On Right Use Of The Season

Home

Index

Contacts

Directions

Calendar

Announcements

Trinity Episcopal Church
44 East Market St.
Bethlehem PA 18018-5989
610-867-4741

A Moment in Time
Fr. Nick Knisely - Written for Newsletter, September 2001

Many of you had a chance to greet Canon Emmanuel Adekola, the Director of Communications for the Church of Nigeria, when he was with us in August. Canon Emmanuel is responsible for all print, broadcast, and electronic communication for the three provinces of the 20 million member Anglican Church in Nigeria. He is in this country for a month, working with our National Church Office of Communications and with the parish of Trinity Wall Street which has given him a grant of almost $300,000.00 to design and deploy a system for electronic communication among the Bishops and priests of the Nigerian Church.

He was visiting us here at Trinity for two reasons, first because we are really becoming somewhat of a cutting edge laboratory in the use of electronic communication (our use of email, email lists and the web site) but secondly and perhaps more importantly, because this parish is getting the reputation at the national level that we are a place where the work of the Church is truly happening.

I have had the same experience again and again over the last six months or so-I'm showing a visitor or newcomer around the building, explaining what we use each part of the building for and what sorts of programs we run. Inevitably they begin to exclaim with delight as I introduce each new program to them. I expect that people would be impressed with one or two of the things going on here in this parish, but when you lay them all out, one after the other, it becomes overwhelming.

I'm not writing this because I think we need to take a moment to pat ourselves on the back-but because I think something exciting is happening. Laura, Mac, and I have been talking lately of all that is going on, and the fact that in our ministry in this parish, we are witnessing the seeds of new growth and ministry every way we turn. We are entering a new season in the parish, a season that promises great rewards, but a season that will bring challenges as well.

Have you ever been running a race and looked around, seeing the finish line, and realized that you could finish? When we have that experience, the next thought that comes is that we have to just hunker down for a few more moments and endure the race a little longer before the reward comes.

I think something similar is happening among us right now. God is empowering us to begin new ministries of hospitality, prayer, learning, and evangelism-and we are beginning to recognize the opportunities and the challenges before us. I think we're learning (or at least I am) that we'll have to confront the challenges head-on as we attempt to grasp the opportunities.

The challenges are going to be many. We need to find the money in the next year to be able to support Mtr. Laura as a full-time clergy person in this parish. Laura does so much that is important among us, that I can't imagine any possible way to go forward without having her fully sharing in our leadership.

We'll need to find ways to deal with the crowding in the church, in the parking lot, in the halls…. It's a wonderful problem to have, but it's a problem that we'll have to consider.

We have some issues to deal with in respect to our physical plant. You may well have noticed that the concrete ire escape in the f back of the building is starting to collapse and that the Vestry has been forced to restrict access to it. The fire escape will need to be removed and replaced as soon as possible. We'll have to consider a number of issues in the building of accessibility and usability for members of the parish who are physically challenged. We have decisions to make about how we are going to use the whole of the building in the future….

None of these challenges is insurmountable- either singly or as a whole. But, as we are finding ourselves called to move forward in our ministry here in this place, they are things that we have to be aware of.

The good news is that if God is calling us to new tasks, God is going to give us the ability and the tools to respond. We are called to be faithful-God will empower us.

Excitedly-

-Nick+

Return to Welcome Page

Trinity Episcopal Church
44 East Market St.
Bethlehem PA 18018-5989
610-867-4741