Chapel on the Green needs you! We are looking for 3-4 people to serve meals THIS Sunday, December 22. Start at 2:20 p.m. and end by 3 p.m.—an easy but important way to offer help to our unhoused neighbors. We will be indoors this week due to frigid temperatures. RSVP to Lisa at llevy@trinitynewhaven.org.
In case you missed it, click the video above to listen to our 2024 Christmas Concert! Huge congratulations to Simon Lee, Sarah Johnson, Nicholas Stigall, and all of our choirs for putting on a beautiful program and for helping to bring the light of the Incarnate Word to a darkened world.
Featuring a cast of dozens, pigs, sheep, bunnies, Mary riding up the aisle on a real pony, and the Christmas debut of the Choristarters, this year’s Christmas Pageant was one for the books! Click the button below to view photos, and many thanks to Angela Arpino for all her work in putting this annual production together.
We are in need of new or gently used toys! Janna and Briana, our Nursery staff, suggested the following items for our Nursery/Play Area. Can you help? Thank you!
Stacking/Nesting Toys
Ball Drop Ramp
Racetrack
Organizer
Play Doh
Batteries (AA or AAA)
Coloring Books
Join Racial Advocates for Cross-Cultural Education (RACCE) for a letter-writing session on Saturday, January 11, at 3 p.m. at Trinity Church. RACCE’s promotes social connections with incarcerated youth across Connecticut by exchanging letters of support, messages of love and creative artwork.
Guest Speaker: Michael Spike was incarcerated as a teen and transformed his life in prison. He became a mentor and fitness guru, and upon release, successfully reintegrated into society. Mr. Spike is a personal trainer and community advocate.
Each Christmas, Trinity parishioners make memorial contributions to Trinity on the Green's special, festive altar flower arrangements for Christmas services.
If you would like to include your loved ones in Trinity's Christmas Memorials, please submit their names filling out this form or by emailing kpicha@trinitynewhaven.org by no later than Sunday, December 22 at 3 p.m.
Memorial contributions can be made online here or by mailing a check payable to Trinity on the Green to 950 Chapel Street, Floor 2, New Haven, CT 06510, with "Christmas Memorial" included in the memo line.
The annual Christopher Martin's 5K takes place this Sunday, September 8. State Street, Chapel Street, Orange Street, Audubon Street, Church Street, and Olive and Court Street will be closed from roughly 7 a.m. until 12 noon. Please allow extra time for your commute to church.
This Sunday we conclude our series of Choral Evensongs celebrating women saints with Dorothy Sayers. The Choir of Adults & Girls and the Boys Choir will sing music by Ayleward, Stanford, and Gibbons. Join us at 5:00!
Friends of the Green has once again donated a NHV themed tree & gift basket to support the 35th annual Trees of Hope. The gift basket includes donations from the Graduate Hotel, Hotel Marcel, Uni Life, Claire's Corner Copia, Willoughby's, Provisions on State, Dwell, Brazi's, Charles, Susan & David, and Olmo. Raffle tickets are $1 and support the Ronald McDonald House. The trees are located at the Maritime Center (555 Long Wharf Drive) from December 7-15.
We know two things about families with children here at Trinity: They love their faith AND they have extremely busy schedules! The Faithful Family Prayer Packages were designed with both of these things in mind. When you can't make it to church or need a special faith connection during the week, open the box and pray together. Free to families with children in our Children, Youth & Family Ministry, they can also be purchased for $20 by other parishioners who want give them as a gift. The picture below shows all that is included (except for the plant!). Contact Angela Arpino to reserve or buy one today. family@trinitynewhaven.org
Meet faith leaders and community members interested in connecting and building organizing power on Saturday, December 14, in the basement of First & Summerfield UMC at 425 College Street downtown! The gathering will start at 2 pm and include presentations from local clergy and community organizers on faith-rooted organizing and ways we can get involved with the community organization New Haven Rising. This event hopes to gather faith leaders and community members interested in winning economic, racial, and social justice in the city of New Haven, but the program will be of interest to anyone curious about intersections of community organizing and faith. All are welcome. Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be provided. Handicap parking and accessible entrance are on Elm Street side. Questions? Email abby.langford@yale.edu
As we begin a new liturgical year this Sunday, join us for Choral Morning Prayer at 9 a.m. sung by the Men & Boys Schola. The service features music by Stephen Cleobury, Edward Elgar, and some great Advent hymns. All are welcome!
Join us every Sunday during Advent at 9:30 in the Upper Room for a special series of adult formation classes. Advent is a hectic time as we bustle through the days of gift-buying, parties, travel, and family. Join us as we slow down to experience Advent as waiting, preparation, and reflection through this four-part series in which we spend time with Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies, a book that invites us into a deeper and more meaningful engagement with the season. You need not have read the book to attend! All are welcome.
Come and join us this Sunday at 5 p.m. for a Sacred Earth prayer service. While the race into space continues to generate growing interest, the attention and care for the earth—our home planet—remains too limited, as the most recent Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan this past week illustrated. The challenges of climate change are by themselves a prophetic call for our times. For decades we have been invited to respond, but it is taken us time—maybe too much time—to realize just how profound the needs of the earth affect the needs of our human race.
Praying with the earth, therefore, as God’s primary revelation, may open our minds and our hearts to our planet earth and to our instant connection with it. During our Sacred Earth prayer services this fall, winter, and spring, we will take inspiration from a book recommended by our deacon, The Rev. Kyle Pedersen: Becoming Earth by Ferris Jabr. This amazing author unveils a radical new vision of earth—namely that the earth is a living entity, a vast interconnected “biotope” to which we belong. In turn, “we, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth”, Jabr writes.
Bringing earth into prayer has been a centuries old practice but, maybe more than ever, it requires our participation.
The Christmas Market has wrapped up for this year and I am pleased to announce we brought in over $23,000 to support the restoration of the Trinity organ. I wish to extend a vast amount of thanks and appreciation to all of you who provided the time, talent, and treasurer to make the Market happen this year. This includes the makers, sellers, shoppers, and the community supporters.
For the next two Sundays there will be a mini Advent Market in the undercroft after the 10:30 service for your shopping pleasure, including Trinity cookbooks and window clings.
With deep gratitude,
Leigh Cromey
Our Spirit Quest group sends its sincerest thanks to all Trinity parishioners who donated shoes to our Shoe Drive last week. Your generosity filled two pews with shoes!
Dear Trinity Community,
With much gratitude for God’s guidance and for all of the work done by our Search Committee, I have the honor to announce that J. Simon Lee will serve as our new Director of Music, the seventh director since the inception of Trinity’s choir program in 1885. Simon will be the choral conductor and vocal instructor, working in tandem with Sarah Johnson, our Associate Director of Music, who will now become our principal organist. As we have witnessed over the past few months, they are a formidable team whose passion for our music program shows in every detail of their work.
From the start of the interview process in 2022, we opened our hearts to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to the insights of the members of our parish and choirs, and to the expertise of professional advisors as we searched for the successor for our beloved Walden Moore. With meticulous planning, we discerned the needs of the choirs and the future of sacred music in our church’s worship. Over the course of the search process, we evaluated over thirty strong candidates, including several of national and international renown. Early this year, we organized in-person interviews, which yielded an inconclusive result. Thanks to the adroit leadership of Marsha Ackerman and Paul Berry as the co-chairs of our Search Committee and with the assistance of prominent sacred music leaders in New England, we were able to pivot quickly to arrange for a second interview series this fall, during which we would again welcome a number of expert musicians to audition. But in the meantime, by a providential stroke of genius, Marsha suggested that, in order to bridge the gap of the 2024-25 season, a Durham, UK-based choral conductor named Simon Lee might serve as Interim Director of Music. As an alumnus of the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale, Simon was not exactly an unknown talent here in New Haven, and the response to this suggestion was, to put it mildly, enthusiastic. And soon after his arrival at Trinity, Simon sensed a call to our open position. With Sarah’s solid mastery at the organ console and the overwhelmingly positive response to Simon’s musical leadership, the selection of our new Director of Music became clear.
I feel very blessed to call Simon and Sarah to be leaders of our music program. We will celebrate Simon's new role as Director of Music and Sarah’s growing leadership as principal organist at our upcoming Annual General Meeting, on January 26, 2025, during the 10:30 am Choral Eucharist. During that celebration we will also lift up the critical role of Trinity’s leaders who have spent countless hours discerning God’s call by assisting in the search. Special gratitude goes to Sarah Johnson to whom we are indebted for her hard work during this transition process.
As I contemplate the uncountable blessings we share here at Trinity on the Green, I invite you all to join me in singing God’s praise: ”When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride, it is as though the whole creation cried, Alleluia. Amen.“
With tremendous gratitude,
Luk+
At noon on Saturday, November 23, join Sarah Johnson (Associate Director of Music) and Joe Dzeda (Organ Curator) for a tour of our 1928 Aeolian-Skinner organ (Sister Soosie). Get to know the inner workings of our beloved instrument which we hope will continue to lead our worship for generations to come!
Join us for Choral Evensong this Sunday at 5 p.m., at which we will celebrate the Feast of St. Hilda of Whitby. The Men & Boys Schola will sing music by Stephen Cleobury, William Drakett, and Edvard Grieg. All are welcome!
Please note that the Parish Office will be closed on Thursday, November 28, and Friday, November 29, in observance of Thanksgiving.