Trinity Parish: The practical answer to Why?

When Sarah and I began attending Trinity Episcopal Church in Lincoln, IL, I think we both hoped that we'd found a place to rest awhile. We found that, for sure, but we also discovered that there was more at Trinity than met the eye.

We had just left a bigger, more "successful", culturally relevant church with a nice, professional worship team and a nice, professional preacher and a nice, professional website. None of that is bad, and to be honest, I actually have very few if any hard feelings about our time there. It was simply clear as we left that we needed to avoid attending another similar church in Lincoln.

I knew very little about Trinity, and even less about Episcopalianism, but I had visited a couple of times with my college roommate a few years before. Well, my main reason for choosing Trinity at the time was that I wanted a slightly more liberal church that still took ancient practices seriously. Again, it's not like the church we'd left behind was super-conservative or anything, I just felt the need to be in a place where the gospel was more than just a sales pitch. Little did I realize how ridiculous quaint labels like liberal and conservative were going to become, religiously-speaking.

Fr. Cravens, the rector (rector? damn near killed 'er!) at Trinity, presented the first challenge to my simple-mindedness. He received his M. Div. from Union Seminary in New York, widely considered to be a very liberal divinity school, yet he is a fairly buttoned-down career military man who holds some pretty traditional opinions concerning the nature of Christ. Considering that the first bishop he served under was John Shelby Spong, that's saying something. Fr. Jim has become a close friend, so I'll save more on him for later writings.

The absolute, most practical reason we stayed at Trinity is the people, without a doubt. Being surrounded by a loving community during Sarah's pregnancy was an incredible blessing. Beyond that, watching a congregation composed of rich and poor, college professors and factory workers, old and young, join together in common prayer and fellowship was an amazing thing to witness. Bill, the senior warden, whose knees give out when he stands too long and is too stubborn/faithful to use that as an excuse to sit during hymns, still has a smile for us when we visit. Steve and Susie run the Blue Dog Inn, and someday soon Steve will probably grab Caleb from us and not give him back for a good stretch of time. Betty, who took us out for lunch the very first week we visited, sent us a card after Caleb was born. And Ellie, the painfully shy lady who lives alone in the high-rise but has a tremendous sewing gift, will be sending us a baby blanket soon. I haven't even mentioned Clyde and Shari, or Chris and Emily, or Jorge and Nancy. I haven't told you about Vicki, Ellen, Butch, Ava, Theo, Little Joe, or the Gray family. None of this is to say that I haven't felt loved or cared for in the other churches of which I've been part. Not at all. It's just that finding such a wonderful family at Trinity made the decision to join the Episcopal Church that much easier. More on that next post.