The Time of Easter is once again upon us, giving us forty days for prayer and reflection in preparation for fifty days of rejoicing–all in celebration of the heart of our faith: the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lent begins this time, giving us the opportunity to remember and rejoice in the precious gift of God’s grace given to us sinners through the sacrifice of His Son. This grace, displayed in Christ’s Cross, is the source and center of our lives, and it fills these Lenten days, spilling over and into all of our days, giving us joy, hope, and peace in believing. To give us focus on this gift which is the only thing which truly matters to us, we use this Lenten season to saturate ourselves with God’s grace that comes to us in time spent in prayer and worship, in study and meditation on God’s Word, and on receiving this precious gift in God’s sacred means of grace given in the water of Baptism, the word of Absolution, and in the Fruits of our Savior’s cross brought to us in receiving Holy Communion.

Let us take this sacred time that we have been blessed with to discover anew God’s grace for us–His grace which gives us life in and through Him now and forever!

Our Theme for Our Lenten Journey

2023 marks the 250th Anniversary of the well-known and well-loved hymn, “Amazing Grace”, written by the Englishman, John Newton, a former slaveship captain, convert to Christianity, and Anglican Priest. The hymn is a sung autobiography of his spiritual journey which has had echoes in the lives of a countless number of other Christians who have sung it over the years, making it their own story.

In our devotions and worship during this Lenten Season, we will look at “autobiographies” of people we meet in the Scriptures, how they were touched with God’s grace, and how that grace changed them and their lives–just as the grace we have received from Christ has changed us and made us new in Him.

Devotions for Use at Home

Devotional Materials have been sent to every member home for your use during this season. Both of the devotions–“Amazing Grace”, for adults, and “God’s Grace is Great”, for families with children–will allow us to explore from the people we meet in the Scriptures how God reaches out to us with His love and grace. The devotions for families also come with a small activity which is tied to each day’s reflection.

Limited “extra” copies of the “Amazing Grace” devotional are available. Please visit the literature table in the rear of the sanctuary to pick up a copy. Also available are additional Lenten Calendars and Scriptural Bookmarks for your use in reflecting on the Scriptures during this season.

Worshiping Together During the Lenten Season

The Season of Lent will begin as usual with worship on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd at 7:00 PM, with its traditional service including Confession, the Imposition of Ashes, and the celebration of Holy Communion.

This year’s Lenten preaching on the theme of “Chronicles of God’s Amazing Grace” will fill both our Sunday morning and Midweek evening services.

The Wednesdays of Lent–March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th–will be observed with Vesper Services. These services will be spoken liturgy with hymns sung acapella. All of our Midweek Services will begin at 7:00 PM, and you will be able to join us either in person at Trinity or by livestream on our church Facebook Page. For more information about these services, please visit our Worship Schedule page.

May God bless us all richly that these Lenten days are indeed filled with grace as we live and rejoice in His love given to us in Christ our Savior.

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear Trinity Family,

As we head into the “final approach” for the celebration of Christmas and the remembrance of our Savior’s birth at Bethlehem, we just wanted to share some news about how Trinity is keeping these days this year and a couple of announcements as well.

Our Christmon Tree

In many churches you will find the Christmas tree that they set up in their sanctuary decorated with ornaments which depict symbols of our Christian faith. These ornaments are known as “Christmons”, which is a word formed from “Christ” and “monogram”. The symbols themselves come from the long tradition of Christian symbolism and art, using symbols and images which represent Christ and His names and titles, events in our Lord’s life, the Trinity, and the Church and our Christian Faith.

Thanks to a loving and generous gift from Carole Dingess, Trinity was able to purchase this set of 100 Christmons to adorn our church’s tree. The Christmons are the creation and work of Ad Crucem, a small Christian business operated by fellow Lutherans.

By visiting the Christmon page on their website, you will be able to view each of these ornaments and learn more about the deep and rich meaning behind them and how they tell and teach us about Christ, His story, and our faith.

Worship at Trinity during the Christmas Season

As we do each year, Trinity has a full schedule of services as we celebrate together the arrival into the world of God’s greatest Gift, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “Come and worship Christ the newborn King!”

Christmas Eve: Saturday, December 24, 2022 – 7:00 PM
Candlelight Worship Service with Holy Communion

You are welcome to be with us for our Christmas Eve service which will include congregational singing of hymns and carols, special music from the Trinity Singers and musicians, the candlelight reading of the Christmas Gospel, and the celebration of Holy Communion. Join us for this service either in person at Trinity, or by livestream through Facebook Live on our church Facebook page.

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 hearing the Christmas Gospel and the singing of “Silent Night” by candlelight when we come to that point in the service.

Christmas Day: Sunday, December 25, 2022 – 9:30 AM
Festival Worship Service with Holy Communion

Trinity will have a Christmas Day Festival Eucharist on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. It is 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 welcome to join us in person at Trinity, and the service will also be livestreamed as well.

NOTE: There will be no Adult Bible Class held today.

The Feast of the Circumcision and Holy Name of Jesus
New Year’s Day: Sunday, January 1, 2023 – 9:30 AM
Festival Worship Service with Holy Communion

Join us as we celebrate the eighth day of Christmas and the beginning of the New Year rejoicing in the Name that was given for our salvation. We hope you will be with us either at Trinity or through our livestream.

As has become our tradition on the Sunday after Christmas, the “sermon” will be in the form of a Congregational Christmas Carol Sing. We will try our best to “take requests” from our online congregation who are able to send us messages through Facebook.

NOTE: There will be no Adult Bible Class held today.

An Epiphany Celebration
The Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord (Observed)
The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord:
The First Sunday after the Epiphany
Sunday, January 8, 2023 – 9:30 AM
Festival Worship Service with Holy Communion

Join us as we bring the Christmas season to its close in the wonderful blaze of light that reveals Christ to the world in a special celebration recalling both the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child and our Lord’s Baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. As always, you are welcome to be with us either in person at Trinity or through our livestream.

Church Office on Holiday Break

During the Christmas Holiday week, December 25-January 2, the church office will be closed to allow our staff to have time at home with their families.  The staff will be checking the office answering machine daily for any messages.  Should any pastoral emergencies arise during this time, you may also contact Pastor directly on his cell phone.  The office will return to full staffing on Tuesday, January 3^rd.

God’s richest blessings and peace be with you all as we go through this wonderful season of rejoicing in the coming of our Savior to be our Immanuel–God With Us!

In His Love,
+Pastor

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

A blessed Ascension Day to you all!

Today is the fortieth day since our Lord Jesus’ resurrection, and recalling how St. Luke tells us that Jesus spent 40 days going in and out among His disciples before He was taken up from them into heaven, the Church continues to keep this day in celebration of our Lord’s return to “sit at the right hand of God” where He lives and reigns forever over the world and His people until the day of His promised return.  There are many places where this wonderful feast day is celebrated “on the day”, including in Amish communities where it is a holiday kept with community gatherings.  In other places, this feast is often transferred to the Sunday following (the 43rd Day of Easter), so that this important moment in the life of our Lord is not forgotten.

I hope that you will be able to join us this Sunday at Trinity where we will celebrate the Ascension of our Lord, celebrating our Blessed Lord who lives for us and reigns over us for all eternity.

This weekend is also Memorial Day weekend. May this time be filled with thanksgiving and remembrance for those who offered up “the last full measure of devotion” in service to our nation and world to protect and maintain the freedom and liberty we have.

Since it is also the “unofficial start of the Summer”, I also hope and pray that those traveling this weekend and throughout the vacation season remain safe and are able to “come home” to Trinity at their return.

With this weekend, we will conclude our “Regular Schedule” of the year to begin our “Summer Schedule”. This Sunday we will hold our final Adult Bible Study before we begin our Summer Recess. Beginning June 5th, we will only hold Divine Service at 9:30 AM each Sunday.  Lord willing, we will return to our Regular Schedule in the Fall, beginning on September 11th.

God be with you this weekend and through the Summer days, and we celebrate the life we live each day in the Son!  See you at church!

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear Friends in Christ,

The Forty Days of this Lenten Season have been going quickly and are nearing their end as we prepare once more to enter into the most sacred days of the entire Christian Year. As we gather again to follow our Lord Jesus through these days of His passion and resurrection, we are once more enfolded into the very story of our salvation and rejoice again in the victory and life we share with our Blessed Redeemer.

We hope and pray that you will be able to join us for worship during these Holy Days, either in person as we gather at Trinity or by livestream available on our church Facebook Page. (Videoed services are available for later viewing, also on the church Facebook Page.)

The Schedule for our Holy Week Worship Services is available on our Worship Schedule Page.

Of interest to you may be our plans for Bible Study on Palm Sunday. As a way to prepare for the days of Holy Week, we will be viewing the short documentary film, “The Week That Changed the World”. It is a “walk through” of the history behind the days and events of that first Holy Week, led by ancient historian and Lutheran Pastor, Paul L. Maier. If you are not able to join us, you can find out more about this film by visiting their website: http://theweekthatchangedtheworld.com/
The film may also be available for purchase and viewing on variious streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video and others.

We also plan to hold Bible Study on Easter Morning before worship beginning at 8:30 AM for those able to be with us.

God’s richest blessings be with all of us as we keep these sacred days so central to our faith!

Peace in the Savior’s Name!
+Pastor

Hard to believe, but the Season of Lent is upon us! As we prepare for the celebration of Easter and the joy of the new life we have in our Risen Lord, we once more take the opportunity to walk with our Savior through the days of His Passion, rejoicing in the death which brings us life, forgiveness, and eternal salvation.

We hope that you will join in keeping this holy time through prayer and meditating on God’s Word. In addition to coming together each Lord’s Day, there are other opportunities to reflect and meditate on God’s great acts of love for us in Christ.

Home Devotions:

Devotional Materials have been sent to every member home for your use during this season. For adults, the devotional, “In View of God’s Mercy”, will help us to reflect on God’s great mercy shown to us in Jesus. For families with children, “The Cross and Me”, will help make the connection between Jesus’ journey to the cross and the small acts of love and kindness that we are able to do for others.

Limited “extra” copies are available. Please see Pastor.

Midweek Lenten Worship:

As the world returns to something “close to normal”, we have decided to make a return to holding Midweek Lenten Vespers.

The Season of Lent will begin as usual on Ash Wednesday, March 2nd, with its traditional service including Confession, the Imposition of Ashes, and the celebration of Holy Communion.

The following Wednesdays–March 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th, and April 6th–will be observed with Vesper Services reflecting on the Passion History drawn from the Four Evangelists.
These services will be spoken liturgy with hymns sung acappella.

All Midweek Services will begin at 7:00 PM, and you will be able to join us either in person at Trinity or by livestream on our church Facebook Page. For more information about these services, please visit our Worship Schedule page.

Details on Holy Week Worship will be forthcoming as we draw closer to that time. Stay tuned!

With prayers for a blessed Lenten season filled with prayer and meditation on the great deeds of God in Christ. See you at worship!

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear friends in Christ,

Greetings to you all as we come to the end of our Advent days and enter into the joyous celebration of 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 Friday evening at 7:00 PM. We plan to have in person worship at Trinity, 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 hearing the Christmas Gospel and the singing of “Silent Night” by candlelight when we come to that point in the service.

Christmas Day:

There will be a Christmas Day Festival Eucharist on Saturday 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, and the service will also be livestreamed as well.

The Sunday after Christmas – December 26th:

Note: There will be NO Sunday Morning Bible Study on this day.

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 will try our best to “take requests” from you through comments on Facebook.

Livestream links, as well as copies of the orders of service, are available on the church website: www.tlcmr.org. Or you can log on to the livestream directly on 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

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