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.

"My name is Sadiq Khan and I'm the mayor of London!"

Sadiq Khan / I'm a Londoner, I'm European, I'm British, I'm English,
I'm of Islamic faith, of Asian origin, of Pakistani heritage, a dad, a husband."

London began the week with a new mayor. Meet Sadiq Khan. Not only is he the first Muslim to lead Britain's capital city, he's the first Muslim head of a major European capital.

"I'm a Londoner, I'm European, I'm British, I'm English, I'm of Islamic faith, of Asian origin, of Pakistani heritage, a dad, a husband," said the newly elected, 45-year-old Khan in a recent interview with The New York Times.

Khan, a Labour Party leader, succeeds two-term Conservative Boris Johnson, who was London's mayor since 2008. He was officially sworn in as London's new mayor last Saturday during a ceremony at Southwark Cathedral, and was immediately greeted with cheers and applause.

Sadiq Khan / The first Muslim leader of an important
western city.

Born in Tooting, South London, Khan is the fifth of eight children whose parents immigrated from Pakistan. He grew up in the 1970s in a public-housing project – known as a council estate – where his father drove a London city bus and his mother was a seamstress.

"My parents came here because they saw London as a beacon," Khan told The Guardian. "A place where they could create a better life."

Following a bitter Conservative campaign of personal attacks that was dominated by anxieties over his religion and ethnicity, Khan won a striking and historic victory over Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith, gaining a broad acceptance from the London electorate who supported him with 44 percent of first preference votes (56.8 percent of the vote overall) in a crowded field. His election brushed aside attempts by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's government to link Khan to the threat of Islamist extremism and, perhaps, it signaled "a broad acceptance by voters of London's racial and religious diversity just months after jihadi terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris," wrote the Financial Times of London.

"Sadiq Khan's election as mayor of the British capital – making him the first Muslim leader of an important western city – is a historic moment that will be scrutinized around the world, particularly in other European cities struggling to integrate Muslim communities," wrote the Financial Times. "The victory of the Labour party candidate reaffirms London's multicultural image at a time of rising populist fervor in Europe and the U.S."

Khan has said he hoped that Donald J. Trump – the presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate who has called for barring Muslims from entering the U.S. – "loses badly."

As mayor of London, Khan will have power over transport, housing, air quality and policing. He's promised to make 50 percent of new homes affordable. He takes charge of one of the world's great cities, "a vibrant metropolis where every tongue is heard," wrote The New York Times. "In his victory, a triumph over the slurs that tried to tie him to Islamist extremism, Khan stood up for openness against isolationism, integration against confrontation, opportunity for all against racism and misogyny. He was the anti-Trump."

Khan, married and the father of two daughters, comes to his new leadership post following a career as a human rights lawyer. He was a Labour councillor in Tory-held Wandsworth for 12 years. He entered Parliament in 2005 and in 2010 his orchestrated Ed Miliband's winning Labour leadership campaign. He ran Labour's London campaign in the 2015 general election.

Sadiq Khan / "Proud that London has today chosen
hope over fear and unity over division."

As an observant Muslim, Khan seems well placed to tackle extremism in a city known for its tolerance and respect of each other. Although Britain has not sustained a major terrorist attack since 2005, it's worth noting that unlike France, Britain's Muslim population is well integrated, and one in eight Londoners identify as Muslim. During the campaign, Khan openly proclaimed his Muslim faith and declared that he was "the British Muslim who will take the fight to the extremists."

Still, Khan's election as mayor comes at a time when Europe is struggling with an increase in Islamaphobia, "riven by debates about the flood of Syrian migrants and on edge over religious, ethnic and cultural disputes," wrote The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000004391820/londons-new-mayor-gives-victory-speech.html

During Khan's acceptance speech, he noted that London's mayoral election "was not without controversy," but said he was "proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division."

He added: "I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer, it only makes us weaker and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."

Photos: Cover photo: Courtesy of Sadiq Khan Facebook page. Others: Courtesy of Google Images.