Trinity Church

Communion is on the first Sunday of the month. Call 413-625-2341 for more information. Marguerite Sheehan is pastor of Trinity Church, which, in 1951, was formed as a grand experiment in the spiritual life of Shelburne Falls and the surrounding hilltown communities. The small Episcopal, Baptist and Congregational churches in the village joined to form a new, ecumenical ministry, blending traditions and resources. This lively community of faith grew when the Methodist congregation came into the fold in 1971 and Trinity Church as we know it today was born. Thomas J. Montgomery (1844-1900) came to Shelburne Falls from Boston about 1882 with his wife Harriet Johnson Montgomery. He apparently fell in love with Shelburne Falls and, after buying the spacious Joseph W. Gardner home (now the Smith-Kelleher Funeral Home), he built three identical houses on Maple and Severance streets for his wife’s sisters. In 1884, he built and donated the Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church, now Trinity Church. The neo-Gothic style sanctuary is home to a 14-rank Opus 1189 Hook & Hastings organ that has never been moved since its installation. The Church is fully physically accessible and has a commercial-grade kitchen and dining hall, available for public rental. Parishioners are constantly revitalizing programs — dinners, films, concerts, discussions, workshops, guest speakers — to better serve our community both by feeding them spiritually and literally, and by raising funds to meet other pressing economic needs identified as we work with local businesses, schools and elder services. Trinity Church continues to participate in missions locally and farther from home, including the Christmas Adopt-A-Family program, fall Crop Walk for Church World Service and our own weekly Friday Night Community Meal, a real-life loaves and fishes story now past its 30th year. We have also participated in Tools for Hope, Blanket Sunday, the Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis Walk and historically step up when disaster strikes — here after Tropical Storm Irene and far from home after Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Japan. Since 2015 we have also lovingly maintained a free community clothes closet which is located at the Cowell Gymnasium on Maple Street. We also are home to a weekly parent/child playgroup that is run by our local public school and a weekly AA meeting. Special services are held on Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and at Easter sunrise. Baptisms/weddings and other special services may be scheduled as requested. The doors to Trinity are open to everyone seeking spiritual nourishment. We are a church that not only seeks to deepen our own spiritual lives, but also to enrich the lives of those in our community.