Trinity Episcopal Church

218 East Benton Street

Aurora, Il. 60505

www.trinityaurora.org (630) 897-7283 October, 2014

Volume 14 Issue 9

Serving Aurora's Faithful

since 1849

Deacon John at Wellington School Chapel, England

On September 28, I was invited to preach at an evening Communion Service at Wellington

school in Somerset England. It felt like a scene out of a movie...the choir of 26 students and

adults and music was exquisite. There were 250+ students present and the occasion was the

Anglican celebration of Harvest Festival. I decided to preach about the first Thanksgiving in our

United States. This was the sermon I offered, I hope you enjoy it:

"Today we are celebrating Harvest Festival.....let us first of all give thanks to God for the

bounteous gifts he bestows on us. Ladies and Gentlemen here together in the Wellington School

Chapel, let me first introduce myself and a few other visitors kindly invited by Father Jeremy this

evening. Let us start with me, simply because I remember my name, well at least most of the

time. My name is Reverend Deacon John Dolan from the Diocese of Chicago in the United

States. You will see I wear a stole just like a priest but I wear it at an angle to distinguish the or-

der of Deacons. Well that was pretty boring; It may get better, but I have only been a deacon

for 20 years and have only given about 700 sermons during that time, so I am really only just

learning the ropes.

I am here with my wife Karen, a genuine American and my wife for 39 years. Also we

are with my friend for more than fifty five years, Mr. Nigel Calder and his fiancé Sandra Gorvett.

Nigel, Willows '63, is President of the Old Wellingtonians Association and the main reason

Karen and I are over here, because on September 23, Nigel celebrated a big birthday ...but how-

ever hard he tries, he will always be two years younger than me.

I am a Chartered Accountant as well as a minister and in 1970 I left Deloitte's in Lon-

don to work in Chicago for one year. For those good at maths, 44 years later I am still

there...maybe my job in London has been filled by now.

But that is why a so-called American Deacon talks almost like one of you guys !! In

America we don't celebrate Harvest Festival as much as you do...our equivalent celebration is

always the third Thursday in November...a holiday called.. (anybody know it?)..... right.... Thanks-

giving.

If you will be patient with me, I will give you the short version of the First Thanksgiv-

ing..."Short" version...you know that everything in America has to be bigger or longer...but here

goes.

Long before settlers came to the East Coast of the United States, the area was inhab-

ited by many Native American tribes. The area surrounding the site of the first Thanksgiving,

now known as southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island had been the home of the

Wampanoag people for over 12,000 years, and had been visited by other European settlers be-

fore the arrival of the Mayflower. The native people knew the land well and had fished, hunted,

and harvested for thousands of generations.

The people who comprised the Plymouth Colony were a group of English Protestants who

wanted to break away from the Church of England. These ‘separatists’ initially moved to Holland

and after 12 years of financial problems, they received funding from English merchants to sail

across the Atlantic to settle in a ‘New World.' A ship carrying 101 men, women, and children

spent 66 days traveling the Atlantic Ocean, intending to land where New York City is now lo-

cated. Due to the windy conditions, the group had to cut their trip short and settle at what is

now called Cape Cod. As the Puritans prepared for winter, they gathered anything they could find, including Wam-

panoag supplies. One day, Samoset, a leader of the Abenaki, and Tisquantum (better known as

Squanto) visited the settlers. Squanto was a Wampanoag who had experience with other settlers

and knew English. Squanto helped the settlers grow corn and use fish to fertilize their fields. Af-

ter several meetings, a formal agreement was made between the settlers and the native people

Inside this issue:

Page Two:

Deacon John (Cont)

Page Three Financial Snapshot

Building and Grounds

News

Page Four

Happenings

The Organ Concert A Message from Father

Rosa

Page Five

Father Rosa (Cont)

Dates to Remember

11/2 All Saints 11/16 All Parish Meeting

11/23 Thanksgiving cele-

bration with IDOM

Church

11/30 Advent begins

12/24 Midnight Mass at

10 pm

12/25 Christmas Mass at

8 am

We were sad to learn that our

beloved organist, Ken Baxter,

has taken a job in sunny Califor-

nia. Which in turn means that

he will be leaving us after 3

years of wonderful music. He will

be missed.

We will be forming a search

committee to seek someone to

try to fill his talented shoes!

The best is yet to come, Ken!

Thank you!

Page 2 Volume 14 Issue 7

Deacon John (Cont)

and they joined together to protect each other from other tribes in March of 1621.

One day that fall, four settlers were sent to hunt for food for a harvest celebration.

The Wampanoag heard gunshots and alerted their leader, Massasoit, who thought the English

might be preparing for war. Massasoit visited the English settlement with 90 of his men to see

if the war rumor was true.

Soon after their visit, the Native Americans realized that the English were only hunt-

ing for the harvest celebration. Massasoit sent some of his own men to hunt deer for the

feast and for three days, the English and native men, women, and children ate together. The

meal consisted of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat, far from today's traditional Thanks-giving feast of Turkey and stuffing.

And so ends the "short" version of the first Thanksgiving.

Now on the day of our own Harvest Festival celebration, we read in Luke's Gospel the story

of the feeding of the five thousand. From this story, I hear two distinct messages. Clearly the

food that our Lord distributes represents the love of God through his son our Savior Jesus

Christ….. the spiritual food that we need and accept as the nourishment vital to be members of

his kingdom.

The second message I hear is for the human race to act and behave as a single commu-

nity….for us to share our God given abundance……so that we help each other … with the

result that all people receive as much as they need.

As Christians I believe we each need to address individually how this sharing of

God’s bounty fits with the profit motives of a free enterprise society. How do Jesus' teachings

fit with the rights of an individual to create as much wealth as he or she desires as long as it’s

legal? How does it fit with the vast range of political and religious perspectives around our

tiny globe we call earth? How do our Lord Jesus' teachings, even after Obamacare, fit with still close to 20 million Americans with limited or no health insurance and facing personal

bankruptcy should there be an onset of a catastrophic illness?

Jesus’ whole attitude to the world is that he acts with the assumption of abundance rather

than scarcity. He understands the hollowness of a human life pursuing material possessions,

particularly money.

In contrast he tells us over and over again that the love of God is endless…it will never be

depleted and will provide us every nourishment that we will ever need or want.

We live in a world that is filled with inequities, corruption, greed and despair living alongside

love, compassion, hope and righteousness. It is an ongoing battle.

The only answer to the problems we face is to follow the teachings of our Lord Je-

sus Christ. To let the love of God rush in and fill our hearts and replace the negative feelings

and human cravings that, if we pursue, just make us feel even more empty.

By the way, with regard to the feeding of the 5,000; a former Bishop of Chicago, Bill

Wiedrich, once told a group of us Deacons a story about how Jesus was able to feed so many

people from such limited resource. The Bishop indicated that many of the crowd gathered

on the mountain would have been shepherds….and it was customary for the shepherds to

carry a lunch of a dried fish and bread. The food was usually carried in a leather pouch at-

tached to a girdle tied around their waist. The food was also hidden under their cloaks to

keep it away from the heat of the sun. When the shepherds were invited to sit down to listen

to our Lord, the act of sitting down opened their cloaks and exposed the food they carried

with them. Thus a huge amount of additional food was available which combined with the five

barley loaves and two fish provided more than enough food for all those present.

Our Lord Jesus was a smart teacher as well as the Son of God and the only answer

to us in our lives to concerns about scarcity and vulnerability that we will all face at some

time in our lives.

If we put our complete faith in God and act and behave as a single community, then our Lord

will provide for all and every need we will ever have.

Peace, Blessings and love to you all here this evening in this wonderful place.. ………..Amen.

Financial Snapshot

News

Building and Grounds

2.539 KWH from last

year or 16%! Yes it has

been a mild summer,

but….

PLEASE NOTE! Our

Church Software that we

use to track contributions

crashed last spring. The

system’s backup wouldn’t

work so Linda re-entered

all the data we have avail-

able. Statements will be out

either before you get this

or soon thereafter. Please

Check them for accuracy!

Year to Date as of 6/31/2014

Income:

Pledge and Plate $42,111

Total Income $75,361

Expense

Building and Grounds $24,261

Clergy Expense $16,904

Office & Admin $ 6,224

Total Expense $86,647

Net Income $11,286

Loan Balance $25,596

Capital Improv. $17,773

Endowment Fund Balance

$629,144

Memorial Fund Balance

$393,028

Notes:

If you remember, last

spring, a ComEd crew

came through and up-

dated all of our electrical

lighting fixtures and light

bulbs. I reviewed our

year to date electrical

usage and we are down

Gary completed the

painting on the East

Side of the Parish

Hall—it looks wonder-

ful, thanks, Gary!

The gutter downspout

on the East side of the Benton Street entrance

which has been missing

for years has been re-

placed and the gutter

repaired.

The water damage in

the office has been re-

paired, Thank you

Gutierrezs. The has

office has been painted

also.

Thanks to Maria Ulloa

for another summer of

beautifully manicured

landscape and grounds!

list: Mona Knuth; Fred and Hildur Bogvilo; Lucile Kane; Richard Higgins: Dorothea Poo-ley; Marian and Claire Winteringham; Harvey and Florence Divekey. Please let me know! Please save the Date: On November 16th, 2014, right after the ser-vice, we will be having a 1/2 hour presentation on Trinity’s finances—where the money comes from, how it is spent, how it fulfills our many missions—don’t miss it!

St Margaret's Guild has purchased 14 food bas-kets from the Illinois Food Bank (7 for Thanksgiving and 7 for Christmas. This was initiated by a report from Delores and Betty who had attended the last ECW meeting where the topic was how to feed the hungry and what we could do to help. If any of you would like to contrib-ute items such as mit-tens, hats, scarves, gift cards, etc your gift would be much appreci-ated. We will be accept-ing the items starting im-mediately through the

beginning of Decem-ber. We would add to the gift baskets already or-dered. Your generosity would be much appreci-ated. Thank you St Margaret's Guild All Saints Day is Novem-ber 2nd. If you have names that you would like remembered on that date please let Linda know—linda@trinityaurora.org. We are putting together a list of major donors to Trinity. Please add to this

Page 3 Volume 14 Issue 9

Happenings

Organ Concert

Burger and Brat Night:

10/14/14 A fund raiser-

nope, Just a night of food

friendship and camaraderie!

10/14/2014: CROP Walk

2014: 11 of your parishion-

ers walked the 3.3 mile

Crop Walk Course. Every-

one finished - some first

some last. But of course,

‘the first shall be last!’ Way

to go Inga!

to get this together! On Sunday, October 19th,

2014, Trinity hosted an

Organ Concert.

After a week filled with an

uncooperative furnace, the

CROP Walk, Burger Night,

Sandwich Board and a Heal-

ing Service, Trinity geared

itself up for an elegant ex-

travaganza of heavenly mu-

sic followed by a ‘classy’

reception.

There were four guest or-

ganists: Our own Ken Bax-

ter and Mary Goetsch;

Rosalie Cassiday, St. David’s

organist and Father Robert

Bates.

Ken played:

“Introduction and Toc-

cata” by William Walond,

“Maple Leaf” by Scott

Joplin, and “Festival Toc-

cata” by Percy Fletcher.

Over 35 people attended

and were treated with

cucumber sandwiches,

olive tapenade, and as-

sorted petitfours. Thanks

to Linda for all her effort

Father Rosa

Recently, I was driving along the country roads that bring me from home to Aurora. The crops are being harvested and the views no long are blocked by cornstalks eight feet tall. I can see again the big picture of rolling hills, trees in au-

tumn splendor, and the neat farmsteads, pockets of housing communities and the occasional towns marked by their water towers. There is an old adage, one should not lose sight of the forest for the trees. But what does it mean? A forest

Page 4 Volume 14 Issue 7

“Prelude on St. Patrick’’s

Breastplate” by Richard

Peek, “Mountain Idyl” by

Harold K. Marks, “Trumpet

Tune” by Marker Hakanpaa

and “Lunar Etude: by Rich-

ard Rogers and Lorenz Hart

Mary played:

“Panis Angelicus” by Ce-sar Franck, “Sancte Michae

Archangele”, “Gregorian

Chant Motif” expanded by

Mary Goetsch. “Prelude

LIturagique No. 5” by Gas-

ton Litaize and “Duetto III

in G” by Bach

Father Bates played “Piece

Heroique’ by Cesar Franck

Rosalie Cassiday played

9/18/2014- Flu shots at

Sandwich Board, Compli-

ments of Walgreen’s. Over

45 of our Thursday guests

were inoculated

is full of beautiful trees for the beholding, but when one becomes so engrossed in looking at the individual trees, they may forget that each tree is merely one of thou-sands in the forest and thus lose sight of the big picture.

Trinity is a community that strives to be a thriving, vibrant, diverse community of hope that,

with God’s help, heartily wel-comes the stranger, joyously

worships the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and

lovingly serves ‘the least of these,’ a church that changes people’s lives for the better.”

218 East Benton Street

Aurora, Il. 60505

Phone: (630) 897-7283

Fax: (630) 897-8783

Web Site: www.trinityaurora.org

Serving God and God’s People

Since 1849

Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity Vestry

Senior Warden: Rob Borchert

Junior Warden: Alex Adams

Richard Blogg

Marilou Clohessy Chireen DeKing

John Heath

John Kuney

Ken Palmquist Linda Barber, Clerk

Likewise, you can’t lose sight of the countryside for the cornstalks and the same holds for the Church. Often times we are so caught up in the day to day operations and tasks, or differing opinions (be it at church, or the office, workplace or home), that we distance ourselves from the call and purpose for why we do what we do. Fortunately, we have a weekly reminder of the big picture. The Eucharist, our primary gathering for worship, prayer, Biblical instruction, and the sacraments lift us to the presence of God where we may be still. There we have the opportunity to see the big picture of why, how, and where God is lovingly acting in our lives and in the world. That why it’s named “Eucharist”, the old Greek

word for“Thanksgiving.” Whenever, I have an uplifting experience, either at altar or else-where, my heartfelt thanks and gratitude soar heavenward. I re-alize that “all that I am and all that I have” God has given me. It is not for my pleasure alone, but to share with every-one. I am filled with joy for the privilege of being at Trinity Church with all of you. It’s an honor to serve with wonderful people, share in friendly encounters, speak the Word of God in ser-mons, classes, and one on one chats. I have also made a financial commitment to monthly give

a portion of my chari-table giving to Trinity. It’s my way of saying, “Thank you, Lord.” for all things and particularly for planting Trinity Church with the help of so many over the years. May it continue to serve Divine Purposes al-ways. Countless lives have been changed in this place. Thomas , your priest