Trinity Lime Rock turns 150

LIME ROCK — Trinity Episcopal Church celebrated its 150th anniversary in low-key fashion Sunday, May 26.

Geoff Brown provided some historical background.

The church was built by U.S. Senator William Barnum, a resident of Lime Rock, and opened in 1874.

The Barnums took their horse-drawn carriage to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury on Sundays. A popular post-service activity was a carriage race back to Lime Rock.

The senator enjoyed it, anyway. He almost always won.

His wife, not so much.

After a particularly muddy race back, in which Barnum did not win, Mrs. Barnum said something along the lines of, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an Episcopal church in Lime Rock?”

Barnum took the hint.

Brown said the church building (not the subsequent additions) was built before there was an official parish.

The first priest at the church was Father Milledge Walker, a Canadian. Brown said Walker’s appointment represented the third try to find someone for the post.

“Possibly because of the guy running things,” i.e. Barnum.

The May 26 service stressed the concept of the Holy Trinity. Rev. Heidi Truax’s sermon featured children from the Sunday School drawing their ideas of what the Trinity looks like and means on paper and easels set up in front.

Truax said she got the idea from the “chalk talks” delivered by the late Rev. Aaron Manderbach, a retired priest who lived in the Northwest Corner and served as interim priest whenever one of the Episcopal parishes in the area had a vacancy.

Truax said the chalk talks, in which Manderbach would talk a bit, draw on the blackboard, talk some more, and so on until he made his point both orally and visually, were a huge hit with everyone, even her own squirmy youngsters.

She attempted to replicate the chalk talks for her own sermons, with disappointing results.

“It would help if I could draw.”

For the May 26 service, she hit on the idea of having the Sunday School students handle the art while she delivered the sermon.