Greetings and appreciation to you all from all of us who are Trinity United Church of Christ!  Before coming to SCNC, I had made a commitment to participate in the National Workshop on Christian Unity (will probably send another about that!) in Chicago this week.  But with all happening in our church, my husband decided he wanted to come to be with our church, as did I, so we came out early and were blessed to worship Sunday with our Trinity UCC family.  I have good news:  the church is praying its way through the hurricane of media attention, abuse and distortion and is alive and well.  Worship was vibrant as always, the spirit is strong. Our new pastor, Otis Moss, preached two outstanding sermons. 

The support of the wider church is MUCH appreciated by the Trinity congregation. They print some of the supportive letters they are receiving from around the country in their bulletin each week---so those of you who have written affirming op-eds or newsletter articles might want to be sure to send a copy to the church.   One Kansas City Disciples congregation sent a poster sized print out of their pastor's letter of support and folks signed all around it.  I was delighted to hand-deliver notes of support from our San Bernardino congregation (including a touching one from the pastor's 7 year old!) and notes from folks at the Eastern Association meeting.  Thank you all. 

The national UCC has tried to have someone present every Sunday in recent weeks but since they had board meetings, no one was scheduled for this past Sunday and I was able to bring wider church greetings and expressions of support from the Southern California Nevada Conference!  It was warmly received. (Though the pastor said it was cruel of me to have brought him an orange picked from the tree outside our office! It was cold and snowy in Chicago!)

The pressure continues and will likely accelerate as Pastor Wright gets back into action.  Later this month he will appear at the National Press Club.  It breaks my heart that as a result of this media distortion both pastors have had threats and their families need security 24x7 at the church's expense.  It is outrageous...But as I said to the folks there, what humans have intended (and I do mean intended) for wrong, God is turning into something good in many ways.  At the Church World Service board meeting I heard from a friend that her young adult son had drifted away from the church but on Easter attended our Claremont church "in honor of Jeremiah Wright"!!  There is nothing Jeremiah would like better than to know that because of him someone returned to the church to celebrate the risen Christ! 

So please continue holding our Trinity friends in prayer.  April 27 will be "Trinity United Church of Christ" Unity Sunday---when they will march around their building and 'reclaim our sacred space' which has been so rudely treated by the intrusive press (even at a recent funeral for a member judge...).  It would be great if others would take a special prayer moment on that Sunday to be in unity with this part of the body of Christ.

And finally, as you have heard, the UCC has set May 18 as a Sunday to challenge ourselves and others to preach and teach about  race/racism in our time and place. This is no small challenge. But it is not necessary that any of us think we can 'solve' it or fully address it in one preaching moment.  And I know many who read this have often addressed this difficult reality in the context of worship. But I encourage us all to hear this challenge and to claim this opportunity to listen for a word from God to our congregations and world on this matter of race.

With You in Christ's Service,

jane