Just a couple of notes regarding this coming Sunday…

First, it is the season to take our clocks and “fall back”. Please remember to set your clocks back one hour on Saturday night so you can be on time for church on Sunday morning, after enjoying your “extra” hour of sleep.

Second, we hope that you can be with us, either in person or online, for our yearly celebration of “Easter in Autumn”–The Feast of All Saints. Join us as we gather to remember our saints, especially those of our Trinity Family, who have gone on to rest in the peace of Jesus; as well as rejoicing together in our own status as saints of God–His dearly loved, baptized, and forgiven children.

Oh, what their joy and their glory must be,
Those endless Sabbaths the blessed ones see!
Crowns for the valiant, to weary ones rest;
God shall be all, and in all ever blest.

In new Jerusalem joy shall be found,
Blessings of peace shall forever abound;
Wish and fulfillment are not severed there,
Nor the things prayed for come short of the prayer.

We, where no trouble distraction can bring,
Safely the anthems of Zion shall sing;
While for Your grace, Lord, their voices of praise
Your blessed people shall evermore raise.

Now let us worship our Lord and our King,
Joyfully raising our voices to sing:
Praise to the Father, and praise to the Son,
Praise to the Spirit, to God, Three-in-One.

Peter Abelard, 1079-1142
Lutheran Service Book Hymn 675

Dear Trinity Family,

Greetings to you all in these “very warm” days of summertime in DC! Although we are sometimes used to using the expression on days like these, a local church sign I saw recently did put things into perspective: “No, it isn’t as hot as hell”. So for that we can be thankful, even as we pray for the return of cooler weather 🙂

I forgot to make this announcement at the end of last Sunday’s service, so I did want to send this message out to all of you as a reminder. Last Sunday afternoon, our County Executive put an indoor mask mandate into effect. For those who will gather at Trinity for in person worship, we kindly ask you to once again wear your mask while in the church building. We hope and pray that the COVID metrics for the county will once again trend downward and will allow this mandate to be lifted. Until then, continue to do those things which will keep yourselves and your family and neighbors safe and healthy.

Have a blessed weekend and hope to see you at worship on Sunday!

Peace in Christ,
+Pastor

Dear Trinity family,

Well, if there is a lesson that this whole COVID situation has taught us it would be that conditions change rapidly.

My announcement about this coming Sunday at Trinity is a case in point. Imagine my quite joyous surprise to have learned later yesterday, after I had already sent out my last message to you all, that our County Executive has lifted the mask mandate in Prince George’s County, beginning at 5 PM Friday. We are certainly grateful that the COVID metrics have improved in our community to allow this to happen, and we continue to pray that this time of health emergency may soon come to an end. May our loving and healing God grant it!

So, everything which I wrote to you yesterday about this coming Sunday still applies, with this one change:

While in the church building, wearing of a mask is optional. In love and care for one another, use your best judgment with regards to current health guidelines as to whether or not you wear a mask.

We have updated our “Stay-Safe Rules” to reflect this new change, and a copy can be found here.

I hope and pray that you all have a wonderful day, a blessed Memorial Day weekend, and I look forward to seeing you all at church.

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear friends in Christ,

First, allow me to take this moment to thank you all for the patience, understanding, flexibility, love, and concern that you have all had during this most eventful year-plus of dealing with the effects that COVID has brought to our world and to our life together as a church family. By God’s grace and with His help, we have made it so far, and we pray His continued blessing and presence as we continue to walk together in the coming days.

We are certainly thankful to finally see that proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” as our national, state, and local officials have begun to relax many of the restrictions that we have been living under as we have worked our best to keep ourselves and one another safe and healthy. With the changes made to the restrictions and mandates that we have tried our best to follow, our Ministry Planning Group (MPG) met this past Sunday to review our “Stay-Safe Rules” and make adjustments to the changes that have been made by our government leaders.

Beginning this Sunday, May, 30, the following is being observed at Trinity:

1. As the county has not yet lifted the indoor mask mandate, we will continue to ask those attending worship to wear their masks as much as possible while in the building. When the county announces that the indoor mask mandate has been lifted and that announcement becomes effective, mask wearing will become optional in the building.

2. Physical distancing requirements are now observed using your own best judgement. We have removed the pew ropes so you may sit where you wish in the nave, balcony, and overflow, using all available pews and seats. I know that many of us are “self-trained” to give one another necessary space and that we will continue to love and respect one another in this regard.

3. We have chosen to remove the request to limit “indoor socializing” as we seem to be fine with our being inside with one another following worship.

4. All other parts of our “rules” remain in place, especially with those dealing with worship (worship materials, gathering of offerings, and distribution of Communion). The MPG has chosen to keep these in place through the summer, and will review them again for any revisions or changes to occur in the fall.

A copy of the revised “Trinity Stay-Safe Rules” can be found here for your review and reference.

Along with many of you, I know that our “getting back to normal” is something that we have all longed for. While this health emergency is not yet over, we know that much has happened to allow us all a sense that, even though we cannot turn the clock back to the way things once were, we are moving forward to resuming our lives and activities in ways that are safe and that continue to look out for the health and well-being of one another.

So let us all continue to love and care for each other, and let us joyfully be together in the Lord’s House, giving Him thanks for all that He has done and that He will keep on doing for us and for our world. I’m looking forward to being with you all this coming Sunday, Trinity Sunday, as we celebrate our God and His Name by whom we are named.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

After this past year with its distancing and restrictions on gatherings, it is indeed a blessing to be able to look forward to a “more normal” celebration of Holy Week and Easter kept together in church this year. While we will continue to observe the protocols which this time of COVID require of us, we will also be able to keep these Great and Holy Days in remembrance of our salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are happy that we will be able to offer again our usual pattern of worship for Holy Week with the Divine Service on Palm Sunday, and the Liturgies of the Easter Triduum (Three Days) on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. For details and times of these important worship gatherings, please see our Holy Week Calendar:

Holy Week Schedule 2021

Pastor has prepared a video message which will take you through the services of Holy Week: pointing out many of the special ceremonies which are a part of these holy days and how we will observe them together at Trinity this year, especially as we will have both in-person and online worshipers.

Holy Week Preview Video

As we individually keep these days of Holy Week with our own prayers and meditation, we are providing a couple of items which we offered last year during this time. First, is a guide for Meditating on the Lord’s Passion through the reading of the Passion found in each of the Gospels or through use of “The Passion History”. The other is a devotional booklet, “From Palms to Passion”, which provides morning and evening meditations for each day of Holy Week.

Passion Readings for Holy Week

From Palms to Passion Devotional

May the Lord richly bless all of us as we walk in His way–from palms and “Hosannas”, to the Upper Room and Gethsemane’s betrayal, to trials and condemnation, seeing His mocking and bearing the cross, to Calvary and burial, and finally stand rejoicing at His empty tomb, shouting with joy that life and salvation are won and ours forever.

See you at worship this Holy Week!

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear friends in Christ,

Last week, we marked the one year anniversary of the moment when the COVID pandemic turned life upside down for us, especially as we had to close our doors for in-person worship. Thankfully, we were able to reopen last June, weathered the up and down nature of the virus’ effects, and have had no cases come from the gatherings we have had here at Trinity. I feel that this has been because of the precautions that we have taken, as well as our own individual caution, care, and concern we have shown to each other. Thank you to you all for all that you have done and for the patience and understanding that you have had as we have gone through this time together.

As we have often been reminded, this time we are in is not quite over yet. But, with a decrease in cases and the ongoing efforts of vaccinations, we are certainly seeing a hope for things to return to at least a “new normal” again. Our governor recently began a relaxing of restrictions which have been in place since last spring; and our county executive, still being cautious, has done the same, though at a more conservative pace.

For us here at Trinity, this has meant that we are now able to increase our in-person attendance for worship from 25% to 50%, which is to say from 31 persons to 63 persons. As we noted even under the 25% rule, these numbers have allowed a small congregation like ours to have been able to open our doors to pretty much all of our regular attendees based on our average worship attendance. With the increase to 50%, one could say that we are “fully open” once more.

While this is a cause for rejoicing, especially as we near our Holy Week and Easter celebrations, we do want to note that we will continue to be cautious and vigilant as this health crisis, though lessened, does continue. For that reason, the COVID protocols which we set into place when we opened our doors last June will continue. In general, this means that masks will continue to need to be worn; and we will continue to observe distancing when seating for worship, as well as in our “fellowship conversations” we have with one another while in the building. You can review our “Trinity Stay-Safe Rules” which are printed weekly in the Sunday Bulletin, and can be found on the church website under our reopening information.

As for our Holy Week and Easter celebrations, please look for a message next week to bring you an update on our plans for worship together.

God’s blessings to you all in the remaining days of this week, and I look forward to being together with you for worship this coming Lord’s Day.

Peace in Christ,
+Pastor

A blessed Shrove Tuesday to one and all!

Although it will be cold, it seems that the weather forecast for tomorrow will be cooperative enough to allow us to hold our Ash Wednesday Worship as originally planned.

We hope that you will join us for worship tomorrow evening, February 17th, at 7 PM as we begin together the Sacred Season of Lent. The service will be our traditional service of Confession; hearing the Word; Sermon: “The Quarantine of Lent” on Matthew 9:10-13; and the celebration of Holy Communion. Because of COVID concerns, the Imposition of Ashes will not be offered this year.

This service will be available both in-person, following our COVID limits and protocols, and by livestream on our church Facebook Page. More information on the livestream can be found on the homepage of our church website (www.tlcmr.org).

Hope to see you as we begin our Lenten journey to Calvary’s Cross and Easter’s Empty Tomb.

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear friends in Christ,

I pray that this message finds you all well and safe at home during this winter weather that we are having right now.

And it is because of the weather that I am sending this message out to you. As this has become quite the ice event with the forecast giving us no hope for temperatures rising until well into tomorrow, it seems to be the best course of action that we not meet for in person worship tomorrow at Trinity.

Although we will not be able to gather together, we will still offer a Service of the Word tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM which Pastor will lead from home. Please visit the church Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/trinityelcmountrainier) or use the link on the church website (www.tlcmr.org) to join us. The order of service will also be available for your use during worship, also on the church website (www.tlcmr.org/worship/online-worship-bulletin-archive).

One other announcement of which I had been remiss in was to pass on to you all the minutes from our December Voters’ Meeting. If you did not receive a copy with the latest email from Pastor, please send a message to him to request one.

God’s blessings be with you all and I hope to “see” many of you at worship tomorrow morning.

Peace!
+Pastor

Dear friends in Christ,

Greetings to you all in these closing days of Advent as we “stir up” our excitement at the coming of the Lord Jesus as we remember His birth in Bethlehem.

Just a few announcements regarding coming worship services at Trinity in these days…

Christmas Eve:

We will hold our Christmas Eve Candlelight Eucharist on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM. We plan to have in person worship at Trinity according to our COVID capacity limits, and the service will be livestreamed as well on Facebook Live.

For those joining us online, please visit the church website for connection information and to find the evening’s order of service so you can share in the carols, prayers, and praise of this holy night. Also, for those worshiping from home: we invite you to have a candle (and something to light it with) so that you can join us in the singing of “Silent Night” and hearing the Christmas Gospel by candlelight when we come to that point in the service.

Christmas Day:

There will be a Christmas Day Festival Eucharist on Friday morning at 9:30 AM. This will be a different service from the one held the night before, and is especially for our members who would like to be at church for Christmas, but don’t come out at night. All are still welcome to join us at Trinity according to our COVID capacity limits, and the service will also be livestreamed as well.

The Sunday after Christmas – December 27th:

Our regular Sunday Worship will be held at 9:30 AM, both in person and on livestream. As has become a bit of tradition for us, the sermon this Sunday will be replaced by a Christmas Carol Sing. For those watching online, we may have to see if we might be able to “take requests” from you through comments on Facebook (no guarantees though).

Funeral Service for Margaret Smith – December 27th, 12 Noon:

Margaret Smith, sister of Rick Parker, was called home to be with the Lord on December 8th. We will be holding her Service of Victory here at Trinity this Sunday. Because of COVID capacity limits and expected numbers for family, we are not able to give a general invitation to the Trinity family to attend. However, we will also livestream the service for those who would like to be able to be with us in this virtual way. We will go live five minutes before the service start time which should allow people to easily log on.

Livestream links are available on the church website: www.tlcmr.org or by logging directly onto our church Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/trinityelcmountrainier

God’s blessings and peace be with all of us in these days of celebrating Christ!

In His love,
+Pastor

Greetings to you all on this Friday afternoon!

This time around, I prepared my usual “Devotion and News Update” in a different format which you can find below:

Devotion and Update Letter 11-20-2020

It contains messages about current goings on with us here at Trinity, especially with the changes which COVID is again bringing to our life. I hope that it will be informative, and if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

One other announcement about this Sunday’s worship…

For those who were with us last Sunday, you will perhaps remember that it was a little on the chilly side in the church. We have since discovered that the boiler needed some looking after because of some major, yet repairable issues. We are waiting on the arrival and replacement of one final part which should allow us to fire up the boiler once more, and perhaps this could be done by tomorrow, allowing us to have heat again for Sunday.

However, should the work not be finished in time, we just wanted you to know so that you can “dress accordingly” for a cold church.  Worship will be continued to be livestreamed for those who might prefer the warmth of worship from home.  We’ll keep you updated as progress continues.

God’s blessings to you all and may you have a safe and enjoyable weekend. And Lord willing, we’ll see you at church!

Peace,
+Pastor