A Light in the Heart of Historic Concord
Trinity Episcopal Church sits at 81 Elm Street, just steps from the center of Concord, Massachusetts, the historic town settled by Puritans in 1635 where, for nearly two hundred years, the only church was First Parish. The Episcopalians did not arrive in Concord until 1854, and they did not lay their cornerstone on Elm Street until Ascension Day 1884. More than a century later, Trinity is an inclusive, intellectually curious parish known for its sung liturgy, its long-standing music program, and an outreach ministry that stretches from Concord to Rwanda.
The parish describes itself with care: "We are a congregation shaped by historic faith and oriented toward the future - a community where questions are welcome, diversity is celebrated, and every person is seen and valued." One parishioner put it simply during a recent listening session: "This place has life."
From a Stone Chapel in 1884 to a Belluschi Sanctuary in 1963
Trinity's story begins not with a building, but with a small group of families who had grown accustomed to Episcopal worship in larger cities and gathered in one another's homes in Concord. The first recorded Episcopal service in town took place in 1854, at the burial of an infant. For nearly thirty years the group met informally, occasionally inviting visiting clergy to lead their services.
In 1883 the Diocese of Massachusetts determined there was enough support to establish an Episcopal mission in Concord, and engaged the Rev. Edward A. Rand of Watertown to conduct regular services. The ladies of Trinity Mission raised money through donations and through Concord's first church fair, and architect John H. Chapman drew the plans for a small neo-gothic chapel. The cornerstone was laid on Ascension Day, 1884, watched by Bronson Alcott - father of Louisa May - from his carriage. Bishop Benjamin Paddock consecrated the chapel on January 3, 1885.
Trinity Mission became Trinity Parish on May 16, 1886, and was admitted into union with the Diocesan Convention in 1889. Over the next twenty years, four successive rectors won over skeptical neighbors. Adams Tolman wrote of the period: "This church has evidently filled a want. The congregation has grown and its ministers have done fine service in the town." By Christmas Eve 1900, the little stone church was lit by electricity; three years later the parish raised funds to purchase a rectory.
The twentieth century brought growth and growing pains. Under the Rev. Smith Owen Dexter, who served from 1907 to 1932, the parish weathered controversy over his stands for clemency in the Sacco and Vanzetti case and his participation in the Lowell textile mill strikes - all while building a parish house, installing a telephone, and buying a new organ. In 1941, Concord architect and parishioner Harry B. Little extended and refurnished the chancel, and the parish installed stained glass by Charles J. Connick, G. Owen Bonawit, and Wilbur Herbert Burnham.
By the late 1950s the congregation had outgrown the building. The Rev. William Clark and Bishop Malcolm Peabody guided the vestry to engage MIT architect Pietro Belluschi to design a new sanctuary. To make room, the old rectory on Elm Street was sold and physically moved across the Elm Street bridge to the corner of Wood and Main Streets. The resulting addition - a semi-modernistic building of simple lines and rough stone attached to the old chapel - was dedicated on October 6, 1963, and seats 450 people with the congregation surrounding the altar on three sides. Its defining centerpiece is György Kepes' great Chartres glass window representing the Trinity.
The decades that followed brought the first woman on the clergy staff, the long and stabilizing ministry of the Rev. David Barney from 1981 to 2001, and the LEED-certified Parish House commissioned by Bishop Alan Gates in 2015 with the charge to "wear it out" with activities. In 2001 an elevator reaching all five levels, along with multiple ramps inside and out, made the entire campus accessible. The Memorial Garden was established in 1994 for those who wish to be interred on the church grounds.
The Rev. Nancy Hagner became Trinity's twelfth rector in 2017. When the pandemic closed the buildings in 2020, she and long-time organist Robert Barney produced virtual music from isolation; services moved outdoors to the Elm Street porch; coffee hours went to Zoom; and the vestry authorized livestreaming, which has continued ever since.
Sunday Mornings at 8 and 10
Trinity celebrates the Holy Eucharist every Sunday using the Book of Common Prayer, in two distinct settings.
The 8:00 AM service is a quiet, spoken Eucharist held in the historic chapel at 81 Elm Street. There is no music; the liturgy is celebrated in its most intimate and contemplative form. During Advent and Lent this service uses Rite I, with the traditional language of the 1979 prayer book.
The 10:00 AM service is the principal Sunday liturgy, celebrated in Rite II with the full parish choir and organ. From September through May it fills the main church; in June, July, and August it moves to the chapel for the summer. Both services follow the same Eucharistic rite, the same appointed Scripture readings, and the same printed bulletin. The 10:00 AM service is livestreamed each Sunday on Trinity's YouTube channel so that those at home or traveling can join in real time.
The appointed Scripture readings follow the three-year Revised Common Lectionary used across the Episcopal Church. The liturgical year sets the rhythm: Advent in purple, the white and gold of Christmas, the green of Epiphany, the penitence of Lent, the rejoicing of the Great Fifty Days of Easter, and the long green season after Pentecost. Each season has its own collects, vestment colors, and choral textures.
The Three-Legged Stool of Anglican Identity
Trinity teaches the Episcopal understanding of authority as a "three-legged stool," a vivid image from the Anglican Divine Richard Hooker. Scripture, Tradition, and Reason work together; remove any one leg and the whole thing falls. The Bible is the supreme authority for faith and practice; the church's accumulated creeds, councils, sacraments, and customs give it context; and God-given reason allows Anglicans to apply both to every new age.
This posture shapes the congregation. Visitors at Trinity find a parish "intellectually curious," one that welcomes honest questioning. As the parish's leadership has written, "Episcopalians long for tradition, but recognize that growth only happens with considered change." Trinity identifies as a "Paraclete" community - shaped by the spirit of the Holy Spirit as helper and counselor - and takes seriously the ministry of healing in physical, emotional, and relational forms.
Six core values guide the parish as it lives out this identity: Learning in Faith and Relationship, the Presence of God, Conscious Community, Worship, Deep Care and Relationships, and God Through Music. These were named through a year of listening, conversation, and prayerful discernment, and they describe Trinity at its best.
The parish's welcome is unmistakable: "We welcome all people who seek the love of God, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or age." Trinity is also an affirming community that welcomes all beloved children of God regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, age, or background.
Music at the Heart of Trinity
Music has been central to Trinity's worship since 1887. The parish choir, more than twenty singers strong, sings at every Sunday 10:00 AM service from September through May, as well as at Christmas, Lessons and Carols, Holy Week, Easter, Choral Evensong services, and funerals. The Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, installed in the new sanctuary in 1961, anchors the music.
For more than thirty years the program has been led by Director of Music Robert Barney, who has built and sustained one of the finest parish music programs in the Diocese of Massachusetts. Trinity's choirs rehearse weekly following the Royal School of Church Music curriculum, weaving together vocal technique, music reading, liturgy, and the history and theology of the church. The Parish Choir especially seeks new singers - basses and tenors in particular - and welcomes altos and sopranos as well.
Children have a deep seat at the table. The Youth Choir leads music at All-In Sunday services and at Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter, and has offered its own Choral Evensong. The Junior Choir, a newer ensemble, made its first appearance in worship on All Saints Sunday and continues to grow. And Trinity now has a Handbell Choir, made possible by the gift of handbells from Al and Juanita Healy and directed by Juanita Healy.
The Young Singers program, based on the Royal School of Church Music model, is open to students in grades 2 through 10. The younger singers and older singers rehearse on Thursday afternoons and present music at the 10:00 AM service on the first Sunday of each month, as well as at special services throughout the year. Trinity's collection of instruments also includes three grand pianos - a Steinway in the choir room, a Baldwin in the main church, and a Yamaha in the Parish Hall - and a Yamaha upright in the undercroft. A small chapel pipe organ serves funerals and summer worship.
Trinity is also a musical home for the wider Concord community. The Concord Women's Chorus and the Concord Chorus rehearse in Trinity's spaces, and the folk and traditional ensemble Roaring Jelly calls the parish home. A recent Choral Evensong brought together choirs from First Parish, TriCon, West Concord Union, and Holy Family Parish.
Marking the Moments of a Life
The Episcopal Church recognizes two "great sacraments ordained by Christ" - Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist - and five additional sacramental rites: Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Reconciliation of a Penitent, Unction, and Holy Orders. Trinity celebrates each one with care, reverence, and joy.
Holy Baptism is full initiation into the Body of Christ through water and the Holy Spirit. The Book of Common Prayer teaches that Baptism is a once-for-all rite, and the whole congregation welcomes the newly baptized as witnesses and sponsors. Trinity celebrates Baptisms on the Great Vigil of Easter, Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday, and the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, as well as by special arrangement.
Confirmation is the moment a mature believer affirms their baptismal vows before the Bishop and receives the laying on of hands. It is the rite through which Christians from other traditions are formally received into the Episcopal Church. Confirmation is administered by the Bishop during a pastoral visit to the parish.
Holy Matrimony is a public covenant made in the presence of God, the priest, and the gathered community. The Book of Common Prayer includes liturgies for both traditional marriage and the blessing of same-sex unions. Couples meet with the clergy for pre-marital preparation and to plan the service in Trinity's main church or chapel.
The Burial of the Dead is, in the Episcopal tradition, an act of Christian worship as much as a rite of farewell. Services may be held in the main church or chapel, and Trinity maintains a Memorial Garden for those who wish to be interred on the grounds.
Reconciliation of a Penitent, or private confession, is available to all, required of none. The Book of Common Prayer famously puts it: "all may, none must, some should." Unction, the anointing of the sick with oil and the laying on of hands, is offered at the altar rail on the first Sunday of each month during the 10:00 AM service. The Healing Prayer Ministry, in its seventeenth year, also gathers on the first and third Thursday evenings for prayer and reflection.
Growing in Faith at Every Age
Trinity's Interim Minister for Youth and Families, Dr. Brian Litzenberger, oversees formation programs that walk alongside spiritual journeys at every stage.
Infants and toddlers through age three are cared for in the nursery during the 10:00 AM service by two adult, Safe Church-certified caregivers in a cheerful, professionally cleaned space. The worship service is livestreamed on a flat-screen TV in the nursery for parents who wish to stay close to their child, and parents are always welcome to come upstairs for Communion.
Children from kindergarten through fifth grade meet for Church School on the second, third, and fourth Sundays of each month at 10:00 AM in the undercroft, using the Godly Play curriculum - a Montessori-inspired approach that honors children as naturally spiritual beings, already in relationship with God. Two classrooms, divided by age, gather around handcrafted wooden figures and three-dimensional materials to encounter parables, Old and New Testament narratives, and the seasons of the church year, and then to wonder together about what the stories mean.
On the first Sunday of every month, children join the full liturgy upstairs, serving as readers, acolytes, ushers, or choir members. On the remaining Sundays, children come upstairs before Communion to rejoin their families. The annual Christmas Pageant, with angels, shepherds, magi, and the Holy Family played by children and youth of all ages, fills the sanctuary with laughter and delight.
Middle and high school students gather monthly for Youth Group, a lively mix of fellowship, service projects, and honest conversation about faith and life. The Confirmation class meets over several months covering Anglican theology, the sacraments, church history, and what it means to live a life shaped by faith.
Adults have multiple paths to go deeper. Sunday Forums, held most Sundays at 9:00 AM between the two morning services, gather in the Parish Hall for presentations and conversations on topics ranging from theology and history to social justice and the pressing questions of our time. Wednesday Noonday Prayer is offered via Zoom at noon. Small group Bible studies form and re-form around the lectionary or a particular book of scripture.
A Parish That Loves to Eat Together
"We are a community that loves to cook, to eat, and to feed one another." Fellowship at Trinity is built one shared meal, one celebration, and one new friendship at a time.
After every 10:00 AM Sunday service, coffee hour gathers in the Parish Hall - often described as the simplest and most important fellowship the parish offers, the place where visitors become members and members become friends. A full calendar of parish-wide events fills the year: the Epiphany Dinner in early January; the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper on the eve of Ash Wednesday; summer BBQs and cookouts when the New England weather cooperates; and newcomers' lunches for those still learning their way around.
The annual Pie Party and Hymn Sing pairs favorite hymns with homemade pie in one of Trinity's most beloved traditions. The Build-a-Bed event brings fellowship and outreach together in a single morning, with volunteers of all ages assembling beds for children who would otherwise sleep on the floor.
Faith in Action: From Concord to Rwanda
Trinity's Outreach Committee directs financial support and hands-on engagement toward organizations addressing homelessness, food insecurity, and educational inequity - locally, across the Diocese, and internationally. The parish distributes tens of thousands of dollars each year across food, housing, education, and international organizations.
Locally, the parish supports Gaining Ground, a Concord farm that grows produce for local meal programs and food pantries, and volunteers join the annual Gaining Ground volunteer day. Trinity makes regular donations to the Acton Food Pantry and the Bedford Food Bank and supports Open Table, which runs pantry and meal programs across Concord and twenty-two surrounding communities.
Through the Diocese, the parish supports Pine Street Inn, New England's largest homeless services provider; St. Stephen's Boston and its youth programs; Concord Prison Outreach, one of Trinity's longest-standing partners, which has supported incarcerated people across Massachusetts since the late 1960s; and the MANNA program at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, for which Trinity volunteers provide lunch one Sunday each month. Each year, the parish assembles beds through Build-A-Bed, a program of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, and supports the Sewing Seeds for Hope cooperative and other Afghan evacuee programs in Lowell and New Hampshire.
Internationally, Trinity has supported the Maranyundo Girls School in Nyamata, Rwanda, through the annual Lenten Mite Box collection, providing laptops for graduating students and scholarship tuitions. The parish also partners with the Creative Life Foundation, headquartered in Concord and working in Thailand to connect vulnerable children and families to education, holistic care, and a path to citizenship.
Vision 150: A Roadmap to the Parish's 150th Anniversary
Through the Congregation Assessment Tool, parish listening sessions, and strategic planning retreats, more than 200 parishioners helped shape a new plan called Vision 150 to carry Trinity toward its 150th anniversary in 2035.
The plan centers on four commitments: Welcome, Clarity of Identity, Attract and Adapt for Families, and Trust Building. Strategic Target Groups around each are refining and pursuing concrete goals. A "Bridge Assistant / Associate Rector" role has been designed to provide liturgical and pastoral support during this season so that the next rector will have a partner to show them where things are and introduce them to the congregation.
Across all this work, the parish holds to its vision: "Trinity Concord will be a welcoming, inclusive community of faith grounded in the Episcopal tradition that looks to the future where Christ's transformational love inspires every generation to care for one another and serve the wider world."
An Interim Rector and a Skilled Staff
The Rev. Jodi L. Baron serves as Interim Rector, walking alongside the congregation through a season of transition. Ordained in 2014, she brings broad experience from rural and urban parishes and service on a bishop's staff, a Master of Divinity from the Seminary of the Southwest, and a B.A. in Sociology from Grand Valley State University.
Robert Barney has shaped Trinity's music program for more than thirty years. Dr. Brian Litzenberger brings deep experience in Christian education and youth ministry, nurturing Sunday school, confirmation, and youth programming with creativity and pastoral care for young families. The parish is also served by a dedicated vestry, with David Weiss as Senior Warden, Rod Hossfeld as Junior Warden, Andrew Brown as Treasurer, and John Petrie as Clerk, along with elected delegates to the Diocesan Convention.
The Buildings and Accessibility
Trinity's campus at 81 Elm Street centers on the Belluschi sanctuary, with the original 1884 stone chapel alongside it as the "chapel" - the site of the early-morning service, summer 10:00 AM service, smaller weddings, and funerals. The LEED-certified Parish House, completed in 2015, houses many of Trinity's ministries and serves as the gathering place for Sunday coffee hour. The undercroft beneath the church contains rooms for Sunday school and small group meetings.
Trinity's buildings and all spaces are fully accessible, including bathrooms. An elevator reaches all five levels of the facility, and multiple ramps inside and out enable everyone to participate. Two small parking lots, one on River Street and one behind the church on Main Street, are handicap accessible; street parking is also available on Elm and River Streets.
What to Expect on Your First Visit
All are welcome at Trinity - whoever you are, whether you are a lifelong Episcopalian, new to faith, or simply searching for a spiritual home. The parish asks that visitors come as they are.
Services are held at 8:00 AM in the historic chapel and at 10:00 AM in the main church (or in the chapel in June, July, and August). Both are Holy Eucharist, Rite II; the 8:00 AM uses Rite I during Advent and Lent. Nursery care is provided at the 10:00 AM service for children under the age of four.
There is a lot of standing, sitting, and kneeling in Episcopal worship, but the bulletin guides you through each step. You will never be lost for long. Near the middle of the service, the congregation exchanges the Peace. All baptized Christians are welcome to receive the bread and wine of Holy Communion; those who prefer a blessing may cross their arms over their chest. Coffee hour follows the 10:00 AM service in the Parish Hall - the best place to meet your neighbor.
The parish office is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Visitors can leave their car in one of the two handicap-accessible lots behind the church on Main Street or on River Street, or find street parking on Elm and River. Trinity encourages visitors to arrive about fifteen minutes before the service to secure a spot.
A Place at the Table
Trinity has been a place of Episcopal worship in Concord for more than 140 years, but the parish is not primarily about preserving its history. It is about living out, today, the conviction that Christ's transformational love inspires every generation to care for one another and serve the wider world. The stone chapel on Elm Street, the Belluschi sanctuary beside it, the music that has filled this place for more than a century, the food pantry volunteers and the choir singers, the children in the undercroft, the youth at All-In Sunday, the prayer for the future - all of it points to the same truth the parish repeats in its vision statement: "Trinity Concord will be a welcoming, inclusive community of faith grounded in the Episcopal tradition that looks to the future where Christ's transformational love inspires every generation to care for one another and serve the wider world."