Beginning Sunday, May 31st, T3 is going to be reading an discussing The Red Tent  at 10 a.m. upstairs in our usual meeting space.

The book chronicles the life of the biblical figure, Dinah, daughter of Jacob and has been described as “a combination of rich story-telling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women’s society.” The author, Anita Diamant is an award-winning journalist and author of five books about contemporary Jewish life. The text may be purchased for under $10 on amazon.com. We will be reading a few chapters a week until we are through! Please consider joining us as we journey through this story together.

Blessings,

Morgan

Well, we’ve officially made it through Lent and are now at the beginning of the Easter season!  I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter Sunday!  I also hope that all of you who participated in our Lenten devotional readings found that they, along with our Sunday morning discussions, provided some good spiritual nourishment for your Lenten journey. 

The Easter egg hunt at the Smith’s was a BLAST, so thank you to all who attended!  We will not be gathering in the months of May and June because we are planning an adult education course for those months.  Be on the lookout for pr advertising that event soon!

HOWEVER, we will be participating in the annual MS Walk in Manassas, happening on Saturday, April 25th at 9 a.m.  We always form a group and head out on the walk together early in the morning.  It’s an awesome event for a good cause and the route is stroller and pet friendly, so feel free to bring the whole family!  It begins at the Lloyd Harris Pavillion a block away from the church.  To sign up to walk with our team go to www.msandyou.org and click on the links for the walks which will lead you through the registration process.  Choose to join an existing team and type in our team name, Pfighting for Pfamily.  You don’t have to fundraise, just show up on the morning of the walk and join our group!  If you have any questions about this, contact Morgan or Jennifer Smith for details!  Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

Morgan

….to an Easter egg hunt & lunch at Jennifer & Jason Smith’s house on Saturday, April 4th @ 11:00 a.m. We’ll be providing a great hunt for the kids with lunch to follow. While the kiddos are searching for eggs, the adults will have some time for fellowship of our own! Come on out and gear up for Easter week with us! The lunch will be potluck, so bring a dish to share! Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

Morgan

Where I’m from that’s what we say to show our gratitude for a great time!  And what a great time last Saturday was!  We had great fun making some St. Patty’s Day shamrocks & rainbows (yay Jennifer), watching the parade in Old Town and eating some great lunch in the PHall!  For all of you that didn’t make it, we missed you and hope you will join us next time!

Our next get together is in April and it is an Easter egg hunt & lunch at Jennifer & Jason Smith’s house!  Please mark your calendars for April 4th and plan to join in the fun!

Our Lenten devotional study continues to go well.  We have really enjoyed our time together on Sunday mornings to reflect on our Lenten journeys.  It’s never to late to join the conversation, so feel free to come upstairs at 9 a.m. in the yellow room for some fellowship and some interesting discussions!

Some of you might not have noticed or might have forgotten, but we keep a runing prayer list on this site.  It’s located on the tab at the top of the page labeled “Prayer List” (clever and orignial, I know)!  Please feel free to either add your own prayers in the comments section or drop me a line with a request and I will be sure and add it.  This is just another way we keep in touch and support one another week to week!

Blessings,

Morgan

….by attending the St. Patty’s Day Parade in Old Town Manassas!  T3 & Families of Trinity will be getting together at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 14th to watch the parade together!  There will be lunch served in the Parish Hall following the event and all are invited to come!  There was an e-vite invitation mailed out this week, so if you did not get and/or would like to be added to our e-mail list for future updates, please let me know!  Come on out, bring the kids and don’t forget to wear green!  Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

Morgan

This a question we Episcopalians  all get asked 50 bizillion times when the Lenten season creeps up on us each year.  There are the old favs: chocolate, TV, alcohol and more recently the internet (esp. Facebook & MySpace).  All great options for clearing out the things that clutter your day-to-day life in order to make room for God.  But, I have always liked the idea of taking on something for Lent instead of giving something up.  Each year I like to decide upon a different Lenten discipline that challenges me each day, brings me closer to God and helps me reflect theologicially on some or all aspects of my life.  Last year I chose to journal every single day, which was excruciatingly painful for me.  I have never and I mean never been able to find time each day to consistently record my thoughts.  I like to be busy and on-the-go.  Quiet time each day that produces something meaningful is not normally in my schedule and I know that creating this time means giving up some of that busyness I like so much (and yes, busyness does include watching episodes of The Bachelor and other brain-rotting tv shows).  It’s tough and makes me whine, but I do it and find that when I do carve those precious moments out of my day I feel renewed and refreshed in ways I never thought possible.

So, if you’d rather take on something this Lenten season instead of giving something up, I’d like to invite you to join T3 on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m.  Beginning on February 28th, we’ll be meeting upstairs in the yellow room to help each other navigate through a 40-day devotional study based on The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.  Each week we’ll read through the text, carving a few precious moments out of our day to focus on our relationship with God & others.  Then we’ll gather together on Sunday morning to share any insights or struggles we had with the material for the week.  These conversations will be relaxed and informal, so come on up even if its just to soak in what others have to say.

The text we are used can be purchased for a decent price.  To order it, follow this link: http://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Driven%C2%AE-Life-What-Earth/dp/0310276993/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235504270&sr=8-1.  Have any questions or concerns?  E-mail Morgan!  Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

Morgan

Well, folks, the Young Adults group is officially back.  They actually never left, I did, but I am back and ready to dive into a new year and tell you a bit about what we have planned! 

First, we’re still meeting every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. upstairs in the yellow room.  We are about to embark on a 40 day devotional study for lent based on the book The Purpose Drive Life by Rick Warren.  If you would like to join us on this journey, please come to the group this Sunday or e-mail me for information about where to purchase the text.  Post-Easter we are revisioning our time together on Sunday mornings.  We are thinking about meeting once a month instead of every Sunday as well as changing our meeting time to 9:45 a.m. to accommodate those wishing to participate who have children above the nursery age limit (5 years old).  We’ll keep you posted on what we decide.

We are continuing to have our social gatherings once a month and if you click on the Calendar tab above, you’ll be able to read about all of the events we have planned through August of this year!  Each of our outings will either be a family-friendly activity or childcare will be provided.

Third, we are interesting in hosting another adult education series after Easter.  We had so much fun with Via Media that we want to provide the church with another opportunity to learn and grow together.  This time we are considering a six week program that would meet after church in May and June.  We are currently researching materials to find a good option for the class and we’ll also keep you posted about what we finally decide for this!

As you can probably tell, we’ve been busy coming up with new ideas and we’d love your thoughts & comments!  Let us know what you think and we look forward to spending some time with you soon!  As always, questions or comments can be left on this site or e-mailed to Morgan (mmacintire@trinityepiscopalchurch.org)!

Blessings,

Morgan

Come join us at Jennifer and Jason Smith’s home Saturday, December 13th for a festive Christmas Party!  Merry-making will take place from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Be sure to bring the kids, we’ll have a fun activity for them to do.  Please join us and bring along a holiday favorite side dish and/or dessert.  For more information, please contact Rachel Schmidt at rachelcschmidt@yahoo.com.  We hope to see you there!

Hello everyone and welcome to the last blog post that will be up for a while.  As most of you know, I am great with child and need to give birth soon, so this will be my last official week at Trinity!:o)  Given this fact, I thought it would be a good idea to look ahead to things that will be happening in the coming months with the T3 group while I am away.

First of all, our Sunday morning group discussions will continue at 9 a.m. upstairs.  This week we are going to have a chat about the economic crisis and what it means to us as Christians.  Next week, we’ll dive into a 4-week series about Advent that will carry us through most of December.  We will NOT meet the last Sunday in December (28th) so that we can all enjoy the holidays and take a break!  We’ll pick back up January 4th with a new list of topics that you all will decide upon shortly!

Second, we have bounced around some ideas for social events in December and January, but your input is very welcomed and will be sought after soon!  We had initially thought about having a Christmas party in December and I proposed that we take a look at ice skating at the rink in Manassas one afternoon in January.  Since I won’t be updating things online, please be sure and read your Sunday bulletins and your Tidings for information about future gatherings.

Third, our Altar of Hope ministry is occuring this Sunday, December 23rd.  We’ll be helping folks get directions to their assigned families and pick up perishable and non-perishable food items for delivery.  Anyone wishing to help us in this endeavor can take up a place in the Parish Hall, outside in the parking lot or in the front room of the Gray House.  These will be the three locations from which all the goodies will be distributed to the delivery drivers.  Helping us organize the chaos and reminding people what to do would be much appreciated!  Remember, if a driver is unable to reach a family at their assigned residence he/she is to return the basket to Trinity.  We cannot leave raw food on people’s doorsteps!  If you have any questions about how you can be involved, please pop me an e-mail and I will be glad to explain some more!:o)

That about covers the update and should carry us through until January!  If you need to reach me during the time in between, please feel free to send an e-mail my way as I will be periodically checking it from home.  If not, have a blessed Christmas and I will see you all again January 18th!

Blessings,

Morgan

What, you say?  A feast?  Why, yes!  Come join us in Trinity’s Parish Hall THIS Saturday, November 15th for a hearty Thanksgiving meal with friends!  The festivities will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m.  This is an event for the entire family, so bring the kids!  We’ll share a traditional-type Thanksgiving meal and then make a special decoration to go in every basket that is delivered for this year’s Altar of Hope outreach.  For those of you who do not know about AOH, it’s Trinity’s annual Thanksgiving ministry to families in the Manassas area.  For weeks leading up to Turkey Day we collect food items to put in baskets for needy families who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixin’s.  We collect green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, pies, turkeys, rolls….and the list goes on and on.  The Sunday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 23rd) parishioners deliver baskets to the families personally after the 11 o’clock service.  This is a great ministry for the whole family and if you’d like to participate by being a delivery driver, please let me know!  Either way, come on out to Trinity on the 15th and bring your favorite Thanksgiving side dish.  We’ll take care of the turkey and tofurkey if you bring a side dish to share!  Look on the evite to see who has signed up for what….if you didn’t get the evite, drop me a line at mmacintire@trinityepiscopalchurch.org and I will make sure you are on our mailing list!  Also, we’ll be inviting the newly baptized and their families to this event as well, so it will be a great group!

One more thing of note is that our Sunday morning group will be taking an extra Sunday to discuss last week’s topic: the debates over issues of human sexuality in our Church.  The conversation was great and we still have more to say, so come on up at 9:00 a.m. this Sunday and join in the conversation!  The following Sunday we’ll pause and take a look at the country’s economic crisis and what that means for us as Christians, and pledging Christians at that!  It’s hard to believe, but the Sunday follow that discussion is the beginning of Advent and we have a whole series planned out for that month!  If you want the details, come find me!

Blessings,

Morgan