Opening the Gates with Rhetta Wiley

Speaker: 00:00:00

Good News Intro

Jon: 00:00:19

Welcome to Good News, being brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren: 00:00:24

We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek, Deacons Diocese of Maryland.

Jon: 00:00:30

We sure are, and today we have a special guest, the

Jon: 00:00:34

Reverend Henrietta Wiley.

Jon: 00:00:37

Henrietta is Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Towson, Maryland.

Jon: 00:00:44

She is brilliant, which we all agree with.

Jon: 00:00:48

Funny, meaning she has a great sense of humor.

Jon: 00:00:50

I hope that's what funny means here.

Jon: 00:00:53

Also in your bio, Henrietta, you said you were fat.

Jon: 00:00:57

Pink haired, which I do see.

Jon: 00:01:00

Middle aged, you are a lesbian priest with the world's best

Jon: 00:01:06

spouse, whom we also love, Mary.

Jon: 00:01:09

. . And two madcap cats who may make an appearance at any

Jon: 00:01:14

point during this presentation.

Jon: 00:01:17

Well, welcome Rhetta, it's so good to have you.

Rhetta: 00:01:20

Thank you, it's wonderful to be here.

Rhetta: 00:01:23

I love you both, and I never get to see you enough.

Rhetta: 00:01:26

So this is a pleasure.

Rhetta: 00:01:27

I know, same here.

Lauren: 00:01:29

That's why we are so delighted to have you with us today, Rhetta.

Lauren: 00:01:34

So to begin with, tell us how you at Trinity are integrating

Lauren: 00:01:40

the full community around you.

Rhetta: 00:01:44

Well, when I arrived we had two or three different

Rhetta: 00:01:49

groups who were using our space.

Rhetta: 00:01:52

Now, I arrived nine months before the pandemic set in.

Rhetta: 00:01:57

And we had an AA group and they were great.

Rhetta: 00:02:00

And we had a group that does support for families of folks with autism.

Rhetta: 00:02:08

And...

Rhetta: 00:02:09

We had an art class and they were great and all of these groups Trinity

Rhetta: 00:02:14

considered on some level, although there was not a lot of integration

Rhetta: 00:02:18

thought of them as ministry partners.

Rhetta: 00:02:21

And when I arrived, I spoke with the vestry and thought what we really

Rhetta: 00:02:26

need to do for Trinity is to throw our doors open more and to really seek out

Rhetta: 00:02:35

ministry partners who, many of whom do rent our space, but who are more

Rhetta: 00:02:43

importantly, representing what I would consider to be aspects of the gospel.

Rhetta: 00:02:49

And this is important.

Rhetta: 00:02:51

Because we know that life has changed in the last, you know, 30, 40,

Rhetta: 00:02:56

50 years in terms of church life.

Rhetta: 00:02:59

And most people are not, are just not coming on Sunday.

Rhetta: 00:03:03

So, how are we going to get the gospel out if the only way we're

Rhetta: 00:03:08

doing it is on Sunday morning?

Rhetta: 00:03:09

So the best way to do it...

Rhetta: 00:03:12

We figured is to find partners who can make use of our space.

Rhetta: 00:03:17

And so now we're, now we're hopping.

Rhetta: 00:03:19

We're hopping pretty much every day.

Rhetta: 00:03:21

Now we already had our preschool which is wonderful and is now growing

Rhetta: 00:03:26

in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Rhetta: 00:03:29

Our surprise shop, which is our thrift and consignment shop, has always been hopping.

Rhetta: 00:03:35

But it's growing leaps and bounds.

Rhetta: 00:03:38

And now we have we have a Tai Chi class.

Rhetta: 00:03:42

For a while we had a theater group who was working out of our church.

Rhetta: 00:03:46

That was not a great fit, but we tried that.

Rhetta: 00:03:51

We have a candy maker who comes once or twice a week to, to make toffee.

Rhetta: 00:03:57

And as far as I'm concerned, there's no better news than chocolate and toffee.

Rhetta: 00:04:02

Evidence, evidence that God loves us, right?

Rhetta: 00:04:06

Right?

Rhetta: 00:04:06

The goodness of these things and I think perhaps the partnership I'm most

Rhetta: 00:04:11

excited and proud of is the partnership we've formed with Unity Fellowship

Rhetta: 00:04:18

Church, originally of Columbia, Maryland, but they've moved up to us.

Rhetta: 00:04:24

Unity Fellowship Church is A now 40 year old church movement that was started

Rhetta: 00:04:32

in Los Angeles by upon his passing, the Archbishop Carl Bean, who was an

Rhetta: 00:04:40

activist in LGBTQ rights in Los Angeles and especially for African Americans.

Rhetta: 00:04:50

And he was very active in AIDS activism and the cross section.

Rhetta: 00:04:55

of of LGBTQ African American and people with AIDS civil rights.

Rhetta: 00:05:03

He was very involved in that.

Rhetta: 00:05:04

And so he formed Unity Fellowship Church because so many of the people around

Rhetta: 00:05:10

him had been rejected by their church communities and their families, even.

Rhetta: 00:05:18

So he created this movement, it's not just a church, but a movement.

Rhetta: 00:05:23

And there was already a chapter, a church, a congregation in Baltimore.

Rhetta: 00:05:34

They're all over the country.

Rhetta: 00:05:35

They're in Newark.

Rhetta: 00:05:36

They're in New York.

Rhetta: 00:05:37

They're in Atlanta.

Rhetta: 00:05:38

They're in North Carolina, Charlotte, I think.

Rhetta: 00:05:41

Everywhere.

Rhetta: 00:05:41

All over the place.

Rhetta: 00:05:43

And this particular group that was in Columbia called me up, really cold

Rhetta: 00:05:51

called me, left a message, because they had been asked to leave a number

Rhetta: 00:05:59

of places where they were meeting.

Rhetta: 00:06:01

They were meeting at a rec center, and I don't know why the rec center

Rhetta: 00:06:06

wanted them to leave, but the rec center wanted them to leave.

Rhetta: 00:06:09

And it was one church that thought they would be okay with them being.

Rhetta: 00:06:15

LGBTQ, and then later decided they were not okay with that.

Rhetta: 00:06:22

And one group which apparently became uncomfortable with them being

Rhetta: 00:06:26

both African American and LGBTQ.

Rhetta: 00:06:29

So, meanwhile, I am new at Trinity and thinking, this is a historically

Rhetta: 00:06:36

white parish with some pretty serious historically white supremacist a In

Rhetta: 00:06:44

the 19th century pretty serious white supremacist activity at the same time

Rhetta: 00:06:51

as is often true in Episcopal churches.

Rhetta: 00:06:54

Really strong with factions, I suppose in the parish of really

Rhetta: 00:06:58

struggling for justice as best they could in the context of of Towson.

Rhetta: 00:07:04

And.

Rhetta: 00:07:04

So we have some African and African American members, but we

Rhetta: 00:07:08

are a predominantly white parish.

Rhetta: 00:07:10

And I thought, how am I going to get people to learn how to listen to each

Rhetta: 00:07:15

other and love each other and grow in their understanding of justice?

Rhetta: 00:07:21

When I'm the only queer person, well, me and my wife are the only queer people

Rhetta: 00:07:27

who are here routinely every Sunday.

Rhetta: 00:07:30

And we have maybe five folks with darker skin.

Rhetta: 00:07:34

So then I get this call from Unity Fellowship Church, and it was

Rhetta: 00:07:37

like the Holy Spirit said, Here, why don't you work with this?

Rhetta: 00:07:41

And so So we created this beautiful partnership where Unity worships on Sunday

Rhetta: 00:07:48

after we do, but they use our space for all kinds of things and we're overlapping

Rhetta: 00:07:54

more and more and we do pulpit swaps and looking forward to doing more mission

Rhetta: 00:08:02

work together and it's just this beautiful organic thing where we're, we're learning.

Rhetta: 00:08:10

Intentionally, but also unintentionally, by simply sharing space.

Rhetta: 00:08:16

And that's the thing.

Rhetta: 00:08:17

So that's the goal that I have and my lay leadership has, is to make Trinity what

Rhetta: 00:08:24

it once was, which is to say a center of the community, but to make it the

Rhetta: 00:08:29

center of the community in a new way.

Rhetta: 00:08:32

To make it the center of the community, not where people see power, because

Rhetta: 00:08:36

that's what Trinity was for a long time.

Rhetta: 00:08:39

It was the power center of Towson.

Rhetta: 00:08:42

And then, like all churches, we lost members for a variety of reasons.

Rhetta: 00:08:48

And so now we want to be at the center of Trinity as a source of welcome.

Rhetta: 00:08:55

A source of loving interaction, and a place where people encounter

Rhetta: 00:09:01

the gospel in action, regardless of whether they're going to come on Sunday

Jon: 00:09:08

yeah, wow it's so exciting to hear how the gospel is actually spreading this

Jon: 00:09:14

way and is overcoming the stereotypic thinking and racism and so many so

Jon: 00:09:21

many of the other evils that we have.

Jon: 00:09:24

What I'm wondering about, Retta, is this kind of transformation how was

Jon: 00:09:31

this initially accepted or received when you came to bring this prophetic

Jon: 00:09:38

kind of message to your folk at Trinity?

Rhetta: 00:09:41

I, I stand on the shoulders of giants.

Rhetta: 00:09:46

So for 40 years, 20 of those as rector One of the great priest in our time of

Rhetta: 00:09:55

Trinity Church was Kingsley Smith, the Reverend Kingsley Smith and Kingsley Smith

Rhetta: 00:10:01

was every bit as odd as I am, although he was neither fat, nor gay, nor pink

Rhetta: 00:10:08

haired he was he was brilliant and he just, he just passed away in in December

Rhetta: 00:10:15

and I miss him every day, but he laid the groundwork As a person who came from all

Rhetta: 00:10:22

of the categories of power and learned over the course of his ministry how to

Rhetta: 00:10:32

love better and how to, pursue justice.

Rhetta: 00:10:36

more effectively.

Rhetta: 00:10:39

I was very lucky to have him as a mentor the first few years

Rhetta: 00:10:43

of my ministry at Trinity.

Rhetta: 00:10:46

And he would say to me, as he was getting older, he would say, you

Rhetta: 00:10:49

know, the same things over and over again, but they were the right

Rhetta: 00:10:52

things to say over and over again.

Rhetta: 00:10:54

And one of them was, Rhetta, you have to preach the gospel, but

Rhetta: 00:11:02

you get to preach the gospel.

Rhetta: 00:11:05

And he would say, you have to love everybody.

Rhetta: 00:11:08

But you get to love everybody.

Rhetta: 00:11:11

So it was under his leadership that that Trinity began to grow smaller,

Rhetta: 00:11:22

not because he wasn't a fine priest, not because he wasn't a powerful

Rhetta: 00:11:27

preacher or a leader, but because he was leading in a time of desegregation

Rhetta: 00:11:36

and he advocated desegregation.

Rhetta: 00:11:39

And there were a lot of people.

Rhetta: 00:11:40

at Trinity, who were not into that.

Rhetta: 00:11:44

And they began to leave.

Rhetta: 00:11:46

And then when we started ordaining women, he was very supportive.

Rhetta: 00:11:52

And, you know, to look at him and to listen to the tone of his

Rhetta: 00:11:55

voice, you would not think he would be particularly progressive.

Rhetta: 00:11:59

He was very progressive, conservative in many ways, but socially quite

Rhetta: 00:12:05

progressive and really doing everything he knew how to do at a time when

Rhetta: 00:12:11

a , predominantly white churches were just not thinking about this stuff.

Rhetta: 00:12:15

Doing everything he knew how to do to try and break us open.

Rhetta: 00:12:21

And so, He really laid the groundwork.

Rhetta: 00:12:25

First of all, he chased away all the people who were really going to be

Rhetta: 00:12:28

difficult, but more importantly he was so respected and so loved by his

Rhetta: 00:12:37

people, and he was there for so long that he was trusted by many, that he

Rhetta: 00:12:42

was really able to bring people along.

Rhetta: 00:12:44

And what that meant was that then.

Rhetta: 00:12:47

Later after he retired and other rectors came along, people were prepared for

Rhetta: 00:12:53

things like young people who decided to come out as trans and to discern a

Rhetta: 00:13:03

process that was appropriate for them to to live a life that was consistent

Rhetta: 00:13:09

with their self understanding.

Rhetta: 00:13:11

And so, a parish that was in many ways still quite conservative, very

Rhetta: 00:13:17

lovingly walked with with the young people in their church, two or three

Rhetta: 00:13:23

young people, who set their feet on the path to live authentically

Rhetta: 00:13:29

and people loved them through that.

Rhetta: 00:13:32

So, when I came to Trinity, what I found was a community of people with whom I did

Rhetta: 00:13:40

not agree on everything, but with whom we agreed absolutely 100% agreed that our

Rhetta: 00:13:50

ministry was hospitality and welcome and making space for people to be themselves

Rhetta: 00:13:58

and to be loving with one another.

Rhetta: 00:14:01

Do we have room to grow?

Rhetta: 00:14:02

Of course we have room to grow.

Rhetta: 00:14:04

But that's where we were was that there I came to a community with open hearts.

Rhetta: 00:14:10

So even though people may not be all on the same page about racial reconciliation

Rhetta: 00:14:20

or Or welcoming of LGBTQ people.

Rhetta: 00:14:25

And we're not all on the same page.

Rhetta: 00:14:27

We are absolutely all on the same page of loving one another.

Rhetta: 00:14:30

When I say that, I mean, we don't have what I have experienced in my life.

Rhetta: 00:14:37

Which is people who think they're being loving, but are in fact being

Rhetta: 00:14:42

quite condescending or exclusionary.

Rhetta: 00:14:45

My favorite experience that I have, but have never seen at Trinity is

Rhetta: 00:14:51

people coming up to me and patting me on the hand to say they'll pray hmm,

Rhetta: 00:14:57

I'm glad that you're going to pray for me, but I wonder, I wonder if you're

Rhetta: 00:15:01

doing this as an act of love, or...

Rhetta: 00:15:04

As, as an act of rejection and and we don't have anything

Rhetta: 00:15:09

like that at Trinity at all.

Rhetta: 00:15:11

I, I have only seen people welcomed in and I say that and I acknowledge also that we

Rhetta: 00:15:23

have a long way to go on all these things because like many mainstream parishes.

Rhetta: 00:15:30

We are very family oriented, and the classic nuclear family orientation.

Rhetta: 00:15:38

And you can be as loving as you want to be, and that's not necessarily going to

Rhetta: 00:15:43

feel like the right space for you, if that's not the life you're going to live.

Rhetta: 00:15:49

But if that is the case I hope that people aren't are not walking away because

Rhetta: 00:15:56

they feel like they're rejected, but only that it's just not the right fit.

Rhetta: 00:16:02

My hope now is that as we continue to work with Unity, we will be finding ways to

Rhetta: 00:16:10

expand how our life is together and having our parish life be much more diverse.

Rhetta: 00:16:20

so that people feel like there's a fit for them I sound like I'm focusing

Rhetta: 00:16:26

on Sunday and to a large degree, I am focusing on Sunday because of course our

Rhetta: 00:16:31

mission as a church is to worship God.

Rhetta: 00:16:34

But our mission as a church is to worship God, not only on Sunday morning, but

Rhetta: 00:16:40

to proclaim the gospel and to share it with the world I want people to feel

Rhetta: 00:16:46

like whatever is going on in their life that there is something for them

Rhetta: 00:16:52

at Trinity that will help them connect with a sense of God's love, with a sense

Rhetta: 00:17:00

of community welcome and acceptance and also an opportunity for service.

Rhetta: 00:17:10

We recently I have, I have ADD, and so if you haven't already

Rhetta: 00:17:16

noticed, I skip around a bit.

Rhetta: 00:17:18

So my apologies.

Rhetta: 00:17:20

But we have, we have recently renewed, I'll say, renewed our mission statement.

Rhetta: 00:17:26

And our mission statement is a prayer loving God, we give you thanks

Rhetta: 00:17:33

that you have called Trinity Church to be a caring, Christ centered,

Rhetta: 00:17:38

diverse community, empowered to worship, serve, and grow in faith.

Rhetta: 00:17:46

Grant us strength that we may become ever more welcoming and inclusive and encourage

Rhetta: 00:17:54

all people to love God and one another.

Rhetta: 00:17:58

And that is something that we need to be doing seven days a week.

Rhetta: 00:18:04

And we need to be doing it with people who identify as Christian and people

Rhetta: 00:18:08

who may never identify as Christian because the Holy Spirit reaches out

Rhetta: 00:18:15

to different people in different ways.

Rhetta: 00:18:17

And I don't want to get in the Holy Spirit's way.

Rhetta: 00:18:20

I just want to open the gates.

Rhetta: 00:18:24

Right?

Rhetta: 00:18:24

I just want to open the gates.

Rhetta: 00:18:26

So that's the goal.

Rhetta: 00:18:28

I'm making it all sound perfect.

Rhetta: 00:18:30

It is not perfect.

Rhetta: 00:18:31

But but we're on the road.

Lauren: 00:18:34

Yeah.

Lauren: 00:18:36

It certainly sounds like you are, Rhetta.

Lauren: 00:18:39

And it sounds like you are empowering Trinity to become The Christian

Lauren: 00:18:45

Church of Love that we proclaim that we are and that we are called to be.

Lauren: 00:18:51

So, while you have been doing this, what has surprised you?

Rhetta: 00:18:56

So one of the struggles and joys that we have had And this is a place where

Rhetta: 00:19:04

I feel like maybe We have failed, but in our failure, thank God we have forgiveness

Rhetta: 00:19:14

and grace through Jesus Christ.

Rhetta: 00:19:17

As, as Towson becomes increasingly urban, we have more and more

Rhetta: 00:19:26

folks who are homeless, who are unhoused, who are displaced.

Rhetta: 00:19:33

And, We have found that we can create relationships with these people, mostly.

Rhetta: 00:19:42

And we have had times when we have successfully welcomed, and not just,

Rhetta: 00:19:51

not just in a our door is open way, but in a willingness to be in relationship

Rhetta: 00:19:57

with folks who are struggling.

Rhetta: 00:20:00

Who're struggling with mental illness, who are struggling with addiction, and

Rhetta: 00:20:04

of course, struggling with homelessness.

Rhetta: 00:20:08

So we've had these beautiful relationships some of these folks, they worship with us.

Rhetta: 00:20:14

We support them as, as we are able, not in a big way because we're

Rhetta: 00:20:17

not really equipped for that, but.

Rhetta: 00:20:20

We but we support them as we are able and and when they can some of these

Rhetta: 00:20:25

folks actually make a point of trying to give to the church, that surprised me.

Rhetta: 00:20:30

That surprised me.

Rhetta: 00:20:31

I'm not sure why, because I think we all know that.

Rhetta: 00:20:34

Poor people are more generous than rich people but they've been

Rhetta: 00:20:39

very generous with themselves and willing to be vulnerable with me

Rhetta: 00:20:43

and with other people in the parish.

Rhetta: 00:20:47

Unfortunately, when you're dealing with folks who struggle with addiction there

Rhetta: 00:20:53

can be times when safety issues come up.

Rhetta: 00:20:58

And it has been humbling for me, humbling for me, who just wants to love everybody

Rhetta: 00:21:07

all the time, everywhere to, to realize that I, that I have to draw boundaries

Rhetta: 00:21:17

sometimes for the sake, particularly for the children of the preschool.

Rhetta: 00:21:23

I find myself struggling with how to stay true.

Rhetta: 00:21:30

to the gospel in a system that is not really gospel oriented.

Rhetta: 00:21:41

What I mean is that we haven't come up with something better,

Rhetta: 00:21:44

And we've got a lot going on at Trinity, so do I now encourage

Rhetta: 00:21:48

Trinity to get involved in civic engagement around criminal justice.

Rhetta: 00:21:55

We've got a lot of stuff going on and we're actually a pretty small parish.

Rhetta: 00:21:59

So you, you know, this is not reasonable.

Rhetta: 00:22:02

But I also feel like now that something has come to my attention

Rhetta: 00:22:08

we have an obligation as the church that loves people to figure out

Rhetta: 00:22:16

how we can adequately do that.

Rhetta: 00:22:20

In a.

Rhetta: 00:22:20

world that is not interested in helping us do that.

Jon: 00:22:29

Having known you for a number of years and having literally experienced

Jon: 00:22:36

very profound and deep Joy, particularly when we were in our cathedral years

Jon: 00:22:41

at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, when we were at the altar together.

Jon: 00:22:44

You you, to me, have always been just wrapped in joy and

Jon: 00:22:51

the personification of joy.

Jon: 00:22:52

And I'm just wondering if you have a word to say to those of us like

Jon: 00:22:56

me, not Lauren so much, but me, who tend to take myself so seriously.

Jon: 00:23:02

And want to know what do you have a secret about that?

Jon: 00:23:04

How do we

Rhetta: 00:23:05

what, yeah.

Rhetta: 00:23:07

All right, so this shocks me to hear, Jon, because as I recall, we needed to

Rhetta: 00:23:11

be separated at the cathedral because we made each other laugh so much.

Rhetta: 00:23:18

That's my memory.

Rhetta: 00:23:18

Maybe I made that up.

Jon: 00:23:19

No, you're right.

Jon: 00:23:20

You're right.

Rhetta: 00:23:22

That's true.

Rhetta: 00:23:23

I remembered.

Rhetta: 00:23:24

So, I consider joy to be a gift of the Holy Spirit, and and it is rooted to me

Rhetta: 00:23:32

in a sense, an unshakable sense of God's love, an unshakable sense of God's love.

Rhetta: 00:23:41

And that As Kingsley said we have to love people, but we get to love people.

Rhetta: 00:23:47

And when we do it well, it's awesome.

Rhetta: 00:23:51

It's so much fun.

Rhetta: 00:23:53

It's so much fun.

Rhetta: 00:23:54

And and so it springs from a sense of being loved and from a sense of gratitude

Rhetta: 00:24:02

a habit of gratitude maybe which is which may be a little bit trite at this

Rhetta: 00:24:08

point, but when you realize how precious and wonderful everything is around you,

Rhetta: 00:24:16

even when things are pretty crummy, there's always something beautiful.

Rhetta: 00:24:22

There's always someone who says good morning to you at the right time, but

Rhetta: 00:24:26

most importantly, there is always Jesus.

Rhetta: 00:24:29

It is much, much easier for me to access that joy.

Rhetta: 00:24:36

I would say it's also connected to my vocation, my sense of vocation,

Rhetta: 00:24:43

which is as some of you may know, I, I started out as an academic.

Rhetta: 00:24:51

And my academic field of study was the history and

Rhetta: 00:24:55

literature of the Hebrew Bible.

Rhetta: 00:24:57

And I loved that, and I continue to love that.

Rhetta: 00:25:00

But I felt hobbled.

Rhetta: 00:25:03

And what I mean by that is that I was hopping around on one

Rhetta: 00:25:06

leg, and I was missing a leg.

Rhetta: 00:25:08

And I didn't know what it was, and it was sacrament.

Rhetta: 00:25:11

And once I started practicing my priestly ministry, it opened a

Rhetta: 00:25:18

floodgate of joy for me, because worship is so real and powerful for me.

Rhetta: 00:25:29

Our forms, which can be stodgy, but don't have to be our forms for me

Rhetta: 00:25:38

are Exquisite channels of glory and love and power and presence of God.

Rhetta: 00:25:48

And so it makes it much easier for me to access joy, which I think

Rhetta: 00:25:53

we all have the capacity for.

Rhetta: 00:25:56

But remembering how loved we are, being grateful for that and allowing

Rhetta: 00:26:03

ourselves the vulnerability.

Rhetta: 00:26:06

Joy is a very vulnerable emotion, actually.

Rhetta: 00:26:09

So allowing ourselves to be vulnerable enough to experience

Rhetta: 00:26:14

joy is tremendously rewarding.

Rhetta: 00:26:17

And what's nice about that sense of confidence in God's love is that in being

Rhetta: 00:26:23

vulnerable, if someone tries to pop our balloon we can still say, You know what?

Rhetta: 00:26:31

That's you.

Rhetta: 00:26:32

That's not me.

Jon: 00:26:35

Wow, thank you.

Jon: 00:26:36

I love that message.

Jon: 00:26:37

So, Rhetta people may become, becoming curious, interested in

Jon: 00:26:43

learning more about getting to know Trinity Episcopal Church in Towson.

Jon: 00:26:49

Or to get in contact with you to chitchat for some reason or another.

Jon: 00:26:53

Mm-hmm.

Jon: 00:26:53

How could they do that?

Rhetta: 00:26:55

Well, we have a website and that is www trinity church towson.org

Rhetta: 00:27:05

I can be reached personally at hlwiley@trinitychurchtowson.org

Rhetta: 00:27:12

but I'd also like to plug, if I may one of our growing ministries, which

Rhetta: 00:27:18

is our Wednesday night live evening prayer, which I do with my wife, Mary.

Rhetta: 00:27:23

It often involves funny hats.

Rhetta: 00:27:25

It began in the pandemic and it took off the night we did Pirate Evening Prayer.

Rhetta: 00:27:32

I encourage you to seek out Pirate Evening Prayer, or Beatnik Evening

Rhetta: 00:27:36

Prayer, or Star Wars Evening Prayer, or Viking Evening Prayer.

Rhetta: 00:27:41

We don't get quite that into it anymore, but it's a good time, it's

Rhetta: 00:27:45

funny, and that is on YouTube, on our YouTube channel, which is...

Rhetta: 00:27:49

Trinity Episcopal Church on YouTube.

Rhetta: 00:27:52

So I encourage people to check that out because it's fun and it's prayer.

Rhetta: 00:27:56

We do evening prayer together and we do intercessory prayer

Rhetta: 00:28:00

and we have a good time.

Jon: 00:28:02

So those links will be in our show notes.

Jon: 00:28:04

So anyone who wants to access Trinity.

Jon: 00:28:07

Rhetta or the special Wednesday evening fun evening prayer

Jon: 00:28:11

service you'll be able to do that.

Lauren: 00:28:15

And Rhetta, before we go, are there any other words of wisdom

Lauren: 00:28:20

that you would like to share with us?

Rhetta: 00:28:25

God loves every single one of us, including whoever

Rhetta: 00:28:29

you are out there, all the time.

Rhetta: 00:28:33

And the grace of Jesus Christ is available to you out there.

Rhetta: 00:28:39

All the time, everywhere that you are welcome it and whether, whether

Rhetta: 00:28:46

you experience it on Sunday or any other time, welcome it and

Rhetta: 00:28:51

let yourself be changed by it.

Jon: 00:28:54

Thank you, Retta.

Jon: 00:28:55

Thank you.

Jon: 00:28:55

You're, you are a gift to the church and a gift to the world and we

Jon: 00:29:00

appreciate your being with us today.

Jon: 00:29:01

Thanks so much.

Rhetta: 00:29:03

Thank you.

Rhetta: 00:29:06

And

Lauren: 00:29:06

Jon and I want to thank our viewers and listeners today.

Lauren: 00:29:11

We cannot do this without your participation.

Lauren: 00:29:14

Please take a moment and comment, like, and share on all

Lauren: 00:29:21

your social media platforms.

Lauren: 00:29:24

This will help us spread the good news to even more people.

Lauren: 00:29:27

Again, thank you for the gift of your time with us today.

Lauren: 00:29:31

Until next time, peace and blessings.

Lauren: 00:29:35

Good news is being brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren: 00:29:39

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Lauren: 00:29:42

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Lauren: 00:29:47

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