Trinity United Church Of Christ Chicago

Trio Educational Opportunity Center

Are you eager to complete your GED?

Are you ready to earn your associate or bachelor’s degree?

Is trade school in your future?

Are you aware of the many financial aid opportunities for you?

We provide educational counseling and guidance on college and trade school enrollment to qualified Chicago area adults at no cost.

Click here for more information on how we can work together to achieve your goals.

Chicagos Trinity Ucc Is Great Gift To Wider Church Family

In the wake of misleading attacks on its mission and ministry, Chicagos Trinity United Church of Christ is being lauded by United Church of Christ leaders across the nation for the integrity of its worship, the breadth of its community involvement and the depth of its commitment to social justice.

Trinity United Church of Christ is a great gift to our wider church family and to its own community in Chicago, says UCC General Minister and President John H. Thomas. At a time when it is being subjected to caricature and attack in the media, it is critical that all of us express our gratitude and support to this remarkable congregation, to Jeremiah A. Wright for his leadership over 36 years, and to Pastor Otis Moss III, as he assumes leadership at Trinity.

Thomas says he has been saddened by news reports that present such a caricature of a congregation that been such a great blessing.

These attacks, many of them motivated by their own partisan agenda, cannot go unchallenged, Thomas emphasizes. Its time for all of us to say No to these attacks and to declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.

Thomas, a member of Pilgrim Congregational UCC in Cleveland, has attended worship at Trinity UCC on a few occasions most recently on March 2 and says he is profoundly impressed with the 6,000-member congregation.

The Activities At The Trinity United Church Of Christ

• There are various ministries that come under the Trinity United Church of Christ. These have been built to target all the sections of the society and help them. The ministries include the Acculturation, men, women, children, art, music, health and wellness and much more.
• They have a very famous choir group that is considered the best in the whole USA. People from all over the country come to see them perform. The choir group is for the males and the females separately. Anyone can be a part of the choir group. The participants are trained by some of the best artists and all help is provided to them in order to polish their talents.
• They also have a girls and boys scouts for the children ages 6 to 17. These scouts carry out different activities such as the camping and excursions. These scouts also go to various villages and help the people in need by helping them in building shelters, providing food and much more.
• Additionally, they also run various health and wellness programs that help the people suffering from various ailments heal faster. They have yoga and cancer support groups that help the survivors or the people suffering from the disease feel loved.

Recommended Reading: What Does The Bible Say About Renewing Your Mind

To 1: Under Reuben A Sheares Ii

The church instead opted to bring on the Rev. Reuben A. Sheares II as interim pastor. According to Speller, Sheares’s brief tenure with Trinity marked an important shift in the congregation’s sense of purpose. Together with Trinity’s remaining leaders, Sheares sought to discover the reasons behind Trinity’s dramatic decline in membership and then work a remedy. As recounted by a key Trinity lay leader at the time, Vallmer E. Jordan, the small core of leaders concluded that “for years we had prided ourselves on being a middle-class congregation within a mainline denomination, but suddenly the values within the Black community had shifted. Aspirations for integration and assimilation were being replaced by those of Black pride and separation.” Byassee fills in details by pointing out that Chicago had long since become an organizing center for militant Black religious groups like The Nation of Islam and The Black Hebrew Israelites, who strenuously argued that “Black” and “Christian” were contradictory terms. Many Blacks had been leaving Christianity as a result.

In addition to Sheares’s new motto, Jordan crafted a new mission statement that encapsulated the church’s new vision to be

As Trinity sought a new pastor to lead growth, they gave the mission statement to each applicant.

The History Of The Trinity United Church Of Christ

The history of the Trinity United Church of Christ dates long back when the African American community had to move to the southern part of Chicago. The church was founded in 1961 and had only 12 members. The first pastor of Trinity was Pastor Kenneth B. Smith.

The church came into existence for the African American Christian society to find a place to pray and take shelter at the time when they had no place to go. The church started as a small 12 member association and grew to become one of the most prominent black church in the world over the years.

The church also played a significant role in the civil rights movement.

Recommended Reading: What The Bible Says About The Tongue

Social And Religious Context

Patterns of migration among both Blacks during the Great Migration of African Americans between 1910 and 1940, and among whites, are an important part of the social context in which Trinity was founded. Another is the threat that radical Black nationalism and Black Islam posed to Christianity’s influence among Chicago Blacks, as well as to Blacks nationwide. As these movements gained ground among Chicago Blacks, Trinity sought to turn the attention of Blacks back to Christianity.

1910 through 1940s

Beginning around 1910, the Great Migration of African Americans occurred as many thousands of Blacks migrated northward from the south. A great many settled on Chicago’s southside. When they arrived, they brought with them the forms of Christianity they had practiced in the South. As elsewhere in the United States, Chicago Blacks of the time faced serious discrimination in typically every area of their existence.

By the 1940s, the Nation of Islam’s radical message had drawn in thousands of Chicago’s Blacks, many who had converted from one of the forms of Christianity their forebears brought northward to Chicago .

1950s through 1960

It was within the above social context that Trinity came into being.

Since 200: Under Reverend Otis Moss Iii

Reverend Dr. Otis Moss III has been Trinity’s senior pastor since 2008. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, Yale Divinity School, and Chicago Theological Seminary. His father, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr., was also an acclaimed preacher before him.

Moss’ sermons are video streamed live online internationally through the church’s website and some sermons can also be found on YouTube.

Weekly broadcasts of the church’s Sunday service are also carried across the US on TV One on Sundays at 7:30 a.m. EST.

Recommended Reading: How To Study The Bible Daily

Your Child Is Our Future

Every day, young children and their families depend on early childhood educators to empower, inform and transform their lives and to become school and world ready. Regardless of life challenges or success, Trinity United Church of Christ Early Childhood Centers are responsible for safeguarding and facilitating the development and learning of young minds.

Through 1: Under Kenneth B Smith

Trinity marks its beginning on December 3, 1961, when twelve middle-class Black families, most of whom were descendants of migrants to Chicago during The Great Migration of African Americans, met for worship in a Chicago elementary school gymnasium. Prior to the recent migration of whites to the suburbs, Blacks had found it extremely difficult to move into middle-class surroundings in Chicago due to segregated housing patterns and homeownership discrimination . At the time of the 3 December meeting, Chicago’s Halsted Street marked “the color line”.

Although the vision was bold for the time, and although a similar vision had been followed by other pockets of Blacks both inside and outside of Chicago, it at the same time produced apprehension within Trinity’s upwardly mobile Blacks, since some Blacks in Chicago had had their homes burned for transgressing the color line. Moreover, the vision failed to address the many Blacks who were still unable to reach upward mobilityâthose still on the South Side, those in the projects on the other side of Halsted Street, Blacks who did not figure into the Association’s vision because they were not considered “the right kind of black people”.

After leaving Trinity, Smith would go on to become pastor of Good Shepherd Church and president of Chicago Theological Seminary.

Recommended Reading: Are There Dinosaurs In The Bible

Trinity United Church Of Christ

Trinity United Church of Christ is a predominantly African-American church with more than 8,500 members. It is located in the Washington Heights community on the South Side of Chicago. It is the largest church affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white Christian denomination with roots in Congregationalism, which historically branched from early American Puritanism.

The church’s early history coincided with the American civil rights movement, subsequent murder of , and the tumultuous period that engulfed the civil rights movement after King’s death due to intense competition among actors over who would carry King’s mantle. During that tumultuous period, an influx of radical Black Muslim groups had begun to headquarter in Chicago, and Trinity sought to recontextualize Christianity through black theology in order to counter the influence of radical Black Muslim leaders, who taught that it was impossible to be both Black and Christian.

Trinity is best known today for its national and international social programs on behalf of the disadvantaged, although in its earliest days such outreach did not figure into its mission.

To 1: Under Willie J Jamerson

By 1972, however, Trinity’s membership had dwindled from its peak of 341 down to 259 members , and no one could pinpoint the cause. Jamerson soon resigned to take a position as a schoolteacher, and Trinity was faced with possibly closing its doors.

Also Check: How Many Times Is Christian Mentioned In The Bible

The Evolution Of Trinity

Speller asserts that Trinity in its history has evolved from the Assimilation Model under its pastors Kenneth B. Smith and Willie J. Jamerson, to the Compensatory Model under Reuben A. Sheares II and during the early years of Jeremiah Wright’s tenure, and into the Ethnic Community-prophetic Model under Wright to embrace the Dialectical Model also under Wright. She states, however, that the church continues to struggle in varying degrees to balance the dialectic polarities described by Lincoln and Mamiya , and that the church’s greatest challenge has been “mediating the tension between being black and Christian.”

No Matter Who You Are No Matter Where You Are On Lifes Journey Youre Welcome Here

Trinity United Church of Christ is a community of Christian people on the journey of faith. We celebrate and extend the love of God as shown to us in the life of Jesus Christ. We welcome all who seek to be the body of Christ through the mission, worship, and fellowship of Trinity Church. Trinity United Church of Christ exists to share the love of God with our community and beyond. We strive to accomplish this by being a growing community of Christs followers seeking to serve our world with Christs compassion.

Our rich heritage in Wadsworth dates to 1858 and includes at least four different faith traditions. From our humble beginnings as a German Reformed church for the Pennsylvania Dutch moving to the Western Reserve territory to a thriving church busy with programs for youth and adults alike, we are proud to be a part of the fabric of the faith life here in Wadsworth, Ohio.

No website can truly encompass all of what our church is so come check us out you are always welcome here!

You May Like: What Does The Bible Say About Your Purpose In Life

To Early 200: Under Jeremiah Wright

Jeremiah Wright, the son of a long-tenured Philadelphia Baptist minister, interviewed for the Trinity pastorate on December 31, 1971. Jordan recalls that Wright exuded excitement and vision for the church’s new mission statement, and that Wright’s response to the question “How do you see the role of the Black Church in the black struggle?” indicated he was the only possible candidate for Trinity. With the church also impressed with Wright’s educational credentialsâWright held graduate degrees in English studies and Divinity and was studying for a doctorate in religious historyâhe was shortly confirmed as the new pastor.

Context and challenges

Youth choir

The first change occurred in late 1972 when Trinity’s youth lobbied for a greater role in the church. Under a new choir director the youth brought in, they led musical worship using gospel music for the first time, while incorporating dramatic visual props. As Speller describes it, the youth choir “ushered in a new day at Trinity Church, and through their music they ignited the flame that would burn off the dross of Black shame to reveal the refined gem of self-love.” However, with increasing and the Pilgrim Hymnal no longer in favor, some of Trinity’s congregants left because of what Wright described as “fear of changeâchange in the style of worship but, more importantly, change in the kind of members that would desire to join our church.”

From social enhancement to God-consciousness

Tradition And Ties That Unite Us

At a time when churches are seeing their numbers dwindle, some even closing their doors, Taylor Peck said Trinity UCC is supported by the ties that unite them.

When I got here I was told, Be careful, dont say anything mean because everyones related,’ Taylor Peck recalls with a laugh. Thats what they wanted me to know. This church is deeply rooted.

Trinity UCC, he added, is a place where its people have shared their joys and sorrows.

I think one of the things that makes us special is the relationships, he said. We have a very diverse political spectrum. During these last years of increased partisanship in the nation, there are families with five generations in this church they crossed the divide. There are people who met here when they were children and got married. It helps to cement the bond. I truly believe that is where our strength lies.

Taylor Peck said that while Trinity UCC embraces its traditions, the congregation is also open to positive change.

The music program we have is a traditional but open music program, he said. We are traditional but not grotesque. We are also becoming an open and assertive Church.

To commemorate this anniversary, the Trinity UCC congregation is funding and building a Habitat for Humanity house.

To learn more, visit www.trinityucc.com.

Also Check: What Does The Bible Say About Romantic Relationships

Education And Military Service

From 1959 to 1961, Wright attended Virginia Union University, in Richmond and is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Zeta chapter. In 1961 Wright left college and joined the United States Marine Corps and became part of the 2nd Marine Division attaining the rank of private first class. In 1963, after two years of service, Wright joined the United States Navy and entered the Corpsman School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Wright was then trained as a cardiopulmonary technician at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Wright was assigned as part of the medical team charged with care of PresidentLyndon B. Johnson . Before leaving the position in 1967, the White House Physician, Vice Admiral Burkley, personally wrote Wright a letter of thanks on behalf of the United States President.

In 1967 Wright enrolled at Howard University in Washington, DC, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1968 and a master’s degree in English in 1969. He also earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Wright holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he studied under Samuel DeWitt Proctor, a mentor to

Wright and his wife Ramah Reed Wright have four daughters, Janet Marie Moore, Jeri Lynne Wright, Nikol D. Reed, and Jamila Nandi Wright, and one son, Nathan D. Reed.

Trinity In Comparative Perspective

Byassee argues that “African Americans have generated distinctly Black forms of Christianity since they arrived on these shores” and asserts that “the significance of these forms has been appreciated in mainline seminaries and churches for at least two generations.” Speller has discussed the major interpretive frameworks into which Black churches have been historically categorized by scholars, as well as several later ones. She does this to place Trinity within a broader understanding of the Black church, and all Christian churches, and to trace Trinity’s history of movement within several of the frameworks, while also discussing numerous of Trinity’s ongoing struggles. Byassee asserts that Trinity is well within the mainstream of the Black church, and is remarkable in the mainline Protestant world only for its size and influence.”

Speller summarizes several interpretive models of Black churches that have predominated in scholarly literature from especially prior the 1960s:

Recommended Reading: Does Alexa Read The Bible