Occasionally, I walk the path to the left of the sanctuary, past the Friendship Garden and the bee hives to the back parking lot. It’s a lovely, short walk along that way: the enormity of the sanctuary is at my right and the lovely lawn at my left with bustling Providence Road just beyond. I think about all the bricks that make up that walkway; I observe the carefully curved tops of the brick walls around the patio and admire the exterior of our sanctuary and the other buildings that make up our church campus. I think about the hundreds of baptisms, weddings, funerals, confirmations, pastoral installations, session meetings, Sunday school classes, picnics and holy holidays each in its time unfolding in this place. At some point in time, there must have been a first brick among these. I wasn’t there that day, but I imagine it might not have been a ceremonial moment or the rough hand that placed it might not have considered the moment one for remembering but it was laid just the same and is probably sitting in the exactly the same spot today. Soon, we will have a commemorative day for thinking about that brick among the thousands that have housed our days of worship.
On February 4, 2018 a special Sunday is being planned. We are calling this commemorative day of worship “What Love Can Do.” Since 1951 our church’s congregation, leadership, clergy and even structure has daily transformed. In each week of ordinary time and holy days, with the constancy of liturgical calendar as our mainstay, the various inhabitants of this church have attempted to create a thoughtful and joyous place of worship and to impact our community with the goodness of God’s grace. Beyond the bricks, mortar, pews, nursery cribs, communion plates, altar clothes, organ pipes, window shutters, columns, and steeple high above the treetops, the people of Trinity Presbyterian Church have shared something ultimately more lasting and precious.
Maybe I wasn’t there that day that the first brick was set into place, but surely I was. God led you and me here and showed us the way to build in and from this place. Come and celebrate what path love has formed at 3115 Providence Road.
