Please be aware that a major protest, "March for a Free Palestine," is scheduled to take place on the New Haven Green this Sunday, April 28, at noon. We plan to hold our morning services and 5 p.m. service as scheduled, with some modifications to Chapel on the Green at 2 p.m. Please plan for extra time in your commute to and from church and be aware of increased activity throughout the downtown area. We continue to join the church and the world in praying for peace in Israel and Palestine.
This Sunday at our 10:30 a.m. service we pay tribute to our dedicated Parish Choir. We thank each of our choir members for their hard work and beautiful singing throughout the year: Al Atherton, Peggy Atherton, Kristin Barendregt-Ludwig, Marybeth Bean, Sheila Bonenberger, Susan Boyan, Mark Branch, Mark Brombaugh, Jenny Briggs, Peg Chambers, Anne Cheney, Laura Davis, Catherine Jackson, Colleen Kiel, Karen Kostak, Geri Lemert, Warner Marshall, Rhea McTiernan Huge, Erika Nemeti, Kathryn Nichols, Kyle Picha, Sarah Reed, Rachel Scotch, David Soper, Jonathan Taylor, Catherine Williams, and Anna Zhao Sandine.
We also thank their leaders, our music staff: Walden Moore, Sarah Johnson, and David Preston.
We invite all children and families of our parish to our "Sunday Spark" at 9:30 a.m. in the undercroft! Children in Pre-K through sixth grade will learn about the Beatitudes in a large group before breaking into age appropriate classes with our faith formation volunteers. Parents are invited to attend the Bible Study in the Upper Room happening at the same time.
This Sunday at 5 p.m., we are delighted to welcome back the Salt & Pepper Gospel Singers to sing Vespers at Trinity. The group will perform several songs alongside readings and prayers for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Many of our parishioners participate in this group, and we hope you will come and hear this soul-searching music. All are welcome!
The annual Wake Up the Green festival will take place on Saturday, May 11! The day begins with Clean the Green at 9 a.m. followed by a reenactment of Powder House Day (a must if you haven't seen it!). From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Christine Janis will offer a self-guided tour of the stained glass windows at Trinity. We hope you can join!
On Saturday, May 18 at 10 a.m., Trinity will host a Confirmation liturgy presided by Bishop Jeff Mello. All are invited to attend and support those confirming and reaffirming their faith! Reception to follow.
As an Episcopal Church with a rich choral tradition, one simply cannot pay a fitting tribute to Walden without a final Evensong. All choir alumni are invited to join a special alumni choir—register below! Following Evensong, join us for a community dinner at Center Church Parish House. The dinner will be a potluck featuring a detailed menu of some of Walden’s favorite foods. Everyone attending the dinner will be asked to bring a dish from the menu that will be provided or contribute money to purchase food.
We invite you to join us for Choral Evensong this Sunday—Walden Moore's penultimate Evensong at Trinity. In keeping with Good Shepherd Sunday, the Choir of Adults & Girls and the Boys Choir will sing Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb as the anthem, a joyful multi-movement cantata with poetry by Christopher Smart. The choir will also premier a set of Preces and Responses by our own Nathaniel Adam, which he has titled O lux beata Trinitas. Come and pray with some stunning music!
Pre-Service Organ Recital
Prior to Evensong, Walden Moore will play a short organ recital at 4:30 p.m. featuring "Choral in E" by César Franck and "Meditation" (from Trois Improvisations) by Louis Vierne (transcribed by Duruflé). All are welcome.
Trinity's Children, Youth, & Family Ministry is sponsoring Chapel on the Green this Sunday! We need many hands to help make sandwiches for our neighbors. Parishioners are invited to help make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches among other things to be served by our Youth Group and Confirmation candidates. This is a terrific family service project and all are welcome! Meet in the undercroft at 9:30 a.m. and we'll get busy.
On Saturday, April 13, Sweet Honey in the Rock captivated a packed Trinity Church with a stunning and sensational concert. Our own Choir of Men & Boys and Choir of Adults & Girls opened the concert with three pieces—"Wondrous Love" arranged by Paul Christiansen, "The Road Home" by Stephen Paulus, and "Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal" By Alice Parker. Director of Music Walden Moore called particular attention to Parker, who died last December after a trailblazing career in the world of women composers.
Sweet Honey sang two sets of songs that included their own staples (like "Ella's Song" and "I'm Gon' Stand"), arrangements of other well-known classics like "Feeling Good," and newer compositions that explored contemporary issues—race, gender, war and peace. Before their finale, the group celebrated their fiftieth anniversary while also paying tribute to Walden Moore's 40 years of dedicated service to Trinity. "I honestly could not listen to the fantastic repertoire given the heat of the moment," says Legacy Committee Co-Chair Duo Dickinson, "but the joy on Walden's face seeing Sweet Honey's performance was transcending."
Originally planned for the spring of 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, this concert became one of the core events celebrating Walden’s legacy. “We had a record crowd of over 500 people honor Walden and over 100 people who have donated to Trinity’s music program through the Doing a Walden Campaign,” says Dickinson. “Costs and revenues are virtually at a break-even level which was an ambitious goal without any concert sponsors. The performers were ecstatic with our accommodation and the outcome, and over half the audience were completely new to experiencing Trinity’s beauty and welcome—a fully great event!”
It’s not every day that you get asked to perform Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Why? Well, to put it plainly, it’s huge. Running 90 minutes in length, it calls for two orchestras and three choirs, plus soloists. The week after Easter, Trinity’s choristers joined forces with fellow New Haven superstars the Elm City Girls Choir, the Yale Glee Club, Yale Camerata, and Yale Symphony Orchestra for performances of this monumental piece in Woolsey Hall in New Haven and St. Bart’s in New York City with glorious projections provided by Camilla Tassi. Congratulations to all on a musical (and logistical!) triumph!
Our first Clean the Green of the year is on Saturday, April 27! Join Friends of the Green in helping to make the New Haven Green cleaner, nicer, and more welcoming for all. Meet at 10 a.m. on the north side of Trinity. Rain cancels.
Next Sunday at 5 p.m., we are delighted to welcome back the Salt & Pepper Gospel Singers to sing Vespers at Trinity. The group will perform several songs alongside readings and prayers for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Many of our parishioners participate in this group, and we hope you will come and hear this soul-searching music. All are welcome!
On Saturday, May 4, we invite you to join a group tour of the New Haven Museum's exhibit Shining Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, & Slavery. Come learn and process the legacies of slavery with our friends at St. Luke's. The tour will be led by curators Mark Morand and Charles Warner, Jr. The tour will begin at 2 p.m. (meet in the museum lobby at 1:45).
RSVP to Rev. Heidi! hthorsen@trinitynewhaven.org
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut invites you to a remembrance service on Saturday, May 4, at 3 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral (45 Church St., Hartford). The service is for anyone who has lost a baby in pregnancy, at birth, or in early years—whether the loss was yesterday or 80 years ago. It is also for those grieving that they have never been able to conceive. Click HERE for more info.
The next Trinity Book Club meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 7 at 4 p.m. in the undercroft. We will be discussing The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City by Nicholas Dawidoff. To RSVP or to learn more about the group, please email Jenny Briggs. jenniferobriggs@gmail.com
Join us for an unforgettable evening of soul-stirring music as the legendary Sweet Honey in the Rock takes the stage at Trinity on Saturday, April 13. Sweet Honey in the Rock is a Grammy-nominated African-American a cappella ensemble that serves audiences from diverse backgrounds and cultures throughout the United States and the world. Hailed as a group with “unmistakable power” that “empowers individuals to accomplish together what we cannot accomplish alone” (NPR), they use “a stunning range of jazz phrasings and impeccable scat chops” to teach audiences “what freedom really sounds like” (Indy Week).
All proceeds from the concert will benefit the “Doing A Walden” Campaign, which will support Trinity’s future musical endeavors.
This Sunday at 5 p.m., we will once again gather at Edgerton Park (Edgehill Rd entrance) for a service of Sacred Earth Evening Prayer.
As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Creation is the primary and most perfect revelation of the Divine.” Our Sacred Earth service is a time to connect with nature, its beauty, its message, its care. The prayers seek to connect us with the divine expression in creation. It is a place where faith and science meet, where our souls find their home in a way we not always remember, given our lifestyle away from nature. During this prayer time we open our hearts to the richness of nature, like Gerard Manley Hopkins expressed: “What would the world be, once bereft of wet and wilderness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; long live the weeks and the wilderness yet.”
Come and join us at Edgerton Park!
In addition to Sacred Earth this coming Sunday, we hope you can join us for these two upcoming musical services, both at 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 21: Choral Evensong – This will be Walden Moore's penultimate Evensong at Trinity (the final being his celebratory service on Sunday, June 2—more details on this to come). Sung by the Choir of Adults & Girls and the Boys Choir, this service will feature Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb as the anthem.
Sunday, April 28: Salt & Pepper Gospel Vespers – We are thrilled to welcome back the Salt & Pepper Gospel Singers to sing Vespers at Trinity. Join us for some uplifting and soul-searching music!
With an influx of news items last week, we neglected to properly thank all who made our Holy Week & Easter celebrations such a meaningful experience. We thank Luk, Heidi, Kyle, assisting clergy, seminarians, musicians (Walden, Sarah, David, choirs, and festival brass), acolytes, altar guild, sextons, livestream coordinators, Lisa and all COTG volunteers, Bob Sandine and the Trinity Players, Angela and her CYFM team, and all who worked behind the scenes through such a busy week. And of course, we thank you—the People of God—for journeying with us through Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. We hope you will take a moment to enjoy the photos below, all of which were taken by Kyle Picha.
