A Welcome Place at the Edge of Two Neighborhoods
Trinity Lutheran Church stands at 31-18 37th Street, on the line where Long Island City meets Astoria in the borough of Queens. For more than 130 years the congregation has been a steady neighbor to generations of families, and the building itself - a one-story Collegiate Gothic landmark completed in 1926 - has watched the streetscape change from German-immigrant row houses to one of the most diverse ZIP codes in New York City. Trinity calls itself the Welcome Place, and the word runs through almost everything the church does, from its open communion table to its bilingual Bible studies, from its food pantry to its long-running backpack drive.
Today Trinity is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a member of the Metropolitan New York Synod. It is a Reconciling Works church, a Sower Congregation with Lutheran Ministries in Higher Education, a partner congregation with the Martin Luther School of Maspeth, and an AMMPARO congregation of the Metro NY Synod, supporting immigrant children in detention. People worship and serve here from Tanzania, Poland, Sierra Leone, Spain, Peru, Germany, Hungary, China, Israel, India, Egypt, Panama, Guyana, and Colombia, alongside those born and raised in Astoria and Long Island City. Pastor Paul B. Milholland, who has led the church since May of 2010, sums up the parish this way: "Being a part of Trinity is about being in relationships - with God and with each other. I love the rich diversity of our congregational family."
Inside a 1926 Neo-Gothic Sanctuary
The main worship building was designed by John William Cresswell Corbusier and built under the supervision of architect George W. Conable. Completed in 1926, it is constructed of brick faced with coursed rubble aplite and trimmed in cast stone. The front elevation features a recessed entry with a large window above, framed by two spires with ornate turrets, and the interior follows a Gothic plan of nave and transepts. In 2008 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Tucked inside the balcony is a 1927 Skinner pipe organ, still operational and still used every Sunday. The balcony also houses the handbell choirs, and from up there choristers ring down into the nave during the liturgy. The church's other great natural feature sits just outside: a working garden planted and tended by member John Simmons. In addition to trees and flowers, the garden produces strawberries, raspberries, corn, and pumpkins, all of which find their way into congregational life.
What a First-Time Visitor Finds on Sunday
Sunday is the center of life at Trinity, and the rhythm of the day is easy to follow. Sunday School gathers at 9:30 a.m. for children ages four through twelve, taught by two adults each week and using the Gospel Project curriculum by Lifeway, which starts at the Creation story and walks through the Bible with animated videos, songs, and activities. The class is hybrid, offered in person and over Zoom at the same time, so students log in from other states and even other countries. Sunday School is on hiatus during the summer.
In-person worship begins at 10:30 a.m. The service includes singing, the sharing of the peace, spoken and silent prayer, a confession of sin and announcement of forgiveness, readings from the Old and New Testaments, a sermon, and the celebration of Holy Communion, in which all are welcome. Each week includes a Children's Sermon, a time when Pastor Paul gathers the children at the front of the nave to talk about that week's Bible story. There is an offering and a "Thank you, Lord" moment when worshipers share the gratitude they have brought with them.
For those who cannot make it in person, a second worship gathering meets on Zoom at 12:15 p.m. The service follows the same order as the in-person liturgy, with music and sermon, and is also livestreamed. The Christmas season brings a midnight service, and Easter brings the Passion. The words of the liturgy make the heart of the day plain: "In Worship we encounter the Living God, who addresses each of us personally and all of us together to say - I LOVE YOU! I KNOW YOUR PAIN. I DIED FOR YOU! I AM NOT DEAD BUT ALIVE! I AM ALIVE FOR YOU! I LIVE IN YOU! LET'S CELEBRATE LIFE TOGETHER!"
Throughout the year, the handbell choirs rehearse in the balcony each Sunday, and the Children's Handbell Choir, made up of elementary-age ringers, rehearses at 12:15 p.m. and provides a musical selection during worship once a month.
Children, Confirmation, and First Communion
Children are woven into the life of the church at every step. In addition to Sunday School and the Children's Sermon, Trinity offers Confirmation classes on Zoom, meeting weekly with Pastor Paul and a team of instructors. The curriculum centers on "Baptized, We Live: Lutheranism as a Way of Life" by Daniel Erlander, with frequent reference to Luther's Small Catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, and the Bible. Confirmands are encouraged to take on roles in worship - crucifer, intercessor, lector, usher, and chalice bearer - and the Confirmation ceremony is held on Pentecost.
There is also a First Communion class. Each Sunday every child is given a wafer by Pastor Paul during communion with the words, "This is the Bread of Life for you, to know that you are loved by God forever." When a parent feels ready, usually in first or second grade, the child is registered for a two-week class with Pastor Paul and other instructors, using the book "A Place for You" along with other techniques. A parent or guardian is required to attend. After the instruction, First Holy Communion is celebrated on a particular Sunday.
Baptism is conducted during the Sunday morning service, with parents and godparents promising to raise the child in the faith and the Trinity. Older youth have a national gathering to look forward to as well: Trinity sends its young people to the ELCA Youth Gathering, joining thousands of other ELCA youth for a week of faith formation and service.
For younger members of the parish, Trinity is also home to Troop 70 and Pack 90 of Scouting America, which meet in the church basement on Thursday evenings.
Three Deacons, One Pastor, and a New Director of Music
The church's ministry is shaped by a small and deeply rooted staff.
Pastor Paul B. Milholland became Trinity's spiritual leader in May of 2010. A North Carolina native and the son of a Lutheran minister, he preaches and leads worship, coordinates strategic planning, teaches Bible study, provides pastoral care and counseling, performs weddings and funerals, and supervises the staff. He previously served parishes in North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida, and was pastor of a Lutheran church in Suffolk County, New York for eight and a half years. He was educated at Lenoir-Rhyne College (B.A.) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (M.Div.), and completed Clinical Pastoral Education at the Lutheran Medical Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He lives with his husband, Juan C. Milholland, in the rectory just behind the church on 37th Street, where pastoral counseling, Making Peace with Your Past meetings, membership classes, and Wine and Cheese conversations all take place. In the wider church, Pastor Paul teaches in the diakonia program, a lay ministry program of the denomination, where he leads courses on the Old Testament, Lutheran Confessions, and Christian Doctrine.
Deacon Roberta Detmers leads the Shepherding Ministry. A lifelong Lutheran who grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, she came to Trinity in October of 2018 and was installed as a Synodical Deacon on Pentecost Sunday, June 9, 2019. She is also coordinator of the Queens Growing in Faith diakonia program.
Deacon Rob Sinanan focuses on Children's Education, with the goal of encouraging all ages into a relationship with a risen Lord. "Child of GOD by Love. Christian by Faith. Lutheran by Choice," he writes of his call.
Deacon Gwen Miller leads the Prayer and Care Ministry along with Community Outreach. A Brooklyn native who transplanted to Queens in the late 1970s, she calls herself "The Prodigal Daughter" and traces her return to faith to conversations with God in her darkest moments. She coordinates the Monday Prayer Call-In and the monthly Blessings and Brunch Call-In, and partners with Trinity's Director of Outreach on the church's wider work in the neighborhood. Outside the church she serves on the board of the Briarwood/Kew Gardens Lions Club.
Luisana Santana is Trinity's Director of Outreach, organizing the food pantry, the backpack and school supplies drives, the Blessing of the Backpacks, Bags of Hope, the cultural diversity celebration, and the many street-level partnerships the church has built with local agencies.
Nicholas Suminski became Trinity's Director of Music in March of 2026, following the retirement of William Easterling, who had led the choir and played the organ for more than eighteen years. Richard Walker continues to direct the handbell choirs, with both adult and children's groups.
A Lutheran Faith Centered on Grace
Trinity's teaching is rooted in the Lutheran confession, summarized by the church in plain terms. Lutherans are realists about human sin: "those things we do that make our conscience bother us." The church teaches that sin separates people from God and that God sent Jesus - 100% God and 100% human - to reconnect them, through his life, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead. The Holy Spirit empowers the new life that follows. The phrase at the center of the church's life is "saved by grace through faith," which Pastor Paul glosses as God's Riches at Christ's Expense. Forgiveness is the doorway: "Forgiven and restored to a right relationship with the Father, we become aware that we are loved, unconditionally, and that awareness frees us to love."
Trinity makes room for doubt. "Martin Luther had doubts in his life too," the congregation teaches. "He said wrestling with God and what you believe is an act of faith itself." The Bible, the church says, is full of people who questioned God, and the parish invites reflection, questions, prayer, and conversation as people work out their own relationship with a living God.
On Reformation Sunday, Pastor Paul often returns to the theme of "musts," the rules and expectations that press in on modern life. "With God, there is no MUST," he preaches. "FOR IT IS DONE FOR US IN JESUS CHRIST. IT IS GOD'S LOVE." It is the heart of what it means to be a Lutheran Christian at Trinity: trusting in God's love given in the death and resurrection of Jesus, with no strings attached.
Pastoral Care, Prayer, and a Monday Night Call-In
The Shepherding Ministry, run by Deacon Roberta, walks alongside members through life's ordinary and extraordinary passages, while Prayer Care, under Deacon Gwen, keeps the whole congregation linked through prayer. A weekly Prayer Call-In meets on Monday evenings at 8:00 p.m., and a Blessings and Brunch Call-In gathers on the last Saturday of each month at 11:00 a.m. Both are dial-in opportunities for those who cannot be in the nave. One-on-one prayer requests can be sent in by email.
Pastor Paul teaches the Making Peace with Your Past program, a recovery group for adult children of dysfunctional families. The program has become one of the most significant pastoral offerings at Trinity, and Pastor Paul often tells the story of how a Southern Baptist female ordained pastor, a study partner from his time at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia, first pressed the book into his hands and warned him that preaching unconditional love would never amount to much for those who had never experienced love. The program has shaped his ministry ever since.
The church also partners with Lutheran Counseling Services of New York for counseling referrals, and provides space for AA and other recovery groups to meet in the building.
The Food Pantry, the Backpacks, and the Wider Outreach
Food Pantry and Pet Food Pantry
The Trinity Food Pantry operates on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., serving neighbors in need of groceries and personal care items. There is also a Pet Food Pantry, accepting canned and dry pet food, kitty litter, and similar supplies. The pantry is staffed by volunteers and is open to anyone in the community; appointments can be made by email or by phone.
Backpack Drive, School Supplies, and Bags of Hope
Each August, the parish runs a School Supplies Drive that culminates in the Blessing of the Backpacks on a Sunday before the school year begins. Trinity fills and delivers dozens of backpacks, sharing them with Riverside Immigration Services, with Hour Children in Astoria (a program that houses and supports mothers recently released from incarceration), and with the children of families served by the food pantry. In one recent year, Trinity packed more than fifty backpacks for immigrant children in a local detention center, working through the Metro New York Synod's youth ministry for kids ages seven to seventeen.
Bags of Hope is a joint project with the local Kiwanis Club. The need it addresses is simple: many foster children carry their belongings in trash bags as they move from home to home. Trinity collects new or gently used duffle bags and carry-on bags, and members can purchase from a wish list on Amazon. The project typically runs from April through the end of May.
Partners in the City and Beyond
Other outreach efforts include street fair presence, voting literacy work, lineage research, and partnerships with Lutheran Disaster Response, Lutheran Ministries in Higher Education, Restore NYC, and Seafarer and International House, which provides chaplaincy services to international seafarers in port. Trinity's "mother parish" is Trinity Lutheran Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, home to services and food for the homeless.
The church's own motto captures the spirit: "God's Work. Our Hands." Giving is available online through the church's secure giving portal.
Music at the Balcony and on the Page
Music is woven through Sunday worship. The Skinner pipe organ anchors the liturgy, and the adult choir, the children's choir, and two handbell choirs add their voices. Soloists and section leaders, including soprano Laura Ethington, have performed a wide range of choral literature, from Renaissance masses to works by Arvo Part and John Adams. The Advent and Christmas seasons bring special performances, both in person and through the livestream, drawing on Trinity's choral section leaders and guest musicians like bell ringer Natalia Paruz, baritone Bryan DeParsia, and tenor John Easterlin.
Studies, Groups, and Conversation
Trinity offers a range of weekly and seasonal studies. Pastor's Bible Study meets on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom, currently on hiatus, and works through the books of the Bible one at a time. The Women of the Bible study, started by a member who felt called to lift up the women in scripture, has become a fixture of the church's life. There is also a Wine and Cheese Book Study, a Conversacion Biblica en Espanol, and a Spanish as a Second Language class.
Other ongoing groups include WTG: Women Together in Grace, the Asian Affinity Group, Trinity Creative Collaborative, the Men's group, and the Shepherding Program. Fellowship happens the second and fourth Sundays of each month, and a congregational retreat is held each year.
Scouts, the Astoria Choir, and a Busy Basement
Trinity shares its building with several community organizations. The Astoria Choir uses the space for its rehearsals and performances, and Trinity is also the proud home of Troop 70 and Pack 90 of Scouting America, which meet on Thursday evenings. The building's street-level Community Room hosts a range of public events, including a Fraud Prevention and Scam Workshop led by Deacon Gwen's Imagining Outreach committee, addressing cyber attacks, phishing schemes, hacking, and identity theft. Participants learn to identify, prevent, and recover from common scams.
Renting the Sanctuary
The Neo-Gothic building is available for rent. Outside groups can use the nave and the basement for recitals, TV or film recording, art shows, birthday parties, weddings, receptions, and other events, with the church asking at least two months' notice and proof of liability insurance for outside events. A wedding ceremony in the sanctuary requires the involvement of Trinity's pastor.
Reaching Trinity
The church office is open by appointment, reachable at 718-278-0036 or by email. The building is on 37th Street between 31st Avenue and Astoria Boulevard, an easy walk from the Astoria area's transit. Worship is offered in person and on Zoom, with the livestream also available. The food pantry is open the second and fourth Wednesday afternoons, prayer call-ins happen on Monday evenings, and the Blessings and Brunch call-in gathers the last Saturday of each month. Sunday School for children begins at 9:30 a.m., in-person worship at 10:30 a.m., and Zoom worship at 12:15 p.m.
All are welcome - "no matter race, ethnicity, language, national origin, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, emotional, mental or physical challenges, developmental or learning differences, personal history, economic status, or how much, or how little, you know about Jesus or the Bible."