Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Growth and Events

Our little town of Troy has about 960 people in it, and 10 Christian churches.

Now, strictly on the basis of math, if we use the 70.6% of people in the US claiming Christianity (2014 surveys), that would indicate approximately 677 people in our town would also claim Christianity.

Making the wild (and likely horribly wrong) assumption that each of those people attend church,  Episcopalians have a national percentage of 1.5% (including Anglicans) of people who espouse Christianity.

Therefore, Holy Trinity should have an average of 10 plus a little, and we actually do have that, on paper.  Our attendance is a little lower, given snow birds and illnesses.

So, in an effort to improve our averages, and have Troy be above the national average, we are planning events and outreach to help the people of Troy learn about the Episcopal Church and hopefully, improve our numbers.  As our Presiding Bishop has said, we are the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement.  Our job is to reach out and provide services that the community needs, to build up hearts and hands, to build community.  And we can do that in a variety of ways - service, education and fellowship.

We'll have more information as the dates get closer, but:

Holy Trinity has a sanctuary that is open 24/7.  We all watched the movie "War Room" (and if you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch!), and thought about the fact that many people don't have a spare closet or space that they may be able to devote to their prayer life.  So, we would like to offer the sanctuary as a Community Prayer Room to anyone who would like a quiet space for prayers and talking with God.  We'll have Bibles, pencils and scrap paper available for you.  Any prayers that you'd like to have some help praying for, you're welcome to pin to the board and people using the prayer room are asked to pray for those concerns if they feel so moved.  We do ask that you stay in the sanctuary itself, as there are groups that use the church in the meeting hall side at various times of day, and we would appreciate that they not be disturbed.

On August 27, 2016, at 1:00 p.m., we will have a workshop on Kitchen Medicine - what you can use in your cabinets, refrigerator and freezer (along with potentially your yard) to help with fairly typical household ailments/emergency treatment until you can get to a doctor.  If you have particular problems, diseases, etc. you'd like to discuss, just send us an email.  We'll be sure to include something.

On September 17, 2016, at 1:00 p.m., we will be having an Unbirthday Party, complete with odd hats, scarves, dress up, etc. for the kids, a showing of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, and a high tea - replete with a variety of types of tea, and finger foods.

Closer to Christmas, we will probably have some craft station workshops, with a variety of things that can be made and used or given as gifts.

God willing, our little Episcopal Church will grow over time.