Help Us Fill In Trinity's History!

The history of Trinity Princeton has been documented in many books, but they end with the Rev. Leslie Smith!  We need your help to fill in a Trinity Timeline from 2006 to 2025!

The Trinity Timeline will be on tables outside Pierce Hall. Our centered timeline, on a long sheet of paper, is marked off into chronological increments.  Please add your personal Trinity events (e.g., Weddings, Baptisms, Confirmations, Funerals, and other personal memories) above the timeline and key Church events below the timeline.  You may add anything you want!

The 2006-2025 Trinity Timeline will be outside Pierce Hall for a couple of weeks. Have fun!

Valentines for Food

During February, please help our outreach partner Arm in Arm with their "Valentines for Food" food drive.  Preferred foods are: cans of vegetables, fruits, proteins, and beans; peanut butter, rice, cereal, seasonings, honey, vegetable/corn oil, and maseca flour.  Food donations can be dropped off in the red wagon in the hallway by the south transept or the wheelbarrow in the narthex.  Donations of money to buy food are also accepted at https://arminarm.org/valentines/. For more information, contact Melissa Scott at mebscott@comcast.net or Ann Zultner at ann@Azercpa.com.

Be More Tree

Dear Friends,

This week, a parishioner passed along a wonderful article - Deep roots and wide branches: Polarity Management and the tensions that aren’t resolvable, or, Be More Tree by Elizabeth Oldfield.

I found her words to be a stream of life-giving water in these turbulent times. Below, you will find a few excerpts for your consideration and reflection. 

  • I can’t be the only one feeling the need for more spiritual core strength. I am managing two seemingly opposing instincts: I want to resist this reactionary moment by reaching out to those different from me, to model a hospitality I do not see playing out on the world stage. I’m also aware of a desire to pull back into safety, to shelter in sameness and unquestioned belonging. I do not have the energy to deal with Those Guys. Today I am writing about why these two instincts are not opposites, but might instead be poles in a healthy rhythm or two parts of a dance.

  • We were always looking for the best arguments from a range of possible perspectives. This process quickly made clear that the semi-concious mental model I was carrying (people who disagree with me are stupid or terrible or both) was not sustainable.

  •  Polarity Management is a concept developed by Barry Johnson, and I came across it through Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, whose Ted X talk is a useful introduction … The key concept is that while many problems have one right answer, polarities have two interdependent answers. They are unresolvable in that sense, so instead need to be managed. Johnson uses breathing as the key metaphor. Inhaling and exhaling are both essential processes. The midpoint between them is not the place to aim for. We must instead do both at the right time. They both have upsides, and, if we only did one of them, major downsides…Inhale, exhale, repeat.

  •  My most precious biblical metaphor is a tree. Polarity management is illuminating but still too machine-like for my tastes … Trees are woven through my scriptures. The tree of life in Eden which Adam and Eve reject in favour of the tree of knowledge, a tree of execution at the crucifixion, a whole forest of trees of life in the final book of Revelation. There is one image that comes up multiple times like a leitmotif, it’s repeated refrain calling back and forward through the centuries. Here it is in Jeremiah:

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

  • We have found that being unapologetically ourselves gives others permission to do so too. Our distinctive Christian identity seems to be no barrier to people of radically different outlooks feeling at home in our space. Difference is not, as I am always saying, inherently a threat. It is often a gift. It is certainly more interesting. It is only when we become defensive and defended, anxious and triggered by that difference that it causes problems. Deep roots alone makes us rigid. My husband says “when we don’t welcome strangers, we become strange”. Wide branches without roots leaves us fragile, without the resilience to be of use, long term. The deeper our roots, the more sure of our own belovedness, the more open we are also able to be.

To dig a little deeper visit: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/p/deep-roots-and-wide-branches?r=3n812o&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

In these times, may we find our roots deep in the soil of God’s grace and our branches spread wide sharing God’s healing that we all may indeed live more fully in the truth of belovedness.

Forward in faith!

Sunday Forum

During the 1520’s, St. Ignatius Loyola began writing about the emotions that took hold of him — feelings of gratitude and anguish, consolation and sadness — while encountering the Scriptures. Those meditations eventually became the Spiritual Exercises, which were first published in 1548. The object is to help people develop their attentiveness, their openness, and their responsiveness to God.

Join us this week, as our very own Alex Englert offers us an introduction to the practice of Ignatian spiritually.

Walking Forward in Faith

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though

I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude 

Dear Good People of Trinity,

Finding our way in life is not always easy. How often do we wish for a clear map, a step-by-step guide, or at least a divine GPS to show us the way? But life doesn’t work that way. Instead, we walk forward in faith, often uncertain of where the path will lead.

Like many of you, I long for clarity. I want to know with certainty that I am following God’s will, and that every step I take is in the right direction. But Thomas Merton’s beautiful prayer reminds us that our journey with God is not about having perfect clarity—it’s about trust.

Merton’s words assure us that even when we feel lost, even when the road ahead is uncertain, God is with us. What pleases God is not our ability to navigate flawlessly, but our deep desire to follow. And that desire, however imperfect, is enough.

This prayer invites us to surrender—not in fear, but in trust. It reminds us that even in the shadows, we are never alone. God is always walking beside us, leading us forward, even when we cannot see the way. So let us move forward in faith, trusting that the One who calls us beloved will never leave us to face our perils alone.

Peace and Blessings,

Paul

Members of the Body

My friend Robert Hendrickson, rector of St. Philip’s in the Hills in Tucson, recently put together this chart for his annual meeting. It tracks what are called ‘deaths of despair’ (ie, deaths from suicide and addiction) compared to the introduction of particular technologies. The “50% mark” indicates the point when 50 percent of households in America had Internet access. 

If we think of our nation as a body, there are certainly parts of that body that are ill indeed. The social fragmentation that can come with certain technologies seems to play a role, although correlation certainly isn’t proof of causation. But something has caused an increasing number of Americans to feel that their lives aren’t worth living, or that they need to escape from their pain through self-medication. 

The Church is a body, too, and we are not immune to the struggles of society as a whole. But there are no parts of the body that are superfluous, or un-needed, or unworthy of love. In our Epistle reading for this Sunday, St. Paul writes, “there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” We need everyone in order to be who we are, the Body of Christ in Trinity Church. 

Being a member of the body of Christ means being conjoined with one another in the same way that one limb is joined to another. When we’re members of the same body, we find that we can’t dis-member ourselves by cutting parts of ourselves off.  But neither can we participate in a crushing uniformity, without the joys of difference within that unity. Unity is not sameness. 

Without the body, without our other limbs, without each other, we find ourselves cut off from who we truly are. Without the body, we can’t live out our own calling. To be who we are called to be, we need each one of you to live out your calling, too. We are all connected. This year, as we walk together as followers of Jesus, I invite you to discern what your role in this body is. I invite you to participate in that body ever more deeply, whether that’s helping the liturgy, participating in a fellowship group, or joining us for the Daily Office. We need each one of you, and we’re not complete without you. 

Yours in Christ, and Christ alone,

Kara+

P.S. Join me on February 9th and February 16th for a special forum series on technology, including artificial intelligence, and its implications for Christian life. 

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