Why I Pledge to Trinity Church
Comments by Olive
Getlein on September
27, 2009
Trinity on the Green, New Haven, CT
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My name is Olive Getlein. I am a cradle Episcopalian. I grew up in Ansonia, CT. My father was an Episcopalian--my mother was raised a Methodist. We attended Christ Episcopal Church, a building much like this one and it too, had a very fine men and boy's choir.
I went to Sunday school religiously, you might say, for all of my childhood through 10th grade and then just church and youth fellowship thereafter. Going to church was what you did on Sundays. It was a habit - a good habit.
In my early years children were given offering envelopes. They were divided down the middle--one pocket for the church, the other pocket for missions. These were depression years--money was tight. Each Saturday, my mother would leave a nickel and a penny on my bureau which I was to put in my envelope, the nickel to our church, and the penny for missions. I always felt good putting my envelope in the offering plate; I was a part of things, this church was a part of me, and I felt that I was helping my church and other people in the world, whoever they were, who needed my help. And so I became an envelope-carrying Episcopalian. Another habit was formed.
That church and those people in it (and that included my parents), helped nurture, form and inform my life. They taught me about God and about Jesus whom I wanted to emulate to the best of my ability. It was where my faith was developing and where I was absorbing moral values. It was where I learned how to live. I don't think I would be the person I am today were it not for that church's influence on my life.
Now, fast forward to Trinity. Ed and I came to this church in 1972 with our 5 children, ages 5 to 17. I was looking for a church that would continue to nurture our children as I was nurtured, a church that would help form their lives and inform them about God and Jesus' teachings, a church where their faith would continue to be developed, a church that would teach them how to live their lives. We found that church community here and transferred our membership to Trinity. Trinity Church became our new spiritual home. We all flourished here and we all became active in Trinity's various programs. Part of that activity was financially supporting this church and its programs. They come with a price tag. The only thing that is freely given here is God's grace. So we pledge our dollars in support of Trinity and all its programs, and we remain to this day envelope-carrying Episcopalians.
Why? Because I believe that this church and those like it need to survive and continue to be a presence in the world so that others can find in them their spiritual home where they, too, can be nurtured, formed and informed about God and Jesus' teachings. Then together, we can go out into the world and "do all such good works as God has prepared for us to walk in".