This weekend, nine members of the All Saints community are traveling to Chicago to learn from and begin to build a relationship with Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, an 8,500 member church that is one of the pre-eminent progressive churches in America and an iconic institution in the black church tradition.
Trinity became widely known during the 2008 election when its pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was excoriated for preaching difficult truths about America while then Senator Barack Obama was one of his parishioners. Today, Rev. Wright’s successor, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss iii, is widely viewed as one of the finest preachers and spiritual leaders in the country.
Just as All Saints has longstanding relationships with progressive congregations locally, we are looking to learn from and build relationships with such congregations across the country.
The team traveling to visit Trinity is rector Mike Kinman, associate rectors Mark Chase and Sally Howard, wardens Julianne Hines and Rise Worthy-Deamer, Director of Connection and Care Thomas Diaz, Assistant Children and Youth Minister Ahren Martinez, vestry member Claudia Owens Shields, and parishioner Brinell Anderson.
The goals of the trip are;
*To learn best practices that will inform how we embody our 4 core values of Radical Inclusion, Joyful Spirituality, Courageous Justice, and Ethical Stewardship.
*To build relational/professional connections with other practitioners who are doing the work we are doing, and who are also farther ahead in that work, especially but not exclusively as it pertains to dismantling white supremacy.
*To learn culturally relevant practices, and build on culturally relevant proficiencies that will help create truly safe spaces for our Black Congregants
*To create exposure to other relevant systems of church management and church leadership, that we can directly apply to our context here at All Saints.
We will be meeting with Trinity team members to specifically look at how Trinity facilitates their Sunday worship experience; how they engage with young people in their neighborhood; how they engage the local community in peace and justice work; LGBTQ family ministry and health and wellness ministries.
The majority of the team will be in Chicago from Friday through Sunday. The rector arrives on Wednesday and returns Tuesday morning to have additional meetings in Chicago.
The team will report to Vestry and will also communicate the learnings from the journey to the wider congregation. Please keep them and the people of Trinity Chicago in your prayers.
In addition, the rector will host a Lenten book study of Dr. Moss’ latest book, Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times. You can register for the book study by clicking here.
