Worship at Trinity

The Rev’d Julia E. Whitworth, Rector

For obvious reasons, 2020 brought considerable challenges in planning and executing liturgy at Trinity. We kicked off the year with a celebration of the Epiphany, the Baptism of our Lord, the Feast of Dr. Martin Luther King, and the commencement of Lent as we traditionally do: with the celebration of Holy Eucharist and rich offerings of music by our choir and choristers in our beautiful sanctuary. I think none of us will take that for granted ever again. As the realities of the COVID-19 coronavirus began to make themselves known, on March 15 we offered live streaming of our 8am and 10am Eucharist services for those who preferred to stay home. On March 22, we offered Morning Prayer service which was streamed with no congregation in the church, and by Sunday March 29, we were all home under the Governor’s Shelter-in-Place order. In the ten months which have passed since, the staff Worship Team—myself, Father Ben, Mother Erin, and Michael Messina, along with Summerlee Walter, Missy Roetter and recently Tracey Lemon— have continued to modify our worship offerings, responding to restraints of the virus and our technological limitations and conscious of the appetites of our parishioners as expressed through parish surveys. Because of the size of Trinity’s congregation, we determined early on that we would pre-record our worship services to make them available both live on Facebook and at any time on the parish website, which was rapidly redesigned to meet the needs of a digital community. For three months we gathered on zoom from our homes and we recorded the Liturgy of the Word. Soloists and readers recorded their offerings from homes as well. Our Communications Assistant, Summerlee Walter, stepped into the role of worship video editor gracefully and has knitted together our online services every Sunday since March 29, save Christmas I and the Annual Meeting Zoom . On Trinity Sunday we were permitted to return to our sanctuary for recording worship, at which point we began including Holy Eucharist and Spiritual Communion in our online offering. We continue to edit in musical material —ranging from virtual choirs, soloists recorded midweek, organ and other instrumental preludes/postludes recorded elsewhere while our organ is revoiced—as well as photo montages, recorded readings, guest preachers, and more. Our intention was to continue offering moments of beauty and spiritual nourishment for you throughout this season of fast from our space and community. We have also attempted, quite bluntly, to keep it interesting so you will keep tuning in. In May and June, I assembled a Regathering Taskforce to help us frame parameters for reintroducing in-person worship. On July 11, we began to offer a Garden service with required registration, enrollment caps, assigned and distanced seating, masks, and other precautionary measures. By summer’s end we were holding three Garden Services: 8am Morning Prayer in the Cloister Garden, and 9am and 10:30 Holy Eucharist in the Lemler Garden, while online offering continued with Zoom adult forums and coffee hours. We also celebrated the Eucharist in the Garden on Wednesday evenings at 5:30. After a live-streamed “Welcome Back” Eucharist and picnic on the soccer field, the weather began to get colder and the days shorter. By November we had scaled back our Garden Eucharist to just one per Sunday at 10:30am. On January 9, we suspended the Garden Eucharist until Lent. I am tremendously grateful for so many who made liturgy -- the work of the people--continue through this pandemic year. I give thanks for the creativity of Trinity’s Worship Team—especially Dr. Messina, Father Ben, Mother Erin, and Summerlee Walter. I’m deeply grateful to Hugh Resnick who has continued

to organize lectors who record themselves for the weekly service. Missy Roetter organized our garden seating and, with head usher Eric Baiz, guided them through new safety protocols. In November, our longtime Altar Guild head Anne Throop retired, handing over that ministry to the very able Kim Purucker. Their patience, agility, and good will was greatly appreciated in the face of near-constant change. From home our incredible affiliate clergy blessed us with recorded reflections and devotions during Holy Week and Advent. Many liturgical volunteers had to step back during this season of quarantine and distancing, but we felt their support and prayers in so many ways This period has been some of the most demanding, and creative, of my career as a liturgist. Leading a live Agape supper with my family for Maundy Thursday and filling my dining room with Easter flowers will stay with me as treasured memories of this challenging time. Seeing your beautiful faces, pets, and gardens in photo montages nourished my soul, as did the choirs’ amazing virtual anthems, All Saints Evensong, and Zoom Lessons and Carols. I am proud of our original Zoom Christmas pageant with over 45 children and our elegant Christ Mass, enabled by a professional camera crew and editor Brian Boak. We have held both garden and indoor private baptisms, buried our dead, prayed at moments of national importance, and held one another as a prayer community. While we have worshiped apart from one another at times, the church has never been closed. Worship at Trinity was transformed in 2020, in ways we never could have imagined. But it continued, faithfully and imaginatively, to the Glory of God!