By Ashley Klick, Pastoral Associate for Social Justice
Leaders of the Social Justice Ministry gather in the garden
Since its inception in the 1970s, the social justice ministry at Holy Trinity has grown over the years in depth, resources, grounding, and vision. The growing sense of a call to discernment in building a faith that does justice has led to a broad vision that includes prayer, reflection and discernment, and education on Catholic social teaching. Today the ministry’s focus includes immigration, ecology, racial justice, advocacy and direct service. We also host the Women Who Stay program to lift the prophetic voices of Catholic Women.
In 1984 Holy Trinity began a commitment that 10% (a tithe) of parishioners’ regular collections - offertory, pledge and holiday giving- be expended for the Social Justice ministry. This tithe program seeks to address root causes of social injustice both locally and globally. In recent years, the Tithe Sub-Committee opted to increase the impact of these funds by focusing a portion of the grant on a specific issue, “large grant.” The large grant this year focuses on women’s health and well-being. The tithe amount for 2022 was $403,000. An additional $59,300 was applied from social justice ministry general donation funds to address food insecurity and homelessness, bringing the total to $462,300.
We awarded 33 grants. Eleven of these were new recipients.The recipient of this year’s large grant is the Friends of Guest House. A complete list of all recipients may be found at trinity.org/social-justice/tithe/. We will be welcoming these organizations to donuts and coffee on Sundays in the fall. I want to thank Sue Blain, Bruce Cohen, Mary McCabe, Jacqui Mooney, Eric Nicoll, and Alejandra Obando-Masis for their service on the tithe committee. The final selection is a result of two months of intense reading, praying and discussion.
The impact of our social justice ministry requires the focus, dedication and talents of many, many people. I want to thank the outgoing 2023 cohort, Nina Santiago, Kathy Bransford, and Mary McCabe for their service. A special thanks to Nina for her leadership as Committee Chair. Thank you as well to Katie Randall, HT School liaison and Anick Chaipraditkul and Shannon Smith who served as YAC liaisons. Also a thank you to my “behind the scenes team,” Ebony Campbell and Xareny Jackson. As you will see from the infographic, these individuals as well as the entire social justice committee, subcommittee (and many of you) have accomplished so much!
I also want to welcome the 2026 cohort. Joining our committee this year are Pat McCourt, Kevin McShane, Cris Moran, Rachele Oh, Matthew Tibbits and Lauren Wolkov.
The generosity of this community is truly life changing and life giving. Not only to our community friends and partners, but to the parishioners who do this work. We see the Holy Spirit at work in small moments every day, and that is the true gift.3
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