Check out Dean Rick Lobs’ blog site at

http://trinityvero.blogspot.com/

   

Please make a note:  NO 5 P.M. SERVICE ON SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2008 or 7:30 a.m. service Sunday, July 6. 

     A Welcome Reception will follow the Sunday, July 6 10 a.m. service in the Great Hall.  Please join us - all are welcome!

Message from The Right Reverend John W. Howe to Staying Trinity             Episcopalians:

Trinity Sunday Afternoon (May 17, 2008)

Dear Trinitarians,

 

When Canon Coyle and eight other clergy and their wardens came to see me last October 18 I could not have imagined how the following seven months would unfold.  They said they were all going to "disaffiliate" from The Episcopal Church, and therefore from the Diocese of Central Florida.  With Trinity's Mediation Settlement Agreement two weeks ago, all nine of these situations have now been resolved, thanks be to God.

 

Unlike what has happened anywhere else in the country, we have gotten through this time without litigation, without the inhibition or deposition of clergy, and without the transfer of real estate.  And perhaps even more importantly, we have been able to continue seeing and treating each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

It saddens me deeply that the clergy and most of the staff of Trinity, and a significant number of parishioners will be leaving.  These are people whose friendship I treasure, and whose ministries I honor.  And I know the decisions to leave have been difficult and conscientiously made.  And to all of them I say, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord."

 

But to you who are staying (and to those who are returning) I say: Get ready for God's blessing!  There is a new day dawning at Trinity, and it is going to be a wonderful spiritual adventure!

 

Dean Rick Lobs and I met each other when we both moved to the Pittsburgh area in 1976.  We were both called to churches named "St. Stephen's;" I as Associate Rector in Sewickley, a fairly upscale suburb, and he to McKeesport, a pretty run-down steel mill town, with very high unemployment.

 

Rick looked out at a congregation of very dispirited people on his first Sunday, and he proclaimed, "From now on we are going to be known as 'The Friendly Church in the Heart of Town.'"  He said it over and over.  He put it on the sign board in front.  He had it printed on all the stationery.  And fairly quickly he had people believing it!

 

He spoke it into reality.

 

When the Cathedral Church of St. Luke needed a new Dean fifteen years ago, I was absolutely thrilled that they called Rick.  It was only several months after he arrived that I divulged the fact that it was I who had submitted his name in the first place!  Prior to his coming the Cathedral was rumored to be a very difficult place.  I wrote down what Rick said to our Diocesan Convention in 1994 regarding his acceptance of the call there: "A wise bird knows that a scarecrow is only an advertisement.  There are scarecrows only in carefully tended gardens.  A wise bird sees scarecrows as an invitation to a banquet."

 

And what a banquet God provided at the Cathedral under Rick's leadership!  It is a place bursting with life and ministry, programs for all ages, excellent worship and preaching and teaching. 

 

You are getting the best of the best.  And I know you are going to want him and Donna - a  Deacon whom you will also come to love - to stay beyond the "interim."

 

But that is not Rick's job.  He will be there to help you reestablish yourselves, and get ready for the next chapter in the amazing ministry and witness that Trinity has had in Vero Beach for eighty-two years.

 

I will be working closely with your new vestry to discern who it is that God is calling to be your next full-time Rector.  I am only just now getting to know the members of your "vestry-in-waiting," but I must say they are an impressive group!  I thank God for them, and for all of you, and I especially want to acknowledge the extraordinary role that has been played over the last half year by your new Senior Warden.  Warren Winchester's efforts have been stunning, and I consider him a true spiritual hero.

 

I can promise there will be bumps in the road ahead, but we will get through them together.  Keep a sense of humor.

 

Today's epistle reading ended with these practical instructions from the Apostle Paul, "Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you....  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."  (2 Corinthians 13:11-13).

 

I wish you every blessing from our Lord,

 

The Right Rev. John W. Howe

Episcopal Bishop of Central Florida

1017 East Robinson Street

Orlando, Florida 32801

407-423-3567 BCF3@aol.com