Healing our History

In every human history, there are times of success and times of failure. For a Christian community, those times of failure provide opportunities to offer our reflection, our repentance and our commitment to renewal as a sacrifice to God, who is both merciful and just. As the culmination of our centennial year, therefore, the Church of the Holy Trinity invites all whose lives or whose family members’ lives have been touched by the parish—with joy and with pain—to join with us on Saturday, April 5 for Healing our History, a day of healing and prayer.

At the beginning of our time together, we will invite participants to share their stories and to place them on a timeline of memories. Others will then be invited to fill in detail and context around those stories. From our stories of pain we will create a litany of repentance and reconciliation, which we will prayerfully offer in procession around the inside (and, weather permitting, outside) of the church.

Parched, courtesy of Flickr user Diane Cordell

This will take as long as it needs to. Sometime in the midst of our timeline creation, we will break for lunch. Because we have no way of knowing in advance how many will attend, we ask that each participant bring a dish to share. Coffee, Tea, Water and Lemonade will be provided.

From our stories of joy we will harvest the seeds of renewal. Gathering in small groups after the litany, we will explore ways in which we might use what God has given us to redress the harm we have done both individually and in our life together as a community. These explorations will inform our later conversations with community stakeholders as we seek a deeper involvement in the community that surrounds us on the West Side of South Bend.

We would like as many people as possible to share their stories in person. If, however, you are unable to attend and have a story to share, please contact me by phone at 574-850-5722 or by email at tbays1@gmail.com. Be sure to indicate whether you are willing to have your story shared at the gathering.

Schedule (flexible):

• 10am Creation of a timeline of memories
• 12pm Break for Lunch (potluck)
• 1pm Continuation of timeline creation (as needed), culminating in litany of repentance & reconciliation
• 3pm Harvesting the seeds of Renewal
• 4:30pm Evening Prayer

If you know of someone who you think has reason to participate in this event, we urge you to pass word of it along to them and assist them, if necessary, in joining us.