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TRINITARIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
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Contact Us. . .
It’s
been our experience that a great many people still equate a “real Church”
with a building where people gather each week for worship. In the early,
Judeo-Christian community, you would not have found such a place, yet none
of us would question that those early believers were in fact “The Church”.
It took many years before the members of the Early Church were able
to meet in buildings that became their houses of worship. Until that
happened, many continued to worship in the Temple or they gathered in small
groups in someone’s home where they could pray, sing and recall Christ into
their presence through the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the
cup, as He had told them to do. This is very likely where we get the term, "house of
worship" from. Today, most people simple use the word "church".
For
now, until it becomes necessary for us to have church buildings of
our own where we can worship, we are following in the footsteps of our
sisters and brothers in the Early Church. Since our Church seeks to be
ecumenical to all people of faith, we make it a part of our ministry to
visit and worship with various faith communities as often as we can. At other times,
we gather with small groups of people in someone’s home in order to pray or
to celebrate the Mass. We refer to this as a "home liturgy". Mass
is also often celebrated in the homes of our clergy who have a small chapel set aside for that purpose. It may
also be celebrated in a lay person's home when our clergy is asked to
come to celebrate the Mass there. We don’t
have the need or the financial resources to build or purchase our own church buildings at this
time so these options make good sense to us for now. Practical matters dictated that we should focus our attention instead
on building up small faith communities and to identifying individuals whom
God might be calling to serve the people as deacons and priests. If you
know your Church history, this is essentially what they did back in the
Early Church, in the various Christian Churches in the East and also in the West
before the Church of Rome became an institutional church.
Our
intentions are not to steal sheep from other flocks nor to tear down other
Churches in order to build up our own. Our appeal is to those who have left
or fallen
away from the Catholic faith or who have been rejected or alienated by the Church.
We also appeal to the many good people who have been called to ministry
during their lifetime, only to be turned away due to their age, gender,
education, marital status or sexual orientation. We believe that the Church
and its Sacraments were intended for everyone and that, notwithstanding a truly
serious reason, the Church, through its priests, has a duty and an obligation to find a place for everyone who
comes to the table. We celebrate and offer the traditional seven Sacraments
of the Catholic Church to the faithful who seek them. We do not
discriminate in the manner with which we offer the Sacraments to God’s
people. All are welcome at Christ’s table. All are welcome to receive all
of the Sacraments. Following in the footsteps of the tradition of the Early
Church, ministry preparation leading to Holy Orders in our Church may be undertaken by
women as well as men. With regards to ordination, we do not discriminate
based upon factors such as age, gender, race, affectional or sexual
orientation, socio-economic status, education, previous religious life
experience or marital status. All of our clergy must comply with the
training requirements laid out for them in our Canon Laws and Statutes and must also
strictly comply with the Church’s Code of Pastoral Conduct and the Official
Sexual Misconduct Policy. The Trinitarian Catholic Church, it’s clergy and
laity, believe that it is our responsibility to create a Safe Church
environment for youth and adults as well.
Presently, a small group of us are laying the foundation, the first "stones"
so-to-speak, for the Trinitarian Catholic Church.
It is now time to gather other “stones” so that we can build up the Church.
We know that this is going to be a difficult and a slow process. My
personal experience over the years is that too many of us view the Church
as a building we go to on Sunday. Catholics, and certainly other
Christians as well, have a difficult time trying to envision a Church that
doesn’t have a church building. In our time, we’ve all become comfortable
and familiar with the stained glass, the beautiful altars, the candles,
incense, bells, choirs and the expensive vestments. We go to the church
building on Sunday to have a religious experience that in some respects has
become dependent upon all of these external things for its sense of validity.
Without these external signs of “church”, some of us are not convinced that
we’ve been in God’s Holy presence. For those seekers who really need these
externals, a Church like ours might take some getting used to, but once you
do, you won’t have any doubt that you are in fact in God’s Holy presence.
Our
clergy may follow either the Roman or the Episcopal Liturgical calendar for
the celebration of Mass. The essential Rite of the Mass would be familiar
to anyone from a Roman Catholic, Episcopal or other Catholic Rite or
tradition. Our clergy and laity are encouraged to develop forms of Home
Liturgies, based upon the approved Liturgy of the Church. We encourage
everyone to pray the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours as well as special
intention Novenas. We encourage a spirit of ecumenism for our Church that
extends outward to other people of faith in our various communities. We
encourage our Church to stand up for the "little" people who often get pushed
aside and ignored by those who have more power, money and a louder voice in
our society. We are committed to work on behalf of all people who deserve
social justice, equality, human rights, civil rights and freedom of
religion. We are committed to do what we can to overcome attitudes that
support and foster war, intolerance, bigotry, homophobia, child abuse, racism, sexism,
ageism and other beliefs, practices and behaviors that work to dehumanize
and diminish the lives of people who have all been created in the image
of the same God. And how shall we accomplish all of this, you may ask?
Understandably, it’s a large
task for such a small group of people.
Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, we take small steps to repair the fabric and
substance of
God’s House, by gathering "stones" one at a time. When St. Francis was called
by Christ who spoke to Francis in prayer and told him to repair His House, he began quite literally to gather real
stones, which he laid one upon another to repair the Chapel of St. Damian.
It wasn’t long before his friends stopped laughing at his apparent
foolishness and they began to help him to repair the church. They were
quite pleased with themselves when the work was completed. Francis and a
handful of his friends, without any skills at building anything, repaired
the broken down church building. It was then that Christ once again spoke
to Francis. This time Christ revealed that what He really meant was the
very Church itself, the whole Church, and not simply this one building. If
you’ve read about the lives of St. Francis, St. Clare and their followers,
then you know what happened next.
Right
now, our Church is in need of “stones” to repair God’s House. We especially
need progressive-minded people who possess a sound spiritual foundation
based in the faith, regardless of your level of education, who might be
interested in preparing for Holy Orders as either a Deacon or as a
Priest to serve the sacramental needs of others in your community.
Candidates should have a strong interest in belonging to a progressive,
emerging Catholic Church that is not in union with the Roman Catholic
Church. You will not be offered “instant” ordination.
There is study and real work involved. However, if you are willing to pursue our degree programs and training
and can demonstrate your ability to gather a small faith community that
would work to become a TCC parish, then you should apply to us using the
general Application for Admission on the Vocations page of our FDP website.
Not
every person is seeking to become a priest and we know this. Most people
just want to know where there is a TCC parish so they can come for the Mass
and for the fellowship of other people. That is basically the same as it
was for many of the believers in the Early Judeo-Christian community. Since
we do not yet have priests and parishes in every location, we offer this
suggestion. If you and some of your family and friends are seeking to
belong to a TCC parish, we would like to encourage you to start a prayer
group or a study group, and we
will help you to do it. To begin, you should discuss the idea with those
who may be interested, then contact us and let us know of your intentions and
tell us something about the people involved. Next, you should make plans to
gather together at someone’s home at a given time each week for prayer and
for fellowship. Take turns leading the prayers or offering the readings for
meditation. Bring some spiritual readings and some music along to add to
the prayer time. Pick one home to meet at each week, or take turns meeting
at each other’s house. You don’t need to be an expert at writing liturgical
services. If someone knows how to do this, that can be helpful, otherwise
you could gather to pray the rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours or even a
special Novena. The point is to gather together to pray and to give God
thanks, while at the same time building your faith community. Feel free to
invite others each week. Stay in contact with us and we can offer you
advice or suggestions to help you get things going. It won’t be very long
before you are able to identify someone or maybe more than one person from
within your prayer group who seems to be called to lead and/or minister to
the group. In the Early Church, this was one of the methods used by the
various churches or faith communities to call a person to ministry: to the
priesthood. If such a person comes forward from within your prayer group
and he or she truly feels a calling to ministry, then we can work with that
person toward the goal of Holy Orders. These are the first steps toward
creating missions and then parishes within The Trinitarian Catholic Church.
It will take the combined efforts of a small group of dedicated people from
any given locality, working with those who are called to the priesthood, to
build a mission or a parish. Once your mission group has met the
requirements of the Canons of the Trinitarian Catholic Church, you may
request to become officially chartered as a parish. By
the grace of God, this is how we are together going to gather
"stones" and to repair God's House. We need people who have good ideas and who can work together with others for the common good of everyone. It’s difficult to find selfless people who are willing to put their hearts and souls into something as challenging as this, but we know you are out there. Maybe you are reading this right now and wondering if you could do it? With God's help, I believe you can. Think it over! Pray on it! Contact us if you want to become a participant and a co-builder in a truly open, affirming and welcoming Catholic Church as either a layperson or as a clergyperson. The Trinitarian Catholic Church might just be the church for you, your spouse, your partner, your family and your friends and those friends whom you have yet to meet. If you want a ready made Church where other people have done all of the work and made the way easy for you, there are plenty of them around. If you want to become a partner in building the sort of Catholic faith community that reflects the love of Christ for all people; a faith community that respects you and serves your spiritual needs, and at the same time values your time and efforts on behalf of the whole Church, then perhaps the Trinitarian Catholic Church is a Church worthy of your consideration. We sincerely hope that it is!
TRINITARIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
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