Who Are We?
A member congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Trinity is an open and inclusive congregation that is both Christ-centered and mission-driven. We are committed to growing together in our walk of faith and serving the Santa Cruz community and the world at large in the name of Christ. We welcome you to join us for worship, fellowship, and service opportunities.
Our Sunday worship service begins at 10:30 am. and lasts for approximately an hour.
Trinity has a long history of incorporating the musical talents - both vocal and instrumental - of its members in the worship experience. A full choir, accompanied by organ or piano, leads the congregation in predominately traditional music each Sunday and other special worship services.
Communion is served the first Sunday of each month. All are welcome at the Lord's table.
You are invited to stay for a period of fellowship that follows worship.
Please explore these pages to learn more about who we are, what we believe, and how we act on our beliefs. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions or comments.
Church facilities are available for weddings, memorial services, and meetings of nonprofit organizations. Contact the office.
Our Mission
To proclaim the "Good News" that we humans can be transformed. We believe that through God's grace, individuals and communities can change for the better and are not bound by the past. Our faith and hope for transformation is strengthened as we work together to follow the teachings of Jesus. We see this as an on-going process not a one-time event –– a journey, not a destination.
To nurture our fellowship, both spiritually and physically. We see our fellowship as extending to any and all who we are able to reach, especially those whom society rejects. We nurture one another by sharing both joys and sorrows. We are serious about spiritual fellowship because we know that faith is nourished in community much more than in isolation. We are serious about physical nurture and shelter as our faith commands us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
To maintain and strengthen Divine worship,
which is a primary way in which we share and grow our faith together in community. We celebrate and deepen our faith with music, prayer, liturgy, and word. Our meetings for study, fellowship, and business are also forms of worship as we prayerfully strive to maintain a sense of God's presence in deliberations and in our dealings with one another.
To search for truth. When difficult decisions must be made we work and play together with all our means and might to discern what is true and just. As fallible humans we can never be certain that we know Truth, but our faith assures us that there is light to be found with God's help even when the way ahead seems difficult and
obscure.
To promote social justice. Social justice puts many demands upon us, both large and small. We have the obligation to speak out for the cause of justice and to speak truth to power. We address broader issues in our prayer, advocacy, and civic participation, and we support one another in such efforts. But social justice can also involve small neighborly acts, sustaining one another in times of difficulty to demonstrate the "Kingdom of Heaven" to the world around us. We believe passionately that God's kingdom is here and now, among us, as Jesus clearly states in the gospels, and that it is our highest calling to live our lives, individually and as a community, in a way that demonstrates this reality.
Our Character
We are both traditional and progressive. We are traditional as we value and honor Christian tradition in our worship, both in words and music. We are progressive as we open to new forms of worship, new words and new songs, so long as they help lead us in our journey toward the holy, toward wholeness.
We are traditional as many of us are comfortable with the ways of thinking about our faith that have sustained us over many years. We honor and are sustained by the scriptures and by millennia of Jewish and Christian traditions. We are progressive as we are open to non-traditional ways of thinking, studying, and speaking about God, Jesus, and the Bible. We grow in faith as we better understand how our tradition has been developed over the centuries by fallible humans. We realize that many of the incredible events that we read about in our scriptures can be "true" in a very real and deep sense, whether or not they literally "happened" as they are described.
We are traditional in the way we welcome and honor those who think and live in traditional and conservative ways, religiously, politically, and in their lifestyles. We are progressive in our welcome to and honor of those who differ from the traditional, whether in their thinking about matters of faith, in their politics, or in their lifestyles.
We are traditional in that we cling to and promote among our own community the traditional values of truth telling, honesty, justice, kindness, empathy, and compassionate service toward the suffering and recognition and acceptance of all persons as born in and carrying the image of God. We are progressive in that we call attention to and resist the violation of these values in the larger world whenever we find dishonesty, violence, injustice, disrespect, and unequal treatment of some people by others, especially by those who hold power over others.
How can we be so broad, so many things to so many people? Doesn't it mean that our faith is a mile wide but only an inch deep? No! Faith doesn't measure out that way, like some puddle. It is more like the ocean, both broad and deep. In fact, the broader it is the deeper it must go. And in the strengths and weaknesses of our humanity we value and love one another, finding our commonality in the depths of our faith.