From the Dean & President - S&H Nov/Dec 2004

When I travel for Trinity, I always have to ask myself a question: Am I representing Trinity, or am I representing what Trinity represents? If I am representing Trinity as such — if I am carrying Trinity, as it were, in my briefcase — then Trinity’s success equals my personal success. If that is true, then I’m in a bad way. The dean/ president becomes one with the school, and is that a burden! It would be a crushingburden for one’s personal laurels to be the same as the School’s. Your mental health would then go up or down in direct relation to, well, annual giving or student admissions.

No, I have to see myself as representing what Trinity represents. Jes’ have to! And that — what Trinity stands for — is worth giving your all for.

What does Trinity stand for?

It stands, first of all, for the Gospel, which is our absolution at Christ’s expense. This absolution stands effective for sufferers who are non-Christians who find in it the meaning of life (to quote Alpha). This absolution stands effective also for sufferers who are Christians — who are just as vulnerable, by the way, to life’s impasses as non-Christians (the divorce rate tells us that). The Gospel is the same for everyone. It is God’s “Yes” to us who are intrinsically, unendingly, saying “No” to Him. The Gospel, in other words, is the Cross. And the inspired Word of God bears witness to this.

Trinity stands, next, for testimony. All of our students and all of our staff have a personal story to tell. They have come here for a specific reason. To put it simply, the absolving Christ told them to come.

Trinity stands, next, for renewal. Our roots are deep in the renewal movement, going back to apostles like Everett Fullam, who brought us a transforming hope. That hope changed our lives.

Trinity stands, next, for mission. The Stanway Institute is rightly named. Alf Stanway was a true missionary. We are a seminary founded on The Great Commission: “Go out and make disciples….” Thus we travel light. Have to and want to.

Trinity stands, next, for catholic faith and truth. We are skeptical of “liberal catholicism,” as we wish to understand catholicism in the historic sense to be conserving of doctrine, scrupulous concerning faith and morals. But we treasure the apostolic legacy and deposit of the catholic creedal Christian religion.

Finally — and the list is not exhaustive — we value our praying community. “We are family” (Sister Sledge). Any time spent in Ambridge will tell you that, with warmth and joy.

So one is not carrying Trinity in the saddlebags — although, of course, in a sense, I am. One is seeking to be true to what Trinity represents. Quel relief!

- Paul