from the Cantor………….18 Church Updates…………………………...19 Lutheran Grace……………………….20-21 Life in Balance………………………..22-23 Mistaken Identity………………………...23 September Birthdays………...…………24 Serving in September……………….….25 September Calendar………….…………26

The Voice September 2012

First Trinity

Lutheran Church

309 E Street N.W. Washington, D.C 20001

202-737-4859 Fax 202-628-0571

Email: ftrinity@aol.com

Web Site:

www.firsttrinitydc.org

Pastors: Tom Knoll

Wendy Moen

Office Manager: Anne Sanyi

Published Monthly:

Deadline for next issue is September 15

Send to office@firsttrinitydc.org

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Our Commitments

The 2012 Olympic games are now over but just about eve-ryone agrees that it was an amazing 16 days. It gives me great hope to see all the countries competing together on such a high level and without fighting a war. During the Olympic games thousands of Christian churches around the world were reading the scripture from John chapter 6 where Jesus feeds 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus told those who were listening that he was the “Bread of Life” and whomever eats his body and drinks his blood will live forever. When Jesus said this many people left him because they did not believe. We are not called to be a people who follow Jesus only when it is suits our taste, our understanding, or our desires. We are called to be with the Lord and to serve him in good times and in bad times. At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 the sport of canoe racing was added to the list of international competitions. The favorite team in the four-man canoe race was the Unit-ed States team. One member of that team was a young man by the name of Bill Havens. As the time for the Olympics neared, it became clear that Bill's wife would give birth to their first child about the same time that Bill would be competing in the Paris Games. In 1924 there were no jet airliners from Paris to the United States, only slow-moving ocean-going ships. And so Bill found himself in a dilemma. Should he go to Paris and risk not being at his wife's side when their first child was born? Or should he withdraw from the team and remain behind.

THE VOICE THE NEWSLETTER OF FIRST TRINITY

LUTHERAN CHURCH

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Bill's wife insisted that he go to Paris. After all, he had been working towards this for all these years. It was the culmina-tion of a life-long dream. Clearly the decision was not easy for Bill to make. Finally, after much soul searching, Bill de-cided to withdraw from the competition and remain behind with his wife so that he could be with her when their first child arrived. Bill considered being with her a higher priority than going to Paris to fulfill a life-long dream. To make a long story short, the United States four-man ca-noe team won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. And as it happened Bill's wife was late in giving birth to her first child. She was so late that Bill could have competed in the event and returned home in time to be with her when she gave birth. People said, "What a shame." But Bill said he had no regrets. After all, his commitment to his wife was more important. The story of Bill Havens is a story of how one person paid a high price to fulfill a commitment to someone he loved. In a sense it is a story that illustrates the kind of commitment that God in Christ has with us - and it is certainly a story that illustrates how we should be committed to Him in re-turn. In the sixth chapter of the gospel of John we see people who leave Jesus because they wanted free food and not some vague sounding spiritual food. Others leave Jesus - because they can’t believe that God would send spiritual food through a person like Jesus-that is, someone they knew and had grown up with. To them, the spiritual could not be contained, in the common, in the familiar, but must always be accompanied by some great miracle or grand display of power. Still others left Jesus because they understood exactly what he was saying and they did not want God to get that close to them. They wanted to run their own lives rather than let God live and work through them. Like many today, they did not want to give control of their lives over to God because

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God might ask them to do something they didn't want to do. How about you? Where are you in your relationship with Je-sus? Are you present only in body to him - but not in Spirit? Are you committed to him - or do other concerns take up most of your time and energy? Does your TV schedule pre-clude time for prayer? Does your love of sports take priority over taking some time for listening to God's word? Does your ambition prevent you from taking time to care for the family that God has given you to love? Do your prejudices and your judgments about others get in the way of your do-ing God's will? That is - until you want something from God? Until you are in a danger of your own making and hope to be rescued? Until you hope to get some favors and figure you better butter him up first? Does your spending prevent you from returning to God the 10% of what you have been given? God asks that the first fruits from all his people might be put to use in his service? Jesus asks us for a commitment; He asks us to be faithful to him as he is faithful to us - in the good times of our lives - as well as in the bad. In his asking, Jesus does not compro-mise. He does not water down his message so that it will be easier for us. He does not go chasing after the people who walk away from him, as did the crowd at Capernaum. He does not change the truth so that his followers will not leave him. What Jesus does is proclaim what he came to proclaim, He comes to offer to us, as God has always offered us - a choice - the choice to live with him - in his care and under his love - or to live without him. There is a sequel to the story of Bill Havens. The child even-tually born to Bill and his wife was a boy, whom they named Frank. Twenty-eight years later, in 1952, Bill received a tel-egram from Frank. It was sent from Helsinki, Finland, where the 1952 Olympics were being held. The telegram read: "Dad, I won. I'm bringing home the gold medal you didn’t win while waiting for me to be born." Frank Havens had just won the gold medal for the United States in the canoe-

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racing event, a medal his father had dreamed of winning but never did. There is a sequel to our acts of commitment as well. When we stand firm to our commitment to God we reap the abun-dant harvest of joy and peace that endures forever. And Je-sus gives us help to carry out our commitments. He gives us the Eucharistic meal where we receive nourishment for our journey. We share this meal together each and every Sun-day, and with all those gathered in every time and every place. And after receiving this food, we are called to be a part of God's greater purpose: we are called to be bread for one another. We are bread for one another when we welcome a stranger and when we walk with someone through an illness. We are bread for one another when we love those who are most dif-ficult to love and when we defend the defenseless. We are bread for one another when we teach and when we forgive. And finally, we are bread for one another when we share the bread we have been given. Pastor Tom Knoll

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Unplug. Relax. Renew.

Sept 21-23 Unplugging, relaxing and breathing sounds pretty good right about now, doesn't it?

No question, life is busy. Whether you're grinding out the semester as a college or grad student, working an impossi-bly busy job, or simply trying to figure out "that next step" personally or professionally, your body and spirit is more than ready to step away for a few days, immerse yourself in nature, reconnect with God, meet new people, and recharge your spirit.

During our upcoming Young Adult Retreat, you'll join dozens of other young adults from across the D.C. area, Delaware and Maryland for a unique opportunity to "unplug, relax and breathe" at the beautiful North Bay Retreat Center.

During this weekend getaway, you'll enjoy: • A variety of recreational activities (adventure activities)

led by camp staff • Basketball, hikes • Nightly bonfires by the bay • Prayer, reflection and other spiritual practices you can

incorporate into your daily life

Cost The cost is $99, which includes lodging, Saturday meals,

Sunday brunch and staff/supplies for the ad-venture activities and bonfire!

If cost is an issue, or if you have any other questions, please con-tact Pastor Wendy.

Register at: http://www.eventbee.com/v/fallretreat

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Church Happenings Fall Festival – Originally scheduled for September 29th with author Phyllis Tickle has been cancelled. If you are interested in attending a discussion with Phyllis Tickle she will be hosted by An Emerging Christi-anity Conversation group in DC on Friday, September 28 at 7pm. Contact Pastor Wendy for more information as details are “emerging”!

Are you interested in a discussion on Religion and Sci-ence? Must we choose between God and science? Has sci-ence done away with the need for faith? At a time when in-fluential voices are demanding that we either abandon the practice of religion or reject the findings of science, Dr. Francis S. Collins (author of The Language of God: A Scien-tist Presents Evidence for Belief, geneticist, and former Di-rector of the Human Genome Project) put together a course to address these issues. Let Pastor Wendy know if you are interested.

Do you struggle to read the Bible? Does your personal Bible study need a jump-start? A Makeover? Join Pastor Wendy in reading The Fire of the Word by Chris Webb (author of the Lenten Devotional series we held this year). We will read the book independently and then meet 3 times this fall (dates to be determined) to discuss the book and reading the Bible with new and different expec-tations. Here is a description of the book:

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The Bible has the astounding power to transform lives. The stories of people like Francis of Assisi, Antony of Egypt, Au-gustine of Hippo, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. vividly demonstrate this. Why aren't more of us transformed by Scripture today? Too often we study biblical texts without believing that God truly inhabits this book. Scripture seeks to capture our minds, not merely educate them. In these pages Chris Webb explains that we can transform our Chris-tian life by reading as lovers rather than as theorists. This is possible by coming to the text prayerfully, expectantly, in humility and empty-handed. When we open the Bible, it does not say to us, "Listen: God is there!" Instead, the voice of the Spirit whispers through each line, "Look: I am here." Reading the Bible this way can reconfigure the habits of your heart, refresh your imagination and memory, reshape and redeem your emotions, realign your reality individually and communally for kingdom life, and take us beyond the Bible into a renewed way of life. Here is the work of today--which is also the work of the whole of life--to open your heart afresh to the living Word of God.

Lifeline Partnership’s Harvest Festi-val – Saturday, November 10th – Preparations are being made for this fun afternoon to support Lifeline Partner-ship. Please mark your calendars and plan to come and spend some time playing and/or volunteering. Everyone who plays or helps out leaves with a big smile on their face!!

Lunch Bunch – If you’re free for lunch on Friday, Sept. 7 please join us at DeCarlo’s Restaurant, located at 4822 Yuma St. NW in the American University Park Area.(www.decarlosrestaurant.com) Carole Shores is taking RSVPs at 703-941-4740 so please let her know, if you haven’t al-ready, that you’d like to join us!

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On the Journey…Did you know there is a spirituality group that meets on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month from 12:15-1:15? It’s called the Penn Quarter Mon-astery of the Heart. If you’re free at that time, you are wel-come to join us…no prepara-tion necessary. We are almost finished with Sister Joan Chit-tister’s book, The Monastery of the Heat: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life which is a re-flection the Rule of Benedict. The spiritual life is a journey trying to live well with God, neighbor and self.

Our discussion this week was on Humility…I think humility is a word often misunderstood, but I have to say that the Monastery of the Heart makes the process and journey to-ward humility very appealing. For me, it is helpful to think about humility as finding my right place in the world…I am not God. We know this, but how often do we act out of a place of “I know what’s best for “Joe” and they are making a BIG mistake”…forgetting that God is watching over them, too. Or, how often do we judge another person’s behavior without considering we may have done the same, or worse, in that situation. Humility also means that I am not the low-liest scum of the earth. I am a loved child of God…I am a sinner and a saint – a forgiven sinner, by God’s grace. Chit-tister distills the longer chapters on humility from the Rule of Benedict into the following steps of humility: Humility leads us:

1. To recognize that god is God. 2. To know that Gods’ will is best for us. 3. To be willing to receive direction. 4. To endure and don’t grow wear. 5. To acknowledge faults.

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6. To be content with less than the best. 7. To let go of image making. 8. To learn from the community. 9. To listen to others. 10.To abandon the urge to ridicule. 11.To speak kindly. 12.To be simple; to be serene.

You may find some of these easier and some more difficult to live out each day. You may find yourself re-learning or committing to one or another again and again and... Our discussion considered that though these are set out as steps, or rungs, of a ladder, often the journey is more circu-lar in nature. The spiritual journey is one of intention and awareness of God in the big and the little of our lives. Bless-ings on your journey. Pastor Wendy

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On the Lighter Side...

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Summer Fun at Lifeline Partnership

We have been busy this summer at Lifeline getting to know each other and having fun. As you can see from the picture I’ve in-cluded of our July Sing and Praise service we have decided we all need to have musical in-

struments during worship to “help out” Jesse, our long time piano player. Luckily he is a good sport about it and keeps us on the beat (most of the time). As I have been learning my way around at Lifeline I had the opportunity to visit John Hazel, a long time member. He was visiting a neighbor who agreed to take this picture of John, John Priebe and I. Finally, we had our Hawaiian Luau dance with everyone wearing leis, eating fresh fruits and vegetables and dancing in the fellowship hall decorated with tropical scenes. You can see that “Joe Cool,” aka George and his mom Lois definitely know how to chill out. As we head into the fall we are getting ready for our regular Sunday Faith and Friends, the Sing and Praise service on September 15 where I will be installed, a National’s baseball game and a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. Just to peak your interest, one of the raffle prizes for our big Harvest Fest in November will be a brand new Kindle. Blessings, Pastor Susanne Blume Executive Director Lifeline Partnership

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Hawaiian Luau

John Hazel Visit

July Sing and Praise Service

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All in the Family

Traveling…Pastor Wendy and Jonathan traveled to Boston, MA to see Beantown and a few Red Sox games (Jonathan’s favorite team) and then on to Iowa to see family. Mark and Jean Raabe are spending August at the lake cottage in Minne-sota. Bill and Nancy Schneider are wrapping up their Great Lakes boat trip coming down south on the St Lawrence Seaway and the Hudson River. The Morgan’s are camping on the banks of Lake George in the Adiron-dacks celebrating Ron’s 75th birthday. Steve Brodd spent a week in Minnesota visiting family and then off to Pitts-burg to celebrate the 61st Wedding Anniversary of Chris Cherry’s parents. Katie Anderson and Kent Forde are back from their honeymoon to Northern Italy and Switzerland. Peter Bu-cemi and Judy Miller spent a few days in Chicago and then on to San Francisco.

Mel Willis rented a beach house on the outer banks for the big Willis family reunion. Brian Werner, as we write this, is in South Dakota for a few weeks. The Gwyn Fami-ly traveled to Colorado among other places, Face-book tells us they traveled 5,100 miles but that sounds like and exaggeration, to visit family and friends. Oh my we are a traveling group. Many more folks took trips but ei-ther did not tell their pastors or their pastors forgot. Most likely it was the latter. Great to see Pastor Neil Da-vidson back worshiping with us after he completed his time as interim pastor at St Mark’s Lutheran in Spring-field, Va.. and Pastor Marg-rethe Kleiber is back after serving three year at Holy Trinity in Falls Church, Va. Speaking of traveling Pastor Neil traveled to Houston, TX for a few weeks to watch the Nationals beat up on the As-tros. A couple of big moves for people in the congrega-tion and some sad goodbyes. John and Barbara Eiden Molinaro moved to Athens, Ohio where John is the Pres-ident of the Appalachian Part-nership for Economic Growth and currently Barbara is su-pervising the remodeling of their new home. Olivia

September 2012

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Knotts is now an official New York City resident. She is working at the ESPN head-quarters in New York; maybe we will see her in Sports Broadcasting someday. Back in the 70’s First Trinity was served by a young Pastor from Japan who everyone re-ferred to as Pastor Shibata, unfortunately we learned that Pastor Shibata’s wife Mineko died on July 19 at their home back in Japan. Pastor Shibata writes “with my prayer, she passed away in my arms beyond the valley of death into the eternal life.” Our prayers go out to the Shibata family. Pastor Tom

took the Sunday school children to Six Flags at the end of July. Below are a few pictures. Going to Sunday School has its benefits. As we complete August and the dog days of August consider this, “the tan lines may fade, but the memories are there forever.”

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A Message from the Council President Greg Nelson

Congregational Meeting to Address Changes to First

Trinity Constitution One of the initiatives the Council has been pursuing over the past year has been to evaluate and up-date, as necessary, the procedures that First Trinity follows in govern-ing itself as a corporate entity. The first step in that process was evalu-ating and updating the congrega-

tion’s current constitution, which was last updated in 1987. Over the summer, a series of meetings were held with the congregation to review the proposed changes and gain feed-back. The next step in the process will occur on Sunday, Septem-ber 16, when a special Congregational Meeting will be held and a "first reading" of the proposed new constitution will be conducted. A set of proposed changes to the bylaws will also be introduced. Both the constitution and bylaws will then come up for a final vote at the January congregational meeting. Please contact Amanda Wahlig or Greg Nelson to learn more about the process, and join us after worship on September 16 for the first reading of the proposed changes.

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Pastor Knoll to Celebrate 30 Years of Ministry

2012 represents an important anniversary in the career of Pastor Tom Knoll. Thirty years ago he was ordained into the ministry, and began his service to Community Family Life Services and First Trinity! To celebrate this significant event, First Trinity will hold a special worship service on Sunday September 30 at 10:30 am, followed by a luncheon. Rev. Kelly Chatman, former Executive Director of CFLS, will be preaching at the service. Please join us for this special event. RSVP to Anne Sanyi, the First Trinity Office Manager, by Sunday, September 23, at 202-737-4859 or office@firsttrinitydc.org.

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From the Cantor I will offer in his dwelling an oblation with sounds of great gladness; I will sing and make music to the LORD. Psalm 27:9 First Trinity and St. Matthew's fall liturgical schedule will soon be beginning, and you are invited to be part of it! Our choir season will begin on Sunday, September 16 at 9:15 in the balcony. We always are happy to welcome new members - there are no auditions, and you don't need to commit to being present for every rehearsal or service. We always focus mostly on the music and liturgy for the service we are about to sing or play. The choir usually sings three or four Sundays a month from September through June. If you have any questions or would like more information about music at First Trinity and St. Matthew's, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Music is a fair and glorious gift of God. I wish to see all arts, principally music in the service of Him who gave and created them. I would not for all the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sor-rowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song. Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reason-able. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art that can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart.

Martin Luther Stefan Brodd Cantor

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Lutheran Grace International AIDS Conference

In mid-July the International AIDS Conference was held here in Washington DC. This was a very important confer-ence as over 20,000 professionals in the fight against AIDS and HIV came together to share what they are doing in the field and discuss ways to deal with the challenges ahead. The conference also hosted a Global Village where hundreds of organizations shared their work in the fight against AIDS. Lutherans were well represented at the conference and we were the only church demomination that had a booth in the Global Village. Many people volunteered at the booth includ-ing Pastors Tom and Wendy. Wearing our red Lutheran Grace T-shirts we passed our thousands of prayer cards, written by members of our Lutheran Churches, applied hun-dreds of tattoos bearing the words Lutheran Grace, and talked with hundreds of people who came to visit the booth. Here is an example of one of the volunteer’s experiences. “One young woman that was given a prayer card by another member of Lutheran Grace, saw my t-shirt and came up to me crying, gave me a hug and told me how much the prayer card meant to her and that she needed this prayer at this time. I had a conversation with several people saying how happy they were to see us there. I had a very long conser-vation with a lady from Philadelphia area that was about to have a carnival in her neighborhood and offering free test-ing, she asked that we pray for them and that they would be praying for us. I met a woman from Uganda, we talked about the stigma of AIDS, and it does not matter if you are in Uganda or Washington DC, stigma kills, we also agreed that we would pray for each other’s ministries.” Tragically millions of people have died from AIDS but now with new treatments and education future deaths can and must be prevented. The church can play a big role by en-couraging safe sex and encouraging that people get tested for AIDS in order to know your status. Much of the disease is being spread today because people don’t know they are carriers. Condemning people only drives them away

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from the church, adds to the stigma of AIDS, and does not given them an opportunity to become part of the solution. We are all in this together.

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Life In Balance

Do you feel stretched and un-settled? Does it seem like you nev-er have enough time to do every-thing you feel you need and want to do? Do you experi-ence conflicts be-tween your job and your personal life? Do you feel you cannot get enough rest, vol-unteer as often as you’d like, or de-vote enough time to your own physi-cal, emotional, and spiritual well-

being? Do you have trouble finding harmony between the things you must do and the things you would like to do? Do you rush from appointment to appointment, frequently mul-titasking? Do you feel as if your life is fragmented, leaving you with insufficient time to accomplish things that require a significant time investment? If you answered yes to any of these questions you might find that our “Life in Balance” small group on Thursday eve-nings may help you. Starting on Thursday September 6 we meet at 6:00pm for soup and salad followed by evening prayer. At 7:15 we read and discuss a small section in the rule of Benedict, which is followed by 18 minutes of centering prayer. Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that rela-

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tionship. Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer. Rather, it adds depth of meaning to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes of verbal prayer into a receptive prayer of resting in God. Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God and as a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Christ. Centering Prayer is fundamentally two things at the same time: first, the deepening of our personal relationship with Christ developed through reflection on Scripture; and se-cond, a method of freeing ourselves from attachments that prevent the development of this relationship. Please come on Thursdays and give it a try. If you cannot join us for Dinner at 6:00pm come at 7:15pm for “Life in Balance.” Our goal is to help us live a balanced life.

Mistaken Identity While trying to elbow my way around the after service fel-lowship snack tables, I encountered two women. They gra-ciously made way for me to pick up an item or two. Then one of them said to me, “How is your mother doing, is she OK?” I was a little surprised she would ask me about my mother. I responded that “my mother died when I was twelve years old.” Then I heard the other of the two say, “that’s not him.” So, the first lady said, “Oh, I’m so sorry I thought you were Ron Morgan.” I turned around to look at them and quickly replied, “That’s OK, now that you have had a good look at me, I’m sure you will agree I’m much prettier than Ron.” We all chuckled and went our way. I looked around for my “look alike”, Ron, to share the news but couldn’t find him. I’m still trying to figure out if their mistaken identity was a compliment…

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3 JeffDavis 3 RonMorgan4 BettyBryant6 CeceliaDorsey8 DavidPreisinger12 BertKnotts12 BobbiSigworth14WinnieJonah17WillDoscher18 ArdellHouse 22RoseMorgan23MaureenDoscher 25 PeterBuscemi27 CallieThomas28 DaneKnotts

Pleasenotifythechurchof iceofanyomissionsorcorrections.

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DATE WORSHIP ASST. CRUCIFER GREETER USHERS FELLOWSHIP HOUR

Sun Sept 2 Ruth Worman Jacob Mersing John Priebe Louis Woods Edna Hicks FT Group 1

Sun Sept 9 Ken Wilson Hentry Knotts Chris Orvin Jeff Barnes Jim Hunter FT Group 2

Sun Sept 16 Doris Gbala Dane Knotts Mark Raabe Doris Gbala Amanda Patton FT Group 3

Sun Sept 23 Ron Morgan Jacob Mersing Roger Wissman Ed Stock Sara Ayres St. Matthew’s

Sun Sept 30 Greg Nelson Geri McCann Jacob Mersing Judson James Daniel Mjema

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