July 25, 2026

Octavia’s Visionary Campus Gardens / Kheprw

LITURGY OF GATHERING AND COMMUNITY CONFESSION

Leader: God, you declare that where two or three are gathered in your name, you are among them. Gather us who wander and wonder to discover you anew. Today, we come ready to experience you as we work alongside friends, old and new, tending to the land that sustains us and the plants that provide nutrition throughout the city. Hear our praise and prayers in the words of the psalmist:

ALL: You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless it with crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. 

Leader: Steadfast love is before our eyes, and this day we give thanks to Creator: 

ALL: We give thanks for your provisions and pray that the work in this garden meets the needs of those who are food insecure. Continue to build a sustainable community where people are empowered and cooperative business, connecting people to one another and the earth, brings healing. 

Leader: We confess 

ALL: that we have not always chosen to connect with you and one another through the work of our hands. We have ignored you grounding us through the earth that holds us. 

Leader: Together, we declare these eco-beatitudes:

ALL: Blessed are we when we treasure the wisdom of the earth, receiving survival strategies whispered underground by bristlecone pine and sequoia, returning the praise songs of nuthatch and titmouse, flocking together with the murmuration maps of bees and bats and butterflies, and pollinating possibilities for living in these beautiful ruins. 

Leader: Woe to us when losses of profit are considered more costly than losses of habitat, health, or home. Holy confrontation with corporations that harm is the faithful labor of Love.

ALL: Blessed are we when our daily actions and interactions align with dreams for collective flourishing, and pattern our days with the small, the slow, and the simple, moving through the world gently, with gratitude, attentive to beauty, savoring the life force that flows freely through it all.

Leader: Woe to us when we privatize natural resources, when we hoard and steal the gifts of the land, or conceal patterns of colonization. The only way to planetary healing is through return, reparations, and repair.

ALL: Blessed are we when our grief propels us toward protection, our wild love for the world motivating our every dream. No escape, no denial, but holding what is in our cupped hands and broken open hearts, our prayers poured forth like libations of lament, remembrance, and promise. 

Leader: Woe to us when we cross the boundaries of the earth; when we continue to push, extract, and consume in willful refusal of glaring devastation, and need for rest. Unsustainable practices diminish and destroy the rhythms of life.

ALL: Blessed are we when we remember we’re “we,” not “me,” or “us and them,” bound to each other cellularly and socially, holding and being held in the web of relations, honoring each species extinction as a death of divinity, each oil spill opening our veins, each pipeline poisoning our precious lifeblood, each encounter, an opening for the medicine of care.

Leader: Woe to us when we do not choose solidarity, when we protect ourselves at the expense of others, or silo our struggles as if they are inseparable. For climate justice must be gender justice must be racial justice must be disability justice must be a matter of leaving all domination behind.

ALL: Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds – pressing on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.* May it be so!

*ref: Philippians 3.12-14.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Brunch Gathering Sunday, August 2nd. Please bring a dish or two to share around the table, after we sing and engage in shared liturgy. Lawn games are encouraged. 

Elder Process. The eldership process is open with the aim to bring on new elders in November. Please refer to https://www.indytrinity.org/eldership for all pertinent information, including qualifications and the process timeline (or here it is visually). Most importantly, take some time to consider who you might nominate for eldership and also familiarize yourself with the new Apprentice Elder role provision added to Trinity bylaws. With the anticipation of one Administrative Elder and one Parish Elder rotating off the Leadership Team at the end of the year, the following would help round out the current team: One Administrative Elder (who may be ready to fill an officer role as needed into the future), up to two Parish Elders (preferably from the currently underrepresented parishes of Broad Ripple and North/Carmel), and Apprentice Elders (new position). Nominations will open on June 28th and be collected through August 9th. You may utilize the paper form at Gatherings or submit nominations with the google form. Questions may be directed to contact@indytrinity.org or any current Leadership Team members. 

IYG Food Pantry. IYG keeps a food pantry stocked and available to the folks they serve. As an organization that serves tweens, teens, and young adults you can imagine that the food goes pretty quickly. Over this summer we would like to do an ongoing food drive for the pantry. You can participate in the drive by purchasing through IYG's Amazon wish list here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/34OGLCDWU3BLT/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex

 (please note in your purchase that you are with Trinity for their tracking purposes) or you can use that as a guide to purchase items on your regular grocery run and bring them to a gathering and we will get them to IYG. Any questions: ask Britney!

Mark your calendars for off-site Gatherings this summer. 

• Brunch Gathering Sunday, August 2nd. Please bring a dish or two to share around the table, after we sing and engage in shared liturgy. Lawn games are encouraged. 

• Special Off-site IYG on Sunday, August 16th. More details to follow. 

• Retreat weekend starting Friday, August 28th - Sunday Gathering, August 30th. Watch your emails for more information, sign ups for camping and activities, etc. Please email contact@indytrinity.org if you’re interested in lending a hand in the planning/preparations. Additionally, we plan to hold baptisms at the retreat Gathering on August 30th. Family Covenants may be offered in the near future. Please contact Britney Foster at britney@indytrinity.org regarding interest or questions for either.

Sermon Series. Check out the sermon series page to see where we’re headed. Reflection and discussion prompts as well as resources have been included.

Gathering Hosting Schedule. As an act of service and care, please join staff, leaders, and others from your parish in hosting Sunday Gatherings. These are great times to converse while serving, connect, and welcome folks to the Gathering. Arrival at 9:45am is great, particularly for last minute needs and welcoming people. Arrival by 9:30am is extra helpful for assisting with audio equipment and general set up. Cleaning up on the back end is appreciated and should only take 10-15 minutes. The hosting checklist is on the Gathering cart. Thank you!

July

5/Holiday Weekend Brunch: North/Carmel

*12/Irvington Counseling Collective: Midtown/Downtown

19: Fishers

*SATURDAY the 26/Octavia’s Visionary Campus: Broad Ripple

August

2/Brunch: North/Carmel

9: Midtown/Downtown

*16 (tbd/IYG): Fishers

23: Broad Ripple

*30/Retreat: North/Carmel

PRACTICE

People amidst Revolution - Pressing

Philippians 3.12-14, in practice

With Octavia’s Visionary Campus Gardens / Kheprw

THE BENEDICTION

Leader: The Lord be with you.

ALL: And also with you.

GATHERING RESOURCES AND INFORMATION

Guide and Service Dog Training. As we welcome Guide/Service Dogs at Gatherings, please familiarize yourself with resources under on these two websites https://www.guidedogs.com/resources/blindness-and-guide-dog-etiquette and https://www.guidedogsofamerica.org/best-practices-when-around-a-service-dog/  and discuss main points with those in your household. If you or anyone in your household has severe allergies or any fear of dogs, etc. please contact us (contact@indytrinity.org) so we can do our best to keep Gathering spaces welcoming for all. 

Land Acknowledgement. We acknowledge that the land on which we gather for worship was stolen from Native peoples, who were driven out of the area and of their native lands by genocide, force (through broken treaties and laws imposed upon their nation), and systematic disposession.  The Myaamiaki, Kaskaskia, and Kickapoo peoples* and their sovereign Nations have cared for, and are deeply a part of, this land - past, present, and future. (ref: Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, Trinity Church)