By Jennifer Dorsey, President of the Parish Pastoral Council
This past year, the Holy Trinity Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) reviewed the comments specific to life at Holy Trinity that were expressed during the 2022 parish Synod process. As a council, we considered all comments and synthesized them into an overall follow-up report to our 2022 Synod Summary. The new report is available on Trinity.org as of this weekend. We hope you will take some time to review it.
It is not lost on us that the Synod survey and listening sessions were conducted during the COVID-19 public health emergency, just as the parish slowly returned to in-person activities. And if emerging from the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that this parish is as strong, if not stronger than ever.
The influence of the two preceding years significantly impacted the feedback we received. Parishioners overwhelmingly believe that Trinity has changed for the better, particularly in how we include those who are, for any given reason, unable to be with us in person. How we all interact with everything–from events to mass to each other – has shifted, likely permanently. And we, as a council, are committed to supporting our committees, partnering with the staff and the Jesuits, and listening to all of you so that we can provide guidance and recommendations to everyone who continues to keep our community thriving.
The Synod feedback also told us that Trinity is a place that parishioners and visitors alike choose on purpose. Yes, it is a neighborhood parish for many. But it is also a place people travel to from across the DC Metro area, visit regularly when they are in town, and now Zoom into when they move away. It is a unique and thriving spiritual home that we all belong to because we want to.
Several topical themes emerged regarding areas our parish can improve on – from a need for greater transparency into how to be a part of life at Trinity, to a commitment to social justice as a priority, to a desire focus on growing the next generations. Throughout the report, we expanded on where these efforts are being taken on and where there are opportunities for growth. Staff and committees have worked to improve on these priorities for more than a year. The efforts will continue in the months and years to come. All the focus areas listed in the report are ongoing, living topics that will continue to evolve with time.
As the PPC wraps up its final month of activity for this year, we hope that you will consider the feedback in the document we prepared. If you have thoughts, want further detail, or feel something is missing, we would love to hear about it. You can email parishcouncil@trinity.org and ppcpresident@trinity.org to get in touch or attend one of our meetings in the 2023-2024 year. We publish the full calendar of meetings in September as well as the Zoom link you can join from. And we hope to provide more opportunities for you to give feedback in the coming months.