Neighbor News
Trinity Covenant Church Celebrates 125 Years on October 7
Trinity Covenant Church on East Cedar Street is holding a special 125th Anniversary Service on October 7th at 11 AM
On October 4, 1893, a group of Swedish immigrants chartered together to form a new church, and began to collect money to build a building, which was then in East Orange, where most of them worked as domestics and construction workers.
That church of Swedish-speaking newcomers who banded together to be one another’s family in a new world, has become the no-longer-so-Swedish Trinity Covenant Church at 343 East Cedar St in Livingston, “just off Northfield and down the hill from the Hospital.” This year, Trinity celebrates its 125th anniversary.
The church sold its East Orange building to move to its new quarters in 1954, about a decade after its worship services began in English. In 1962, they added a Sunday school and meeting room wing to the facilities.
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Those same facilities have become a haven for six 12-step support groups, along with many community organizations who sometimes meet there alongside the church’s congregational activities. The building shares space with the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Northern Jersey and also hosts Redeemed Ministries which meets on Sunday nights.
Today, the church is made up of folks who have been in America for generations, as well as others from all over the world. There are the elderly and the children, parents and teens, single and married, but the thing that has stayed the same over the years for this church is the sense that its members have become one another’s family, which is what Jesus commanded, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
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The celebration weekend will be October 6-7.
On Saturday the 6th, members of the congregation will participate in service activities for three different groups: at the Livingston Public Library, with Livingston Neighbors Helping Neighbors, and in Paterson at Renew Life Center. “The idea,” says Pastor Susan Gillespie, “is not to celebrate ourselves, but God and God’s faithfulness. In service we look outside ourselves.”
On October 7, Trinity will celebrate with a joyful worship service at 11 am, with the denominational conference superintendent, Rev. Howard Burgoyne, preaching.
The service will be followed by a luncheon with time for remembrances, pictures, songs and fun with today’s members and friends along with honored guests.
