1 ene 1947 año - Trinity, Castine
Descripción:
Before there were any churches in Castine, when the British occupied Fort George there, an acting chaplain at the fort, held Anglican services every Sunday. The occupation ended in 1784, and eighty years would elapse before the Book of Common Prayer would again be heard read. In the 1890’s services were being held in several homes in town, and when summer residents increased the number of attenders, they were held in a room at the Eastern State Normal School building. The driving force for building a church rests in three women: Mary Hooke, of Castine, and Frances Wey and Caroline Schenck, from Philadelphia. They raised money for a building, and Caroline Schenck, an architect, designed the arts and craft stone building. The land at the corner of Tarratine St. and Perkins St. was obtained, though it is not clear if it was donated or purchased. The stones were donated by William Porter of Chicago from his summer estate just outside of town.
On July 1, 1900, the first service was held in what was then Trinity Chapel. The Rev. C. J. Ketchum, assistant minister at St. Paul’s Church in Boston, officiated. The Castine Chapel Record Book No. 1 notes that “a considerable congregation as present,” and that, “Those who built the chapel were most happy at the consummation, after eight years of waiting, work and prayer.”
The building was unheated and so was used as a summer chapel for more than half a century. Clergy were recruited every year by offering a place to stay for the summer in return for serving in the church.
The chapel was formally consecrated by the Bishop of Maine, the Right Rev. Oliver Leland Loring in 1942; in 1956 it was authorized to winterize the building and become a year-round church. Instrumental in this phase of the church, was Bishop William Scarlett, formerly Bishop of Missouri. He gave his services in the winter and found clergy for the summer months.
For a brief time in the 1960’s the church joined with both the Unitarian church and the Trinitarian church in the Interchurch Parish of Castine (ICP), under Bishop Scarlett’s direction. That body sought to hire one minister to serve all three churches, largely as both an ecumenical effort and as a way to conserve fuel by heating only one church each week. Because of the Episcopal liturgy and the necessity of holding communion once a month celebrated by a priest, Trinity withdrew from the ICP within the first few years of its existence.
From 1973 to 1975 the congregation of Trinity was connected with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Bucksport, first lead by the Rev. Robert DeWolfe and then by the Rev. David Plank. When the Bucksport church closed, Castine was connected with St. Brendan the Navigator in Stonington. Then Trinity was made part of a “cluster” including St. Brendan’s and St. Frances’s in Blue Hill, for a time. In 1982 all the churches in Castine put forth the idea of using one building in the winter with all the congregations sharing the expenses. The services for the winter of 1983 were conducted at Maine Maritime Academy; the Episcopalians moved their electric organ there for everyone to use.
The Trinity congregation had been wanting to expand and add a parish hall to their building. Finances had improved, and in 1994, having sold an adjacent lot, and being led by the new vicar, James Whittemore, the building was begun. It included a kitchen, offices, lavatories, space for a child care center and an elevator to welcome the disabled.
The people of Trinity have been very generous over the years, supporting such causes as the sister Haiti Diocese, H.O.M.E., Habitat for Humanity, the Zoe project, Emmaus in Ellsworth, and Tree of Life in Blue Hill. The church has also supported two seminarians from the congregation; one, Catherine Amy Kropp, has just been ordained into the priesthood, and a second one, Douglas Beck, will be ordained late this summer. As the seasons change, the people of Trinity Church, Castine, welcome all their summer members and visitors, and settle in for the smaller, but just as vital, winter.
Añadido al timeline:
Diocese of Maine Bicentennial
fecha:
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