How We Worship
Worship is at the core of everything that happens at Trinity, Hartford; it is what feeds our diverse flock of parishioners, providing “welcome, hope and healing” for all who come to our services. It is something with which our parish takes great care, striving for what a parishioner once described as “friendly excellence.”
Pandemic and post-pandemic financial constraints have forced us to reduce the number of services offered each week at Trinity to a single service at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. During this time of transition, our retired clergy have supplemented our supply priests and allowed us to continue to offer a Rite ll Eucharist in person every Sunday. These services are also offered online through a YouTube link on our website.
The present constraints have not diminished the quality of what we offer to our worshippers. The music is lovely, and diverse; those who serve at the altar, read the lessons, and offer individual intercessory prayer following Communion are capable and committed, exercising great care in carrying out their duties. Preaching is a particular strength at Trinity; we have a long and cherished tradition of offering our pulpit to not only our paid staff clergy but also to other clergy who are members of the parish and several of our gifted lay people. Those who worship at Trinity deeply value the chance to hear and be inspired by a number of different voices.
Trinity has been blessed to have been able to maintain its 135-year-old neo-Gothic buildings, and their furnishings, so that they continue to provide a functional and lovely backdrop to our worship experience. A large gallery organ, a smaller portative organ, two pianos, plus an array of handbells and drums support the offering of a variety of music by our choirs and congregation. Under the expert direction of our half-time Director of Music, Markus Centola, we experience the joy of singing music from diverse sources and traditions in addition to the standard Anglican repertoire. We are led in our singing by an adult choir joined each Sunday by members of the Choir School of Hartford.
The Choir School of Hartford, founded and resident at Trinity Church, is a unique tuition-free program designed for young people age 8 – 18 in which they receive a high-quality music education through a structure based on the Royal School of Choral Music curriculum focused on vocal training, ear training, sight singing, and harmony studies. Our choristers are engaging deeply with traditional choral repertoire while also exploring diverse styles, including Latino, African, spirituals and Gospel music, where they learn to swing the rhythms—a wonderful blend of education and cultural appreciation.
In the past 12 months, the adult choir along with the Choir School have performed in special concerts at Trinity Church and at Trinity College. One of the concerts included both choirs, a small instrumental ensemble, and a contemporary ballet company. The choristers of the Choir School of Hartford have also sung with the choirs of St. Bartholomew’s in New York City and performed at St. Peter’s in Hebron, CT.
Seating in the sanctuary consists entirely of movable chairs - no pews since the present church building was built in the 1890’s! – and the altar currently in use is moveable, so the possibilities for configuring the church for a variety of worship experiences are wide-ranging, and we tend to keep thinking up new ones. In the summertime, our large and lovely Memorial Garden, with a small labyrinth, is sometimes used as our Sunday morning worship space.
Worship is important to Trinity’s members; it’s not just something we have to do because we are a church. It’s something we need to do, and do well, because we are a church community. We come from different towns all around the Hartford area, but we come together each week to feed our souls and build our special community of love and fellowship, and we do our best to worship with care and devotion to God and to each other.
