Community
Trinity is a dynamic community where students and their families are known. Some of our students are right out of college; some are further along in their careers; and others are simply lifelong learners, picking up classes here and there as a means of staying sharp and digging deeper. Students move here from across the country (or other countries) and across the state. Others commute from a different side of Columbus. Many are part of the ELCA. An increasing number of students find their home in other branches of the Church.
Our community shares meals together, worships together, grows together, laments together, and changes together. We’re large enough to find friends different from you, who will challenge your thinking and assumptions, and we’re small enough to learn everyone’s name.
Hospitality is central in our community life and something we seek to offer everyone at Trinity.
Life Together (Our Student Life Organization)
Our students are governed by Life Together, a seminary-wide organization that acknowledges and participates in the Holy Spirit’s creation of Christian community in all its diverse expressions. Life Together lives out its mission by promoting and funding activities that encourage prayer, worship, care of creation, advocacy, small group development, challenging and candid conversations, shared meals, and laughter and play.
Practically, this might look like convening a seminary group for Capital University’s annual “Race for the Cure,” assisting in the coordination of a chapel service focused on addiction awareness, or hosting a mental health professional for a conversation with students about trauma.
Updates from Life Together come out weekly newsletter For the Living of These Days (FLOTD). Read current and past issues and/or subscribe to FLOTD.
LEARN MORE
Worship Life
Worship stands at the center of the day’s activities, and worship services take place mid-morning, when most students and faculty are on campus. We gather for worship at 10:00 am each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday when classes are in session. Usually we meet in Schenk Chapel or the Gloria Dei Worship Center. The Tuesday 10:00am service is a 55-minute Eucharist (Lord’s Supper). Monday and Thursday services are normally 20-25 minutes in length. On Wednesdays, we join the larger University for service convened by the Kerns Center for Faith and Learning. Our worship times together may be a service of Morning Prayer, a Service of the Word with preaching, a contemplative service such as Taizé, or something else entirely.
Faculty and students share in the responsibility of planning and conducting daily worship. Our heritage invites us to employ traditional forms of the historic liturgy and lean into the newness of contemporary expressions of worship. The seminary is proud to host the Seminary Choir and the Liturgical Choir, which are open to students, faculty, staff, partners, and children.
Several other worship opportunities also regularly occur on campus. Embrace Ministries and the Kerns Religious Life Center of Capital University host students, faculty, and staff at 12:30pm on Mondays for 30-minutes of Mindfulness and Meditation in Stegemoeller Lounge. Also, every Thursday at 9:09pm, Embrace hosts Candlelight Worship, a band-led event centered around praise, prayer, peaching, and conversation.
The Integrative Group (I-Group)
Integrative Groups, consisting of a faculty person and their advisees, provide a supportive small group for fellowship, nurture, formation, care, worship planning, and academic planning. Groups meet after Chapel, once a week.
Housing
Many Trinity students opt to live on-campus, either in an apartment or in intentional-living community houses. Availability changes year-to-year, pending on both community interest and room availability. In addition to on-campus options, students procure off-campus options, including some who commute from communities across Central Ohio.
Some of our students reside in the Intentional Living House (IHOP), which is an important anchor of community life. Not only do students living in IHOP support one another as they navigate seminary, they also host our weekly Common Meal, a weekly dinner, and other events.