I'm Spencer Reynolds (photo) and I'm pleased to contribute to stewardship by offering a perspective on why our family pledges to Trinity.

          My wife Abby and I have four kids 13 and under, and Trinity has been enormously important to us over the years, and especially in this last year when I was deployed to Iraq for a year with the National Guard.  I'll come back to that in a minute.

          So, thinking about why we pledge first led to a list of the wonderful things we've experienced personally at Trinity, which we need to support.  They include:

• ·The clergy and staff

• ·The beautiful sanctuary, services   and facilities

• ·The music program where  my daughter Sydney, my wife Abby and her father Bill Tate all sing

• ·Sunday school

• ·The informal 40-something social group

• And not least, our wedding, four baptisms, and soon four confirmations, and many other things

These have all been very important to us, and to many others.  But the opportunity to speak allowed us to take some time to reflect on what it all means more broadly.  And what we decided was that we also pledge to Trinity to support what we might call a "community of ministry", and that this community actually has the ability to multiply the effect of its resources, and of its pledges.  As a result, it seems to us like every day is "three for the price of one" day.  Not bad for a dollar of giving.  We see it like this:

First, the community's resources of course provide a variety of "direct ministries":  after school programs, soup kitchen, counseling, and all manner of spiritual guidance and light.  Second, there's the benefit of the community itself:  sociability, acceptance, and support.  And then last, and how we multiply the effect of our giving, this community encourages by its nature a spirit, belief, and expectation of ministry and service in broader life, for other times and places.  It is a light to guide many of us to do what's right outside of Trinity, maybe in turn to set an example for others.  In other words, the multiplying effect.

And so this brings us back to my year away with the Army.  During this last year, it was our family's turn to experience this community's spirit of ministry in very personal ways.    In that time, absolutely no other group or community supported our family the way Trinity did, and for that we are unspeakably grateful.  To let you know about it:

·         Absolutely unbidden, during this hard year, members of the 40-Something Group brought homemade meals to our house on Sundays, so Abby could have a night off once a week from cooking while I was away.

·         Families in the same group also had Abby and the kids and over for dinner and fun at their houses various nights.

·         Grant Fraser and the Ushers organized and sent to me in Iraq probably the largest single care package box that I ever saw.  And while so many others got care packages while in Iraq, I never heard anyone say that it came from their church.

·         I was included in prayers of the people weekly.

·         We received heartfelt words of support all year from so many.

·         Tom Whittemore and the Choir let Abby attend rehearsals and sing on Sundays on a flexible schedule when she could make it, which was both an accommodation and a great outlet for her.  (Outside of the kids and her demanding job, singing was a great reliever of stress for Abby-and she had her fair share of stress last year!)

·         And just in general, we knew we were being lifted up all the time, even by fellow parishioners we didn't know personally.

The point is that we were beneficiaries of the direct ministries, the togetherness of this community and the unbidden informal ministry of members of this parish-the multiplying effect.  Where else might we have found this kind of community, ministry, and support in our daily lives?  We don't know where else.

So  why do we pledge?

To keep the community of ministry strong.

To enable the choirs to keep singing.

To support Paul, Anne Marie, Sarah, and all the clergy and staff.

To keep up this house, and to empower all that it does.

To get three for one.

We pledge because we all need this community of ministry -- as our family did this past year - and Abby and I want Trinity to be there for all of you the way Trinity was there for us.

If you haven't been able to pledge yet, please pledge what you can soon, and thanks for your support. 

Amen.

Thank you to everyone who has pledged so far:

• 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).This High School class is exploring the Book of Exodus, looking at how God takes away the people of Israel's identity as slaves and gives them an identity as worshippers of God.
  

Discover new ways of doing parish business; explore new and different ways of praying; get tips for better ways of solving common parish problems. Choose from offerings such as developing your spiritual personality, exploring the call of a deacon, and reflections on the Millennium Development Goals - and much more.

The Reverend Gregory Bezilla is Chaplain of the Episcopal Campus Ministry at Rutgers University, based at Canterbury House in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has served as a parish priest and a hospital chaplain. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Emory University. (And he was sponsored for ordination by Trinity Church!)

The Reverend Dr. Deborah Meister is Rector of Christ Church, New Brunswick. Raised in a Jewish household, she trained to be an English professor, earning her doctorate in Renaissance literature, but converted to Christianity when she was 27 and entered the ordination process. She has served in parishes in Alabama and New Jersey, and has a passion for multi-cultural ministry, spiritual formation, small-group ministry, and hands-on work with those in need. When she is not working, Deborah loves to cook, hike, and read. She has a passion for classical music and Japanese art.

Next Sunday, November 1^st is All Saints' Sunday! On this day we make special remembrance of all those dear souls who have died since All Saints last year, and at the same time we welcome the newest members of the body of Christ through the sacrament of Baptism. (We will have Baptisms at both 9:00 and 11:00am.) If you would like to add a name to the list of those remembered on November 1^st, please email Alison Roth or call the church office no later than Tuesday, October 27^th.

• 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