Holy Trinity Anglican uses art to spread the Word
Holy Trinity Anglican Church has a tag line: Making Christ visible through the arts
There is one clear advantage Holy Trinity Anglican Church rector Chris Pappas has over other Edmonton actors. If there’s a play, musical or opera at his church that includes a man of the cloth — from Fiddler on the Roof to Pagliacci — Pappas doesn’t even have to audition.
“There is an unwritten law,” said Pappas with a small, but mischievous, smile. “I get to play the priest.”
This kind of favouritism does not appear to foment discontent among the dozens of actors, musicians, poets and playwrights that think of Holy Trinity (10037 84 Ave.) as their church, and their muse. The church is so popular among choirs, pianists, visual artists and theatre folk that its performance venues book upwards of a year in advance.
This is not just because Holy Trinity has three arts spaces seating a total of 775 audience members, including 350 in the main worship area of the 114-year-old, clinker-brick building. It’s also the plethora of toys on-site. The church is decked out with professionalquality equipment, such as full-on theatrical lighting in the basement performance space, a riser system, plus a sound board and a top-notch Yamaha C7 concert grand piano, perfect for graduating recitals.
But anyone who attends to the spirit knows the church is not about the toys. Holy Trinity Anglican has become a bustling performance space because the church puts art at the heart of its ministry, a perspective that has only increased in breadth and depth since Pappas took over the parish seven years ago.
“This was my eighth Fringe,” is how Pappas describes the length of his tenure, noting the church’s Fringe participation has increased from two or three shows when he first arrived to 19 different plays mounted in nearly 100 performances this past August.
But live theatre is just the beginning at Holy Trinity, which nourishes numerous niches within the arts spectrum — including visual art, music, choral work and dance.
“We want to provide good, lowcost, life-affirming arts for the community, and provide a safe place for all artists to do what they want to do,” Pappas said. “Making Christ visible through the arts is our tag line.”
Five city choirs rehearse in the church, including the Da Camera Singers, I Coristi Chamber Choir and Edmonton Young Voices. There is a resident musical theatre group and an opera company (The Trinity Players and Pop Goes the Opera, respectively). The Vaughan String Quartet bows regularly, and local poet Margaret Macpherson is the writer in residence.
“People ask us, ‘Are you a concert venue or a church?’ The answer is yes,” Pappas said. “For us, this is ministry.”
The church’s location in the heart of Old Strathcona contributes to its arts culture.
“It’s a hip community here, and we are part of that community,” said John Brough, the church’s musical director.
Many of the artists who perform in the church consider it their parish, even if they aren’t on the official membership roster of 600 families.
“(The artists) come to the blessing of the cast in the productions at Fringe,” Pappas said. “They come up and talk to me outside (the Fringe shows) and we minister to them, then.”
Some money to cover the plethora of arts events comes from Trinity’s basic budget of $500,000 per year. Pappas also applies for grants to cover outreach, which includes an art program for clients at Youth Employment and Support Services. Holy Trinity has a mission in Haiti, and Pappas brings arts and crafts back from his trips there, which are sold at the church to raise funds for the mission.
Holy Trinity’s goal is to cover its costs, not make money on artistic endeavours. Artists access performance space for as little as $5 for a rehearsal. Performers give back to the church community by helping with on-site events. For instance, Grindstone Theatre, the church’s resident improv and musical theatre troupe, organizes the church’s children’s pageant at Christmas.
“If you use our space, you become a partner,” Pappas said. “It’s a wonderful give and take relationship.”
Since Pappas arrived with his emphasis on arts, average weekly attendance at Sunday service has gone from 148 to 213. People are also giving more money to the church. Pappas links donations toward a recent $1 million restoration of the church organ to the congregation’s support for the arts ministry, with half of that donation coming from one anonymous donor.
It’s show time at Script Salon, a gathering of live theatre fans held the second Sunday of each month in the Upper Arts Space at Holy Trinity. Folks trickle in a few at a time, deposit a bill in the donation jar at the entrance and pick up a program before heading to the concession to buy a glass of wine.
Some visitors wander around the perimeter of the room before the staged reading of a new work, look at a rotating gallery of paintings created by local artists and curated by Gerald St. Maur, who is responsible for organizing and hanging the art at Trinity.
Holy Trinity gave Script Salon organizers seed money when the play-reading series started nearly four years ago but, since then, costs have been covered by donations, as well as program advertising and actor sponsorships.
Script Salon features worksin-progress, primarily by Edmonton playwrights. Forty-five playwrights have had their work featured at Script Salon, which hires Actors Equity performers to read the scripts aloud, bringing life to the playwright’s words. Of the 67 plays read, 31 have gone on to full production.
“In hearing the audience’s reaction, the playwrights get lots of feedback on how to rewrite and take the script to the next level,” says Script Salon producer Katherine Koller, noting 60 to 80 audience members attend weekly. “It’s a way for the audience to feel like they are part of the show.”
For those who struggle to see play-reading as a religious experience (it’s true some plays are more transcendent than others), Pappas offers a simple explanation.
“We’re being church at 10:30 on a Sunday morning, or at a noon concert, at Script Salon, or an art exhibit,” Pappas said. “These are all manifestations of church.”
Sitting on a couch in the waiting area of his church office, which exudes the warm and churchy smell of coffee and carpets, Pappas notes Canadian culture puts faith in a box. He says it’s time to get outside that stuffy space.
“It’s personal, private and it happens Sunday morning in your building. That’s what we are told about faith,” Pappas said. “I say that is false. Our faith is meant to be public, at all times and in all places and aspects of our lives. At work, home, the supermarket, on the street, doing dishes. These are all opportunities and, especially, when we are engaging with art.”
Brough agrees with that perspective. For 20 years, he’s been producing music at Trinity. A music professor at Concordia University of Edmonton, Brough works with the church’s organ and choral scholars, and books all the arts events, including the church’s free concert series.
Art, he says, is a means to transport us, “and it’s different for everybody.”
When people come to a church performance of Brahms’ German Requiem, thought to have been inspired by the death of the great composer’s mother, they are drawn by the music to an emotional experience.
“People relate to personal loss, and the music brings them to a quiet, meditative space,” said Brough, who is also director of Da Camera Singers. “Music is a powerful tool to allow people to interpret in their own way. It’s more than producing a concert. There is a healing factor.”
Pappas thinks of Holy Trinity’s arts ministry as religious conversion by stealth. He points to a large mounted print in the church office, depicting Christ on the cross.
“There is art about the light,” he said, gesturing to the traditional representation of the son of God. “And there is art that depicts what the light reveals about the world. That is what we do here.
“When you go to Henry the Fifth, you are seeing the human condition. How we overcome grief. How we hope. How we are connected to something larger. All this remind us there is more to life than what we experience every day. You are seeing God revealed in the works of the world, through art of all types.”