Christmas in Newport

Kind of dark, sorry--this is a view of the right side of the church

from the main aisle.

A view of the left side from the main aisle. There are

also benches and smaller "boxes" on the gallery level on both sides.

Dim! But check out the three chandeliers over the main

aisle--all real candles lit during the service.

Last night I had the pleasure of participating in "Christmas on Historic Hill" at Trinity Church here in Newport. For those of you who know Newport, you know that Trinity Church is the old white church in the square off Thames Street. Here is their website: www.trinitynewport.org. There are pictures and a history of the church there...pretty interesting. According to my notes, the church that is currently there was built in 1725.

I have been looking for an opportunity to get inside the church. I guess we could have gone to church services there as it is still a fully-functioning church. But. I just don't know what Episcopalians do. I have heard rumors that there is a lot of sitting down, standing up, kneeling, genuflecting...as a Lutheran, I'm just suspicious of any of that extraneous stuff. And I'm very self-concious...I mean, what if I went and everyone else knew when to kneel and I was left standing there?

Anyway. Hans and I have been attending St. Peter's Lutheran Church here in Newport, and the opportunity came up to participate in a mass choir event at Trinity Church. I jumped at the chance to sing Christmas carols (definitely my favorite) and also to worship at Trinity. So I signed up.

Fast forward to yesterday. We started practice at 5:00 p.m. First, you should see the interior of this place! Well, actually, you get to because I took pictures. Everyone was giving me strange looks, but I kept snapping away. The interior is absolutely beautiful in that simple, Colonial way. If any of you have been to churches in this area, you will recognize the common interior touches, such as the pew "boxes". I'm sure there is an architectural or proper term instead of "pew boxes", but...you know what I mean. I'm still curious about these. I'm thinking that families got a box and then it was passed down from generation to generation, but I've been wondering how a family got a box. A generous donation?

Anyway, the boxes are pretty neat. Each family has its own chairs in each box and embroidered kneelers and hymnals. I would estimate that each box was roughly 4'x3' with a fairly tall wall all around and a neat, set-in door on the outer aisle. I just like how everyone is neatly arranged, like eggs in a carton, and I thought that it would be nice to have babies in there as they are almost like a playpen, right in church.

The choir sat up in the choir loft. The organ was wonderful...donated to the congregation in 1733 and still fully operational. We ran through all the songs, which were fairly familiar, with the exception of a couple of Episcopalian Christmas carols I had never heard of. A hodie? Anyone? Donna has probably heard of a hodie. It was a little weird, but a little cool. They had drummers dressed in colonial uniform (I won't take a guess as to whether it was Continental Army or Rhode Island, or what) with drums for the hodie. It was kind of a marching tune and we did the processional to it.

Oh, on my way out, I noticed a plaque stating that George Washington had worshipped there and what pew he had sat in.

It was a great experience. I'm very glad that I did it. It reminded me of the midnight service that we used to attend in St. James. They even turned the lights off during Silent Night...Trinity was illuminated by only the three candle-bedecked chandeliers hanging over the main aisle. Truly a treat.

Enjoy the pics. And no, I didn't take pictures of the drummers, though I was sorely tempted and could feel Donna's spirit urging me to!