Today we’d like to introduce you to Reverend Dr. Peter M, Antoci.
Hi Reverend Peter, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The story of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upper Marlboro is one of death and resurrection.
On a beautiful, late summer evening in 2023, one of the children at a new biweekly Friday enrichment program was playing outside our church café with her peers, and she looked up to see a magnificent rainbow spanning the skies over Upper Marlboro. In that moment she pointed and exclaimed: God’s promise! That is what this story is about: God’s promise.
One of the things, which the pandemic and other events of the past several years have taught us, is that the need to maintain and promote connections between individuals and communities, has never been greater. Perhaps the Church has always known this, but we are learning it ever more deeply in these times of changing patterns in attendance, participation, and giving. Though 2019 was not that great to begin with, neither we nor the Church will ever see it again. We are in a new time, with its own kinds of challenges.
Trinity was founded in 1810, and quickly grew to become one of the most important community spaces in the Town of Upper Marlboro. This growth continued into the 1980’s. However, like many local churches, a period of decline set in. When I arrived in the summer of 2022, we were down to 8 members. But Trinity Church has undergone a rebirth as Trinity Mission. With the help of the Holy Spirit, a new cadre of leaders, and support from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, we have been able to translate the efforts of a faithful remnant of highly creative and energized leaders into the warp and weft of a new church community. Our membership is up to 40 now, and growing. This new church community is learning how to use our space for ministry much more effectively, and that has greatly reduced the amount of time we spend worrying about money. It has also made it possible to direct the majority of our efforts outside of our walls and into the community around us. That is the key to all community based work: an outward-looking focus.
Trinity also has an historic church, built in 1846, but this is NOT a museum! It is a living community space. The church is connected by a breezeway to a smaller building, which contains the accessibility elevator, and used to house youth programs. Next to that is a large parking lot, and a large program building, with a parish hall. All of these spaces were underused, and of course they require a lot of funding and TLC to keep them operable. We no longer had the funds to do that. This challenged us to think creatively about what space we needed for our ministry today, and what space might be put to better use in serving the community. Make no mistake: it is always difficult to reimagine spaces that host beautiful memories of prayer, study, and fellowship. So changing how we use these spaces took more than creativity. It took courage. Our Mission Committee (i.e. Board of Directors) rose to the challenge. We realized that while we did not have cash, we did have assets: God’s grace, our people, and our property. In addition to continuing our historic support of the local food bank, this adaptive reuse of space has made possible is new community initiatives, like our Black History Month Artists’ Showcase (which features works from the students of local schools), and our Autumn Blessing of the Animals and Parade of the Pets (which is a fundraiser for our local animal shelter). These outwardly-focused programs are an expression of our desire to be a blessing to the community around us.
Through community connections, our creative leaders identified and engaged other community-based organizations who needed quality space for their own programs. We were fortunate to find two other faith communities that were searching for a new home. This has yielded multiple and unexpected blessings in community collaboration and mutual support.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Cleaning, painting, and fixing years of deferred maintenance and capital repairs is a major challenge. All of it is now a beautiful, bright, and flexible multi-use space.We also had to reshuffle ourselves, and so Trinity moved our program space to the lower level of our program building, which include a new cafe space! Of course, this was quite a task. It necessitated a six-month process of cleaning things out, and moving our own parish office over to the small building next to the church, which a member generously renovated for us. Cleaning out church property is no small task. Cleaning out an historic church property with a two-hundred-year+ history is a mammoth one! But our dedicated leaders (called the Willing Wonder Workers) rose to the occasion. Now, every space on our campus is being used again, completely dedicated to community purposes, which of course was their original purpose! This undertaking has greatly enhanced our financial sustainability, and given us possibilities for new kinds of ministry in our community.
We are now finding other blessings as a result of this adaptive reuse of space. There is now a “trinity of churches” at Trinity, Upper Marlboro. Of course we are learning lessons about how we might best live together. In the meantime, other blessings have emerged from this collaboration. When we needed a new music director, our partners in ministry helped us find one. When we needed an IT person to assist us with better streaming technology for our Sunday Service, they knew just who could help us. Since we are well established in Upper Marlboro, we are helping them connect better with their new neighborhood. Our leaders, pastors, and members occasionally meet to review various programs and ideas, and to collaborate on possibilities for joint community outreach.
Two years ago, Trinity was looking at the very real possibility of closing. Yet, with faithfulness, courage, and boldness, a future with new ministry lies ahead. We started with a core of 8 people that has now grown to over 40 members. Trinity Mission took the risk of imagining a new future. With God’s help, and a lot of creativity, energy, and courage, an historic, 216-year-old church has turned a major corner into 21st Century of ministry!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have been an Episcopal priest for 25 years, and in that time I have had the joy of serving in many different ministries: from school to university chaplain, from pastor to a regional leader, from teacher to mentor. Before ordination I was privileged to serve in community based nonprofits, providing housing and other services to urban communities. I guess I have always found joy in working with community groups that are ready to move into new stages of vitality and service. It is a remarkable thing to witness compassion moving from inside people’s hearts out into the world where it is most real and most needed!
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Cities are places full of life! That means they express all that is good, complicated, and challenging in life. That’s true of Baltimore, Washington, and all the towns in between. They are collections of neighborhoods – smaller communities that are microcosms of a much larger quilt of life!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.trinityuppermarlboro.org
- Address: 14515 Church Street, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
- Email: parishadmin@trinityuppermarlboro.org
- Phone: 301-627-2636
