We are Holy Trinity
God’s work, carried out by dedicated staff and amazing volunteers
We are a community of people passionate about welcoming folks from all walks of life. We are inspired to practice radical hospitality because of God’s joyful gift of love for us and all people. We are called to share God’s love with you and with the community we serve. Here are some of the people who help make that happen:
Susan Lindberg Haley
Interim Minister
Deacon Susan is an ELCA Minister of Word and Service serving on the retired roster of the New England Synod. She comes alive in worshiping with the diversity of people whom the Holy Spirit calls and gathers to be church together. She has a Master’s Degree in Ministerial Studies from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, a MA in clinical psychology from Xavier University in Cincinnati, and a BA in psychology and sociology from Boston College.
Rita Corey
Director of Music
Rita Corey has served as the Organist/Choir Director since Fall of 2012. She received a B.A. in Music (Organ) University of Rochester. In addition to her work at Holy Trinity, Rita teaches piano at All Newton Music School. She has sung as an alto with Coro Allegro (Boston’s LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus) since the fall of 2003), and also enjoys hiking in the woods anywhere, growing vegetables, herbs and flowers organically, and raising monarch and swallowtail butterflies.
Kim Zarrella
Sexton
Kim Zarrella started working as the Sexton for the church after retiring from “Mother Earth,” the gardening company she founded in 1987. She finds the church to be a very peaceful place to work. In her spare time she enjoys photography, raising her grandchildren, and working with plants and animals in her yard. She also loves jigsaw puzzles, painting nature scenes, and playing chess.
Want to get involved?
We’re a small congregation with big ideas, and we rely on community leaders to step up and make them happen. Want to help?
Our immigrant roots
Holy Trinity has a rich history of welcoming the stranger whose first members were new-comers from Sweden carving out a life for themselves in a foreign land bringing with them their own worship practices and religious beliefs. As those first gatherers acclimated they shed many of their immigrant identities including the word “Swedish” from the name of the church. Throughout our history we remember our immigrant roots as we welcomed the stranger by providing a home for two immigrant families – one from Cambodia and another from Vietnam. Later we made a strong and intentional welcome of people who identify as LGBTQI+, and witness to the community by hosting an annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Service.
As early as 1865, Swedish immigrants began arriving from their home-land to North Easton, an attractive community in which to live and work. With an interest in preserving their Lutheran heritage, these immigrants first began gathering in their homes to worship in their native language and with their native customs.
Holy Trinity is a congregation of the ELCA
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with nearly 3.3 million members and almost 9000 congregations. Within the ELCA community are seminaries, colleges and social service agencies.
The New England Synod
While governed directly by their members, ELCA congregations are loosely organized into regional “Synods.” Synods are staffed by a bishop and a full-time staff; congregations send voting members to annual synod assemblies. Holy Trinity is a member of the ELCA New England Synod.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Formed in 1988 through a merger of three major North American Lutheran Churches, the ELCA is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and serves as the national organization for affiliated congregations in the United States.
Worldwide Partnerships
ELCA has strong ties to world-wide organizations as well such as the Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches, and the ELCA World Hunger program. In addition, we have official “full communion” relationships with other Christian denominations including the Moravian Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church.
Wait, so you’re Evangelical?
Not in the way the word is used in today’s American culture! The term word “evangelical” derives from the Greek work euangelion, meaning “gospel” or “good news,” and the Latinized version of it was first used by Martin Luther in the 1500s to describe those who professed belief in the good news of Jesus Christ. In American culture, the term has become a synonymous with conservative branches of the Christian faith, and has more recently become associated with certain forms of Christian nationalist politics. Holy Trinity (and the ELCA more broadly) use the term in its original sense as a signifier of belief in salvation through God’s grace. So while we are indeed an “evangelical” congregation in the original Lutheran sense, we aren’t “Evangelical” in the way the term is commonly used in modern American culture.