This Sunday at Trinity
December 28, 2025
Readings
First Lesson: Genesis 3:1-15
Adam and Eve rebel against God and are cast out of the Garden of Eden.
Second Lesson: Isaiah 11:1-3a, 4a, 6-9
The peace that Christ will bring is foreshown.
Third Lesson: Luke 1:26-58
The Angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she will bear the Son of the Most High.
Fourth Lesson: Luke 2:1-20
Jesus is born at Bethlehem and is worshipped by angels and shepherds.
Fifth Lesson: John 1:1-18
St. John unfolds the great mystery of the Incarnation.
Preaching this Sunday
The Rev. Joanna Leiserson
Service
We offer two services on Sundays: our 8am and 10am services. Read more about each service below.
TED - Trinity Enlightened Discussion Topic
Coffee Hour
The service of Lessons and Carols dates from Christmas Eve 1880 at Truro Cathedral, which was then a wooden shed before the present building. The service has been made world famous by King’s College, Cambridge, which first did the service in 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s after experience as an army chaplain which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. Since 1919, the opening hymn has been “Once in royal David’s city,” which is our opening hymn today.
Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595-1663) was a pupil of his father, the organist of St. Catherine’s, Hamburg. He studied with Sweelinck in Amsterdam from 1611 to 1614 with his study subsidized by the church. Probably in 1627, certainly by 1629, he followed his father at St. Catherine’s which had one of the most celebrated and largest organs of his time. The variations on Vom Himmel hoch (From heaven above to earth I come) show the North German style of the period. The third and fourth variations are continuous.
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) was born in Grand Rapids, but spent most of his life in Chicago. He was educated at the American Conservatory, where he later became Chairman of the Composition Department. He began to use jazz in his compositions in the 1920s, which we will hear in today’s anthem.
The text of today’s anthem is as follows:
Here betwixt ass and oxen mild,
Sleep, sleep, sleep my little child.
Angels from on high hover in the sky,
Keeping watch above the incarnate God of love.
Here in the crib secure from harms,
Sleep, sleep in your mother’s arms.
Angels from on high hover in the sky,
Keeping watch above the incarnate God of love.
Here betwixt rose and lily white,
Sleep, sleep, sleep my son tonight.
Angels from on high hover in the sky,
Keeping watch above the incarnate God of love.
On this fair night of holy joy,
Sleep, sleep, sleep my little boy.
Angels from on high hover in the sky,
Keeping watch above the incarnate God of love.
Children’s Worship
Open from 9:45am to 12:15pm, providing a safe and welcoming space for our youngest members.
Meet in the Godly Play Room, past the restrooms on the first floor.
Meet in Meeting Room 2 on the second floor during the 10am service.
Meet in Meeting Room 5, upstairs down the ramp past the restrooms during the 10am service.
