I hope you’ve had a chance to walk by the new church garden on your way into and out of the building through the course of the summer.  Planted by children of Vacation Bible School in June, watered all summer by our Child Development Summer Program, warmed by plenty of summer sun, under the leadership of Mandy Richards and her family, last week we harvested the first fruits that God has grown among us there. And while we used those vegetables and herbs at a harvest festival of sorts for our first Thursday Evening Supper of the season (Please join us sometime?!), God is using the garden to strengthen our community in more ways than that.

When describing the new garden during a recent visit with long-time member Charlie Wilcox who died just this week, his first response was “That’s great! I suppose we’ll be sharing some of the harvest with the food pantry, right?”

Charlie’s wonderfully faithful idea is yet another encounter with God’s grace in the midst of the garden.  Having served for decades with his wife Mary at the Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry, his first thought at age 98 was love of neighbor.

To be sure, the church garden is but one of many signs all around of God’s creative wonder and gracious Spirit that gathers us together in community with all people.   What other signs do you see and attribute to God’s abiding presence in the world?

See you at church!

Steve Wachtman
Pastor, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Holy Trinity’s Endowment Committee is excited to announce that we have approximately $10,000 available to disperse for the 2020 funding cycle.  Once again, the funds will be awarded across our three designated constituencies:

1. Community outreach efforts
2. ELCA activities within synods, seminaries, colleges, or local social service agencies
3. Holy Trinity program enrichment, ministry support, or capital improvement

Application materials are available at the Information Center and are due back by Monday, October 7.  If you know of an entity that might be interested in submitting an application, please inform whomever might be responsible for completing the forms.  Our goal would contemplate making the number of grants that would allow each to be of measurable impact.  Thank you for your interest and help.  If you have any questions, please contact Endowment Committee chair, Tom Grabenstatter.

We have begun construction on our newest Habitat for Humanity home! It is a two-story house with three bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms in the basement. It will have two bathrooms, an eat-in kitchen and a great room. We need the five bedrooms because our family has six children!

This week we will be preparing the foundation to begin installing the floor joists, build the first floor deck and build walls for the bedrooms in the basement.  We’d love to have you help in any way you can… donate through Holy Trinity, help prepare and serve lunches and/or come out and swing a hammer!  No experience necessary, we have tools and training, and a good lunch is provided.  We work Thursdays from 8 am to noon, and Saturdays from 8 am to 3 pm, but you can come and go any time between, we are thankful for any and all assistance!  Please contact Benson Ross at 614-747-0930 or detailsdetails96@gmail.com for more information.

Great News! Holy Trinity and our Habitat for Humanity home building partners have our new home assignment, and we will begin construction next week! The address is 1657 Genesee Ave., 43211, in North Linden.

Our first day of work will be Thursday, September 12 and the second day is Saturday, September 14.  We work every Thursday from 8am ‘til noon, then knock off and go to lunch, and Saturdays from 8am ‘til 3pm.  Lunch is provided by our partnership churches. You do not have to work the entire time, and we provide tools and instruction if needed. No experience is necessary!  You can come help with construction, donate money to the house through Holy Trinity, or prepare and serve lunch; all are welcome and appreciated!  Holy Trinity will provide our first lunch on Saturday, October 12th.  If you would like to be involved in any way, please contact Benson Ross.

We need one hundred more bars of soap to reach the goal of last year’s gift to Lutheran World Relief.  When you shop this week, please pick up a bar or two to add to the current collection. Every bar is greatly appreciated by those who have none!  Additionally, shipping costs are quite expensive with $2.25 for each quilt, $1.40 for each school kit, and $2.20 per health care kit that is sent to Baltimore and then overseas.  Please place your loose change in the coin bag near the soap basket at the Collection and Signup Table.

THANK YOU for all the donations you make to this annual project! A complete accounting of all donations will be reported on the second Sunday of October.

As part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), we understand ourselves to be one church with three expressions:  congregation, synod and churchwide, each associating itself with the other by a common commitment to Jesus and the confessions of the church while each is independently responsible for its own ministry decisions within those faith commitments.  My internship congregation experienced a particularly keen exercise in that context.

Trinity Lutheran Church in Frankfurt, Germany, was a global mission congregation jointly sponsored by the ELCA and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS).  In 1990 as today, the ELCA ordained women while the LCMS did not.  As my internship was drawing to a close, the congregation received the names of two prospective seminarians from which they could choose their next intern:  one candidate was male and one was female.

During the weeks of discernment as to which intern the congregation should select, my internship supervisor and I hosted on two different occasions the Bishop or President of both the ELCA and the LCMS for lunch on their arrival to Frankfurt for meetings in Europe.

We asked each of them the same question:  “How is a congregation jointly sponsored by the ELCA and the LCMS supposed to decide between a male or a female intern?”

And the leader of each churchwide body gave the same answer:  “The matter is for the congregation to decide because we cannot decide it for them.”

Earlier this month, more than 900 voting members selected from congregations across 65 synods gathered for the triennial ELCA Churchwide Assembly (CWA) for the purpose of electing leaders, passing budgets for shared ministry spending, reporting on commissioned theological studies, and making theological statements on pertinent issues in the world today.  Holy Trinity is associated with that work by our participation in the election of the voting members from our synod and the 10% portion of our offerings that we contribute for the collaborative ministry of both synodical and Churchwide expressions of the ELCA.  And Holy Trinity determines its own faithful response to the impact of that Churchwide activity.

Here are some of the more prominent actions among those activities with online links to additional information provided below.

Bishop Re-Elected

The CWA re-elected Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton for another six-year term when she was named on more than 75% of the first nominating ballots.  (Bishop Suzanne Darcy-Dillahunt was re-elected with the same overwhelming majority at the Southern Ohio Synod assembly in June.)

Ministry Spending Approved

The CWA approved ministry spending of $68.5 million for each of the next three years for Churchwide and global ministries along with $21.5 million for World Hunger.

“Sanctuary Churchbody” Memorialized

The CWA memorialized the ELCA as a “sanctuary churchbody” which means that it will continue to support refugees as they are resettled in the US through our partnership with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, provide legal assistance to immigrants pursuing their legally-protected right to seek asylum, and ensure that undocumented immigrants are aware of their rights under US law.  Moreover, it means that the ELCA will continue to advocate for just and humane treatment of detained immigrants, such as calling for adequate housing at detainment centers and accompanying minors through immigration court.  In accordance with all applicable laws, congregations that have the resources to do so may (but are not required to) provide food, shelter, and financial assistance to migrants in need.  It also means that the ELCA will continue to speak out against and stand with any of those marginalized among us, all of which have been long-standing practices across the ELCA.

Lutheran Higher Education Affirmed

A rising senior at Capital University, Elli Wachtman was one of three students selected to speak during the CWA on behalf of 26 colleges and universities associated with the ELCA.  Her speech was entitled “Called and Empowered.”

Please let me know if you would like to speak with me directly about any of these matters and I will be glad to arrange a time.  You can learn more about them at the links below.  You will also find paper copies at the Info Center at church or by calling the church office (614-486-9433) to ask that a copy be mailed to you.

Summary of Activity at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly

(https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/8003?_ga=2.239513990.401617533.1565869147-930191361.1565747319)

Explanation of “Sanctuary Churchbody” Memorial

(https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/ELCA_SanctuaryDenomination_TalkingPoints.pdf)

Elli’s Speech on Lutheran Higher Education

ELCA – Lutheran Higher Education

Beacons’ LWR In-gathering deadline is coming soon.  Please consider compiling a kit, contributing soap bars or a quilt/blanket for distribution by Lutheran World Relief.  Summer days are a great time for focusing on giving to others who are in need.  Look for a collection bin beneath the table at the Collection and Sign-up table to place your donations.

Many thanks to everyone that contributed treats, distributed them, or helped with Holy Trinity’s 4^thof July hospitality during the Upper Arlington parade.  We received donations of $272 which will go to the Fisher-Nightingale House at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.  Fisher Houses offer physical and emotional support to servicemen and servicewomen, providing the opportunity for military families to stay together and support each other when a loved one is undergoing medical treatment at a military hospital. For more information on Fisher Houses, go to https://www.fisherhouse.org/(national) or https://www.fnhi.org/(Dayton).

Holy Trinity endowed the Artmobile to work with underprivileged children as part of its community engagement outreach donations. Recently Kathleen Murphy visited the program that was held at the Columbus Early Learning Center on Columbus’ east side, not far from First English. The Artmobile was working with three- and four-year-olds on identifying and making art about Ohio animals. Kathleen took some pictures of the program in action and the program director, Tobi Furman, shared some photos as well.  You can see the enthusiasm in the children’s artwork as well as their faces.  Church members should feel proud to be able to make this happen for little kids.    – Kathleen Murphy

The St. Augustine Bell Choir comprised of 16 youth and director Matthias Eichhorn from Gotha, Germany will be playing in worship and offering a concert on Sunday, July 14 at 4:00 pm.  As part of their tour through Ohio, Holy Trinity will be hosting them on Saturday and Sunday nights, July 13 and 14.

The choir was founded in 1987 through the efforts of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Dayton.  To make the founding possible, money was raised from Lutheran handbell choirs throughout the United States for the purchase of the gift set of Malmark handbells.  Permission was requested of and granted by the East German government in order that Epiphany could transport the bells across the Iron Curtain.  Matthias Eichhorn, then 8 years old, was one of the original ringers.

In the ensuing years, the choir has developed a wonderful reputation for musical excellence and was chosen by the State of Thuringia to be its representative at the World’s Fair—Hanover 2000.  The congregation now has six bell choirs involving over 100 ringers.

The St. Augustine Lutheran Church was built as an Augustinian Monastery in 1331.  It early allied itself with the teachings of fellow Augustinian—Martin Luther.  In fact, it is documented that Martin Luther preached in the Gotha church on four occasions.

St. Augustine Lutheran has long been known for its music.  One of its best-known directors of music was Johann Pachelbel, yes, that Pachelbel, the composer of Canon in D.

The congregation is best known in recent history for the lead role it played in the peaceful revolution in the fall of 1989 when Eastern Germany overthrew the Communist regime and later reunited with Western Germany to become the Germany we know today.

Gotha lies between Erfurt (where Luther was a university student, a monk and later ordained as a priest) and Eisenach (where Luther attended elementary school and was later given safe-keeping in near-by Wartburg Castle.)