History

Trinity Church, established in 1849, is the oldest Episcopal church on the Pacific Coast. It is the second oldest congregation in the City of San Francisco. The first Episcopal service was held in the American House on Stockton Street on July 8, 1849, by Flavel Scott Mines. A week later the decision was made to form a congregation, and the first church building was erected that same year. Flavel Mines was elected as rector. In 1852 the congregation moved into a new and larger church, and in 1867 into an even larger church. The present edifice, the fourth, was built here on the corner of Gough and Bush in 1892 after a design based on Durham Cathedral in England.

In 1949, a grand celebration was held marking the congregation's one hundredth year of service to San Francisco. The fifteenth rector, Leighton N. Nugent, wrote: "Now as never in recent years, we need the voice and ministry of the Christian Church. It is my hope that Trinity may be able to minister wisely and faithfully to a new day and ever changing population." These words ring as true today as with faith and courage to measure up to our opportunities, we work to go forward in God's service.

The Trinity building has been the home of several 12-step programs for over twenty five years and is currently also the home of The Next Stage Theater. Each year Trinity is a homeless shelter for 70 homeless men. Fifty weddings a year are held in Trinity Church and the church has been the site of several blessings of gay relationships.

In the summer of 1999, we celebrated our 150th Anniversary along with the Diocese of California in a day long celebration which started with a Morning Prayer Service in Trinity Church using the words and some of the music that would have been used by the founders of the church.

The Trinity building has been the home of several 12-step programs for over twenty five years, is the home to a The Next Stage Theater, St. Theodore's Orthodox Congregation, and The Father Francis Feeding Program. Each year Trinity is a homeless shelter for 70 homeless men. Fifty weddings a year are held in Trinity Church and the church has been the site of several blessings of gay relationships.

Over the years Trinity was the first home base of Ruth Brinker and Project Open Hand, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, and St. Gregory Nyssa Church. The church is used by several musical organizations. The San Francisco Lyric Chorus makes it home at Trinity Church and we have been a site for concerts by San Francisco Bach Choir, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, The San Francisco City Chorus, The Concert Chorale and Chanticleer.

In the year 2000, we have begun the ambitious task of raising the capital fund to care for the gifts that God has given this congregation including our wonderful windows and the magnificent E.F. Skinner organ.

The French-Currier Memorial Window

Located in the narthex, the French-Currier window was unveiled on Trinity Sunday, 1930, and contains the following inscription: "Dominus Vobiscum In loving memory of N. Byron and Jessie Currier and F. Mortimer and Jessie French" "Present by Jessie Van Brunt. Unveiled by Jessie Whitman" An extract from the book, Women in Stained Glass: does not contain reference to Trinity church, but is of interest in its information about the creator of the window.

For more than thirty years, Jessie Van Brunt, a pupil of John LaFarge, has been making windows and giving them to churches all over the world. Her home is in Brooklyn, but she can have spent but little time there between her travels up and down the earth to find new places for her windows. She has made well over thirty, and has presented them to churches in a dozen countries. There are Van Brunt windows in Canada, Labrador, Alaska, Switzerland, France, Holland, Norway, England, India and New Zealand. She regards her handiwork as acts of adoration, and boasts that the sun shines through her windows every hour of the twenty-four.

She has several windows in the Church of the Transfiguration (The Little Church Around the Corner) in New York City: one in the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue; and a memorial to her parents in Grace Church, Brooklyn.

In 1932, she made a Van Brunt Family Memorial Window for the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam.

Miss Van Brunt is the daughter of Cornelius Henshaw Van Brunt who came from Holland and settled in Brooklyn when it was spelled "Breukolen." This year she placed a window in the Church of the Transfiguration at Moose, formerly Jackson Hole, Wyoming."

The Trinity Cross on the High Altar

The cross on the altar was presented to Trinity about a year and a half after the laying of the cornerstone of the present church building. An excerpt from the minutes of the vestry meeting of June 4, 1894, reads: "A letter from the chairman of St. Mary's Guild, presenting to the church a handsome brass cross for the altar as a gift from the guild, was read. On motion of Mr. Hooper, seconded by Mr. Dean, the cross was accepted by the vestry and the secretary was instructed to acknowledge the gift."

The actual presentation of this beautiful cross was made on Trinity Sunday, June 9, 1949. "The making and the gold of the cross were the gift of the Guild. The jewels were given by the women of the parish." (An extract from minutes of St. Mary's Guild, September 24, 1926) The inscription on the cross is as follows: "Trinity Church, San Francisco, California. The loving gift of St. Mary's Guild. Trinity Sunday, 1894.