Celebrating 100 Years Holy Trinity Honors Past As It Rebuilds Congregation

Hundreds of priests and lay people rallied around Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Wednesday night during an elaborate ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the oldest church building in Spokane.

As the heavy smell of incense wafted through the tidy Gothic building, a bagpipe procession, a choir and a dozen priests, deacons and acolytes in opulent robes led the worship service.

The celebration embodied Holy Trinity’s history as a “high church.” The colorful robes, rich music, incense and bells offer worshipers an experience that appeals to all five senses, said Bishop Jeff Terry.

While many Episcopalians prefer a less baroque form of worship, Terry said it is important to retain such “Anglo-Catholic” services for those who prefer them.

The congregation of Holy Trinity has been described as a mere remnant since a bitter split four months ago. At that time, the priest and more than 80 percent of the members left the Episcopal Church in favor of the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

Currently, about 50 people are on the rolls - a handful of them taking on the numerous volunteer jobs necessary to keep a church running.

Holy Trinity was founded by a small group of Episcopalians living on the North Side in 1890. The group had been attending a downtown church but wanted its own neighborhood parish.

With each of 37 charter members contributing $25, along with a $1,000 donation from the diocese, Holy Trinity was built in 1895 and consecrated Aug. 30 that same year.

Since then the congregation has added a parish hall, an office and a rectory.

To this day, the property is reminiscent of an English vicar’s residence, with orderly flower beds, winding pathways and a well-groomed lawn.

Terry has promised to provide the financial support necessary to keep the church running until the congregation can be regenerated.

“I don’t have any illusions that any of this stuff is easy,” Terry said.

The bishop envisions new members will be a mixture of people from the West Central Neighborhood drawn to the pretty little church on the corner and people from throughout the city drawn to the worship style.

“This parish cannot afford to spend too much of its time looking over its shoulder,” said the Rev. Earnest Mason during his sermon. “The road lies ahead. That’s the only road there is.”

Mason was the rector at Holy Trinity for most of his career, from 1938 to 1972. When he first arrived at the church on West Dean Avenue, the street wasn’t paved.

He taught the congregation to sing most of the service and to reach out to the surrounding neighborhood. He also was instrumental in starting the West Central Community Center.

During his tenure, West Central gradually transformed from a middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhood to one of primarily low-income residents.

“I love that parish and I’ve seen it shrivel up into a husk,” Mason said during an interview.

The remaining members will have to get out into the neighborhood once again, Mason told them Wednesday.

“They cannot sit inside these four walls and congratulate one another on the purity of their doctrine,” he said, “lest they lose touch with common life around them.”

A handful of members who voted to leave were on hand for the ceremony. They said they missed their old home, but were happy with their decision to change denominations.

“I got a little teary,” said Jane Polwarth. “I was married here, my kids were baptized here.”

The ceremony served as a reunion for many friends who had not seen each other since the split.

People on both sides will have a rugged journey in the months and years to come, said Kerry Kirking, an Episcopal deacon assigned to Holy Trinity since the breakup.

“They have to rebuild a physical property,” he said of the group that left. “We have to rebuild a congregation.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo