ALL WORSHIP & PROGRAM HAVE MOVED TO TRINITY PLACE
So our roots go way back, but that and $1.95 will get us one cup of coffee. After years of decline with a big, magnificent building dominating our focus we have become a small band of sojourners looking to grow and discover a future unencumbered by a building we cannot support.
We enthusiastically and passionately engaged in what we called The Futuring Process to determine whether there were partners in the area that wanted to buy into our building, a business or organization that wanted to purchase it out right, or some combination of the two. In short, we threw open the doors and were willing to explore all avenues into the future.
Low and behold, we met the future!
TODAY!
Trinity is in the process of change along with much of the rest of organized religion in The United States. A massive, historic building does not go well with a small congregation and so we called The Rev. Cameron Miller to help us explore and determine how we will move into the future. He has described his role as that of a midwife and the vestry has devised a process to assist with that labor.
Adaptive Re-Use
We have discovered a way to preserve our building (with more than 1.5 million dollars of needed repairs), expand its purpose and reach as a resource for Geneva, and continue worshipping in it. Working with Mark McGroarty, LLC, everything except the sanctuary inside the building will be re-purposed as a 28 room boutique inn with a restaurant. The sanctuary will remain the same, except restored and the pews removed. As such it will be an event center as well as worship space.
Think of it! The building gets restored and preserve, the community benefits from a new and wonderful establishment and employer, and the congregation continues to worship at Trinity on Sundays. Amazing grace!
Trinity Place
At the same time, we are moving all our offices and program out of the building in preparation for construction and renovation, and establishing a new home and a new kind of church in downtown Geneva. Trinity Place, at 78 Castle Street, is a venue suitable for yoga, tai chi, intimate acoustical concerts, poetry and author readings, a temporary art gallery or installation, classes or recovery groups, and receptions and public meetings. By offering free (to non-profits) and low cost (for-profit) space to the community, Trinity Place hopes to become an open space for the community to meet and build relationships.
Trinity Place is an outreach program of Trinity Church, an open and inclusive space not requiring any religious affiliation on the part of those using it. Our parish office and after-school tutoring program are located in an adjacent part of the building, and we expect to offer musical fare and alternative inter-faith worship events at Trinity Place as well.
We are inviting others to join us as we open ourselves to God’s best dream for us.
Whether more traditional church such as we do at 520 South Main Street, or the more expansive kind of spirituality practiced through Trinity Place, we hope you will come find your place with us. Contact the church office to find out where you might like to jump or ease your way in.
Organization
Governance
Like all Episcopal congregations, we are led by a council called the “vestry.” It is an old British term reflecting the original cultural heritage of The Episcopal Church, which has since diversified and moved beyond its Colonial roots. Like the founding fathers and mothers of The Episcopal Church that also constituted the origins of the nation, Trinity democratically elects the vestry at an Annual Meeting and they, along with the priest and staff, lead the congregation.
Parish Life
A constellation of ad hoc committees form, change, die, and reform as needed to provide for coffee hour, pastoral concerns, program, and worship. You are very welcome to join in! Contact the parish office for more information.
