2014 Joint Time and Talent Campaign for

Christ Church, Portsmouth and Trinity Church, Hampton

 From the Vicar...

Where there's a Will...

 

Last month, Trinity Church received an unexpected but welcome bit of news. A person who was not a member of the congregation, but whose life had been touched by it, left a tenth of her estate to Trinity Church.

 

While we do not know yet the size of this bequest or the specifics of how we will invest it or otherwise make use of it, the gift brought to mind a matter we rarely speak about, but really should. To wit: regardless of the complexity of your estate, you should have a Will.

 

A Will is a legal guarantee that your desires for your beneficiaries and your charitable gift intentions will be fulfilled. How your Will is structured depends on a variety of criteria unique to your own situation, not the least of which is how to minimize the tax liabilities to the greatest benefit of your heirs and charitable gift recipients.

 

How you structure your Will to provide these benefits is for your financial and legal advisors to determine, but as you think about the structure of your estate plans, you might want to give Trinity Church, Christ Church, and/or other worthy organizations consideration in one of the following ways:

1. A specific bequest of a dollar amount or of particular securities or other property.
2. A residuary bequest of all or a portion of your estate, after the payment of specific amounts to other beneficiaries.
3. A testamentary trust, which takes the form of a Charitable Remainder Trust, the body of which will be paid to the charitable beneficiary upon the death of the trust income beneficiary.
4. A contingent bequest to take effect only in the event that the primary beneficiaries of your Will predecease you.

 

The Diocese of New Hampshire and the Episcopal Church Center both offer materials that can be of assistance in estate planning. I have some of these materials on file in my office. If you would like to include either or both of our congregations in your Will, be in touch with the church office, and we can place these resources at your service.

 

Fr. Chip

 

 

Our Shared Ministry Cycle of Prayer this week and next

  

Each week, in both of our churches, we pray for one ministry we share and one or two households in each church. About once every six weeks, we will instead use the Shared Ministry Collect we prayed throughout the opening months of our Shared Ministry.

 

In our prayers the next two weeks, we give God thanks for... 

 

June 22	Christ Church Bishop's Committee; Betty McKinney of Christ Church; Anne Russell and Lois Schmelzer of Trinity Church
June 29	Trinity Church Bishop's Committee; Iris McLoughlin & family of Christ Church; Kay Scott of Trinity Church

 

 

 

Coming Sunday, June 29 at Trinity...

Outdoor Eucharist and cookout

 

It's time to kick off the summer season! On Sunday, June 29, Trinity Church will host an outdoor Eucharist and cookout (members of both churches welcome!) to give us an opportunity to worship and enjoy fellowship together. The service will be at 11:00 a.m. in the shaded rear courtyard of the church. The cookout will follow on the side lawn. Bring your lawn chair and a side dish or dessert to share. Hamburgers, hot dogs and beverages will be provided. Please RSVP indicating how many from your household are coming to trinity55ad@gmail.com . This will help our food and set-up crews in their planning. Oh, and as for a rain date...we won't need one. It never rains on our cookouts! (If, ahem, it does, we'll come inside.)

 

For those of you who cannot (or prefer not) to come to the outdoor service, there will be a brief celebration of the Holy Eucharist at Trinity Church at the usual 8:45, and a 10:30 Eucharist at Christ Church with the Rev. David Plank as Celebrant.

 

 

 A note from a Lutheran bishop

(equally applicable to Episcopalians)

 

"If your church is internally focused, candidly, you're toast. It's all over. Why? Because people are leaving internally focused churches. They are tired of silly debates about whether or not the color of the napkins should match for coffee hour. They don't want to fight about whether the prelude should come before or after the announcements, whether or not the pastor's children make too much noise. They are leaving silly budget fights. There is no future for churches like that. I'm sorry but it's true. The club model of church life is over."

 

Bishop James Hazelwood
New England Synod

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

 

Save the date!

 

The Outreach Commission of the Diocese of New Hampshire is hosting a Diocese-wide community pot luck picnic to celebrate service, partnerships and diversity on Saturday, August 9, from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., at the Church of the Woods in Canterbury.  More details to follow 

 

 

How about making it official?

 

With the arrival of summer comes that moment when we can "catch our breath" in the church office and attend to matters that tend to get put off through the winter. One of these is parish record keeping.

 

If you are worshiping with us, and consider yourself part of our church family, but have not yet "made it official" by asking for a letter of transfer from your previous congregation, please take a moment to be in touch with us and ask that we issue a Request for Transfer. (You can contact your previous congregation directly if you would prefer.)

 

If you are worshiping here but have never been confirmed or received by a bishop of the Episcopal Church, it would be helpful to let Fr. Chip know that as well, as Bishop Rob is visiting us (with Christ Church hosting) on Sunday, Nov. 16 and we'll want to put together plans for fall classes in preparation for that.

 

 

 

The Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire recently revised the Safe Church Policy.  The curriculum now consists of three hours of online training and three hours of class training. Click here for Safe Church training dates and requirements.

 

Please register with your Safe Church Minister. For Christ Church, contact Patsy Tremblay at pehjat@comcast.netor call 603-205-2195. At Trinity Church, contact Patrice Wood at phwood2013@gmail.com.