Last week I spent a few wonderful days on a pre-Holy Week vacation in Utah. Back in graduate school, I gave a paper at a conference on Kierkegaard at Brigham Young University, an event which sounds implausible but which really did happen. During that trip I didn’t have time to explore the outdoors, so it was a joy to finally be able to do so. 

While I was there, I started reading a book that I came across quite accidentally: Missionary to the Mountain West: Reminiscences of Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle. Bishop Tuttle was a larger-than-life character in the history of the Episcopal Church. After he was consecrated bishop at the age of only 29, he traveled by train and then by stagecoach into the heart of the American frontier. Establishing his home in Salt Lake City, he served as missionary bishop of the combined area of Utah, Montana, and Idaho. By the time he died in 1923, he had been a bishop for an astonishing 56 years. 

Bishop Tuttle arrived in Salt Lake City only 20 years after Brigham Young saw the Great Salt Lake and exclaimed “This is the place’ to build his theocratic American Zion. When Tuttle established St. Mark’s Cathedral, it was the first non-Mormon religious building in Utah. The Latter-Day Saints knew him as a tireless leader who treated them with respect, even as he vehemently and publicly opposed their theology and practices, particularly the practice of polygamy. 

One might expect this lion of the Church to be supremely self-confident, maybe even egotistical. But he was not. In a bout of loneliness while ministering in a particularly rough Montana mining town, he wrote to his wife: 

Ah, dear, do you not see and know that if I leaned on, or trusted in, this community, or in my large audiences, or in aught human here, I would now be plunged in the lowest deep of despair? It astounds me to think of and realize the breadth and depth of wickedness and vice in which this whole community is steeped.

Nothing but God's Almighty power, with His loving, cheering grace, keeps me patient and courageous, or in fact restrains me from giving up in despair and fleeing Eastward across the mountains, scarcely daring to look behind me, any more than Lot upon the cities of the plain. 

The stories of our faith are full of people like this. They were ordinary people with ordinary fears, yet they relied on God who empowered them to do extraordinary things.  They were also people who were empowered by grace to treat everyone with respect and kindness, even when they profoundly disagreed. 

Our own stories may not be epic Western tales like Bishop Tuttle’s. But each one of us is given the same grace as he was to meet our own difficulties and opportunities. 

Yours in Christ, 

Join us on Wednesday evenings this Lent for special programming:

• 5:30pm Holy Eucharist

• 6:00pm dinner

• Class and discussion on the “I am” statements of Jesus, after dinner

Are you hoping to deepen your faith this Lent? Do you want to learn about what classic theology has to do with modern life? During Lent, a book group led by Madeline Polhill, one of last year’s seminary interns, will study former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ recent work, Passions of the Soul. In this short book, Williams explores Eastern Orthodox theology with a particular eye towards what this theology might have to do with the pressures, challenges, and worries of our lives in the 21st century. We will meet on Monday evenings, beginning March 17 and ending on April 14, at 5:30pm, now in the Trinity Church library and on Zoom at this link: https://zoom.us/j/2859819016?pwd=UjQrV0RFMHlHdTZIc1pFMWF0cWFwZz09.

Questions? Email Madeline Polhill at madeline.polhill@ptsem.edu. We hope to see you there!

Trinity's current Communications Director Char Mansfield will be moving to Chicago to pursue their career as an ordained minister.  During Char's eighteen months in this role, they have greatly enhanced the quality and timeliness of our parish communications as well as the live-streaming of our Sunday service.  Now we need to replace them and continue their good work! The search  committee consists of Morgane O'Connell, Nithila Peter, Hailey Hensley, Tom Scott, Annie Bryson and Char Mansfield. A job description is posted at https://www.trinityprinceton.org/employment. If you or someone you know is interested in this part-time position, please send a resume and cover letter to communicationsearch@trinityprinceton.org. 

Families! Save the Date: Holy Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 11am

Trinity’s Easter Egg Hunt takes place on Holy Saturday at 11am on Stockton Lawn, and will be covered with colorful, candy and treat-filled eggs. Beforehand, we gather at the church entrance for a blessing. Bring your baskets and get ready to hunt for eggs. During the hunt, keep an eye peeled for the Easter Bunny, who loves to pose for photos. Come back for the Easter Vigil at 7pm or on Easter Morning to celebrate our Risen Lord!

The Agape meal will be directly following the 7:00 pm Easter Vigil service on Saturday, April 19. We will need volunteers for set up (6:30 pm), serving (9:00-9:15 pm), and clean up (10:00 pm- 11:30 pm). Volunteers should email Thalia Mingo at thaliawmingo@gmail.com

Calling all tenors! Trinity's adult choir is in need of a couple volunteer tenors. If this might be you, please reach out to our Director of Music Meg Harper at harperm@trinityprinceton.org!

If you're coming on Sunday, you can RSVP here so we know how much food to order:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrO3LJ5MKhQQEttv--_YA1NYMQpKLVLckTQAkGId9QgEPXDg/viewform?usp=sharing

Because our April meeting time falls on Holy Saturday (April 19th), the Oregon Trailblazers won't meet this month. Join us instead for the Easter Vigil at 7 PM. Bishop French will be there and it

In these turbulent times, I invite you to join me April 30 at 7pm for a conversation with Elizabeth Oldfield, author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. As an Anglican Christian, Oldfield offers a thoughtful, faithful, and deeply insightful guide to soulful living, helping us navigate the challenges of being fully human and  fully alive. With refreshing honesty and humanity, she shares the truths of her own journey—its blessings and struggles alike—offering wisdom that is both accessible and profoundly moving.

Elizabeth Oldfield hosts The Sacred podcast and is the former director and now senior fellow of the think tank Theos. She appears across the media, including BBC Radio and television, UnHerd, the Financial Times, and beyond. Oldfield is also a contributing editor at Comment magazine, chair of Larger Us, and a coach and consultant working with purpose-driven individuals and organizations.

In 1974, the first women were ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church. You can watch the acclaimed documentary on this pivotal event in our church's history at PBS from now until June. Here's a link if you want to watch on your computer, tablet, or phone: 

https://www.pbs.org/show/the-philadelphia-eleven/

You can also view it through the PBS app on your smart TV. 

Date & Time: May 3rd at 4pm

Location: Trinity Church, Princeton, NJ

It will be two times the beauty and two times the excitement when Voices Chorale NJ presents “Requiem x 2”. The concert will showcase two powerful musical settings of the requiem mass: the monumental Mozart Requiem, left incomplete by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791; and the Requiem by Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia, completed in 1816 and inspired by familiarity with Mozart’s masterpiece. Both works will be accompanied by the 21-piece Berks Sinfonietta orchestra.

Mozart tragically died before completing his Requiem, and this concert will feature a 1991 completion of the piece by brilliant musician and Julliard scholar Robert Levin. To help audience members better understand and appreciate the various completions of Mozart’s Requiem through history, a pre-concert talk will be presented by Dr. David McConnell, Voices Chorale NJ Artistic Director, at 3:15pm.

Both “Requiems” are dramatic and intensely moving compositions of choral art, and promise an unforgettable musical experience that will captivate and move the audience. Don’t miss this doubly-exciting concert experience!

With the growth of our Nights of Support in Princeton, Good Grief is now able to support more grieving children and families. We now offer peer support groups on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evenings.

With a new night added, we are looking for compassionate and kind volunteers who would like to become a peer support group facilitator. Our next facilitator training is May 2nd-4th at Good Grief in Princeton. Our facilitators make all the difference by creating a safe and caring environment where grieving children and their families can express themselves.

Interested individuals can contact volunteer@good-grief.org.