A Bunch of Updates from the Last Week+

We selected the “Triquetra with Circle” image as the basis for our logo. It, and the explanation behind it, will feed our consulting artist’s work around colors, graphics, font, layout, etc. for printed materials and web design.

Aldrich Church has offered us the use of their main floor (sanctuary, chapel, gathering space, gym, piano, organ) on Sundays starting at 4:30 p.m. We would then offer worship at 5:00 (assuming that we could do altar setup and musician warmup in 30 minutes) and fellowship and/or education starting at 6:00. Any of you sports fans out there want to organize some physical activity for the kiddos in the gym? Any of you fellowship fans want to organize some food & drink? Any of you education fans want to organize some classes?

Our Theology Team’s work on “we chose the name Trinity because…” helped bring us to a consensus on the primary image for our logo. This team will provide additional reflections on other important topics: things that will help us with other organizational, logistical and missional decisions in the weeks ahead!

I’ll be speaking with Rev. George Koch the week of May 3. He’s the rector of Resurrection Anglican Church in West Chicago and is involved with (perhaps leading) the development of a geographical ACNA diocese for the upper Midwest.

One participant asked what we mean by “egalitarian” in our list of distinctives. We mean that women can be ordained as priests and can perform any role in the church, fully exercising their gifts. This underscores the fact that your questions are very important – it’s important for me/us to know when we fall into the trap of using buzzwords without defining them, so that we can prevent those same mistakes in the future. Keep your questions coming!

One participant recommended Dr. Marva Dawn’s work on worship and application of theology. She will be In MN in August – take a look at her website http://www.marvadawn.org/

I have started working on bylaws, using the current bylaws from another church and the canons and constitution of ACNA as guides. I hope to have a draft ready for review this Saturday.

One person wrote to suggest that we might consider Evening Prayer with homily and music as an alternative to a full Eucharist worship service some weeks. Good idea! Shoot me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com if you’d like to voice your opinion on this (or any other topic!).

Oh, the Beauty of it All!

Last weekend I (and about 1,100 other people!) traveled to Wheaton College for their annual Theology Conference. The theme was “Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N.T. Wright” (Anglican Bishop of Durham, U.K.).  It brought several of Bishop Wright’s friends, colleagues and former students together to give papers critiquing and responding to some of his larger works, most prominently his 1997 "Jesus and the Victory of God" (or JVG, as they called it!) and then to discuss their critiques with him – all in front of an audience of more clergy and theologians and writers and professors and publishers than I have ever seen under one roof!   N.T. Wright also gave a full lecture after dinner each evening. You can get additional info and watch video of all the sessions or download MP3 recordings on Wheaton’s website: www.wheaton.edu/wetn/lectures-theology10.htm . If you watch nothing else, be sure to catch “Bishop Tom’s” amazingly compact and profound address to Wheaton’s students at chapel on Friday: www.wheaton.edu/wetn/flash-chapel/chap09-10/100416Wright.html Their website says that the demand is very heavy, so your download or streaming video might take a while to load.

I'm still reflecting on the ideas and impressions of the whole weekend, but the impression that stands out the most for me is the beauty of it all -
*  from the very cerebral beauty of the doctrines and theological concepts being discussed,
*  to the transcendent beauty of Jesus,
*  to the complex beauty of Paul and his teachings,
*  to the multifaceted beauty of the body of Christ,
*  to the peaceful beauty of brief liturgy and prayers that started each session,
*  to the almost humorous beauty of great minds wrestling with huge ideas,
*  to the gracious beauty revealed in decades of friendships,
*  to the ineffable beauty of music (the worship music, and especially Jeremy Begbie's profound performance of Liszt’s “Consolation #3” at the Steinway (it brought me to tears) and his composition “Variations on the letters of N.T. Wright’s name in the style of J.S. Bach”),
*  to the physical beauty of Wheaton’s lovely campus nestled in a gorgeous landscape created by our almighty God.

Another bonus of being in Wheaton was that I was able to meet with Rev. William Beasley, the church planting leader for Greenhouse Ministries, the primary group currently working in conjunction with ACNA and AMiA to plant and support new Anglican churches in the upper Midwest. (See the March 3 posting on this blog for more information about William and a link to watch some of his presentations at the Anglican1000 Conference.) Although it probably won’t work for Anglican Church of the Trinity to formally align with Greenhouse Ministries (primarily due to our firm egalitarian stand), William is happy to provide informal assistance. As he says, “we’re all in this together!” Bishop John Guernsey of the Diocese of the Holy Spirit in Woodbridge, VA has now recommended that I contact Rev. George Koch of Resurrection Anglican Church in West Chicago. Apparently George is helping develop an ACNA geographical diocese in our region. He also is a former executive of Oracle, one of the biggest software companies in the world, so these conversations should be fun (I’m a technology project manager myself). I’ve contacted George, and hope to have some more information by our meeting on Saturday.

I also met Rev. Martha Giltinan, a faculty member from Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA ( http://www.tsm.edu/ ) , who was very happy to hear about our little project and who will be delighted to help us with training, resources, etc. So stay tuned for further details on that front!

This Saturday morning we meet again at Aldrich Church (3501 Aldrich Ave. S.) at 9:00 for Morning Prayer and then our planning meeting. Coffee and informal conversation start at 8:30. The primary agenda items for our planning meeting are:
* selection of a primary “Trinitarian” image for our logo – I’ll bring some additional input from team members who have been researching this over the past week+
* an initial report from our Theology Team on topics/statements that will guide how we describe this church on printed materials and the web, how we articulate our commitment to egalitarian service and leadership, how we start to design our worship, etc.
* additional feedback from my conversations with various ACNA leaders
* a venue for our worship services
* the “critical mass” of participants and leaders – are we on target for starting worship on Pentecost?
* various logistical details around budgeting, decision-making, databases, website, incorporation
* other program and ministry updates (lots of leadership opportunities still available!)
* prayer requests

Reminder - No Planning Meeting this Week

A few of us will be out of town, so we won't be meeting this Saturday for Morning Prayer and planning.

Shoot me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com if you would like a summary of this week's activities, findings, decisions, etc.

A Name, A Time, A Team of Theologians!

OK…it’s official…we’re now

Anglican Church of the Trinity

It’s so good to have a name, and such a glorious one at that!

And, after reviewing the updated “pros and cons” worship-time analysis this morning, we selected the Sunday afternoons/evenings alternative. Thanks again to all who contributed to that analysis.

Now that we have a name, we can start the work of filing incorporation papers, writing bylaws, etc.

And now that we’ve selected a worship time we can approach a church about renting space for worship (and perhaps education and fellowship) on Sunday afternoons/evenings.

Today we also decided to appoint a “theology team” that would build a guiding framework based on the theology of the Trinity – a framework that can then be used to inform us as we make a bunch of practical and logistical decisions over the next few months. This framework will help ensure that we don’t make decisions just based on our personal preferences or sociological influences but, whenever possible, based on the character of God and the relationships between the persons of the Trinity.

And we started reviewing the history and interpretations of various Trinitarian symbols today; I will email a recap of that information to everyone on my mailing list (if you don’t receive my weekly emails and would like to see this information, just shoot me a note at MplsAnglican@aol.com). Over the next couple weeks we’ll research some more symbols with the intention of selecting one to incorporate in our logo by the end of April.

Obviously, we still have a long “to-do” list (actually a Gantt chart – shoot me an email if you’d like a copy); people are volunteering to drive tasks in their area(s) of interest, but opportunities abound, so step up now to participate in areas that interest you!

Dead Sea Scrolls Lecture by Renowned Bible Scholars and Translators

Several churches and organizations are presenting lectures in conjunction with the “Dead Sea Scrolls” exhibit at the Science Museum, but I would like to draw your attention to one of them.

This Thursday evening, April 8, Dr. Ronald Youngblood and Dr. Dan Gurtner are giving a lecture at the Benson Great Hall at Bethel University at 7:00 p.m. No reservations are required. 

• Dr. Youngblood is emeritus professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Bethel Seminary San Diego. Last year he celebrated his 50-year teaching career that began at Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning (Philadelphia), where he earned a Ph.D. in Assyriology. Youngblood, an ordained minister, has made more than 10 trips to the Middle East during the last 46 years, and is one of the translators and editors of the New International Version of the Bible. He also has served as author or editor of more than 20 books.
• Dr. Gurtner is associate professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary. His teachings focus on the Gospels and their Old Testament and Jewish background, and he is the author of five books pertaining to the Gospels and Second Temple Judaism. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), and has been teaching at Bethel Seminary since 2005. Gurtner is an ordained minister in Converge Worldwide (Baptist General Conference).

For a map, visit:  http://www.bethel.edu/special-events/campus_map.htm 
For more information about these and other events, visit: http://www.bethel.edu/alumni/events/2009/dead-sea-scrolls

I plan to attend Thursday night’s lecture. Shoot me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com if you’d like to join me!

Planning Update

In addition to selecting “Trinity” as the operative word in this church’s name (at our planning meeting last Saturday), we discussed the implications and pros and cons of holding weekly Sunday worship (at least at the beginning) on

• Sunday mornings -or-
• Sunday afternoons/evenings

We also touched on some other alternatives, but these two were our primary focus. I brought a decision matrix to the meeting, pre-populated with some pros and cons, and we talked through it, adding some implications and clarifying others. Since so many other decisions are dependent on the “when we worship” decision, I would like us to come to a consensus this Saturday.

I will email the “pros and cons” matrix to everyone on my weekly-update email distribution list, asking for their feedback by Friday. If you don’t already receive that weekly email and would like to see the matrix, just send me a note at MplsAnglican@aol.com .

The folks at the meeting on Saturday and several others I spoke with during the week agreed that we should put “pedal to the metal” and try to start weekly worship on Pentecost, May 23. That would put our first worship on the birthday of the Church and the second on our name day, Trinity Sunday! Is that thrilling or what?!? We know that there is a lot to do (see the list on my March 28 blog entry), but it’s possible, with God’s help.

We closed Saturday’s meeting with prayers:

• That God would move in the hearts of the people of His choosing to be part of the core planning team
• That the folks on the core planning team will have confidence in their call and the ability to set aside the time required to participate
• For wisdom and guidance
• For a place to worship
• For provisions for the work
• For conviction that this is the way forward, this is of God’s leading

Trinity Wins!

I hope that your Easter was beautiful and blessed, dear friends!

One quick update from last week’s discussions and meetings:

“Trinity” wins!

...as the operative portion of this church’s name, that is. And of course, as we were reminded throughout Holy Week and Easter, “Trinity” wins in a universal sense as well!

This week we’ll finalize the rest of the name. Please let us know your thoughts by sending an email to MplsAnglican@aol.com or by posting a comment on this blog entry. Some options are:

• “Church of the Trinity, Anglican” At this point, this is my preferred formulation, given that it establishes ownership and precedence – we belong to the Trinity, not the other way around. (Also, not many other churches in town use an “of the” formulation.)
• “Anglican Church of the Trinity” This also nicely defines the right relationship to God, but it seems to hint that alliance (Anglican) comes before allegiance (Trinity). It does give a hint about the style of worship someone would find there (classical Anglican). And with so many churches removing their denominational relationship from their name, it might be nice to be counter-cultural by putting it front and center!
• “Trinity Church, Anglican”
• “Trinity Anglican Church”
• others?

The name “Trinity” carries some great historical symbols that we might use in our logo. Here are three of them. Again, post a comment on this blog entry or send me an email with explanations of one or more of these symbols, your preferences, or additional options.

I’ll post some more updates from last Saturday’s meeting later today and tomorrow. But if you’re interested, please do join us next Saturday at Aldrich Church (3501 Aldrich Ave S, Minneapolis)

• 8:30-9:00 coffee and informal conversation
• 9:00-9:15 Morning Prayer
• 9:15-10:00 planning