Church of the Holy Trinity

For Ash Wednesday, I chose to attend Church of the Holy Trinity, my second trip to a church who is part of The Episcopal Church. The service is intentionally low key and is intended to direct us to Lent, the period of time in which Christians are to spend their time in self-examination and sacrifice. The church is designed like a small chapel, giving it a really intimate feel when you enter. Not only is it cozy, but the people there are very warm and intimate as well. In thinking about it, the best comparison I can come up with is (sadly enough) that of a pub. If you have ever been to The Draught House in Austin, you'll get it immediately. It is a local pub that has all the feel of "where everybody knows your name" to it as the neighborhood people gather there, sometimes with pets, sometimes with friends, to hang out. Holy Trinity has much of the same feel. For example, during the exchange of the peace, everyone hugged, greeted each other by name, etc. and appeared on truly friendly and intimate terms with one another. It was obvious we were visitors and people introduced themselves and recognized that fact.

The church was dimly lit for much of the service (as I said, it was intentionally low key for Ash Wednesday) and this really was a good opportunity to slow down, put aside the hectic day and just focus on prayer and worship. The people there sing beautifully. My experience has usually been that about 25-30% of the people in a congregation actually sing out. The others usually just listen or mumble. This church fully sang. I'm willing to bet that at least 90% of the people were singing. Their voices filled the place, including one song that was sung in men's and women's parts which was just wonderful to listen to. Music was led by a lone guitarist and that was really all that was needed. Some of the music was a style I often refer to as 70s campfire music. Not in the cheesy way, but in that praise hymn type, with repeats of a chorus or line in the song. This fits well in churches which use a liturgy that has responsive readings because it seems very natural to have responsive music of this type. After the imposition of the ashes, we had a regular worship service, with communion being served.

This entry is shorter than many of my entries, but I think part of that is a reflection of the fact Ash Wednesday is really about self-examination. I think Holy Trinity helped me to do some of that as I felt I was more focused on myself rather than on their service. The brevity of the post, however, should not take away from the service itself. As with most Episcopal services, it was very well done and this was a really a good place to be.

Sometimes when traveling, I like to drop in a local pub or bar and watch a game that's on. Usually, I'll find other fans of my team and we'll have a little 2 or 3 hour bonding experience during the game. I'll return back to my room and, for that time, realize I wasn't missing being home because I found a place to belong for a bit. That was the feeling I had at Holy Trinity. While traveling along this journey, I found a neat little place where a group of friends gather at their neighborhood church to worship and enjoy fellowship together. I got to stop and have that experience with them and, just for a bit, felt right at home.