New Lime Rock pastor welcomes one and all

LIME ROCK — Visitors to Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock can expect a “radical welcome and radical hospitality,� said the Rev. Heidi Truax, who was officially installed as vicar at a special service Friday, Jan. 8.

“We try very hard to welcome everybody who walks in,� said Truax, a slight woman with gingery hair and a quick smile.

The church gets visitors who are in town for the auto races at Lime Rock Park, people who are “church shopping,� or who just happen to drop in.

“It doesn’t matter why you come,� said Truax.

She believes the church must be accessible to be successful.

“No longer is church a place where people come in and have the priest talk. We have a huge lay leadership here. All have an equal role� in the life of the parish, which she says has about 80 families — all of whom she plans to visit in their homes.

“Everybody is at a different point of the spiritual journey,� she said. “We don’t demand that a person sign on to any doctrine.The important thing is that we offer companionship along the way.�

Truax and her husband, Philip, came to the Northwest Corner from California in 1981, operated computer stores, started an Internet service provider and raised four sons.

When their youngest son was grown, in 1997, Truax felt a need to do something different, and entered a program for lay church leaders to investigate whether they had a calling for the priesthood. She entered Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in January 2001 and was ordained as a deacon in June 2005 and as a priest in January 2006.

She has served in Southport, Conn., Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and now Lime Rock.

The Central American experience was especially rewarding.

“Kids don’t usually go on to college there, so there were a lot of teenagers in the congregation. And if they wanted to know what was going on, they had to come to the church — they couldn’t look at the Web site, or read the newsletter, because there wasn’t one.�

That intergenerational connection is one she wants to nurture at Trinity Lime Rock.

“I love the intergenerational nature of a congregational family,� she said. “You don’t have grandparents living at home anymore, but in church we function as an intergenerational family.�

The church sponsors activities that bring generations together. For instance, an older parishioner who is an accomplished woodworker helped the children of the parish build birdhouses — and they talked while they worked.

“The kids enjoy hearing older members tell stories. So much is learned, there’s so much growth — in both directions.�

She plans to get more of the parish children involved — as acolytes or in reading lessons — and there will be a monthly children’s Sunday, with youngsters as ushers and readers.

And the activities aren’t confined to the home front. The young people will also go bowling, work in a soup kitchen and go on an overnight trip to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

“I’ve always been focused on kids,� she said, adding that it’s important that “teenagers know how important they are to the church.�

Truax is also enthusiastic about the work of Trinity Lime Rock’s musical director, Christine Gevert. “A beautiful church and beautiful music� certainly helps make the newcomer feel welcome, she said.

She added: “The world hurts people enough. The church should be a place of acceptance.�