BRIEF HISTORY OF TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Ashland, Oregon

With the coming of the railroad to southern Oregon in the early 1880s, an Episcopal Church presence arrived in the person of the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Wistar Morris, the second bishop of the diocese of Oregon. In August 1884, Bishop Morris made his first of many visits to Ashland, arriving on the train from Portland in order to start a mission. For several years Episcopal services were held on an occasional basis, but a small congregation emerged enjoying socials in members’ homes and waiting for a permanent mission vicar.

For some years Episcopal services took place in the local Baptist church. Bishop Morris continued to make regular visits to Ashland to conduct worship services and to confirm new members. The Bishop also made stops at other Rogue Valley communities, including Grants Pass, Medford and Fort Klamath where small Episcopal missions were established under a missionary priest in charge of all the valley missions.

By the early 1890s, monthly Episcopal services were being held in Ashland, now generally in the Masonic Hall. The ladies of Trinity Church organized the Trinity Guild in May 1893 to promote parish social events at the opera house and in members’ homes, in addition to occasional educational offerings. Desiring to worship in a building of their own, the members of the church purchased property on Second Street, a block from Main Street, on which to build a church. Bishop Morris laid the cornerstone on May 3, 1894. The building of the church in the “carpenter Gothic style” took over one year, while the Trinity Guild organized many social events to raise the necessary funds. These included a Rose Festival with a Rose Queen, Ashland being the first town in Oregon to have such an event.

The first service in the completed Trinity Church took place on September 22, 1895. The first Christmas service was conducted on Christmas Day, 1895 with “Matins, sermon and holy eucharist [sic], singing by the girl choir and offertory solo….” By this time, Trinity had a vested choir and occasional weekday celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, a sign of somewhat “advanced” churchmanship for that time.

In 1899, a new brass altar cross, coming from New York, was presented to the church as a memorial gift. In the same year, a generous gift provided a bell for the church’s steeple. Celebrated bell founders Meneely Bell Co. of West Troy, New York cast it, and it continues to ring out announcing all services of the church. In January 1900, Bishop Morris consecrated Trinity Church at a Sunday morning service.In 1905, the church purchased a baptismal font of Lucido marble, hand-carved on six sides by the senior warden of the parish. The font continues in use today.

In 1911, a small parish hall was erected for congregational use. A beautiful brass processional cross was given to the church in memory of a nineteen year old man killed in action in France during World War I. This 1918 cross is still used today in procession and rests beside the altar at other times. During the late teens and twenties, the parish grew slowly but steadily, weathering the usual ups and downs of a small mill town in a remote part of the country.

Its spirit never flagged, however, and by the 1930s the parish had passed through the Great Depression and gained strength from its life together. The era of missionary priests supplying the Rogue Valley churches ended in 1937 when the Rev. Charles M. Guilbert became the first Trinity priest to receive a salary from the parish. Canon Guilbert later became the Custodian of The Book of Common Prayer and a beloved figure in the national Episcopal Church.

It was not until 1950 that Trinity was admitted as a parish in union with the Convention of the Diocese of Oregon. In the same year, the first ordination in the parish took place when Peter N.A. Barker was ordained deacon. A small rectory was located next door to the church, but was in poor condition by the late forties. Bishop Dagwell matched monies raised by the parish and soon a replacement rectory was purchased on Beach Street for the new rector, the Rev. John Thompson.Under Fr. Thompson’s leadership, the parish increased in size and it was soon necessary to expand the church building.

A Medford architect, Jack A. Edson, the same man who designed the present Elizabethan theatre stage house in Ashland, designed the new church plant. The back wall of the church was taken out and the length of the nave was practically doubled. Also, in 1954 the old rectory was moved away, the parish hall was moved around, enlarged and a workable kitchen was installed.

A church school wing was added and built over the area where the old rectory had stood. A swarm of volunteers and hired workmen brought the expansion to fruition. Fr. Thompson served Trinity until 1959 and was later consecrated as Bishop of Northern California.The parish was now an integral part of the Ashland community. It has enjoyed a number of parishioners over the years with ties to Southern Oregon University and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Many young people and adults have participated as extras and actors in the Festival’s plays, while others have served on the Shakespeare Festival Board of Directors and with the Tudor Guild.Trinity Church weathered the social unrest of the 1960s and early 1970s under the dedicated leadership of three rectors.

One of these, Fr. Joseph Dubay, feeling that part of his ministry was to give leadership to the community, took an active part in addressing issues of racism, in working to provide a non-violent opposition to the Vietnam War and by serving on the first Jackson County Community Action Board. Dialogue on the contentious issues of the times took place in the parish without fracture or ill will, despite strong disagreements, due to the spiritual maturity of the church members.

By the late 1970s, the use of electronic organs had ceased to be edifying for a parish given to love of the arts, theater, literature and music. Beginning in 1977 a fund raising campaign led by the rector, the Rev. Robert Ellis, enabled Trinity to order a pipe organ to be built by the renowned Canadian firm of Karl Wilhelm of Mt. St. Hilaire, Quebec. The custom built tracker organ was installed in 1979 (click here for organ information) and dedicated by Fr. Ellis’ successor, the Rev. Jerry Lamb. Fr. Lamb’s ministry placed a special emphasis on children’s needs and he served the parish until 1987.

Later, he was consecrated as Bishop of Northern California, the second Trinity rector to serve as a bishop. The Rev. Thomas Breidenthal, D.Phil., who served until 1992, followed Bishop Lamb. Fr. Breidenthal, a leader in interfaith cooperation went on to serve as a professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at the General Theological Seminary in New York and is presently Dean of Religious Life at Princeton

University.Parishioner Terry Enochs in memory of her husband, James, gave the circular stained glass window over the “east wall” of the sanctuary as a memorial. Dedicated in May 1994, the window was designed by Tim Yockey. It embodies symbolic motifs of the Trinity in three linking circles. During the eighties and the nineties, one hundred years after the founding of the parish, Trinity continued to grow and impact the region. Community groups, private groups and those of other faiths all use the parish hall for meetings, classes and sometimes worship.

In 1989, Trinity was instrumental in organizing the Ashland Interfaith Care Community (AICC) to provide emergency help for transients. In addition, the Trinity Respite Center was organized at the church by parishioners to assist the elderly of the community with a place to socialize while their caregivers take a “respite.” The Center grew and prospered, and is now located in the Mountain Meadows retirement community. In 1995, Trinity Church celebrated the centennial of the completion of the church building. Under the direction of the rector, the Rev. Cliff Blinman, the parish further engaged in community outreach and spiritual growth.

Since June 2000, under the dedicated and inspiring leadership of the current rector, the Rev. Anne Bartlett, the parish continues to grow and prosper. New groups and activities, contemplative worship services, outreach to the larger community and involvement in the Diocese have brought Trinity to the limelight and enriched the spiritual lives of its members. A Memorial garden with a Labyrinth modeled after that of Chartres Cathedral in France is in the process of being constructed, a symbol of the Rev. Anne’s dedication to spiritual growth and development.

Rev. Anne’s gift of preaching has drawn many new members into the parish family and strengthened the spiritual lives of those already present. Following a successful capital campaign, a renovation of the church building and a remodel of the parish hall were approved by the vestry in the summer of 2003.From its earliest days in the 1880s to its mission in the twenty-first century, Trinity has made, and will continue to make, an impact on the community of Ashland, the Diocese of Oregon, the larger Church and the world.

This history is based on A Century of Faith by Mary Buckner Brubaker, with additions and editing by Robert Louis Semes.