Hospitality at Trinity Lime Rock ....
In many ways, Christian Hospitality is really what we are all about!
After all, our Purpose statement reads:
"Trinity Church: Offering companionship on the Way."
It's been a tradition at Trinity Lime Rock, ever since we were founded more than 135 years ago as the "company church" in what was then the Barnum & Richardson company village of Lime Rock, that everyone is welcome at Trinity.
From the earliest times, offering food has been a gesture of hospitality. Even the Holy Eucharist is set in the context of a meal. We recognize this, and here at Trinity, we more than continue it, we emphasize it. You won't be around Trinity long before you see this demonstrated -- and before someone offers you something to eat or drink!
The Hospitality Committee, under the very capable guidance of Chairperson Sue Kozlowski, takes general charge of the Parish kitchen (with the faithful support of our ECW) and provides coffee hour each week following the 10:30 Eucharist in our newly refurbished Walker Hall. Organized into seven teams, the committee provides the Parish with remarkable variety at our weekly treats. (Learn about the beginnings of Trinity's coffee hour in Trudy Washburn's notes.)
Supplementing the work of the Committee, our young people frequently organize to provide the Parish with a coffee hour with their own goodies.
Hospitality hour is a weekly occurrence, following the 10:30 Holy Eucharist every Sunday. It's fellowship and fun for the whole Trinity family -- it is a time when the kids can socialize with other kids, and when adults can relax with other adults. Trinity is very much a community -- many think of us as an extended family -- and hospitality hour is a time for us all to touch base with each other every week. It's also a time we all take genuine pleasure in welcoming visitors.
We often eat as a parish. While there are a few parish-wide meals -- such as our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper -- that are long established in Christian tradition, we have several of our own additional traditions, occasionally including suppers during Holy Week, our official annual parish picnic (which celebrates Trinity Sunday, our birthday as a parish), the lunch that precedes our annual meeting, and even, occasionally, Thanksgiving dinner for the parish, all of which have more or less fixed times in our parish calendar.
But we also find that we get together as a parish with a potluck supper or a cookout on many other occasions ("dinner and a movie" is an example -- and we gather on some non-occasions as well -- for example, recently we've often had steak barbecues to mark the beginning and end of summer.) Our Men's Group is often involved in these occasions.
Eating as a parish frequently expands to the larger community as well. From our beginnings, when the Ladies Auxiliary raised the money for our first organ by hosting chicken pot pie suppers, to today, when our "eating occasions" are among the most popular gatherings in the parish, Trinity is a parish that loves to share sustenance with others. And the food is almost always really good!
One annual feature, the Sunday before Lent begins, is Chocolate Sunday, when our normal hospitality hour turns into a fundraiser for our ECW, featuring what we believe is literally all the chocolate anyone can eat!
We also have a ministry of feeding the hungry. Via our "Feed a Family of Four for a Day" and other programs with OWL's Kitchen, we undertake to make this an important and ongoing part of our hospitality as well.
Click on any of the pictures below to see them in full size.
At work in the kitchen:
(click on any of the pictures to see a larger version)
About hospitality teams: Each each team has between three and eight members in addition to the Captain, which makes for a manageable workload -- and both men and women serve on the teams. At major holidays like Christmas and Easter everyone pitches in, and the same happens when a team is temporarily short-handed, such as when people are away from the area on their regular assigned Sunday.
Newcomers to the Parish often find that volunteering for the Hospitality Committee is a great way to get to know lots of different people and get involved -- all without making a major time commitment.
Interested in helping out? Why not call the Church (860-435-2627) and leave a message for Hospitality Committee Chair Sue Kozlowski!!