Why I Pledge to Trinity Church

Comments by Ellen Freiler on October 18, 2009
Trinity on the Green, New Haven, CT

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When Jim asked me to say a few words on why I pledge to Trinity, I instantly agreed. I've never been shy when it comes to telling people how I feel about this place, because Trinity is my home in so many ways. The majority of my family members were baptized or married in this building, or both. My father's family goes back about a hundred years here, to the early 20th century, making Trinity practically part of the family DNA.

I've often told people that I feel almost as comfortable in this building as I do in my own house. But it's not just the building; it's the people, it's the programs, it's the outreach--it's the soul and spirit that is Trinity. People who have spent time as a part of this parish and then return to visit will often say "There is something about this place that makes me feel so good when I walk back through the door. It's like coming home."

It was the poet Robert Frost who said, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Trinity not only takes you and I in, but welcomes and invites in everyone to be a part of its family.

This place gives us roots, and wings. It's Grand Central Station, and it's home--a place to depart from, and a place to come back to. What Trinity has always been for me is the "spiritual home" everyone should have; a place that feeds and warms us, a place to which we can return no matter where we end up in life. Trinity is mine, and it's yours;  it needs to be here for those who come tomorrow, next week, next year, and a hundred years from now. That's why I pledge to Trinity.