Current News

This page is to help keep all informed of latest changes due to the Coronavirus challenges.

Sunday Service Webstream-only

At this time all our services are Webstream only. All can access the parish’s Facebook page, even without a Facebook account. Simply follow the links below.

10:30 a.m. – Sunday Service & Music Concert

Facebook Link Bulletin Link

Wednesday Service

7 p.m. – Evening Prayer

Facebook Link Bulletin Link

Trinity Children’s Sunday School

Sunday, 9:30 a.m. on our Facebook page Facebook Link

Trinity Youth Group Meetings

Meetings of our Middle and High school members are on hold at this time due to the virus.

Current Newsletter

Newsletter link

Outreach Ministries

Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry

Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry (TIFP) was open nine days in January, 2021 and served 171 households. TIFP was open 100 days in 2020 and served 2,679 households and approximately 7,000 household members.

TIFP expenses for purchasing food from Harvesters and locally was $ 621.21. The total retail value of food distributed in January, 2021 was $ 3,591.00. Harvesters has reduced food costs and has temporarily waived its charges for nonperishable foods in January and for the next four months as a way to ease the financial challenges of food pantries during the pandemic which is a benefit to TIFP.

TIFP continues to serve people who come for food with pre-bagged groceries outside the Matthews Center. The number of people served any day can range from 13 people to 40 people. The variation is related to the city’s initiative to shelter people overnight in motels at Sixth and Iowa. We have observed that there are people who come for food who we do not recognize and have not regularly served. The extreme level of need of people is sometimes, painfully visible.

Our volunteers and donors are generous and have become creative about finding ways to meet our patrons’ needs including hand-crocheted hats, gloves, socks, food items as frozen orange juice, hot drink mixes, along with custom-materials for packaging one-half dozen eggs, and providing pet food.

We continue our deep appreciation for the generous donations of money by parishioners at Trinity Church and the partner churches which continue to be used to fill our shelves for people who come to the food pantry on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

Back Snack Remains a Vital Resource to Lawrence Kids

Winter weather is here and kids in school or those learning virtually have needs that are the same as every year – to know they live in a caring and generous community. Back Snack helps do just that for Lawrence students.

As you may remember, the Back Snack program has traditionally supplemented the weekly snacks with fresh fruit – an apple or orange was an added treat. These extras were made possible by our generous donors. Because of COVID-related issues with distribution, the fresh fruit was omitted this year. As the funds were already in the budget, Back Snack coordinators, Tod Sutton and Greg Hazen, decided to use this money to purchase 300 sets of hats and gloves to hand out in December.

The Back Snack weekly distribution was handled differently this year as a result of the remote learning phases instituted by the school system. The recently-adopted hybrid schedule lets our volunteers get more food to the kids. Back Snack is currently serving approximately 150 students per week to six schools. It is expected an additional school will be added soon.

A special thank you to our volunteers during this time. To this point, the program has been less manpower-intensive than in prior years to minimize contact points and protecting the volunteers, students and school coordinators we serve. We share your hope that we will be able to reach all our schools in the near future.

While we currently have sufficient funds to continue the Back Snack program, your continued prayers for our service to Lawrence students and families are very much appreciated.

L.I.N.K. –

From the LINK page http://www.linklawrence.org/

L.I.N.K. Update

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the kitchen remains closed. Some volunteers will be handing out bag lunches on our usual day. Since we cannot prepare and serve meals, LINK would appreciate monetary donations to help with the cost of the lunches. If you wish to contribute, please send a check made out to L.I.N.K., and mail it to:

First Christian Church,
Attn: LINK
1000 Kentucky St.
Lawrence, KS 66044

Please note Trinity Episcopal Church on the memo line. Your gift is another way to reach out to those in need during this time. Thank you!

Catherine Robins & Orean Kent
L.I.N.K. Co-Chairs

LINK page http://www.linklawrence.org/

DACA

Greetings LIRIM supporters and those who have supported our DACA scholars program in the past.

Earlier I contacted you about our plan to continue our support of the DACA scholarship program during the restriction of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plan to have supporters send in donations or donate online to this fund has been very successful. So far we have raised more than $3000 this month. That is about 75% of the way to our goal of $4000. Thank you to all who have taken the time to donate to this very worthwhile project.

For those of you who have not had the chance to donate yet, we will still be collecting funds for the rest of the month of June. Again, you can donate in one of two ways:

1. Online donations can be made at www.trinitylawrence.org (find “make a donation” button; use “DACA” line for your amount; a log in/online profile should be created and a receipt will be provided).

2. Or send a check with “DACA” on memo line to Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vermont St, Lawrence, 66044.

Remember that our usual tamale order of 1 dozen tamales would normally be $36. If you can donate that much we’d be very pleased. Of course, we don’t want to limit your donation amount, but this gives you an idea of the scope.

Last week, we received amazing news that the US Supreme Court ruled that the DACA program will be able to continue. This was very unexpected and we are very excited that our scholars will be able to continue in their efforts to gain a college degree and build a career that can help them to continue their contributions to our society. However, this is really only another temporary solution to our goal of a permanent solution and a path to full citizenship for these who have committed themselves to the country that they have grown up in and already contributed so much. The Trump Administration has already stated that they intend to bring more action against this very worthwhile program of DACA. In the weeks ahead LIRIM will be sending out information on how you can help to push this goal forward with some advocacy efforts in the federal government.

For now, thanks again to all of you who have stepped up to give us funds and not get any tamales in return this year. Your selfless action and generosity is making this program a continued success.

Peace to you,

LIRIM Steering Committee

Vacation Bible School links will still stay active through December

Our VBS is online this year in Google Classroom. Anyone with the code can access this classroom, so please feel free to share the classroom code(s) with kids or grandkids not in the area. If you’re an adult who would like to check in and see what’s going on, please feel free to join.

For Google Classroom, the person needs to have a Google account (children can use an adult’s account). You can make an account here.

If you do not have access to a home computer, device, or internet, the church office (783-843-6166) can print out activities, crafts, stories, etc., and mail them to you.

How to Access the Classroom.

Go to classroom.google.com and sign in to your Google account.
At the top right there is a small plus sign. Click the plus sign and click “join a class” from the drop-down menu.
Type in the code for the classroom that matches your child’s age (or the classroom that your child is most interested in). Then click “join.”
You can join all three classes so that if you have children with different ages, they can access all the classrooms from that Google account.
After you “join” a class once you will not have to do it again. The class will always be listed in classroom.google.com under that account.

CODES

Ages 4-10 Class Code: 7dbwrzi

Ages 11-15 Class Code: rcwgrtt

Ages 16 and Up Class Code: jtpnvnz

You can also follow directions from google here: https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020297 under “join with a class code”

or from google here: https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6072460?hl=en&ref_topic=9049890

For info on navigating the classroom and weekly meetings, go to this link.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for weekly content feel free to email me at VBS@trinitylawrence.org