As leadership of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lewiston, we were hoping to be enlightened by the “history lesson” presented by Steve Collins Aug. 11 (“100 years ago, KKK stunned Lewiston with gunpowder and a huge, flaming cross“).

Clearly Mr. Collins has done some deep diving into the paper’s archives, dusting off pages past.

Yet did we blink — or totally miss — any real attempt at meaningful current contextualization?

We were deeply disappointed there was no effort made to reach out to anyone at Trinity Church, to learn about our decades of commitment to social justice, service and inclusion.  Trinity is the last of the main-line denominations still engaged within our neighborhood.  We continue to rent space to the Jubilee Center (a now-independent organization which will move a few blocks down Bates Street late in 2025), and have recently completed alterations to our sanctuary that allow us to host cultural events and community conversations.

Mr. Collins, however, makes little mention of how Trinity (like the whole of Lewiston) has changed in the past century. The story is reminiscent of a Jurassic Park sequence depicting a “fly stuck in amber.” No new life reported. No new perspective presented. No engagement with our current times and the profound issues still hurting our city, state and nation.

Mr. Collins did offer a cursory quote from the Trinity website, but the whole community misses out if there is no broader invitation to dialogue. A hundred years after the events detailed in the article, Trinity is a richly diverse and loving community.  We are deeply committed to people of every faith tradition, and those with none at all.

The history exposed in Mr. Collins’ discussion of the 1924 Sun Journal articles is part of the history of Lewiston and Maine, which includes nativism, anti-immigrant sentiment and anti-labor politics.

In so many ways both this community and the state as a whole has moved on, even as we still contend with new versions of those old ills. The community deserves more than a regurgitation of past reporting, with no effort to engage in current ongoing conversations.

Trinity’s motto in 2024 is this: “We are a Door to Compassion, Courage, and Creativity.” These doors are always open for conversation about where faith communities stand today.

We urge the Sun Journal to tap into the compassion and courage of this community, to help all of us in these fragile times by offering a perspective on the past that enters into dialogue with the present. We invite you into conversation — and to join us in contributing toward a healing and inclusive vision for Lewiston.

Rev. Paul St. Germain and members of the Trinity Vestry board: Jane Costlow, Bob Hitchcock, Sarah Strong, Klara Tammany and Tom Tracy