Trinity Church: Responding to a big city’s changing needs

Trinity Church /
New York City

One of the great joys during my recent visit to New York City was the opportunity to worship at historic Trinity Church, located near the Financial District, where Broadway intersects Wall Street.

Trinity Church was founded in 1697 as the first Anglican, or Church of England, parish in the colony of New York. Imagine, at the time, the entire city of New York lay south of the church – south of Wall Street!

The first church building opened on its current site in 1698.

Back during the Revolutionary War years of 1775 to 1783, Trinity parish soon expanded. It included two “chapels-of-ease”: St. Paul’s and St. George’s, which allowed it to serve a growing Anglican congregation. However, during this period, the Great Fire of 1776 destroyed the first Trinity Church building. St. Paul’s Chapel was used for worship until the second church building was built and opened in 1790.

I learned how among our country’s founding fathers – and mothers – that George Washington, our first President of the United States, worshipped in Trinity parish during the time when New York City was our nation’s capital (before it moved to Philadelphia and, subsequently, to Washington, D.C.). The first Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay, was also a Trinity parish member as were the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and his wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, who was a philanthropist and orphanage co-founder. Both Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton are buried in the churchyard at Trinity Church.

Alexander Hamilton and his wife,
Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, are buried
in the Trinity Church churchyard.

When structural damage to the second Trinity Church, caused by a heavy snowfall in 1838, occurred, the architect Richard Upjohn was hired to design a new church building, which still stands today. The third – and current – Trinity Church was consecrated in 1846.

By the late 19th century, thanks to immigration and industrialization, which transformed New York City, Trinity Church saw an expansion of its ministries. It began to operate a mission house, a day school, a night school, an industrial school, a cooking school and a ladies’ employment society. It also added worship services catering to business people.

As New York City continued to grow and expand to the north, Trinity parish included 11 chapels located in neighborhoods around the city, including the Church of the Intercession, located on 155th Street, and St Cornelius on Governors Island.

Inside Chapel of All Saints /
Trinity Church

As the 20th century arrived, the Chapel of All Saints was added to Trinity Church in 1913. It was designed by architect Thomas Nash in a fourteenth century English Gothic style. I learned that Nash used the buttresses of Trinity Church as “the piers” for the south side of the chapel. Eight representative saints from church history support the chapel ceiling: St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Ignacio’s and St. Clement, St. Augustine and St. Athanasius, and St. Patrick and St. Aidan.

During the 20th century, Trinity Church continued its mission of responding to the city’s changing needs. It began offering music ministries that were innovative, it supported homeless services, and it went about building a diverse congregation that was color blind. Most chapels became independent parishes by the 1970s.

Which brings us to Trinity Church today in the 21st century. As Trinity Church undergoes a two-year renovation, it continues a tradition of supporting its neighborhood through its work on social justice initiatives, conducting workshops and offering daily worship services. It remains a growing and vibrant Episcopal community that “seeks to serve and heal the world by building neighborhoods that live Gospel truths, generations of faithful leaders, and sustainable communities.”

With daily and Sunday morning worship at Chapel of All Saints as well as daily and Sunday worship services at St. Paul’s Chapel (on Broadway at Fulton Street), both offer sanctuaries of quiet and churchyards full of historic memorials and monuments.

Photos: Trinity Church exterior, courtesy of church website. Alexander Hamilton tombstone and Chapel of All Saints interior, by Michael Dickens © 2019.

Grace Cathedral at 50: Defining beautiful architecture

A San Francisco sacred space / Grace Cathedral turns 50 this week.

How does one define beautiful architecture?

"Space has always been the spiritual dimension of architecture," the 20th century Canadian architect and urban planner Arthur Erickson once said. "It is not the physical statement of the structure so much as what it contains that moves us."

Grace Cathedral is the third
largest Episcopal cathedral
in the United States.

One of my favorite spaces in the entire world -- and one that I've experienced many times during the past two decades -- sits tall atop Nob Hill in San Francisco. The vibrant city's famous cable cars pass by it on the California Street side of this sacred space. It's a place that I return to often on Sundays, especially during Lent for Easter Sunday and in the season of Advent to worship on Christmas Eve. 

That space is Grace Cathedral, a place to explore; a place to go deeper in one's faith. It is the third largest Episcopal cathedral in the nation, and this week, Grace Cathedral turns 50.

Each time I climb the staircase that frames the cathedral's entrance on Taylor Street and enter this sacred space, I am moved by the beauty of the cathedral's French Gothic architecture, designed by Lewis P. Hobart; the Ghiberti Doors that are opened for special occasions; and the vaulted ceiling arches. There is much to admire in this exalted sacred space -- and photograph, too.

The Keith Haring AIDS Chapel altarpiece.

There's the lyrical Rose window above the main entrance with its the colorful prism-like reflections of light beaming through it and through the stained-glass windows, bathing the pillars and indoor labyrinth in beautiful colors.

There's the historical aisle murals that were painted by Polish painter Jan Henryk De Rosen between 1949-1950 and composed in a style blending the stylistic elements of early Italian masters Giotto and Mantegna.

And, there's the Keith Haring AIDS Chapel altarpiece.

Colorful prism-like colors beam
through the stained-glass
windows onto the indoor
labyrinth at Grace Cathedral.

Cathedrals have long been places of pilgrimage, and Grace Cathedral is celebrating its past, its present and its sustainable future. Work was begun on the present cathedral structure in 1928 and its completion and consecration took place in 1964. Duke Ellington performed his televised Concert of Sacred Music inside Grace Cathedral on September 26, 1965.

I enjoy worshiping at Grace Cathedral, absorbed by its sacred space, which is defined by the beauty of its art, including its medieval and contemporary furnishings. There's also the echoing sound of the majestic Æolian-Skinner pipe organ; the 44 bell carillon, and the harmonious voices of the Choir of Men and Boys.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Of course, the homilies are meaningful, whether delivered by the Dean of the Cathedral, a visiting theologian, or by a guest homilist such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall or the playwright Anna Devere Smith.

And, they are always thought provoking, too.

Marcel Proust wrote how "Love is space and time measured by the heart." 

In Grace Cathedral, a house of prayer for everyone, I find solace here each time I visit.

And I know God's generous love awaits me.

To learn more about Grace Cathedral:

http://www.gracecathedral.org/

All photographs by Michael Dickens, © 2014.