Trinity Talks
Throughout the year, Trinity Church hosts events at the intersection of sacred and civic life. Trinity Talks educate, inform, and inspire – providing in-person opportunities to engage with writers, artists, and thinkers who deepen our understanding on issues of faith, social justice, and community.
Coming Up
An Exploration of Mysticism with Mirabai Starr
The writer reflects on the sacredness of ordinary life.
November 24, 1-2:30pm, St. Paul's Chapel
Author Mirabai Starr will share wisdom from her new book, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground, which challenges readers to discover the extraordinary in the everyday. Grounded in lessons from spiritual teachers across the centuries and informed by her own experiences of heartbreak, Starr’s teachings offer an antidote to despair in these turbulent times, and a roadmap back to our common humanity.
After reading selections from her book, Starr will be in conversation with the Rev. Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, Director of Spiritual Formation at the Trinity Retreat Center.
Mirabai Starr is an author and speaker who travels the world to share insights on contemplative living, writing as a spiritual practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. Starr spent 20 years teaching philosophy and world religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos. She has written over a dozen books, receiving critical acclaim for her revolutionary contemporary translations of the mystics John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila, and Julian of Norwich. Starr teaches seminars, workshops, and retreats, both in person and through her online community, Wild Heart.
12pm – Doors open
1pm – Program begins
2pm – Book signing
Please note: Registration for this free event is highly recommended since seating is limited and ticketholders will be admitted first. We welcome standby attendees on a first-come, first-served basis.
Christian Wiman | The Practice of Christian Hope
February 9, Trinity Commons
Poet and Yale Divinity School professor Christian Wiman will discuss faith as a practice of Christian hope, touching on themes in his recent book, Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair. For Wiman, the antidote to despair is awe.
James McBride | Race, Religion and the Ties That Bind
March 30, Trinity Commons
Award-winning author James McBride will share reflections on themes explored in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, his bestselling novel about how love and community sustain us.
Past Events
A Conversation with Amanda Ripley
Journalist Amanda Ripley’s book, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, introduces a mind-opening way of thinking about conflict that will transform how we move through the world. Drawing from her experiences as a reporter and trained conflict mediator, Ripley came to Trinity on October 27 to shed light on how Americans can break out of destructive feuds and find common ground.
Amanda Ripley is a New York Times bestselling author, Washington Post contributing columnist, and co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict.
A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat
On October 22, award-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat discussed Brother, I'm Dying, a poignant memoir about her family’s decision to flee escalating violence in Haiti and seek asylum in America. Drawing on her family’s collective memory, her own experiences, and government documentation, Danticat highlighted the potentially deadly consequences of U.S. immigration policy, while demonstrating how a family’s bonds of love can survive distance, loss, and tragedy.
The recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” grant, Danticat is the bestselling author of several notable books and has written articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, and other publications.
A Conversation with Pico Iyer | Finding Peace in Troubled Times
Acclaimed author, journalist, and travel writer Pico Iyer opened the 2024-25 season of Trinity Talks on September 22 with a discussion of his recent bestseller, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise. Drawing on a lifetime of global explorations, Iyer examined competing ideas of paradise to see how we might find peace in an ever more divided and distracted world.
Pico Iyer is the author of 15 books and a regular essayist for Time, The New York Times, Harper’s, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler , and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide.
A Conversation with Author Frank Bruni
In his powerful book, The Age of Grievance, best-selling author and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni examines how grievance has defined and shaped America — from the fierce debates of our Founding Fathers to today’s perilous climate of metastasizing anger. But while our politics and culture may seem irretrievably broken, Bruni says there are cures for what ails us.
Hear a compelling discussion between Bruni and the Rev. Phillip A. Jackson about how the U.S. became a divided land, and what it will take to break the hold of our grudges.
A Conversation with Author Marilynne Robinson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson discussed her book, Reading Genesis, “a powerful consideration of the profound meanings [of scripture] and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity.”
Robinson’s novels are noted for their thematic depiction of both rural life and faith. Her essays have spanned numerous topics, including the relationship between religion and science, US history, nuclear pollution, John Calvin, and contemporary American politics.
A Conversation with Author Richard Powers
Bestselling author Richard Powers discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory, and explores our relationship with nature, our understanding of time, and the defiant act of hope in the face of the climate crisis.
Powers is the author of thirteen novels, including The Overstory and Orfeo, and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award.
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