By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Pastor Chuck Swanson began the Sunday morning service at Trinity Community Church by asking the worshippers to join him in song.
It was not just any song, but a hymn written especially about the charming, tiny white church that is located in Townsends Inlet near the ocean in Sea Isle City.
“There’s a fine little church at the inlet. No lovelier place at the sea. No spot is more dear to the Christian … than this dear little church is to me.”
“O come to the church at the inlet. O come to our church at the sea,” the hymn says in the opening lines.
For 99 years, the “fine little church at the inlet” has been welcoming parishioners to its steeple-topped sanctuary at 85th Street and Landis Avenue. It is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2023.
Remarkably, the church has survived for so many years in a seashore town where so many other buildings that once surrounded it have been wiped out by coastal storms or succumbed to redevelopment.
In recent years, the nondenominational church has been refurbished, including a new coat of white paint, repairs to the steeple and improvements to the grounds.
Trinity’s future remains secure as a church. The deed to the property stipulates that it must remain a church, protecting it from ever being sold or redeveloped. Even if a catastrophe such as a hurricane destroyed the existing structure, a church would be the only building that would take its place, Swanson noted.
The church will celebrate its 100th anniversary on July 15, 2023. Swanson expressed hope that Trinity would survive another 100 years after that.
“God has been very faithful in supporting this church. Another 100 years, perhaps?” he said during his Sunday sermon.
The church property is held in a trust set up by the Lutheran Synod of New Jersey, but is owned by the Trinity Community Church Corp., a group controlled by a board of directors comprised of parishioners, Swanson said.
It was originally called the Trinity Lutheran Community Church. The name was changed to Trinity Community Church decades ago, after the Lutherans stopped sending a pastor to Sea Isle. At that time, the church became ecumenical.
Sunday marked the last service that the church will have for the year. As usual, the church conducts summer services coinciding with the busy tourism season and then closes for the rest of the year when Sea Isle is quieter. Swanson said the off-season will be used to plan for the 100th anniversary celebration.
“We have lots to think about and do,” Swanson, 66, Trinity’s pastor for 12 years, told the parishioners.
Swanson said in an interview that the church’s cornerstone might be removed for the first time to mark the 100th anniversary.
“We have a list of what’s in there,” he said of the contents of the cornerstone.
During the height of the summer tourism season, the quaint church typically attracts 25 to 40 worshippers each Sunday. The capacity is 50 people. Old chairs line the aisle on either side of the pews to accommodate larger crowds. On Sunday, there were nearly 30 parishioners for the last service of the year.
Filling the sanctuary was music played by organist Shawn Quigley, pianist Bev Goshow and flutist Andria Swanson, Pastor Swanson’s wife.
Parishioners Donna Welch, 72, and Sue Mallon, 74, who are cousins, have been attending church at Trinity ever since they were little girls. Their grandfather, Emil Schneider, helped to build the church in the 1920s.
“We are like the patriarchs of the church,” Mallon said of her family’s longtime association with Trinity.
Welch noted that her late parents, Ruth Schneider and Vito Di Vincenzo, were devoted to the church.
“I just know that when I come here, there is a calmness and deep spirituality. I feel very close to my family,” said Welch, who lives in Media, Pa., and has a summer place in Sea Isle on 86th Street.
Mallon, who lives in Newtown, Pa., also pointed out just how special the church is to their family.
“Our heart is always here,” she said.
Without missing a beat, Mallon, with a smile, added, “And which church is so special that it has its own song?”
