• children lead the dismissal at the 9am service, and the process out the transept door and report to their classrooms for Sunday School.
• Rite 13 ( grades 7-8) meet in room G18

• J2A students (grades 9-10) gather in room G09 . 

• Sr. High students (grades 11 - 12) meet in room 111 (aka, the parlor)
  

Christianity has always been somewhat ambivalent about poverty. On the one hand, from the earliest times the relief of poverty has been seen as a sacred Christian duty, and it continues to be an indispensible part of the Church's work at home and abroad. In this belief, The  Episcopal Church has recently reaffirmed its commitment to the United Nations Millennium Goal of 'Ending Poverty and Hunger by 2015'. On the other hand poverty has always been held out as a Christian ideal. St Francis, whose feast day was celebrated last week, famously made 'Lady Poverty' his spiritual companion, and when Mother Theresa of Calcutta -- one of the Christian icons of our age -- died in 1997, the sum total of her worldly possessions came to two saris and a bucket.

But if poverty is such a good thing, why are we trying to relieve it? The Gospel for this Sunday makes the question more pressing. In a compelling (and original) image Jesus tells us that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Does that mean that prosperity is a bad thing? If this is the true, then at a time when the world is longing for a return to economic growth, the Christian message can't expect much of hearing. We can try to fudge the issue by making 'rich' mean just the phenomenally wealthy few. But that really won't work. By historical standards and comparison with many other parts of the world today, most of us in the Western world count as 'rich'. So what are we to think?

It's important to see that in the passage from Mark's Gospel Jesus is addressing a particular young man, someone with sincere spiritual longings. Jesus didn't criticize or condemn him, but 'looking at him, loved him'. Yet when, out of love, he points to the thing that stands in the way of these longings, the young man is shocked and grieved. He thereby reveals that his wealth is indeed a serious spiritual obstacle for him. We need to examine ourselves from this perspective also. If we take our faith in Jesus seriously, then we have to admit that being as wealthy as we are means running a big spiritual risk. At the same time, poverty too can be an obstacle to grace - something so oppressive that the human spirit cannot rise above the level of mere survival. So really, the two ideals come together. Rich Christians are often encumbered by their wealth, and need to get rid of that encumbrance. By freely giving it away, they open themselves up again to the things of eternal life, and by the very same act, open a gate to spiritual liberty for the very poor.   

• to be "race marshalls" on the course, email Grant Fraser bgfraser@bellatlantic.net

•  to help distribute the t-shirts, food and water, e-mail Annie Thomas thomasa@trinityprinceton.org
  
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• to distribute posters and flyers, please email Alison Roth

Integrity Eucharist and Meeting - Wednesday, October 14, at 7:30 pm

Integrity/Princeton, the Episcopal gay and lesbian outreach for Trinity Church and Central New Jersey, will hold its first Eucharist and meeting of the fall on Wednesday, October 14th, at 7:30 pm, at Trinity Church, beginning in the Sanctuary. Future sessions will be held on the second Wednesday of each month through June. The Rev. Mary Jean Metzger will be celebrant. For more information, please contact Jenny Replogle at jennifer.replogle@ptsem.edu.  Last spring we were joined by many new people from Trinity and the surrounding area, so we again welcome all members of Integrity and friends to join us.