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January 10, 2007 - January 10, 2007
Creating a Holy Space for Greater Service
Worshippers at Trinity Church Now Gather
Around the Table and Enter Past a Provocative Font
By Joe Bjordal
Members and friends of Trinity Church, Excelsior, gathered on Sunday, January 7 to celebrate the completion of a monumental project: the complete remodeling of the main sanctuary, built in 1970. The liturgy, a “Celebration of Sanctuary Redesign with Holy Eucharist and Holy Baptism” focused on an unusual new Baptismal font, the sacrament of Baptism for two young children and how a faith community will live out the Baptismal Covenant by offering creative worship and hospitality in a new “holy space.”
A young member of Trinity Church examines the new Baptismal font
prior to the inaugural service in the newly-remodled sanctuary.
Building a Holy Legacy
Early in 2006 Trinity Church launched a capital campaign called “Building a Holy Legacy.” The case statement for the campaign noted that “in 1969 the people of Trinity Church looked to the future” as they anticipated both the “numerical and spiritual growth” of the parish community and the limitations of Trinity Chapel. At that time plans were made and funds raised to build the current main sanctuary, which was completed in 1970.
Prior to 1970, the congregation worshipped in its original building, now known as Trinity Chapel and still in regular use. The building was consecrated by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple on May 4, 1864 and built at a cost of $1,500. Originally located on Third Street in the tiny Village of Excelsior, the church was moved to its current location, on Second Street, in 1907.
Despite the fact that, as the case statement notes, the new sanctuary “served the growing community effectively for the past 35 years,” it also notes that “much has changed since 1970.” Key among the noted changes are:
1) Many people have moved into our geographical area;
2) Eucharist has replaced Morning Prayer as the principle service of worship on Sundays;
3) Baptism has moved from a private family ceremony to a richly expressive public rite of initiation in the Body of Christ; and
4) Lay ministry has taken a much more prominent place in the life, worship and mission of the Church.
Once again the people of Trinity Church looked to the future and sought to prepare for the next generation. They were challenged to “rethink the way our main sanctuary is ordered to create a space that speaks of our faith, of our love and of our hope—one that proclaims the good news of God in Christ Jesus.” Trinity engaged the services of Station 19 Architects to create “an evocative space that will be hospitable, flexible and beautiful—a space that will fully engage our senses in the sights, sounds and movements of a community in prayer for the life of the world.”
The sights, sounds and movements of the first worship service in the “new” sanctuary were clearly met with joy and excitement on January 7. The general reaction seems to indicate the project achieved its goals in totality. The Rev. W. Andrew Waldo, Trinity’s rector, reports that since Sunday “even many who doubted the project have written and called expressing their change of heart and excitement about the intimacy of the space, the richness of the sacramental ‘centers’ and the sense of the sacred that was missing from our previous space.”
As gifts of food are brought forward during the Offertory, the Rev. Nancy
Brantingham sets the "new table" for Holy Communion.
Powerful Visual Expression
Worshippers at Trinity Church now move and sit literally in the midst of rich symbols of Christian life and hope.
The new altar, made of Italian granite, sits nearly in the middle the sanctuary surrounded by new wooden chairs, with kneelers and hymnal racks. Opposite the altar, out in the narthex, is the newly expanded columbarium. Halfway in between is what Waldo calls a “provocative” baptismal font, which he designed and also made of imported granite from Italy.
He explained, in his sermon on January 7, that the font is pattered after a typical second-century baptismal font in a shape that “represents a sarcophagus, a coffin, a place of burial.”
“Today I am going to immerse two children into the Baptismal water held by this provocative font,” said Waldo in his sermon. “Then I will lift them high as new children of God risen from a metaphorical grave. It’s a reminder of the bold promise of eternal life and that even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Death has no sting.”
The entire floor plan and arrangement of the newly-remodeled sanctuary is intended to “give powerful visual expression to the relationship between our birth in Christ, our nourishment in his Body and Blood, and his promise of resurrection to eternal life,” said Waldo.
The font also has a gentle waterfall down one side, meant to be an “aural reminder of the water in which we were buried, cleansed and raised to new life in Christ,” noted the case statement.
“Paying as We Go”
The sanctuary remodeling is part of a three-phase, three-year project at Trinity Church that will cost in total $1,120,000. The cost of phase one, the sanctuary project, was approximately $540,000. Phase two, to be carried out in 2007, will include renovations to the Sunday School area, a new roof on the main sanctuary and a new boiler. Phase 3, in 2008, will primarily include audio-visual enhancements to the main sanctuary, including “discretely hide-able” video screens that will be used not for music, but to display photographs and other images during the Prayers of the People.
Waldo reports that since the congregation is already paying back a loan related to the construction of a parish hall and offices in 1999-2000, they made a decision that the new projects would only proceed if they could raise the money in advance and that’s what happened. The entire $540,000 for the first phase was “in the bank” before construction on the sanctuary project began last August. The same will be true for the remaining phases of the project.
There is, however, one other major component of the project that is also already paid for: a new tracker pipe organ. Waldo reports that a memorial gift of $270,000 was given for a new organ back in 1996, which has now grown to $380,000. Original plans to raise additional funds did not receive support, so Trinity decided to “buy as much organ as possible” with the funds on hand. In 2008, a new tracker pipe organ, Opus 111, by Hendrickson Pipe Organ Company of St. Peter, Minnesota will be installed.
Coincidentally(or perhaps providentially), as construction was getting underway for the sanctuary project, a member of the parish asked the rector if Trinity would agree to “store” a pipe organ that had been in his parents residence. Until the new organ arrives, Trinity has free use of a Van Daalen tracker pipe organ!
The joy of Trinity's rector, Andrew Waldo, is obvious as he sprinkles
the congregation with baptismal water during the Asperges.
Moving Deeper in Mission
In his sermon on January 7, Waldo said that he wanted the newly-remodeled sanctuary to be a catalyst to move the congregation deeper into mission.
“When I think about this font,” he said, “which represents deep and profound Christian hope, I want to see us moving deeper from receiving the promise of God’s presence in our lives to being a community that offers that presence to others. I want the font, the acoustics, the new wash of light, the intimacy of our gathering around a table to be signs of who we are for the world around us.”
“Understanding that being a heir to the promises of God is to also be a steward of the world God has given us, to be ambassadors of reconciliation, may we be inspired by the words of the prophet: ‘here am I, send me.’”
Photos by Michael Grabner
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