Visiting Care Team

 

Trinity’s Visiting Care Team consists of our Minister and a team of volunteers who are dedicated to providing care and support to our congregation during losses, depression, life changes and other difficult times.

Visiting Care Services include:

• Regularly visiting and phoning those who are homebound or ill

• Visiting patients at local hospitals

• Assisting with funeral receptions at Trinity

• Hosting a Springtime lunch for seniors

• Assisting with our annual Time of Remembrance Service

• Mailing cards to ill and/or bereaved families

Affirming and PRIDE Group

 

Led by congregation members as an off-shoot of Visiting Care, “Trinity Pride” holds activities related to Trinity being an Affirming Community.

Some examples include:

• A celebratory Pride Potluck (a Sunday School initiative) featuring rainbow coloured foods, along with poetry written by a Sunday School student, crafts, celebration and games focusing on discovering affirming facts.

• Participating in Ottawa’s annual PRIDE march for which one of the students created a beautiful banner for the day.

• Participating in the Bowl-a-thon in support of Camp Ten Oaks for LGBTQ+ kids.

Men's Breakfast

 

Gathers to discuss scripture and life and share a great meal once a month.  This is held on the second Thursday of the Monday at 8am at Summerhay's.  Join Us!

Wednesday Meditation Group

 

Trinity’s Wednesday evening meditation group meets at 7:00 pm for an hour of practice and support to those developing a regular meditation practice. The group has it’s roots in both Christian contemplative prayer, and Buddhist practices of compassionate awareness and mindfulness. Everyone is welcome! If interested, contact Robert Taylor through office@trinityunitedottawa.ca.

Trinity Outreach Committee (TOC)

 

• Supports the Caldwell Food Bank with a monthly financial donation and regular food drives.

 

• Awards annual Scholarships to deserving college and university students in the Carlington community.

 

• Organizes and delivers personalized Caring and Sharing Gift Hampers to families at Christmastime.

 

• Sponsors summer camp experiences for Ottawa kids who wouldn’t otherwise get out of the city.

 

• Provides snacks to students during exam time through the Pause Table at Carleton University.

 

• Partners with local helping organizations, continually delivering practical items from our homes to those who are homeless or less privileged.

 

Trinity Justice Committee (TJC)

 

The Trinity Justice Committee (TJC) has a mandate to look at social justice issues from a Christian perspective, raise awareness of the most pressing issues, and provide opportunities for the congregation to take action.

 

Each year we choose a focus theme and raise awareness through notices in the weekly bulletin, articles in quarterly newsletters, notice board displays, movie nights, TED talk evenings and TJC-led services. Our action can take the form of letter writing for Amnesty International, signing petitions, writing to government officials and participating in marches and rallies on Parliament Hill. We reach out to the larger community in Ottawa and beyond for some of our activities.

 

Past themes have included Truth and Reconciliation, food insecurity, access to clean water, privilege and racism, climate change, affordable housing and homelessness as well as a basic livable income, and long-term and home care.

This year, we have been exploring transgender issues, in collaboration with our Pride Group.  We have:

• had a non-binary speaker
• read books by trans authors and added the books to our library
• conducted a PIE Day service, featuring talks by members of the Pride Group including a trans man
• offered a public Zoom event on trans gender and non-binary youth with an Ottawa educator and Queer Advocate
• participated in the counter-protest against the demonstration against medical care for trans youth organized by ‘Billboard Chris’ near the schools on Broadview Ave
• established a Refugee Committee and fundraised to sponsor a trans woman from Eastern Africa

 

TJC also:

• Is instrumental in the continued support of our refugees.
• Participates in Amnesty International Write for Rights campaigns.
• Cares for the church’s wildflower garden.  

Trinity Green Team

 

Trinity has been a ‘green church’ for decades – taking action to make our church as energy efficient as possible and encouraging the congregation to reduce and recycle, be energy conscious, and environmentally active.

We are currently working toward our Dark Green level of the Greening Sacred Spaces initiative.

• We have been participating in the UCC’s Faithful Footprints program which has helped us to reduce our carbon footprint by:
• installing three heat pumps so that 70% of the church is now heated by renewable energy and only 30% still by gas boilers
• eliminating our air conditioner as cooling is now provided by our heat pumps
• replacing our lights with LED lights
• replacing our gas hot water heater with an electric one

Turtle Island Discussion Group

The Turtle Island Discussion Group meets throughout the year to compassionately learn about the lives and history of our indigenous brothers and sisters. The goal of this group is to foster better understanding of, and connection with, our indigenous peoples in order to continue to move towards reconciliation. The name of the group was inspired by the traditional story of Turtle Island. For some Indigenous peoples, Turtle Island refers to the continent of North America.  See https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/turtle-island

Trinity Jubilee Foundation

 

An independent organization founded at Trinity in the biblical Jubilee year of 2001, TJF channels our excess wealth to those in critical need, through sponsored projects around the world, matched by government funding. Visit TJF’s website.

Mission & Service Fund

 

Trinity United consistently ranks highest in our Presbytery for per household donations to the Mission & Service Fund of the United Church of Canada.