This Sunday we will celebrate the sacrament of Baptism at the 10 am service.  It's always a joy to welcome a child of God into the fellowship of Trinity and the larger church.  It gives us the opportunity to celebrate those things that lie at the heart of our faith, articulated so powerfully in our Baptismal Covenant, in which we are urged to seek and serve Christ in all persons, love our neighbors as ourselves, and respect the dignity of every human being. 

Baptism is, of course, the beginning of our Christian journey, and that journey is always asking us to discern where the Spirit is leading us -- both individually and as a community of faith.  As you know, part of that discernment for us at Trinity recently has been whether or not to open a cafe on our campus to provide employment to women coming out of incarceration, among other goals.  The idea for this emerged from a Hearts for Justice conference two years ago and our relationship with Catherine's Center.  Several people in our congregation and the larger community wondered if such a thing might be possible.  On June 12, we shared with the congregation what we had learned, and what the path forward might look like.  And, we asked people to share their thoughts with us.  Since then, we have received feedback from a number of people.  And that feedback has included a number of concerns about the wisdom of the cafe project, including very important questions about financial viability and the impact on other users of our campus.

In light of what we have heard, the Vestry this past Tuesday accepted my recommendation that a new task force be appointed to explore the goals that the cafe project was meant to serve:   creating  something within our community to help women whose life circumstances leave them at a  disadvantage and deepening our outreach ministry by undertaking a project that could transform the lives of others in lasting ways.   The goal of this group will be help us as a congregation evaluate these goals and to explore other options, in addition to the cafe model, that would serve those goals.  The congregation will, of course, be engaged in that process.   In essence, the best course of action now seems to be to move the discernment question from a focus on the cafe proposal itself to a focus on the aspirational goals that gave rise to the proposal in the first place.

Next week, you will be receiving a special communication from me about how this work fits in with the long-range planning work that has been on-going since the Planning Extravaganza this past April, and about how you can be a part of and continue to support the on-going process of discernment around these larger goals.

I am convinced that God is inviting us to step out in some new directions.  It is up to us to discern what that might look like for us as a congregation.  At times, that stepping out might feel risky or even scary.  But I hope it's also exciting to imagine the possibilities.

In closing, I want to say that this whole process is one that has been very encouraging to me.  Everyone who has provided feedback to us has been motivated to do so by their great love of the Trinity community, and a passion for our mission and ministry.  And that kind of love and passion is a great blessing, indeed.

Peace,