The construction of the church buildings housing the Trinity congregation and community programs joined three distinctive early twentieth personalities, Katherine Duer MacKay, Stanford White and Louis Comfort Tiffany. Together their lives typify a relationship unique to the "American Renaissance" in the arts in which the great American fortunes, having been spectacularly made, were conspicuously spent, lavished on Fifth Avenue palaces, Long Island homes and countless churches all over the land. These times created an unheard of partnership between patron and architect, architect and artist-craftsman.

Katherine Duer Mackay, beautiful, vivacious, determined and opinionated, was the wife of Clarence Mackay, future mother-in-law of Irving Berlin and daughter-in-law of John Mackay, "the Silver King." On Christmas Day, 1905, she announced her decision to build Trinity's Parish House as a memorial to her father, William Alexander Duer. A few weeks later, she decided to replace the existing church, a "board and batten" Gothic Revival structure built in 1862. The new church, to be designed, like the Parish House, by Stanford White, would be a memorial to her mother, Ellin Travers Duer, and would cost 'not more than $40,000 plus $5,000 for landscaping.

Stanford White (1853-1906), one of America's most famous architects, had a profound impact on the look of America both in the "Gilded Age" and even today. Commissions include Washington Square Arch, Judson Memorial Church, the first Madison Square Garden, the old Garden City Motel, the Boston Public Library, Columbia University and numerous private palaces. His career ended abruptly. Millionaire Harry K. Thaw shot him in Madison Square Garden in a fit of jealousy concerning Thaw’s wife.

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) was a contemporary and close to Stanford White both personally and professionally. They frequently collaborated on projects, though there is no direct evidence that they did so at Trinity. Tiffany, an indefatigable experimentalist, gifted with surpassing ability and imagination, produced paintings, bronzes, enamels, ceramics and jewelry, but also worked at textile design, interior design and architecture.

He is best known today for his glass. Windows signed by and attributed to him at Trinity light the west transept: Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Jacob's Dream and Jesus with the Woman at the Well. Above them is a rose window dominated by a gold glass jeweled cross. Over the altar is the fifteen foot "Creation", a dramatic depiction of God with his hand raised in rays of light, "And let there be light" (Genesis 1:3).

Click images to see enlarged versions.

"Creation"

"Jacob's Dream"

"Faith, Hope & Charity"

"Moses Viewing the Promised Land"

1 Corinthians - CHAPTER 13 (Read By Joanne's Brother John)

Excellence of the Gift of Love.

1 Now I will show you the way which surpasses all the others. If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and, with full knowledge, comprehend all mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish.

5 Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries.

6 Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth.

7 There is no limit to love's forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.

8 Love never fails. Prophecies will cease, tongues will be silent, knowledge will pass away.

9 Our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect.

10 When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

11 When I was a child I used to talk like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man I put childish ways aside.

12 Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. My knowledge is imperfect now; then I shall know even as I am known.

13 There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

Ephesians 4 (Read By Scott's Sister Stacy)

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

John 15

9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

What is a Soul Mate?
(Read By Joanne's Aunt Rosie)

If you have found a smile
that is the sweetest one you've known,
If you have heard, within a voice,
the echoes of your own,
If you have felt a touch
that stirs the longings of your heart,
And still can feel that closeness
in the moments you're apart,
If you have filled with wonder
at the way two lives can blend
To weave a perfect pattern
that is seamless, end to end,
If you believe some things in life
are simply meant to be,
Then you have found your soul mate,
your heart's own destiny.
--Emily Matthews