Our Activities
Listed below are the news articles for the month of March.
March 04, 2006
Cafe Momus Recap - "Wow!"
CAFEMOMUS EVENT AN OUTSTANDING SUCCESS!
Over $26,000 raised for 2006 Outreach Projects
Six months ago June LaBarre, Dorie Ives, and Lucy Strandberg of the Social Ministries/Outreach Commission wanted to bring Trinity Parish together for a dinner/auction fundraiser. Larry Hancock, Music Director, offered singers from Opera San José for entertainment. Café Momus on Saturday night, January 28th turned out to be the highlight of the new year.
Our plain vanilla parish hall was transformed into a vintage French plaza; the vision of Patrick Heaton. In three days her crew (Ron Mancini, Gary d’Arc, Carl Ditmore, Pat Erbes) installed window boxes, balconies, “gaslights” and awnings to create: Bistro Brahy, Le Boulanger, Boucherie, Théâtre de Californie, Modiste, the Fino Fino Chapellier (hats), a Fleur cart, and, of course, Café Momus. The tables were beautifully decorated by Marianne Dean and her crew and sported souvenir commemorative wine glasses etched for the occasion by John Crevelt of Krefelds. That night over 135 patrons tasted wine [provided by Rich Rorden and Peggy Shippen of Cantiga Wineworks] and sampled hors d’ouevres served by our youth servers while the guests browsed the Silent Auction rooms filled with donated items and made their first bids.
Monsieur Chef JB Brahy welcomed all in “Franglais” and served up a sumptuous French meal prepared by a dozen hardworking kitchen crew, with wines donated by Cantiga Wineworks, the Morrisseys, and Sonoma Wines. Emcee Larry Hancock introduced four soloists from Opera San José’s La Bohème, who sang their way into our hearts.
After a last call to the auction rooms came dessert—an absolutely scrumptious decadent chocolate cake baked by Virginia Debs and an army of her friends.
Auctioneers David Arscott and Jonathan MacQuitty provided witty repartee as they cajoled the crowd into bidding even higher on some of the items: Giants tickets, a vineyard tour with dinner and overnight, a weekend in Carmel (which turned into two weekends thanks to the generosity of the Savages), deluxe tickets to Swan Lake, a week in Coronado, and Polly Fuller’s cheesy grits casserole (value $4). Polly sat there in stunned disbelief as the bid rose; finally she agreed to make two casseroles as the price reached $425 each! At the end of the evening, while the Men’s group cleaned up, we sold off French art posters, centerpieces, and plants to benefit the Youth Group’s Mission this summer, raising $725 for their trip.
March 26, 2006
Global Aids Interfaith Alliance, or "GAIA"
2006 INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH PROJECT
The Social Ministries Commission has chosen Global Aids Interfaith Alliance, GAIA, as its international charitable partner during 2006. We will be supporting a “trinity” of programs sponsored by GAIA in Malawi, Africa. They are Health, Education, and Enterprise (particularly income generating activities which empower women).
Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA), a non-profit organization, was founded in June 2000 in response to the global HIV/AIDS catastrophe. Driven by the desire to stop this devastating disease, William Rankin, GAIA's president and chief executive officer, and Charles Wilson, GAIA's board chair, focused on the idea of using the religious networks in Africa as a way to distribute anti-retroviral drugs to block mother-to-child transmission
of HIV.
The mission of GAIA is to partner with religious organizations in Malawi, Central Africa, to provide community-based HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and services. GAIA serves over 40,000 men, women, and children by helping communities with HIV prevention strategies for youth, home based care strategies for people who are sick and
dying, orphan care, ways to mitigate the causes and effects of HIV/AIDS stigma, methods of supporting women, voluntary counseling and HIV testing, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, nutrition education, and food security. With the help of many interfaith groups, GAIA supports Malawi/African projects proven to
deliver competent services under conditions of urgent need.
More in depth information on target projects will be presented in the Sunday bulletin during April. The campaign will kick off in May.
March 28, 2006
Vestry Minutes Summary - February
Digest of Minutes
Trinity Parish Vestry Meeting – 28 February 2006
Stewardship: Pledges are up to almost $516K. This is about 94% of goal. We need to get another $25K at least. 77% of last year’s pledgers have submitted new pledges. Next month we will need to review the budget, see where we are with pledging, and see if we need to trim the budget.
Holy Week services are being planned by the clergy. Anne would like to have an all-night vigil on Thurs. night before Good Friday, and will post a sign-up sheet to determine interest. The Tenebrae service on Wednesday night will probably be dropped: it has suffered low attendance in the past. Anne would rather get more people to come to the Maundy Thursday service, which will focus on the institution of the Eucharist and the stripping of the altar, and will not include footwashing, which has not enjoyed much popularity.
Bishop search: A new bulletin board in the Tierney room has information about the search and the five finalists. There will be a “walk-around” at St. Peter’s in Redwood City on April 29th when everyone will have an opportunity to meet the candidates.
New Rector Search Committee: All twelve people on the committee are working hard, and all have different skills to contribute.. They have been meeting almost weekly. Upcoming dates of importance are March 12th, Town Hall Meetings, and April 2, feedback to parish from the March meetings. Vestry presence is critical at these meetings. This vestry will need to make the final decision on our new rector. Vestry needs to know what the parish is thinking, and the parish needs to know that vestry members are involved. A bulletin board showing progress is in the Tierney Room.
Family ministries update: a teacher is being sought for the 3rd-5th grade Sunday school class at 10 am. We only need coverage from now until June, so it would be a short-term commitment. Frannie will teach an adult class at 10 o’clock during Lent.
March 30, 2006
Youth Group Mission Trip
Yough Group Mission Trip
When: June 27th to July 1st Where: The Ceres Center- Modesto, Ca.
The purpose is to educate youth & adults about poverty, homelessness, & third world countries through hands on experiences. During the week there are service projects, lessons on farming, education on Global Development, as well as games, group building activities, foods from all over the world, & other hands on experiences. For more info contact Alex Hardt, Youth Director at crascraze@aol.com. Both Youth & Adults are invited. A bus will be chartered to drive all the participants, Cost is about $250 for 5 days.