TRINITY TIMES Winter 2017
Parish Church of Holy Trinity Kew Cnr. High Street & Pakington Street, Kew 3101
The Vicar’s Letter Dear Parishioners, On this festival, The Holy Trinity, we celebrate one of the great treasures and mysteries of the church — the Doctrine of The Holy Trinity. When we begin to rationally approach the Trinity we can quickly become sidetracked, muddled and confused and brush it all off as too complicated. Now is an opportunity to plumb a small part of its depths and meaning in the creation. The word “Trinity” never made it into the Old Testament nor in the gospels. It is not in any of Paul’s epistles. You’ll find it nowhere in the entire New Testament. Nonetheless, the roots, the trunk, the branches, the essence of the Trinity tree flowers and blooms throughout the Bible. In the Great Commission, Jesus instructs his disciples to baptise “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The apostle Paul underscores the reality of the Trinity in 2 Corinthians 13:13, with a blessing to the Corinthian church, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” The term “Trinity” was first used by Theophilus of Antioch around 180 AD. Then the doctrine itself was hammered out at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. The Trinity has had a tough go over the centuries. The Trinity has been much maligned, and ridiculed. The cults today have no interest or patience with the “trinity.” The Jehovah’s Witnesses hate it. The Mormons despise it. The Unification church attacks it. So the church over the millennia have developed three special guardians finally worked out at the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople. These three special guardians. Every time you and I worship they stand inside and outside the church without fail. One probably doesn’t notice them but they are supported by a more obvious set of symbols which stand in the stained glass windows, in the shape of windows, kneelers and carvings all around us. They are in our Invocation, Sentence, Gloria and Hymns. They have names. Their last name is Credo (I believe) from which we get the word “creed.” Their first names are Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian. They are good friends and loyal protectors of the Trinity. They refuse to put up with any rubbish from the cults, the new agers or any distorters of orthodox Christianity. When sincere, but misled, cult members knock on your door, push a tract in your hand, and say foolish things like, “Jesus is brother to the devil,” “Jesus was married and has children in heaven,” or “Jesus was a lesser god, a created being,” these guardians shout throughout the ages, “No way!” Because of this, on Holy Trinity Sunday and every Sunday, Christians respond to God’s grace by doing several important things. We recite the creeds and we enunciate the Trinity over and over again in our liturgy. Many churches have or had on the arch leading to the sanctuary “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Its our Churches dedication- there are Trinity symbols everywhere! If you look for them. We sing “Joy To The World” and celebrate Christmas. We sing “Away In A Manger” and “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” When we celebrate not only the birth but also the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we add to our anthems, “My Song Is Love Unknown,” “There Is Green Hill Far Away” and “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”. On Ascension and Pentecost we may sing “The Head That once was Crowned in Thorns” “Lord Enthroned in Heavenly Splendour” and “Come Down O Love Divine” and today on the Feast of the Holy Trinity: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea; Holy, Holy, Holy! merciful and mighty, God in three persons, Blessed Trinity” with the noncoincidental tune NICEA. As our Hymn “Holy Holy Holy” resonates at the most basic level we all first experience God as creator. I recall the reports from astronomers who scan the stars, the planets, the galaxies and they tell us creation is still going on. Look around you. “The heavens,” the psalmist sang, “are telling the glory of God.” Psalm 8 chants, “When I consider the heavens, what is man?”
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