Trinity's Top 10 Videos of 2022

The holiday season is a time of traditions so let’s renew a custom we’ve observed for several years now by reviewing the Top 10 videos of the year from the website of Trinity Church Wall Street and its social media platforms. 

We’ll review the videos in reverse order, beginning with an eleventh we call Honorable Mention, a video about a ministry at Trinity that was brand-new in 2022, Trinity Youth Afterschool, and that already serves more than 800 students in grades 6-12 every week.

Craig Hella Johnson: Considering Matthew Shepard
 

At Number 10 on the list of Trinity videos is Craig Hella Johnson’s epic fusion oratorio, Considering Matthew Shepard, presented in September at St. Paul’s Chapel. Described as “a space for reflection, consideration, and unity around [Shepard’s] life and legacy,” the performance included LGBTQ+ community and educational events in collaboration with Trinity’s Pride 365 program.
 

Blessing of the Animals
 

In the ninth position was video of a liturgy inside Trinity Church in which the spotlight fell most definitely on the four-legged attendees, the Blessing of the Animals, to mark the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, an event which demonstrated “joy in the chaos.”
 

Trinity Leadership Fellows: An Opportunity for Inspiration & Guidance for Changemakers
 

The Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, is a person whom millions admire and look to for guidance. So it’s no surprise that the eighth most popular video of the year features Bishop Curry speaking about the Trinity Leadership Fellows, a program which welcomed its first cohort in September and is now taking applications for its second.
 

Stained Glass in All Saints Chapel: Widening the Circle of Saints
 

Trinity Church installed its first new stained-glass window in a century in November, created by British artist Thomas Denny and based on The Parable of the Talents and The Judgment of the Nations, both from the Gospel according to Matthew. The intense interest in 2022 in stained glass at Trinity led to historical tours of the Trinity Church nave and the Chapel of All Saints led by Susan Ward, retired art history professor and Trinity parishioner and Vestry member. The chapel tour proved to be the year’s seventh most popular video.
 

"Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia!"
 

Easter Day is the most important feast on the Church calendar and it would be difficult to find an Easter morning worship service that didn’t include the hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.” Trinity began its Holy Eucharist on April 17, Easter Day, with that hymn and the performance holds sixth place on the list of 2022’s most popular Trinity videos.
 

Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum: Rich in History
 

Moving into the Top 5, we find a video that demonstrates the long history of Trinity parish in New York City. While the churchyards in Lower Manhattan at the church and at St. Paul’s Chapel reflect the events and personalities of the 1700s, and earlier, the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, uptown on the border of the New York City neighborhoods of Harlem and Washington Heights, helps to tell the story of New York, and famous New Yorkers, beginning in the middle of the 19th century.
 

Jazz Icons: Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks, and Eric Harland
 

Trinity has always been a place for music and, in 2022, a lot more of that music was jazz, thanks to a new partnership between the parish and Jazz House Kids. Music education is a big part of that collaboration, but so are free concerts, including the Jazz Icons series, one of which, from October 9, featured so many musicians who, literally, are icons that it became the fourth most popular video of the year.
 

Trinity Retreat Center: Come Away and Rest
 

The Trinity Retreat Center in West Cornwall, CT, is an Episcopal mission of Trinity Church Wall Street. The retreat center’s video, holding down the Number Three spot for the year, explains the TRC’s purpose and, perhaps more important, demonstrates the natural beauty of a place where all are welcome to “come away and rest.”
 

"Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"
 

On February 26, the Rev. Phillip Jackson became only the 19th Rector in the 325-year history Trinity Church Wall Street in a liturgy called the Institution and Induction of the XIX Rector of the Parish of Trinity Church. Preaching that day was the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows. The processional hymn, the first music heard at that service, “Love Divine All Loves Excelling,” with words written by Charles Wesley, was Trinity’s second most popular video in 2022.
 

Eight Thousand Pipes: A Pipe Organ Update
 

And now to this year’s champion, the Number One video of 2022. Several years ago, Trinity Church Wall Street launched a rejuvenation of all of its sacred spaces and that project includes new pipe organs at St. Paul’s Chapel, the Chapel of All Saints, and Trinity Church. The final pipe organ to be completed will grace the nave at Trinity Church and will have 8,000 pipes. Although the pipe organ is still under construction in Germany, some installation has begun in the church and the segment describing that pipe organ was the most popular video of the year.

Trinity Church Wall Street thanks you for watching all year, and wishes you a Happy New Year in 2023!