Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish

Join us sunday mornings at 11, in-person or online

With COVID-19 infection rates remaining low in Manhattan, we are excited to announce that beginning November 1, Sunday morning worship will return to our beloved sanctuary indoors. In order to reduce the amount of time spent indoors, you'll find that our services will a bit shorter than normal, with limited music and abbreviated sermons.

For those unable to attend, Sunday worship will continue to be livestreamed on Facebook Live. Scroll down to find worship resources for each Sunday, including the complete bulletin and a children's page.

Plans are in place to ensure that our gatherings indoors are as safe as possible:

Our heating and air conditioning filtration system is being upgraded to more effectively remove airborne particles from the air. The system will be on during worship, continuously circulating and filtering the air in the building. Weather permitting, the doors may be opened for further ventilation.
Before and after worship, all high-contact surfaces will be thoroughly disinfected, including handrails, door handles, and elevator buttons.
A maximum of eighteen worshipers will be permitted at each service, with seats safely spaced out in the sanctuary.
In order to limit attendance and facilitate COVID contact tracing, please register below if you plan to attend worship. Those who are unable to register online will be asked to provide their contact information before entering the sanctuary.
Face coverings must be worn at all times while on Trinity’s property. Both mouth and nose must be fully covered.
Because communal singing has been shown to increase the risk of spreading COVID through airborne particles, all singing will be done by our cantors. Please refrain from singing, even if it’s your favorite hymn, and allow the text and music of the hymns and liturgical music to speak to you in your heart and mind.
At the distribution of Holy Communion, only the bread will be offered in order to reduce contact with the chalice. Rest assured that receiving Holy Communion “in one kind” is a fully effective and valid means of receiving the promise of Christ’s presence and forgiveness in the sacrament.
In order to avoid passing the offering plates from hand to hand, an offering basket is available on the table in the narthex. As always, contributions may also be made online at www.trinitylowereastside.org/give. We are grateful for your generosity!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR WORSHIP ON MARCH 7

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR WORSHIP ON MARCH 14

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR WORSHIP ON MARCH 21

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR WORSHIP ON MARCH 28, PALM SUNDAY

MARCH 7, 2021 | THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

The third covenant in this year’s Lenten readings is the central one of Israel’s history: the gift of the law to those God freed from slavery. The commandments begin with the statement that because God alone has freed us from the powers that oppressed us, we are to let nothing else claim first place in our lives. When Jesus throws the merchants out of the temple, he is defending the worship of God alone and rejecting the ways commerce and profit-making can become our gods. The Ten Commandments are essential to our baptismal call: centered first in God’s liberating love, we strive to live out justice and mercy in our communities and the world.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
february 28, 2021 | The second sunday in lent

The second covenant in this year’s Lenten readings is the one made with Abraham and Sarah: God’s promise to make them the ancestors of many, with whom God will remain in everlasting covenant. Paul says this promise comes to all who share Abraham’s faith in the God who brings life into being where there was no life. We receive this baptismal promise of resurrection life in faith. Sarah and Abraham receive new names as a sign of the covenant, and we too get new identities in baptism, as we put on Christ.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
february 21, 2021 | the first sunday in lent

On Ash Wednesday the church began its journey toward baptismal immersion in the death and resurrection of Christ. This year, the Sundays in Lent lead us to focus on five covenants God makes in the Hebrew Scriptures and to use them as lenses through which to view baptism. The baptismal covenant is made with us individually, but the new life we are given in baptism is for the sake of the whole world.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
february 17, 2021 | Ash Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday we begin our forty-day journey toward Easter with a day of fasting and repentance. Marking our foreheads with dust, we acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the dust traces the life-giving cross indelibly marked on our foreheads at baptism. While we journey through Lent to return to God, we have already been reconciled to God through Christ. We humbly pray for God to make our hearts clean while we rejoice that “now is the day of salvation.” Returning to our baptismal call, we more intentionally bear the fruits of mercy and justice in the world.

Download the bulletin HERE
february 14, 2021 | The transfiguration of our lord

The Sundays after Epiphany began with Jesus’ baptism and end with three disciples’ vision of his transfiguration. In Mark’s story of Jesus’ baptism, apparently only Jesus sees the Spirit descending and hears the words from heaven. But now Jesus’ three closest friends hear the same words naming him God’s Beloved. As believers, Paul writes, we are enabled to see the God-light in Jesus’ face, because the same God who created light in the first place has shone in our hearts to give us that vision. The light of God’s glory in Jesus has enlightened us through baptism and shines in us also for others to see.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
february 7, 2021 | the fifth sunday after epiphany

In Isaiah the one God who sits above the earth and numbers the stars also strengthens the powerless. So in Jesus’ healing work we see the hand of the creator God, lifting up the sick woman to health and service (diakonia). Like Simon’s mother-in-law, we are lifted up and healed to serve. Following Jesus, we strengthen the powerless; like Jesus, we seek to renew our own strength in quiet times of prayer.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
january 31, 2021 | the fourth sunday after epiphany

In Deuteronomy God promises to raise up a prophet like Moses, who will speak for God; in Psalm 111 God shows the people the power of God’s works. For the church these are ways of pointing to the unique authority people sensed in Jesus’ actions and words. We encounter that authority in God’s word, around which we gather, the word that prevails over any lesser spirit that would claim power over us, freeing us to follow Jesus.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
january 24, 2021 | the third sunday after epiphany

As we continue through the time after Epiphany, stories of the call to discipleship show us the implications of our baptismal calling to show Christ to the world. Jesus begins proclaiming the good news and calling people to repentance right after John the Baptist is arrested for preaching in a similar way. Knowing that John was later executed, we see at the very outset the cost of discipleship. Still, the two sets of brothers leave everything they have known and worked for all their lives to follow Jesus and fish for people.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
january 17, 2021 | the second sunday after epiphany

All the baptized have a calling in God’s world. God calls not just pastors and deacons but also the youngest child, like Samuel. The story of the calling of Nathanael plays with the idea of place. Nathanael initially dismisses Jesus because he comes from Nazareth. But where we come from isn’t important; it’s where—or rather whom—we come to. Jesus refers to Jacob, who had a vision in a place he called “the house of God, and . . . the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17). Jesus says he himself is the place where Nathanael will meet God.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
january 10, 2021 | the baptism of our lord

Our re-creation in baptism is an image of the Genesis creation, where the Spirit of God moved over the waters. Both Mark’s gospel and the story in Acts make clear that it is the Spirit’s movement that distinguishes Jesus’ baptism from John’s. The Spirit has come upon us as upon Jesus and the Ephesians, calling us God’s beloved children and setting us on Jesus’ mission to re-create the world in the image of God’s vision of justice and peace.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
january 3, 2021 | the epiphany of our lord

The feast of Epiphany (“manifestation”) concludes the Christmas season with a celebration of God’s glory revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. In Isaiah and Ephesians, that glory is proclaimed for all nations and people. Like the light of the star that guided the magi to Jesus, the light of Christ reveals who we are: children of God who are claimed and washed in the waters of baptism. We are sent out to be beacons of the light of Christ, sharing the good news of God’s love to all people.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
december 24, 2020 | Christmas Eve

This year's Christmas Eve service will be an online worship experience, including several of Trinity's lectors, musicians, and children. While we know how difficult it is not to gather in person this Christmas, we hope that this very special service allows you to experience the joy of the greatest gift of all: the birth our savior Jesus Christ!

The service will premiere at 5:00 on Christmas Eve on both Trinity's Facebook page and Youtube channel.

Download the bulletin HERE
december 20, 2020 | the fourth sunday of advent

God keeps the promise made to David to give him an everlasting throne. The angel tells Mary that God will give David’s throne to her son Jesus. She is perplexed by Gabriel’s greeting and by the news of her coming pregnancy, but she is able still to say, “Count me in.” We who know that Jesus is called king only as he is executed still find it a mystery hard to fathom, but with Mary today we hear the news of what God is up to and say, “Count us in.”

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
december 13, 2020 | the third sunday of advent

“Rejoice always,” begins the reading from 1 Thessalonians. Isaiah and the psalmist make clear that God is turning our mourning into laughter and shouts of joy. “All God’s children got a robe,” go the words of a spiritual. It is not so much a stately, formal, pressed outfit as it is a set of party clothes, clothes we are happy to wear. We receive that robe in baptism, and in worship we gather for a foretaste of God’s party.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
december 6, 2020 | The second sunday of advent

John calls people to repent, to clear the decks, to completely reorder their lives so that nothing gets in the way of the Lord’s coming. The reading from Isaiah gives the context for this radical call: the assurance of forgiveness that encourages us to repent; the promise that the coming one will be gentle with the little ones. Isaiah calls us all to be heralds with John, to lift up our voices fearlessly and say, “See, your God is coming!” We say it to one another in worship, in order to say it with our lives in a world in need of justice and peace.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
november 29, 2020 | the first sunday of advent

Stir up your power, and come! The psalmist’s plea in Psalm 80:2 has become familiar to us in the Advent prayers. Isaiah wants God to rip the heavens open. Both cry out for an apparently distant, angry God to show up, to save, to restore. When we hear Jesus describing the coming of the Son of Man with stars falling from heaven, it can sound dire and horrible, not like anything we would ever hope for. But when we really look at the suffering of people God loves, we can share the hope that God would tear open the heavens and come.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
november 22, 2020 | christ the king / the reign of christ

On this final Sunday of the church year our gospel is Jesus' great story of judgement. In the end, the faithful are those who served Christ by ministering to those who are poor, hungry, naked, sick, or estranged. In the first reading God is the shepherd who seeks the lost, weak, and injured and feeds them with justice. We gather this day to celebrate the reign of Christ and his victory over death, yet awaiting the consummation of all things yet to come. Acknowledging Christ as our merciful ruler, we go forth that his reign may be known in our loving words and deeds.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
November 15, 2020 | The twenty-fourth sunday after pentecost

Our readings during November speak of the end times. Zephaniah proclaims that the coming day of the Lord will be filled with wrath and distress. Paul says it will come like a thief in the night and urges us to be awake and sober. Jesus tells the parable of the talents, calling us to use our gifts, while we still have time, for the greater and common good. In a world filled with violence and despair, we gather around signs of hope - word, water, bread and wine - eager to welcome the good news of Christ's coming among us.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
november 8, 2020 | The twenty-third sunday after pentecost

In Sunday's readings, the prophet Amos calls for justice to roll down like waters. Paul urges us to encourage one another with the promised coming of the Lord. Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. Surrounded by the faithful of every time and place, we celebrate Christ's coming in our midst in the word of life and the feast of victory - the marriage feast of the lamb.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE
november 1, 2020 | all saints day

All Saints celebrates the baptized people of God, living and dead, who are the body of Christ. As November heralds the dying of the landscape in many northern regions, the readings and liturgy call us to remember all who have died in Christ and whose baptism is complete. At the Lord’s table we gather with the faithful of every time and place, trusting that the promises of God will be fulfilled and that all tears will be wiped away in the new Jerusalem.

Download the bulletin HERE
Download a children's page HERE