Small Acts of Love Reshape the World

Returning January 11, the new season of the popular Discovery series explores how Christians can face injustice with hope and together build a better tomorrow.

This winter, join a weekly Sunday morning class that asks real questions about faith and its role in our world today. We’ll embrace the beautiful complexity of our lives and step away from simple answers that too often lead to the dehumanization of our neighbors — and ultimately ourselves.

Using our resources for good

Generosity is core to Christian faith. We freely share what we’ve got — our time, talent, and financial resources — because we know our lives are interconnected. We cannot flourish until everyone has all they need.

In the first part of our season, join compelling conversations with leaders from the church, faith-based nonprofits, and the fundraising sector and build a hands-on, theologically grounded framework for giving that works toward the common good.

“We’re rightly concerned with being good stewards of what we’ve been given,” says Summerlee Staten, Trinity’s executive director for Faith Formation and Education. “But in light of God’s abundant love, what does it mean to have discernment not only about our finances but also in how we give our time and energy? We’re taking the abstract and making it concrete — exploring how generosity plays out in our real lives.”

On January 11, Episcopal Relief & Development’s Katie Mears brings their on-the-ground experience with disaster relief to lead a conversation on how we can view climate change — and the myriad humanitarian crises that come in its wake — through a faith-based lens, with a particular focus on using our resources to protect vulnerable populations.

The Rev. Canon John Thompson-Quartey, canon for ministry in the Diocese of Atlanta and our Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday guest preacher, joins us January 18 to explore how Christian generosity demands more than simply giving our money to help the poor. Inspired by the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., we’ll see how effective activism requires creativity, courage, and conviction to address the root causes of economic injustice.

And on January 25, hear from a panel of philanthropy experts — Trinity parishioners Hilary Pennington, former executive vice president of the Ford Foundation, and Buff Kavelman, founder of The Kavelman Group Philanthropic Advisors, alongside Trinity’s Chief Philanthropy Officer Beatriz (Bea) de la Torre — on how institutions can wisely steward funds to make the greatest impact on our communities.

“As wealth disparity increases and need multiplies, so does our love for one another,” says de la Torre. “And as Christians, we believe that love plays out in action. We show up for each other, individually and collectively, offering tangible support and doing the vital work of building a more just New York City.”

How to be a Christian — right now

Amid division and strife, it can be a challenge to muster hope these days. Yet Scripture shows us time and again that God’s love will sweep through our world in surprising ways.

“We want to make a positive difference with our lives, but it can be difficult to know where to start — or to believe we could even have an impact,” says Staten. “But Jesus’s example shows us it’s the small and faithful acts of love that ultimately reshape the world.”

In discussions spanning across Christian tradition, we’ll uncover ways to bring our personal experience of God’s love from the pew into our everyday lives — and to the people around us.

On February 1, the Rev. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion, shares accessible yet profound spiritual practices that can bring healing and hope to our communities.

On February 8, Ruth Vida Amwe, PhD, post-doctoral fellow at Trinity Church and Princeton Theological Seminary, confronts the ways Christian religious institutions and authorities have shaped discourse in ways antithetical to the teachings of Jesus — and explores how Christians today can courageously rewrite the narrative in a way that’s faithful to Jesus’s actions and words, even in today’s divisive environment.

And Hanna Reichel, PhD, the Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, joins us February 15 to discuss their book For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional and illuminate how faith can both help us lower anxiety and act courageously amid upheaval and uncertainty.

We’ll see that, no matter what headlines fill our newsfeeds, our calling as Christians remains the same: to love God and to love our neighbors and ourselves.

“When we love one another despite our differences,” says Staten, “we make a powerful statement: We are willing to participate in God’s future.”

Discovery returns Sunday, January 11, at 10am. See the curriculum and register to join, in person or online.