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Worship Services
The Rev. David "Chip" Robinson
Vicar
All people of faith are welcome to receive Holy Communion at the Lord's Table
Christ Episcopal Church
1035 Lafayette Road
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Rite II at 10:30 am
Coffee Hour follows
Clergy office hours
Tues & Thurs 9am-12noon
200 High St.
Hampton, NH 03842
Saturday Rite l at 5pm
Rite II at 8:45 am
Coffee Hour after the service
Clergy office hours
Mon & Wed 9am-12 noon
The Vicar's sermons can be found by clicking on the link for either church and going to the Worship page.
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(603) 431-1809
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at Trinity Church, Hampton
(603) 929-7349
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Episcopal Churches on the Seacoast
Seacoast Convocation
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Ministry Schedule
Christ Church
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Going into the hospital?
Due to privacy laws, churches are no longer routinely informed if you or a loved one is admitted to the hospital. Please be sure you let us know when and where you will be a patient so we can be in touch with you and include you in our prayers and healing ministry. Don't assume the Vicar knows - he would much rather hear from several people than from no one!
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From the Vicar...
The Holy Trinity: Three expressions of one Living God
Since about the ninth century, Trinity Sunday has been one of the major feast days of the Western Church. This feast is different from the rest in that it commemorates not an event or religious figure, but a doctrine: namely, that the mystery of God's being is best described as a perfect unity of three persons - Creator/Father, Redeemer/Son, and Sanctifier/Spirit. While the doctrine of the Trinity is biblical in the sense that we can find a basis for the teaching in the pages of scripture, it is certainly not fair to say that it is fully developed or even clearly stated in the Bible. It is a doctrine, a dogma, a teaching developed over time by the Church as an aspect of the unfolding revelation of God derived from, but not confined to the pages of sacred scripture.
Doctrine is not Truth, with a capital "T", but rather our faithful approach to or reach for the Truth. But doctrine that really matters is more than an intellectual pursuit or a theory. The best doctrines are those that speak to deepest needs of those who seek God. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one such doctrine. I think this bears repeating on the one Sunday of the year devoted to the celebration of a doctrine.
So let's think for a moment about the Three "Persons" of the Trinity (as they are, in our limited human language, called).
The First Person of the Trinity is, in some sense, the easiest to grasp, even if, perhaps, the most complex. God the Creator/Father is the Person of the Trinity whose very Being addresses the most fundamental question we can ask. We have a need to know who created the universe and placed us in it. What kind of power or force is at the center of all life and being? In response to this question, the Church tells us that it is the Lord God Almighty who is the Creator and Father (Parent) of all life and being. While God is not a person in the same way you or I are persons, we believe God is best described in personalistic (is that a word?) terms. Jesus and others called God "Father." St. Augustine called God "the Lover."
The Second Person of the Trinity is one that acknowledges a second important truth about God: God sees us not just from the viewpoint of a loving Creator/Parent, but with redemptive concern as well. God's whole reason for dealing with us in Jesus Christ is to offer us forgiveness of sin, release from the guilt that plagues us, to reconcile us and draw us closer to creation's ultimate purpose. What is so amazing to me about this is how much confidence God has in us, even though we are rebellious creatures. Some days, I wish God didn't have such confidence in me!
In A.J. Cronin's book, Keys of the Kingdom, a friendship is described between a young Scottish physician and a Roman Catholic priest. The young doctor, despite his earnest seeking, had never been quite convinced about the existence of God. He was an agnostic. But the doctor had gone to China to cure the plague, which was raging there. In the effort to heal the disease, the physician himself contracted it. The priest, having heard of his friend's plight, rushes to the bedside. When he arrives, it is plain that the doctor is dying. Realizing his condition, the physician gasps, "I still don't know if I can believe in God." To which the priest replies, "That doesn't matter now. What matters most now is that God believes in you."
You see, the doctrine of the Trinity is more than a theory, more than a hypothesis, because through God the Son, we believe that God believes in us enough to come among us as our Redeemer. In Christ, the human spirit can be turned toward the heart of God.
Finally, we come to the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says, the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and heirs with Christ of God's amazing grace. When we speak of God as Holy Spirit, we are speaking to the heart's need to know that God is still with us. Jesus called this Spirit "the Advocate" - and that seems an apt term. The Holy Spirit advocates on behalf of Christ, so we may understand more deeply who we are and why we are created and redeemed in God's loving purpose.
The Holy Trinity: Three expressions of how One Living God relates to everything and everyone in the universe. If the Trinity were only a theory, it wouldn't be worth much to us because it would be so weak. But it's more than a theory. It is a revelation of God to the children of God and it is given to us to help us better know who God is, how God loves us, and how God abides with us as we seek to know God, to love God, and to serve God.
Fr. Chip
We have a winner!
Our fundraiser for the Vicar's Discretionary Fund raised over $1,100, thanks to all who participated. Last Sunday, Cindy drew the name of the winner of our "thank you gift," at $200 gift certificate to the Atlantic Grill in Rye. Congratulations to John Normand of Trinity Church, whose name she drew!
Welcomed into Christ's Body, the Church 
On Sunday, May 15 - the Day of Pentecost - we welcomed Baby Patrick into the Body of Christ through Holy Baptism. His was a bright, smiling face throughout the ceremony, as were those of his Vicar and his family.
Congratulations, Patrick!
Bylaw Review Team to meet Tuesday
After several rounds of editing via email, our Bylaw Review Team meets face to face this coming Tuesday to begin putting into final form the proposed revisions to the bylaws of both congregations. This task, which the Annual Meetings of both churches set in motion last January, will result in bylaws that not only are more reflective of our actual life, but considerably more in tune with the model bylaws put forward by the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire. After "signing off" on the final drafts, they then go to the Bishop's Committee. The Bishop's Committee will then provide opportunities for bringing the congregations at large up-to-speed on our progress before formally presenting the bylaws to next January's Annual Meetings for final action. They will take effect upon final approval from the Standing Committee of the Diocese, in accordance with the provisions of the Canons of the Episcopal Church.
Seacoast Convocation adopts "End 68 Hours of Hunger" as joint mission thrust
Imagine facing a weekend without food. That's a reality for more than 1,300 children in coastal New Hampshire and Maine.
"This is a nearly invisible problem," said Claire Bloom, founder and volunteer executive director of End 68 Hours of Hunger, in an interview with NBC News in 2014. "Kids don't come to school and say 'my dad lost his job and we didn't have anything to eat this weekend.'"
To help eliminate such hunger, the six Episcopal congregations of New Hampshire's Seacoast are joining forces to provide children in the Seacoast area with food for weekends through the End 68 Hours of Hunger Campaign.
According to the End 68 Hours of Hunger website, end68hoursofhunger.org, the organization is a "private, not-for-profit, effort to confront the approximately 68 hours of hunger that some school children experience between the free lunch they receive in school on Friday afternoon and the free breakfast they receive in school on Monday morning." The organization started feeding local children in 2011. As it closed out 2013, End 68 Hours of Hunger was serving more than 1,300 children a week in coastal New Hampshire and Maine.
Here's an example of what might be given to a child for a weekend:
- A box/bag of nutritional cereal
- Two cans of soup
- One jar of peanut butter or jelly
- One can of tuna or chicken
- Three fruit cups
- One box of crackers
- One box of macaroni and cheese or two packages of Ramen noodles
According to the website, 100 percent of every dollar contributed to End 68 Hours of Hunger goes directly to purchase food for children who have been identified by the guidance counselors and nurses at selected elementary schools as the most "at risk."
The remaining expenses - bank fees, web site hosting, filing fees (for documents required by the IRS and the State of New Hampshire), solicitation of contributions, reproduction of information for clients, and other administrative expenses - are paid by donors who allocate funds for those purposes.
Food is purchased and packed into bags by volunteers, and delivered to the offices of local schools. From there, a school employee delivers the food to the classrooms of the individual participating students. The students take the bags home on Friday afternoon.
Be watching for details of our participation at Christ Church and Trinity. Meanwhile, if you have interest in helping host a Convocation awareness-building event, join us at St. George' Church, Durham, on Tuesday, June 14 at 7 p.m. for a planning session and information night. Officials from area End 68 Hours organizations will be on hand to provide details and answer questions.
Our Shared Ministry Cycle of Prayer
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 using 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...
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May 22
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Worship Committee at Christ Church; Betty Lane; Dan & Barbara Nicholson
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May 29
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The Wardens, Craig Davis and Patrice Wood; Liz Malone & Lynda Swartz; John Normand; Anita Pauley
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Berwick Academy Chorale concert canceled
Note: The Berwick Academy Chorale concert, originally scheduled to be held at Christ Church this Saturday at 3 p.m. has been canceled. At this time, there are no plans to reschedule it.
Grounds care this Saturday at Christ Church
At last we have a sunny Saturday coming to get a variety of tasks at least started on the Christ Church grounds. Included is some significant work on the yews and arbor vitae near the church entrance and preparing and mulching the new pet cemetery area in the rear corner. On a later date, when we see some rain on the way, we have some rototilling and reseeding to do in the bare areas of the grounds. (Given the forecast, which has little if any rain in it, we'll hold off on this item for now.
We are asking as many as can come to be with us Saturday, May 21, at 10:00 to help with these items. Even if you can only give us an hour or two, it would be a great help.
Yankee Candle orders due this Sunday, May 22
Our annual Yankee home sale has been postponed until May 21. for those who have catalogs and would like to make a purchase. Please remember to give to me order slips and checks on Sunday, May 22 if you do purchase items from the new catalog.
Thanks again,
Tena Wolf
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Contacts
The Rev. David "Chip" Robinson, Vicar
Christ Episcopal Church, 1035 Lafayette Road, Portsmouth, NH 03801
phone: 603-436-8842
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00-Noon
Trinity Episcopal Church, 200 High Street, Hampton, NH 03842
Shared Ministry Administrator: Nita Niemczyk
phone: 603-926-5688
Office hours: Monday-Friday from 9:00-1:00
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