George Thompson, the Senior Warden of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, presented these remarks at the Faith Foum on January 6, 2018, in conjunction with the exhibition on the history of Holy Trinity on display in the undercroft.
Thank you for this opportunity to share some of our history and story of who we are and our vision for our future.
First, thank you for partnering with Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on our ventures to embrace and be embraced by our community. Since my first encounter with St. Matthew’s and getting to know members of the church and clergy, I, personally, have felt welcomed and a loving embrace by all. Thank you for such warm hospitality at every occasion of our gathering. We, likewise, welcome you to our humble space and appreciate your kind support of all our activities.
Secondly, thank you for honoring Holy Trinity and our history by displaying our historical materials for all to see. Your generosity is indeed humbling and we welcome this opportunity to dialogue with you about what you see. Our goal was to inform the ECMN about who we are, who we have been for 130 years in the diocese of Minnesota, and our intentions to extend this living legacy for years to come. I think that it is important to share how our particular Episcopal church came about, why it was created, and how we have sustained the only predominately Black Episcopal church in Minnesota through various challenges for 130 years.
This exhibition is created in large part by 2 people: Julia New-Landrum and Linda Finney. As a merged church, most of our historical information languished in storage for 10 years, in boxes, in crates, on pallets and pretty much unorganized in a storage facility. Most of St. Philip’s items were stored inside a heated facility; St. Thomas’ items were stored outside in a tractor-trailer in unregulated temperatures; soaring heat in the summers and sub-zeros in the winter months. It is a miracle that most of those items survived, including 26 stained glass windows, numerous photographs and written materials.
When we were moving in the direction of acquiring the Epiphany Church building, stored items were transported to the garage at the church. Two (2) independent churches meant numerous duplications of items; 3 pianos, 2 organs, altar furniture, baptismal fonts, folding chairs, tables—you name it, we had 2 or more of them! The work of sorting through all of that was taken on by Ms. Julia New-Landrum, who enlisted the aid of two (2) trusted allies, Linda Finney and Pam Moore. Together, those ladies, with occasional help of a few others in the church, sorted and decided the distribution of a myriad of church items to pare down an enormous collection of “church stuff!” It was during this clearing and cleaning and re-distribution of “stuff” that they discovered many of the items we share on display today and at the Cathedral. As they examined each item, our histories were revealed. Without their close scrutiny and observation, many items might have been tossed away as so much useless/outdated papers. Close examination of boxed content revealed long forgotten pictures and documents that detailed our histories, including a document signed by Bishop Whipple in 1901.
Holy Trinity has had some extraordinary leaders throughout many decades. An extraordinary Priest, Fr. Alfred Lealtad (1905-1934) shepherded the two churches for over 30 years, leading church services every Sunday at both churches. He would perform morning services at St. Philip’s then take the streetcar to Minneapolis in the afternoon for services at St. Thomas. His consistent leadership helped set the bar of expectation for clergy to meet and sustain for the churches. Over the years, each church had strong clergy leadership with notable achievements.
St. Thomas and St. Philip’s had visionary leaders who were recognized by the community and by the Diocese.
Fr. Louis Johnson at St. Thomas helped found and develop the TCOIC program in Minneapolis for skilled job training and placement. He inspired and led the congregation to be active in the community (I.e. newspaper publishers, business leaders and enterprises), and led a building project that created a new church building 1960. He served for 28 years as Rector.
St. Philip’s was also led by a gifted priest, Rev. Denzil Carty, who was a church activist and revolutionary. Under his leadership, St. Philip’s was known nationally for being progressive in the national Anglican Church, and was among the first churches to accept women as priests. Fr. Carty escorted Dr. Jeanette Picard, on of the Philadelphia Eleven Women to be ordained a priest. She served at St. Philip’s for a number of years. At our ECMN Convention in 2015, Rev. Denzil Carty’s name was submitted to be included in the Book of Holy Men and Holy Women for his outstanding work in human rights, spiritual leadership in the community and affordable housing for low-income members of the community. The submission was ratified at the next General Convention.
Holy Trinity has a rich heritage to reflect upon as we make plans for our future. We see what has been done by others in the past, who faced and overcame multiple challenges. As we reflect upon our current social and political realities, we see that there is much to be done to assure that our collective futures are safe, just, sustainable, hopeful, and that our spiritual foundation is securely anchored in God, for through Him, all things are possible.
I look forward to our continued partnership and working together to spread the word of God to all. We have so enjoyed our shared pot-luck gatherings, the movie nights which inspired our MIP Grant sponsored social justice forums, the women’s retreats, the men’s retreat, the Jazz Mass, the Good Friday pulpit exchange and our shared Lenten services and discussions. In all of these occasions, the loving embrace from you inspires us to seek more opportunities to work and be together as One Church Family in God. Thank you for being part of our Spiritual Journey as we walk in Faith Together.
Blessings and Peace throughout this New Year.
GWT
1-6-2019
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