Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord, MA

2007-2008 Forums

May 11 How Big is your Footprint? A few observations about our changing climate from Brian Rosborough and Earthwatch. Brian Rosborough, who along with his wife Lucy is an active parishoner at Trinity, is also the founding director of Earthwatch Institute. Since its inception in 1971, Earthwatch has supported over 3000 scientific expeditions in 120 countries to investigate and monitor environmental change. Today, Earthwatch Institute continues to be a major sponsor of scientific inquiry, currently supporting 130 projects annually to document changing world conditions.

May 4: Earth Day. The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, priest associate at Grace Episcopal Church Amherst, longtime environmental activist, spiritual retreat leader, writer, and teacher. Margaret recently returned from the launch in Seattle of the Genesis Covenant, to encourage faith communities to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from all their facilities (houses of worship, schools, and other buildings) by a minimum of 50% in 10 years. Margaret is also a member of the leadership council of Religious Witness for the Earth, whose current initiative, 1 Sky, Many Faiths, focuses on the 2008 national election and making global warming and clean energy top priority. Last March, Religious Witness for the Earth led a nine-day interfaith Walk for Climate Rescue from Northampton to Boston to press legislators to reduce global warming pollution by 80% by 2050. Margaret is the principal author of To Serve Christ in All Creation: A Pastoral Letter from the Episcopal Bishops of New England, published in 2003. She led a day-long retreat at Trinity on the same theme in January 2003. She has also written Holy Hunger (2000) and Christ's Passion, Our Passions (2003). Learn more about Margaret and her ministries at her Web site: www.holyhunger.com.

April 27: Faith in a Chinese Prison: Dr. Yang Jianli
Dr. Yang will speak about the role of his Christian faith in sustaining him during 5 years in prison for political activity in China. Dr. Yang came to the US in 1986 for graduate training and earned a doctorate in math from UC- Berkeley, while remaining active in China’s pro-democracy movement. He participated in the Tianamen Square protests in 1989 and testified before Congress about the Chinese military’s use of violence with protestors. Co-founder of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, Dr. Yang received a second doctorate in political economy from Harvard’s Kennedy School in 2001. In April of 2002, while traveling in China researching labor unrest, Dr. Yang was detained and imprisoned by the Chinese authorities. Members of Congress, faculty members at Harvard, and President Bush lobbied for his release, which finally came in August, 2007. Dr. Yang and his family have been parishioners at All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Brookline since the late 1990s.

April 20: Beauty in Science and Spirit: Paul Carr Ph.D.
How can we bridge the divide between religious fundamentalists on the Right and atheists on the Left, like biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion? What are ways we can reconcile faith and science? Retired physicist and minister’s son, Paul H. Carr, has written Beauty in Science and Spirit to address these questions. Carr received physics degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, and led a research team at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Bedford, MA where his work contributed to components used in radar, cell phones, and TV. He has taught philosophy courses in science and religion at U Mass-Lowell. Paul found science didn't help him with his grief when his wife died in 1986 of leukemia, leaving him with five daughters. He was thankful for his life long religious grounding and community, and found consolation and beauty in spiritual story and music. Learn more about Paul on his website www.MirrorOfNature.org Paul serves with former Senior Warden John Lewis on the board of InterFASE, a faith and science group started 20 years ago by Episcopal priest Barbara Smith-Moran.

April 13: Creating and Maintaining Civic Community
Ned Perry, Moderator of Concord's Town Meeting since 2000, will speak about the history of the New England Town Meeting, the meeting’s role in Concord's history and your role in Town Meeting that starts on April 28. For much of his life, Ned has been a resident of Concord, first on Wood Street and now on Thoreau Street. An employment relations attorney in Boston, Ned has served as the chair of The Greeley Foundation for Peace and Justice here in Concord and as a member of the Board of Directors of World Neighbors, Inc., an Oklahoma NGO that helps marginalized people in third world countries.

April 6: Welcoming Spaces/Newcomer Committee
Come get updates on what Trinity is doing with regard to the physical plant and human relations aspects of being a welcoming church. Members of both the Welcoming Spaces (physical plant) and Newcomer Committee (human relations) will be on hand to give progress reports, answer questions, and invite input. These initiatives are both direct outcomes of the Planning for Ministry strategic planning initiative.

March 30: Young Adults and Religious Identity in the Middle East
Abigail Slenski, Smith College. Abby will share her experiences of living among Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Middle East and the role of religion in shaping the people she lived and worked with. The daughter of our seminarian Mary Slenksi, Abby is a senior at Smith College majoring in Religion and minoring in Middle Eastern Studies. In the fall of 2006, Abby lived with a Christian family in Amman, Jordan as part of a program run by the School for International Training. Abby will discuss the impact on her family of Pope Benedict’s inflammatory remarks about Islam in September of 2006. In the summer of 2007, she lived with a secular Palestinian Muslim while working at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.March 23: Easter Sunday—No Forum

March 16: Palm Sunday—No Forum

March 9: POSTPONED - Dr. Yang Jianli: Faith and Prison
Dr. Yang will speak about the role of his Christian faith in sustaining him during 5 years of detention in China. Dr. Yang, a Tiananmen Square activist in 1989, came to the United States, earned two Ph.D.s, and created the Foundation for Democracy China in the 21st Century. He returned to China in April, 2002 to view labor unrest in the northeastern part of China. Dr. Yang was detained by the Chinese authorities for 5 years, including stints in prison, until his release in August, 2007. Dr. Yang and his family have been parishioners at All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Brookline since the late 1990s. For more information see http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/08/21/i_respect_even_my_guards/

March 2: Bishop Bud Cederholm’s Parish Visit
Bishop Bud will preach and celebrate at 10am and will be our Forum guest at 9am. Join him for conversation about the direction of our diocese as well as the various issues Episcopalians face in today’s world. He will also want to hear about what’s going on in Trinity’s life.

February 24: Annual Meeting: 1 Service at 9am, no Forum

February 17: The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless (MCH):Sr. Linda Bessom, SND
Sister Linda has been the Faith in Action Together (FIAT) Coordinator at the MCH for the past 12 years, and has been a member of the Peace and Justice Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts for the last 11 years. She has worked extensively with state legislators on the Commission to End Homelessness in seeking to move from shelter-based to housing-based solutions for homelessness. She is also active in seeking adequate COLA in emergency aid for severely disabled children and the elderly. She will lead us through some concrete actions for addressing these issues. MCH has been the beneficiary of the holiday lemon stollen bread sales that Trinity has sponsored in recent years.

February 10: Extending Human Life: The Report of the Working Group on Faith and Genetics: John Lewis
A summary reflection on attempts to extend the length of the human life span and the role of faith in the range of economic, social and political issues raised by these possibilities. John Lewis, Trinity parishioner and computer scientist, is the convener of this ecumenical group with members from the Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Congregational, Lutheran traditions. John will present the group’s findings and have copies of the report on hand.

February 3: The Stewardship of Meatless Eating
Meat production consumes an extraordinary amount of the earth's resources. Parishioner Janet Vaillant and others explore a meatless day as a Lenten devotion, sharing their own experiences and recipes.

January 27: The Faith Between Us: A Jew and a Catholic Search for the Meaning of God
Join us in welcoming Peter Bebergal and Scott Korb, the two authors of this religious “coming out” story by two young believers – one Catholic and one Jewish, who form a friendship and share a secret: They believe in God. (from the book description). Peter, a Jew, graduated from Brandeis and Harvard Divinity School. He has written for Salon, Nextbook, Beliefnet, the Believer, and the Boston Globe. He is also an editor at Zeek. Scott Korb received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and graduate degrees from Union Seminary and Columbia University. He has written for Harper's, Gastronomica, the Revealer, Commonweal, and Killing the Buddha.

January 20: Hands on Ministry at Ecclesia Ministries/Common Cathedral, Boston.
The Rev. Kathy McAdams, Executive Director of Ecclesia Ministries/Common Cathedral will join us along with members of the common cathedral congregation. They will describe the causes of homelessness, their experience of it, and the ways Ecclesia Ministries serves and makes community with the homeless. Trinity youth and adults have supported Ecclesia Ministries financially and by serving lunch and worshipping with the congregation on Sunday afternoons.

January 13: Ask the Clergy and Wardens: An open forum affording the opportunity to ask questions and to offer comments about the ongoing life of the parish.

January 6: Hands on Ministry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, South End.
Kimiko Ebata will speak about the variety of ministries that St. Stephen’s offers to children and youth of Boston, and the ways that Trinity can continue to take part in them. Kimiko is the volunteer and academic coordinator for the after school and B-SAFE programs at St. Stephen’s. She is a Massachusetts Promise Fellow, a program supported by Americorps, that works on delivering America’s promise to our youth. Kimiko is a 2002 graduate of Bishop Shaw’s Youth Leadership Academy, and a 2007 graduate of the University of Mary Washington. Her home parish is St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hingham.

December 30: See December 16th.

December 23: Scenes from Concord’s past.
To indulge in some holiday nostalgia, come return to a simpler time—16mm movies of everyday life in Concord in the 1930s and 1940s. These films were taken by Joseph Dee, Jr. and Charles Dee, Sr. and include footage of snowstorms, the aftermath of the 1938 Hurricane, sledding and skiing on Nawshatuc Hill, pond skating at Punkatasset Hill, sled dogs, ice cutting, as well as other scenes of everyday life in a small town.

December 16: New Orleans and Katrina, A Gardener's Way to Bring Help.
The Rev. Polly Jenkins Man will tell about her dream of rebuilding gardens for those who lost their homes in Katrina. She took a group of ten people to New Orleans (Win Wilbur was one of them) in November, 2007, and will be going again in March, 2008 (details below). Come and hear about this healing work and the people we met and worked with.
Postponed to December 30th due to Snow.

December 9: The Ministry of Money: Frank Butler
Frank Butler is the retired CEO of Eastman Gelatine Corp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman, Kodak. His ministries have included Education for Ministy, the Institute of Servant Leadership, Diocesan Council, and Senior warden at Trinity Episcopal Church in Topsfield. Using retreats, Pilgrimages of Reverse Mission, speakers, and publications, the Ministry of Money (www.ministryofmoney.org)is a loving, prophetic Christian ministry which encourages all persons to become free from their attachment to cultural values regarding money and to live out joyfully God’s call for their lives and resources.

December 2: Who Chooses the Sunday Readings? The Revised Common Lectionary: The Rev. Dr. Horace Allen, Professor Emeritus, Boston University School of Theology. Ever wonder who decided which lessons get read each Sunday? This Forum will answer that question and more about the use of the Bible. The Rev. Dr. Allen is one of the architects of the Revised Common Lectionary, used around the world, which Trinity begins using this Advent.

November 25: Mission on the Gulf Coast
Sandy Bristol, parishioner at Church of the Epiphany in Winchester, will discuss her hands-on participation in the reconstruction efforts on the Gulf Coast. Her 4 trips have been sponsored by the Gulf Coast Task force of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Sandy will also discuss the Gulf Coast Partnership Priest-in-Residence ministry of Massachusetts priest Rev. Jane Bearden, at Church of the Redeemer, Biloxi, Mississippi, that is being funded by the Diocese.

November 18: Does God go to College?
The Reverend Amy McCreath, Episcopal Chaplain at MIT, and The Reverend Benjamin King, Episcopal Chaplain at Harvard, along with students from both campuses, will join us to talk about how faith is nurtured in the University setting.

November 11: May a Christian Be a Soldier? One Insider’s Perspective
Captain Jeffrey Cox serves as a clinical social worker in the Massachusetts National Guard assigned to the Medical Company stationed on Everett Street in Concord. He was deployed to Iraq with a Combat Stress/Mental Health Company in 2005-2006. He is currently a Postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Massachusetts.

Sunday November 4: Convention Debrief:
Trinity’s clergy and convention delegates will answer questions about the actions taken during Diocesan Convention on November 2-3, 2007

October 28: A Year with American Saints: Selections.
The Rev. Christopher Webber, author of Welcome to the Episcopal Church, The Vestry Handbook, Reinventing Marriage, as well as other books, has co-written a book which is a broad and inclusive cross section of American pilgrims of faith from all periods of American history and all major Christian faith traditions. Their accomplishments and spiritual journeys are examples of perseverance, courage, and holiness. Webber has served parishes in the United States and abroad.