Dear friends,
Many of you know Quin Hillyer as a columnist for The Times-Picayune and a lifelong, faithful member of Trinity. What you may not know is that Quin has not lived in New Orleans full-time since 1991.
Trinity is, in the deepest sense of the word, my home.
His career has taken him to Washington, D.C., where he attended Georgetown University, served as a Congressional staffer, and worked as a journalist for publications such as The Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, National Review, and others. He currently lives with his family in Mobile, Alabama, and visits New Orleans often, worshiping at Trinity when he can.
Although living far away, Quin has remained a faithful pledging member of Trinity throughout all these years and currently serves on the TEEP Board.
When we met for coffee recently and he shared what this community has meant to him over the decades, I was deeply moved and asked if he would share his Trinity story with all of us.
Many blessings,
The Rev. Lex Breckinridge
To the parishioners of Trinity Church,
When I had coffee with the Rev. Lex Breckinridge a few weeks ago and he learned that I have remained a member and donor of Trinity Church for all these years—even though I haven’t lived in New Orleans full-time since 1991 (I can’t believe it’s been that long!)—he asked me to write something about why Trinity means so much to me.
The answer is easy: Trinity is, in the deepest sense of the word, my home.
Trinity is home because—through both the church and the school—it nurtured me, guided me, and gave me the emotional and spiritual foundation to see our world as a blessed place, full of beauty and wonder infused with God’s grace and love. That perspective is true and lasting.
Trinity made God’s abundant hope and joy so palpable that obstacles almost always seem surmountable, especially in the long run.
I’ve been told numerous times that I’m too much of an optimist, prone to downplaying obstacles and pitfalls—but that’s largely because Trinity made God’s abundant hope and joy so palpable that obstacles almost always seem surmountable, especially in the long run.
It seems to me that Trinity has always been a living embodiment of St. Paul’s promise that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.”
While many faces have changed through the years—in both the pulpit and the pews—the same spirit of inward consecration and outward love of neighbor continues to permeate Trinity’s essence and mission.
It’s as if the magnificent beauty of Trinity’s nave and apse—surely among the finest of any parish church in the United States—somehow infuses the congregation and its many ministries.
The ministries of Trinity, both within its own community and extending outward, have always been remarkable. Programs such as the Trinity Educational Enrichment Program (TEEP), Trinity Loaves and Fishes, Kairos Prison Ministry, the Trinity Counseling and Training Center, and charitable gifts through the Vincent Memorial Legacy exemplify Jesus’ directive to love one’s neighbor.
Inwardly, the ongoing stream of programs, classes, and spiritual-journey groups—along with Trinity’s foundational work in developing Disciples of Christ in Community and the Education for Ministry curriculum—make this place an astonishingly vibrant spiritual home.
For me, though, the youth groups for junior-high and high-school students—building on the firm foundation of Sunday School for younger children—were where God’s love was most manifest. Both when I was part of that age group and later, for five years after college when I served as a mentor to Trinity’s EYC groups, God’s presence was so tangible, so real, that faith could only grow and deepen.
Until we reach God’s true eternity, Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans will always be our lifelong and joy-filled spiritual abode.
Each year at Trinity School’s Eighth Grade Commencement, the graduates sing the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” which ends with the plea for God to be “our eternal home.”
Trinity, like all temporal things on this Earth, may not technically be eternal; but until we reach God’s true eternity, Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans will always be our lifelong and joy-filled spiritual abode.
Celebrating God’s blessings,
Quin Hillyer
Member of Trinity since birth
Together, we bless the space between us. Join Quin and others in supporting Trinity through your 2026 pledge.
