Fifty years after its founding as an institution seeking to renew the Episcopal Church, Trinity Anglican Seminary now seeks to establish itself as a central hub within the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and broaden beyond its history of low churchmanship.
Inaugurated in 1975 as Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, the school in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, restyled itself as Trinity Anglican Seminary in 2024.
The change to incorporate Anglican in the institution’s name was noteworthy as an increasing number of Protestant institutions eschewed denominational labels, perceiving them as less marketable as nondenominational Christianity grew. But Trinity’s new name signaled a change in more than just branding.
“We seek to educate ‘the whole candlestick,’” said the Rev. Alex Banfield Hicks, Trinity’s Vice President of Advancement. Banfield Hicks led a campus tour for delegates to the ACNA Provincial Council, which met June 18-20 at the school’s newly consecrated Trophimus Center, which is named for the companion of St. Paul mentioned in Acts and 2 Timothy.
Formerly Union Presbyterian Church, the center and its Good Shepherd Chapel were consecrated on May 16 by ACNA Archbishop Emeritus Robert Duncan, opening the space as a conference and events facility. Expansion of Trinity’s campus has come as a number of other seminaries have either liquidated properties to free up cash and reduce debt or have concluded residential programs and shifted to online and hybrid models of education. Most recently, Luther Seminary has announced plans to move from its historic campus in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Provincial Council served as something of a “coming out party” for Trinity as a school specifically aiming to form seminarians for ministry within ACNA. While the school is not unfamiliar to most ACNA clergy and bishops (several ACNA diocesan bishops are graduates) it has expanded its reach and in May of 2024 reported an 89 percent increase in applications over the previous year.
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Comment by Thomas on July 8, 2025 at 5:31 pm
Very good news. Many people wonder when Nashotah House will follow? They are fully aligned with ACNA and GAFCON concerning the sanctity of human life and the nature of marriage, but there still a reasonable number of TEC “conservatives” there. I would like to see some of the “conservatives” remaining at TEC taking a strong stance for the defence of the sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death, and the sacred nature of marriage as the union of a man and a woman, but we all know this will not happen. The general tendency in TEC is to replace them for revisionists and as such this post-Christian church will vanish in few decades, perhaps even less time.
Comment by Dennis Crowley on July 13, 2025 at 2:38 pm
Candlesticks are fine as long as they do not compromise or interfere with the mission of the church. The purpose of the church is evangelism (leading people to Christ- for forgiveness of their sins through confession and repentance of sins and trust in Christ alone for forgiveness, John 3:3. The second purpose is discipleship; 2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I attended a singles ministry at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda Maryland for many years. This church is one of the most evangelical Bible-based congregations in the nation. Yet I met many many elderly people who had been in the church for years who were not Christians, trying to earn justification through works and self effort.