Worship and Study - St. Ann & the Holy Trinity

Worship

Family Church, 9:30 am followed by sunday school

Family Church at St. Ann’s is for folks and families on the go. The service is shorter than most Sunday services, and we do our best to make worship comfortable and fun for children. Family Church begins with the Word of God and ends with Holy Communion. Everyone is invited to the communion table. Come as you are!

The service is immediately followed by Sunday School in the Parish Hall, which ends at 11:00 am

rite ii HOLY EUCHARIST, 11:15 AM

Our more traditional service at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity features music accompanied on a landmark E.M. Skinner pipe organ. The Rite II liturgy from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer is dignified and accessible. Guest singers and musicians perform regularly at this service.

Wednesdays

HOLY EUCHARIST, 6:00 PM

This brief, informal Rite II liturgy with Communion includes a brief homily on the appointed scriptures and provides mid-week opportunity for quiet reflection and contemplation.

Weekdays

MORNING PRAYER, 8:30 AM

Join us via Zoom for this 20-minute service at the start of the day. The service is found on page 75 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Study

Bible studies, contemplative prayer, faith formation classes, book discussions, and group conversations around challenging issues offer opportunities to broaden and deepen Christian faith. These gatherings help us to explore and enhance our understanding of Jesus’ message and our relationship with God. Participation draws the community together and enriches our parish life. Everyone is invited to take part.

Wednesdays

BIBLE STUDY, 12:15 PM

Weekly Bible Studies bring a welcome midday break as we explore a passage of scripture that is an appointed reading for the following Sunday. We gather on Zoom for this informal 45-minute discussion. All who can are welcome and encouraged to join us.

Adult Education

Wednesday Online Bible Study, 12:15 pm

Weekly Bible Studies via Zoom bring a welcome midday break at 12:15 pm, as we explore a passage of scripture that is an appointed reading for the following Sunday. Join us for this informal 45-minute discussion. All are welcome.

Online Adult Education Offering

Gospel Parallels/Parallel Gospels

Join the Rev. Craig D. Townsend on the second Wednesday of each month, from September 13, 2023, to May 8, 2024, 7:00-8:00 pm, on Zoom, for the adult education offering, Gospel Parallels/Parallel Gospels. We’ll explore together why there are four different and differing gospels, and compare other accounts and portrayals of Jesus’ life and ministry – gnostic gospels, early orthodox writings, but also art, music, mystical commentaries and more – all to help us see what each of our own personal and parallel gospels look like. Who is Jesus to you?

A powerful way of doing a deep dive into the gospels is to look at them in comparison and connection to one another. Burton Throckmorton provided the best tool for the process: his book, Gospel Parallels, which puts Matthew, Mark and Luke in parallel columns on the page, first came out in 1949, making it to its fifth edition (and moving from the Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible to the New Revised Standard) in 1993. It is a standard seminary text.

Why only those three gospels? They are clearly closely connected. Most scholars believe that Matthew and Luke had their own copies of Mark and simply amplified it in their own ways, while John’s has a very different chronology and narrative purpose. Hence John’s parallels to the other three appear in footnotes, as do parallels from other first-century writings. Conspicuously absent, however, are the so-called “gnostic gospels,” the texts deemed heretical and lost for centuries until copies were found over the past hundred years. Yet also absent, for logistical if not other reasons, are the versions of gospel stories that have been told and retold in painting, sculpture and even architecture for two thousand years. And in music. And in sermons and essays and mystical writings and, and, and….

So get a copy of Burton Throckmorton’s book, Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels, New Revised Standard Version (here), and join Fr. Craig for this monthly conversation. More information and the reading schedule can be found on the series website. Please contact Fr. Craig at . if you wish to participate so that your name may be added to the Zoom access list.

Image: William Jay Bolton and John Bolton, The Ascension, stained glass window at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn (1845-48)

Racial Recognition, Reconciliation and Justice

The 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal adopted a resolution that called on all Episcopal congregations to explore whether they had a history of complicity in the institution of slavery and of deriving economic benefits from that institution. The Rev. Dr. Craig Townsend, St. Ann’s Associate for Faith Formation, spent the 2020-2021 academic year working with six students at Saint Ann’s School to research the ways in which the original St. Ann’s Church (founded in 1784, when slavery was still legal in New York) and Holy Trinity Church (founded in 1847, twenty years after slavery became illegal) was connected to slavery and slavery-driven economies. The group presented “History of Slavery at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church” to the parish via Zoom on Sunday, May 23, 2021, (the video is here). The final report is here, along with an informative map of sites in Brooklyn Heights that memorialize slaveowners,

The Diocese of Long Island has named Fr. Craig Townsend its Historian-in-Residence for Racial Justice. He is helping parishes in the diocese established before the Civil War who wish to study their early congregations’ involvement with slavery. While it is disturbing to learn the truth about our past as a congregation, knowing that truth should set us free to face it, address it, and carry it forward in our ongoing work for racial justice.