Shortly after its completion in 1877, Trinity Church in Boston was named one of the 10 most important structures in the country. That top-10 honor was reaffirmed in 1956 and again in another poll in 1985. In 1971, it became one of fewer than 2,500 buildings to be designated a National Historic Landmark.

While the church building has continued to reap accolades throughout its 125 years, the congregation began to shrink ominously, beginning in the mid 1960s. For a time some even began to question whether it would survive. One unidentified parishioner interviewed recently for Trinity Life, a quarterly parish magazine, recalls attendance of just a few dozen people inside the cavernous church for a Christmas Eve service.

“Trinity could easily have been swept from its moorings — lots of urban churches were,” former senior warden Bill Thompson said in that same article.

Indeed at one point it seemed as if the foundation itself might be swept away along with the remnants of the congregation. Some who remember that troubled time point to 1973 as the year when the parish hit bottom. That year construction on the John Hancock Tower nearby caused much of Trinity’s foundation to shift, tilt and crack. The loss of the parking lot where the new tower was constructed was particularly difficult and probably hastened the departure of at least some members.

Those who remained refused to accept what seemed inevitable. Trinity filed a lawsuit over damage caused by the high-rise construction. Successful resolution of that case eventually added $7 million in unrestricted funds to the parish endowment. More importantly, however, 1973 was also the year that the Rev. Thom Blair became the rector. He believed strongly that effective lay leadership was the answer to reversing the decline in membership.

“Rectors will come and go,” he said to the congregation in his first sermon. “You will remain.”

Successful entrepreneurs in the secular world, the core lay leadership knew how to evaluate risk and when to seize opportunity. Rather than balance the parish financial books by slashing programs, outreach and staff salary, the lay leadership realized that a significant turnaround would require, among other things, talented people who should be rewarded for hard work. Slowly attendance and income began to rise.

By 1990 Trinity reported an average attendance of 1,458. In 2000 the annual draw on the endowment fell below 5 percent, a key indicator of financial health. As the turnaround continued to gain momentum under the Rev. Sam Lloyd, who arrived as rector in 1993, a new and more welcome problem began to emerge — a lack of adequate space to meet the needs of a 21st-century parish.

Today Trinity is often busy from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. In a typical week more than 100 events will be scheduled, including 17 worship services, daily Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, small group and other educational classes as well as 40 outreach groups. All these vie for space with 100,000 annual tourists.

The magnificent building continues to inspire, but the rest of the facility, which was constructed to meet the needs of a 19th-century parish, is frustrating. Finding adequate space for even such basic needs as a coffee hour and Christian education is becoming increasingly difficult. In a typical church, worship space accounts for approximately one-third of interior space with the remainder allocated for offices, programs and activities. At Trinity that ratio is reversed and can result in some peculiar situations. The largest gathering space for lectures and receptions, for example, is on the third floor of the parish house as far away from the worship area as possible. The kitchen is located in the parish house basement.

“Many of us have been keenly aware of our responsibility to do some pragmatic planning in order to secure the strength of Trinity’s ministry in the next era of our life,” wrote Fr. Lloyd in November 1998. “It is time to secure the very foundations on which our parish life is built. The care and maintenance of our glorious buildings, renovating and enhancing them so that they can serve the needs of the parish and the city in a new era, and putting the parish finances … on a solid foundation — these are the great challenges we face.”

Members of the staff and congregation soon realized how complex that challenge was likely to be. The campus is completely landlocked and in keeping with its landmark status, the exterior cannot be altered in any visible way. With expansion either outward or upward impossible, any significant enlargement will have to make use of the undercroft, the space beneath the church. Although the church foundation was constructed in a soft landfill using log pilings, a recent survey revealed that the foundation is probably over designed for current needs and the proposed project does not anticipate that additional support will be required.

Space improvements, although probably the most dramatic, are not the only part of the renovation goals. Funds from the “Faith in the City” capital campaign will also be used for building preservation. Some of the most ambitious preservation proposals include making the building (especially the center tower) watertight, securing and repairing stained glass windows and other art and also rebuilding the Aeolian Skinner organ. Not all the money raised will go toward bricks and mortar. Funds will also be used in part to increase the parish endowment and for community outreach projects. In conjunction with 13 other Boston congregations, Trinity hopes to establish a revolving loan fund for, among other things, affordable housing.

The $68 million figure ($53 million in cash and $15 million in planned gifts and bequests) the church eventually decided it will need dwarfs the capital campaigns of even most large universities. To date more than half of that sum has been pledged.

Although construction has not begun, the building project committee hopes that exhaustive planning and attention to detail will enable the church to continue its many ministries with as little disruption to parish life as possible.

“Hopefully we won’t do things all that differently,” said John Clift, director of facilities and a staff liaison to the building project committee. “We’ve worked hard to put in place an infrastructure that will adapt and accommodate the construction.”

(From The Living Church, June 9, 2002)