Our Vision & Mission
Trinity School for Ministry is an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition. In this fractured world, we desire to be a global center for Christian formation, producing outstanding leaders who can plant, renew, and grow churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ.
To this end we are forming Christian leaders for mission.
At Trinity, we form leaders for the church’s mission to the world, beginning with our own community of Ambridge, PA. This means that we develop hearts and minds within a community of prayer, worship, learning, and witness. We ensure that our students develop biblical and theological depth, learn to interpret the world truly, and bear witness to Christ faithfully. This formation cannot be achieved in the classroom alone, so we cultivate rich community life, embrace the rhythms of prayerbook spirituality, and offer service to the world in our urban context. We do not produce “church mice” but missionaries prepared for a world that needs to hear the gospel.
Formation at Trinity is closely attuned to the Anglican Church in North America’s formational standards. Specifically, the ACNA College of Bishops requires that those preparing for ordained ministry are equipped in the following areas: Holy Scripture, Church History, Anglican Church History, Doctrine, Liturgics, Moral Theology & Ethics, Ascetical Theology, Practical Theology, and the Missionary Work of the Church.
A Trinity education ensures that each of these areas is covered thoroughly for all students preparing for ordained ministry. In fact, our Learning outcomes and program requirements have been developed to specifically address the ACNA standards. Non-Anglican seminaries cannot match the Anglican immersion offered by Trinity’s community life and curriculum.
We embrace a vision of Anglicanism born in the 16th century English Reformation to reclaim the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic faith, which had been obscured by errors of doctrine and practice in the late medieval church. Trinity’s faculty is especially strong in the areas of biblical and patristic theology, as well as in the English Reformation as the retrieval of faithful, evangelical catholicity.
We are committed to “training leaders for mission,” in and through the church. Accordingly, while remaining academically robust, Trinity provides practical training for real Christian leadership, both lay and ordained. Our students are consistently engaged in study, service, the regular rhythms of Anglican spirituality, and hands-on training in the practices of ministry.
All members of the Trinity community participate in the weekly rhythms of Anglican spirituality, as found in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer. Each class day begins at 8:30 a.m. with Morning Prayer and ends with Evening Prayer at 4:30 p.m. Morning and Evening prayer are led by students in training. On Wednesdays, the whole community gathers for a celebration of Holy Eucharist at 8:30 a.m., which is followed by a time of fellowship. Faculty and distinguished visitors preach and preside at our Eucharistic services. In addition, faculty gather to pray for each other and for the community on Wednesday afternoons, twice monthly. Staff, faculty, and students are engaged in bible studies and a variety of other ministries on campus and in the local community. Trinity is a rich and vibrant Christian community with much to offer.
Trinity has a rich community life centered around prayer and worship and offering deep and joyful fellowship. The whole community gathers for lunch together in the Commons Hall during the school year. Thursdays are family days, so the campus is typically buzzing with activity as the children of faculty, staff, and students play together. Since most residential students live in the neighborhood surrounding campus, our students develop strong social ties to their classmates, and these bonds last a lifetime, bringing a great deal of health and unity to our Province. As you can tell from the photos, we have a flag football team named “The kneelers,” which competes against students from rival seminaries. The Ambridge community is easily walkable and includes coffee shops, micro-breweries, pubs, and cafes.
Trinity’s campus includes the Chapel, the Library/Academic building, the Commons Hall, the administration building, the Media Center, the New Trophimus Center (coming Spring 2024), and student housing.
The seminary community meets for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Eucharist in the Chapel every weekday during the semester. The Commons Hall houses the seminary bookstore, a large common eating area that encourages daily fellowship at meals, and space for conferences, classrooms, suppers, concerts, and other expressions of our community life.
Trinity’s Library has a growing collection of over 100,000 volumes, especially strong in biblical studies and Anglican theology. Trinity owns apartments and houses in the neighborhood surrounding the seminary. Many students rent or buy houses in the surrounding community during their time here. Trinity’s Director of Facilities, Justin Fisk, helps students find housing in the area.
In our nearly 50 years of service to the church, Trinity’s graduates have gone on to serve in leadership positions around the world, on every continent except Antarctica. Among our notable alumni, we have several Archbishops, dozens of bishops, deans, canons, and priests, deacons, and laity leading in some of Anglicanism’s most influential churches and ministries.
Trinity Alumni are well respected and readily employed in ministry upon graduation. The Rev. Canon Karen Stevenson serves as our Director of Curacies and Placement Services. She works to ensure that our students find the right places to serve upon graduation.
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311 Eleventh St. Ambridge, PA 15003
1-800-874-8754 or 724-266-3838
