The Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York announced on Sunday March 14 that the parish's Vestry had called the Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper as its next Rector.
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| Ms. Pat Caldwell, President of the Congregational Council of Trinity Church, reads to the congregation a letter addressed to the council by the church's Rector-elect, watched by Church-Warden Mr. Lawrence S. Huntington and the current Rector, the Rev. Dr. Daniel Paul Matthews. |
Dr. Cooper is at present the Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He will become the 17th Rector in the parish's 307-year history on May 2. The parish was chartered in 1697, and services in the first church, at the head of Wall Street in lower Manhattan, began in 1698.
The Vestry's decision to call Dr. Cooper as successor to the current Rector, the Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews, and his acceptance of the call, was announced by the parish's Church-Wardens, Mr. Lawrence S. Huntington and Mr. Peter Y. Gevalt. [Making the announcement at the Parish's 11:15 am Eucharist, Mr. Huntington was joined by Ms. Pat Caldwell, President of Trinity's Congregational Council, who served on the Succession Committee.]
Dr. Matthews announced in May 2003 that he would retire this year.
Dr. Cooper earned his Bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He completed his Master of Divinity degree at Virginia Theological Seminary in 1970 and earned his Doctor of Ministry degree, also at Virginia seminary, in 1993.
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| The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper has accepted a call to be the 17th Rector of Trinity Parish, beginning May 2, 2004. |
His ordained ministry began in 1970, when he was appointed assistant rector at St. Peter's Church, Albany, New York. During his tenure, he performed chaplaincy services for the New York State Assembly.
In 1972, he was called as assistant rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Ponte Vedra Beach, which had a Sunday congregation of about 75 worshipers in what was at the time a small retirement and vacation community. He was called to be Rector of the congregation in 1979. Today, Christ Episcopal Church is the third largest Episcopal Church in the United States, with more than 5,900 members in what has become a thriving bedroom suburb of Jacksonville.
Dr. Cooper has founded two not-for-profit life care facilities to assure quality of life and health care for the community’s aging population: Vicar’s Landing, a $52-million facility which opened in 1988, and Glenmoor, an $82-million facility which has opened more recently. He also founded the Christ Church Foundation to endow the parish for outreach.
Dr. Cooper is on numerous boards of directors and has served the Diocese of Florida in a range of capacities, including President of the Standing Committee. He has been a deputy to the Episcopal Church's General Convention and a member of the national church’s Standing Committee on Domestic Mission. He has also been a trustee of the University of the South.
Under his leadership, the parish planted a congregation in western Ponte Vedra and helped establish a congregation in the city's sister city, Pontevedra, Spain. The parish has helped congregations in Nigeria and Kenya establish health clinics, and has rehabilitated retreat and seminary facilities in Kenya and Tanzania. Globally, Dr. Cooper has also been involved with the Compass Rose Society, a companion parish in Cuba and with Scripture Union South Africa and missions in Bolivia and the Bahamas.
Dr. Cooper grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey, the son of an Episcopal priest. He was graduated from St. Andrew’s School, Middletown, Delaware, where he played football, wrestled and was a star baseball pitcher and captain of his team. He also played four years of varsity baseball in Lexington.
Dr. Cooper is married to Tay, who serves on the national board of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), and is an artist and an architectural ceramist. They have a daughter and son-in-law, who live in Brooklyn, New York, and a son, who lives in Orlando, Florida.
Background to Trinity Parish
As Rector of Trinity, Dr. Cooper will oversee:
-- A diverse congregation drawn from all five boroughs of New York City and New Jersey, which worships in two churches, Trinity and St. Paul's Chapel (where George Washington worshiped after his inauguration as President in 1789);
-- A strong musical tradition, with a family choir, a professional choir with CD recording contracts, and a popular twice-weekly concert series;
-- Cutting–edge continuing theological education at the renowned Trinity Institute;
-- Global and local investment in the church through the Trinity Grants program, which supports social transformation in metropolitan New York, spiritual formation and development in the wider Episcopal Church, a wide range of projects in Anglican churches in the Global South, and the development of telecommunications throughout the Anglican Communion;
-- Trinity Television and New Media, which produces a wide variety of television programs for broadcast and parish study use and which webcasts services from Trinity Church;
-- The pioneering exploration of spiritual practices through Spirituality & Health magazine and a series of popular spiritual formation conferences;
-- An exhibit at St. Paul’s Chapel that focuses on its unique ministry to 9/11 workers during the recovery efforts at the former World Trade Center site;
-- A not-for-profit conference center in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains in Connecticut;
-- Outreach in downtown New York City through a homeless shelter, 24-hour drop-in center, and a home for the elderly and disabled;
-- Full childcare services for children six months to five years in New York’s financial district through Trinity Preschool; and
-- Commercial activities as a major landlord in New York City, with endowment income generated from approximately 25 commercial properties on land initially granted to the parish by Queen Anne of England in 1705.
Posted on March 14, 2004
