Little known facts about Trinity Episcopal Church – Upperville, VA
Guilds have been an integral part of the Episcopal Church for centuries. The same is true at Trinity as several guilds have done much of the work for the church especially in the early years. In the years prior to 1979, pledging was not widely accepted at Trinity. Budgeting for the coming year was nearly impossible. People gave what they could at the end of each year and if there were short falls, the Wardens would call on certain members to give an additional donation to try to “balance the books”. Many years, the staff went without raises to keep from going into debt.
A primary fund-raising body of Trinity was the Mary D. Neville Guild. Since this is one of the guilds at Trinity that has disbanded, it is important to recognize this important part of the church history. The Mary D. Neville guild was composed of the women of the church whose fund-raising efforts made the needed repairs to the church and provided outreach both far and wide on behalf of the congregation.
Two wonderful histories of the Mary D. Neville Guild by Mary Lee deButts and Lucy Keith may be found on the bottom of the history page on church website at www.trinityupperville.org/history.