Worship Planned By Committee
The Worship Committee plays a central role in the life and values of the Church of the Holy Trinity. The committee is made up of volunteers from the congregation and the priest on staff.
The Worship Committee is responsible for all aspects of the community’s main worship (10:30 a.m. Sundays) including the development of texts for various events (e.g. Eucharist, baptisms, holy unions, funerals, confirmations), the development and review of policies related to worship, its annual budget, the recruitment of coordination of Sunday services by members of the congregation, and the ongoing training of parishioners for various roles in worship. The Worship Committee has sponsored and issued the service booklet used in the Sunday services containing various Eucharistic prayers, music, and other materials.
The committee meets regularly to review recent services and develop ways to improve worship services. It discusses larger issues related to worship (e.g. expanding the role of silence in services, ways of critiquing services and sermons, how to involve children and young people, inclusive language, ways of highlighting certain themes or issues facing the congregation). At Holy Trinity, leadership of worship and preaching ministries are shared with members of the congregation, several of whom are ordained and many more of whom have graduate degrees in theology. Our regular worship activities include our Sunday 10:30am Eucharist for our membership, and a mid-week Eucharist at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesdays attracts some downtown business people as well as parish members.
Inclusive and Inquiring
Our worship is active and shared. We seek to make the weekly liturgy reflect who we are as a community. Holy Trinity has a history of pushing the space of worship to be reflective of our common time- seeking racial and gender equitable language in prayer, giving greater justice dimensions to the Eucharist and other celebrations, advocating for climate justice, the rights of women, 2SLGBTQ+ and HIV+ peoples to marry, become ordained and celebrate their faith fully. In short, we seek to address the struggles and questions of today in our services.
In addition to grappling with who is left out of our liturgy, we have also made a great effort to include the music and arts in different ways during our celebrations, uncovering what is emerging in our worship. You can see this in our flowering and procession of the cross at Easter, in our contemporary altar frontals, and in our hymns – many of which have been written by members of our community over time. We hope to soon restart a process of liturgical innovation and renewal.
Sample bulletins
- Baptism of Jesus 2020 – Called by Name
- Advent 4, 2018 – Midwives of Loving Justice
- Reign of Christ, 2017 – What do we do with the King of kings?
- Pride Sunday, 2016 – More Pride
- Picnic 2015 – Unsettling the Settler
- Feb 2015 – O, O Freedom
Lay Leadership
One of the most beautiful parts of worship at Holy Trinity is that it is an involved and community created service. Everyone can participate at a level that is appropriate to them, from serving communion, to offering song, prayer or intention to the service, or giving the homily. Our worship committee works to bring people into their potential as full participants of Church and to break down the barriers preventing new voices and ideas from coming forward.
This is part of our commitment and mission to develop lay leaders for both our community and beyond. We would like to continue to work and experiment with how this can be done in more thoughtful ways, and how our committee could offer further support to those who would like to offer their gifts in worship.
Fallen Angles
Holy Trinity’s house band is formed of community members. Fallen Angles lead music during worship once a month. The musical backgrounds of the members are varied and so is the material they tackle. Their current line-up includes a rhythm guitar, banjo, flute, shaker and singers. They keep things fun and lively and are open to new players if anyone wishes to join in.
Yes, it really is Angles, not Angels. It’s a bit of a joke on the frequent misspelling of angels and also on the root of the word Anglican.
San Esteban
Holy Trinity is home to the Spanish-speaking congregation of San Esteban. They currently hold weekly services at 2 p.m. Sunday, but we hold joint services at certain holidays throughout the year. Our two congregations are separate from one another in terms of day to day governance and leadership, yet are part of the same Parish. This was accomplished through our ‘En Amistad’ (In Friendship) agreement that brought us into relationship 15 years ago. San Esteban is host to several ministries including a ESL language class for newcomers, TransEsteban which is a community gathering for Latinx Trans people, and special pastoral care for refugee and undocumented community members across the GTA. We hope to continue to grow with San Esteban, to renew and revitalize our En Amistad pledge through further participation in shared liturgy and ministry as we go forward.
Second Breath Contemplative Prayer
Second Breath is a ministry of Holy Trinity that meets every Friday from 12:15 to 1pm for Christian contemplative prayer practice. Up to 30 people gather each week; some are members of the parish, some work nearby and others are visitors. Second Breath is a contemplative meditation group for all experience levels that is easy to drop in to and supportive of the needs of the practitioner. It is a unique blend of Christian mysticism and contemporary thought that is very accessible, open and non-denominational
Workshops & Retreats
We have held workshops and retreats sporadically over the years. We hope to significantly increase this aspect of our life. Examples of recent pre-COVID workshops were an advent retreat looking at darkness and light, and a workshop exploring issues of death.
Public Witness
We are a frequent home to ecumenical, interfaith and other group celebrations, memorials, vigils, and witness of various kinds. We hold a monthly Homeless Memorial, have held public vigils for Climate Justice, peace and critical issues and have put our bodies on the line in defence of justice.
