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.
This Sunday we offer our monthly service of Choral Morning Prayer at 9 a.m. This month's service is sung by the Men & Boys Schola and features music by Bernard Rose and Thomas Morley. All are welcome!
This Sunday and next, we resume our services of Sacred Earth Evening Prayer. Since the forecast seems promising for this upcoming Sunday, we will gather at Edgerton Park (Edgehill Rd. entrance).
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!
Join us for an evening of tributes, anecdotes, performances, and good food and drink as we celebrate Walden Moore's four decades of musical leadership at Trinity. The event will take place on Sunday, May 26, at the New Haven Lawn Club (193 Whitney Ave.) with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30. Don't miss this truly special evening honoring a musical maestro and cherished friend!
Tickets to the event are $40 for adults, $20 for children, and $100 for families. Click HERE to buy your tickets today.
This past Wednesday, April 3, at Woolsey Hall, our Boys and Girls Choirs sang an incredible performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Yale Camerata, Yale Glee Club, and the Elm City Girls Choir. The concert will be repeated at St. Bartholomew's Church (New York City) this Sunday, April 7. The work intermingles the text of the Latin Requiem with poetry by Wilfred Owen. The musicians in Woolsey Hall were arranged to provide a 'surround-sound' experience with orchestra on the stage, adult choirs on the first balcony, children's choirs on the second balcony, and a chamber orchestra with soloists on the floor.
These concerts came at a particularly demanding time for our choristers as they have also been preparing for Holy Week, Easter, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Please join us in congratulating our Boys and Girls Choirs for all their hard work!
The Yale Institute of Sacred Music invites you to a lecture titled "Meanings of Transcendence: Pushing Past Limits in Creativity, Morality, and Desire by Vernon White, Visiting Professor of Theology at King’s College London and Senior Fellow of the Westminster Abbey Institute. The event will take place on Tuesday, April 9, at Miller Hall (406 Prospect St.) and will consist of a lecture at 2 p.m. followed by a wine and cheese reception at 3 p.m.
Click HERE to read Canon White's biography.
Let's scramble for some Easter Egg surprises! Join us outside on the Green after the 10:30 a.m. service. There will be one area for babies and toddlers aged 4 and under; another area for children aged 5 and over. Egg-collecting bags are provided, but bring a basket if you'd like. Thank you to the Trinity's Wednesday Club for filling hundreds of eggs for us! Sponsored by the Children, Youth, & Family Ministry.
Friends of the Green New Haven has once again assembled seed packets to share. This year they are giving away Zinnia Seeds for Pollinators for Peace. While they last, these free seeds will be available in the narthex starting this Sunday.
Our 10:30 service this Sunday begins outside on the apron as we commemorate the Lord's entrance into Jerusalem. The children of Trinity and their friends will lead Dusty, our parish donkey, into the church waving palm branches as they go! Children and families who wish to lead the procession should meet at10:20 a.m. in front of the church. Children's Chapel will also be offered during the service.
At 2 p.m. on Maundy Thursday, the Chapel on the Green community will gather behind Trinity for a special worship service, with Bishop Jeff Mello preaching and presiding over Holy Communion. Afterwards, there will be time for foot-washing, healing prayer, and a foot care clinic and health fair sponsored by Cornell Scott Hill Health Center. All are welcome to join us for worship, and if you are interested in volunteering, please contact Lisa Levy. We'd love to see you there! cotg@trinitynewhaven.org
The Trinity Boys and Girls Choirs will join forces with the Yale Glee Club, Yale Camerata, and Elm City Girls Choir to sing Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem accompanied by the Yale Symphony Orchestra. The concert will be performed twice:
Wednesday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. – Woolsey Hall, Yale University
Sunday, April 7 at 7 p.m. – St. Bartholomew's Church, New York
Following in the operatic tradition of Verdi’s Requiem, Britten brings his operatic skills to realize the conflicts and futility of war through three separate forces—full orchestra, choir, and soprano in the Latin Requiem Mass; Chamber orchestra, tenor, and baritone in settings of Wilfred Owen’s war poems; and an unseen children’s choir that intones words to Paradise.
Easter is just around the corner ... which means our 2024 Christmas Market will be here before we know it! It's time to clean out your jewelry box and bring your donation to Trinity. Place your donated items in the pink box in the sexton's office. Thank you for helping us get a jump start on the Christmas Market!
A Message from the Rector
Dear parish members and friends of Trinity’s choir community,
My hope had been to inform you by now of the successful hire of our new Director of Music. Instead, I need to share with you the disappointing news that our search has turned out to be inconclusive.
As you recall, it was announced that there were three finalists for the position of Director of Music. One of the finalists withdrew his name from consideration prior to an interview for personal family reasons. One of the candidates decided that he was not the right fit for our program post interview. And finally, after careful consideration, it was decided not to offer the third candidate the position as he was not the right fit for our program.
I certainly honor the sense of disappointment after many months of organizing interviews and conversations. We all had hoped to welcome our new Director of Music by now. But interviews are clearly a two-way process.
This past week has given the Wardens, treasurer and myself pause and reflection time regarding the best way forward. I contacted Walden and other music professionals. They have been extremely supportive in exploring options for us. All in all, their professional recommendation at this moment is that Trinity should look for an alternate solution, possibly an interim. They are already reaching out to possible candidates, and we hope to find the right person very soon. We also continue to have discussions with prominent advisors in the music world to help guide our direction.
We all knew that succeeding Walden meant there were big shoes to fill. This also means that patience will need to be our treasured virtue at this juncture. We will need to wait a while longer to find our new Director of Music. But trusting in the power of prayer and God's loving providence, it probably will be an opportunity for us to take some extra time to make this important transition. And maybe the Lord wants some more say as well. As soon as there is more information, I will let you know.
Much gratitude to the search committee and all of you who have participated in this search process. Special thanks to Marsha Ackerman and Paul Berry, whose wisdom and connections are already guiding us to the next step. Everyone's hard work has brought us to the point we find ourselves today. God is guiding us and seems to think that this is right and good for us.
Blessings and peace,
Luk
This Sunday during the 10:30 a.m. service, the Trinity Players and Spring Glen Players will present "Christ in the Concrete City," a short, modern passion play. They will also perform the work on the front steps of Trinity on Good Friday at 3:30 p.m. and at Spring Glen Church on Good Friday at 7 p.m.
Author Philip Turner writes:
This play attempts to portray the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ from three points of view. Firstly, it is the story of something that happened. I have taken large liberties with the Gospel narrative, finding myself forced to compress violently, and even in some cases to put phrases on lips where they do not belong, in order to get the facts into the play. The actors step into and out of the historical characters. Thus, when the third man represents Pilate, he acts the part as long as the text demands, and then forgets about it.
Secondly, the story of the Passion is one of universal significance, speaking timelessly to all mankind. Here the cast act as a chorus, as a unit with several voices rather than as a group of individuals. These passages require a formal presentation both in speech and movement.
Thirdly, the Crucifixion and Resurrection are events of personal significance speaking intimately to the individual in the secret places of his own soul and urging him to action here and now. So, in the play there is a third level of action which tries to show the modern equivalent of the events or ideas brought out in the other themes. For the most part these sequences are caricatures.
The cast and crew include, Bethany Appleby, Nick Appleby, Jeanne Kerr, Marika Kuzma, Rich Lamere, Neil Olsen, Lisa Omark, Chuck Paul and is directed by Robert Sandine.
During the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade this past Sunday, the corner of Church and Chapel Street in New Haven was named in honor of the late Thomas E. Gallagher, Jr., a beloved Trinity member who died last year. These photos show Tom’s family, including his partner Donna Violante and his sister Barbara Jarry, celebrating Tom at the parade. We give thanks for all the saints, Tom among them.
Join our neighbors at St. Luke's Episcopal Church (111 Whalley Ave.) this Friday, March 22, for the Lenten devotion of Stations of the Cross. Readers are needed! Contact Rev. Heidi if you would like to join and/or to participate as a reader. hthorsen@trinitynewhaven.org
6 p.m. – Bible Study
7 p.m. – Stations of the Cross
In addition to memorial contributions, we are looking for further support to welcome back the Trinity Festival Brass this Easter. We are dependent on your donations to fairly compensate these fine musicians, so if you would like to make a donation please CLICK HERE, or if you would like to pledge to make a future offering please contact AnnaDea Chavez. development@trinitynewhaven.org
Thank you for your continuing support of our brass and timpani players who add so much to our Easter celebration!
The Trinity Festival Brass
Don Clough, trumpet
Alison Marseglia, trumpet
Brian Nichols, French horn
Sean Nelson, trombone
Adam Crowe, tuba
Pat Smith, timpani
The next Trinity Book Club meeting will take place at the home of Maria Brandriff on Tuesday, March 26 at 4 p.m. We will be talking with Kate Walton about her book Paradox Lake of Memory, a memoir about a fascinating lake in the Adirondack Mountains and how its complex geological origins and eclectic social history impacted a family's life and about how gender shapes history.
If you wish to learn more or to join the book club please contact Jenny Briggs. jenniferobriggs@gmail.com
Parishioners Mary Ann and Ralph Stroup lead a nonprofit that serves children in Kenyan schools and libraries. They are in need of crayons and have come to us for help! Bring boxes of NEW crayons to church by Sunday, April 14, and then join us that day for a presentation on Kenya and its fascinating animals. Sponsored by Trinity's Children, Youth & Family Ministry.
This Sunday is New Haven's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade! All streets bordering the Green will be OPEN for parking (except for the stretch of Elm Street between Temple Street and Church Street; see below) until 1 p.m., after which they will close. We urge everyone attending the 10:30 a.m. service to ensure a timely departure from the downtown area to prevent issues with towing. Free parking in Yale Lot 51 is also available if street parking is full.
The parking page on our website has been updated. Please visit it to refresh yourself on the many (free!) parking options available on Sunday mornings.
