Would you care to chant Morning Prayer? Behold, your heart’s wish can be answered every day at Trinity, except Sunday when you are offered an early spoken service at 8:00 or a full on 10:00 Eucharist with a gifted choir, masterful organ and a gong struck once to lift prayer up and out to float to the skies. On two Sunday evenings you will find a quiet prayer service; on first Sundays it is possible to take part in a Contemplative Eucharist. Third Sundays, the Celtic Team offers up a hushed hour of flickering candles, free-form Irish harp, lilting melodies for piano and all voices, wide-ranging readings, and a meditative reflection.
The Thursday Eucharist at noon draws people looking for healing, body and soul. Dawn to dark, the Trinity Garden is open to anyone seeking to be embraced by the greenery and open air of creation while sitting near a quietly burbling fountain or walking with God along the meditative paths of the labyrinth. Trinity, Ashland rejoices in the varieties of worship made available to our parish and our entire community. We also sew, shelter, study and trek. We listen, feed, gift and party for outreach. Hands and feet, mind and spirit.
God has been praised in this smallish church since 1895, long enough for Trinity Episcopal Church to find its way onto the National Register of Historic Places. We knew we had a marble font hand carved by a multi-tasking Senior Warden in 1905, but this summer we had the rare pleasure of unearthing a bit more of our past when the Trinity bell (not terribly large) was lowered by a crane (incredibly huge). It was crated and sent off to Indiana for refurbishing. The original wood rocker cradle, splintered and rotted was retired and the bell outfitted with a sturdy, steel rocker. We, indeed, the whole town, now rest easy knowing that our bell (not that small) will not someday spill from the belfry and crash to the ground. Thanks to the inscription, we also know that the bell has been ringing over Ashland since 1899. It was the gift of “Mrs. Elizabeth A. Smith” who in addition to her name had the bell inscribed: “Our help standeth in the Name of the Lord.” Trinity Episcopal, the only church in Ashland continuing as it started, the same denomination in the original building, anticipates standing, ringing, singing and doing for another one hundred and twenty-two years.
Visit the Trinity, Ashland website.
