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Our Mission

The mission of the Trinity Church website is to:

(1) Glorify God;

(2) Encourage people from all walks of life to worship, fellowship, heal, serve, and grow with us in our faith relationship with Jesus Christ; and

Epiphany Ministry for Juveniles

     Trinity United Methodist Church has an active youth ministry, reaching out to the church's families as well as to other young people around Aiken County.

     Many of Trinity's members and friends have also reached out to young people far beyond the county line in recent years, by way of Epiphany Ministry, Inc.,  in partnership with the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) -- the agency that deals with some of the most violent, damaged and otherwise troubled young people in the state. The outreach is also active in at least 10 other states, mostly in the South, but also as far afield as Ohio, Colorado, and California.

     Its mission is  "to facilitate change in the lives of young men and women incarcerated in juvenile justice facilities." According to the ministry's website, "God's love is manifested through a three-day short course in Christianity, and an ongoing follow-up process to those incarcerated youth, known as 'Stars.'"
Members and friends of Trinity have worked with Epiphany in several ways, such as going into DJJ facilities to minister to teens face-to-face, or in baking cupcakes or praying for a weekend outreach. At the heart of the ministry is the three-day experience (Friday through Sunday) of Christian fellowship, with a series of simple talks focusing on the basics of the faith, such as what God expects of us in terms of our relationships with one another and with God Himself; and how everyone faces big and small choices in daily living.

     Emphasis is on the grace of God, and the fact that no one is beyond its reach (in keeping with South Carolina's state motto of "Dum Spiro Spero," which means, "While I Breathe, I Hope").

     Along with listening to talks, the young participants -- known as "Stars," in reference to Paul's advice in Philippians 2:15 -- also get the chance to play, sing, pray and talk together, and receive a variety of surprises throughout the weekend. Volunteers try to ensure that each Star gets plenty of individual, respectful attention -- something that can be elusive in DJJ facilities, where violence, racism, perversion and similar plagues sometimes erupt and add to the damage already done to (and by) the inmates.

     These weekends are costly, in terms of material and arrangements, but volunteers and their congregations and other backers handle the bill, so the outreach costs taxpayers absolutely nothing. Epiphany has the firm support of DJJ leaders, and has won state-level awards for excellence in ministry.
Most of the "kids" engaged in Epiphany, like their adult peers within the S.C. Department of Corrections, come from broken homes, rocked by various kinds of abuse -- the sexual, substance and psychological varieties, among others. Trinity's volunteers work alongside dozens of other Epiphany boosters around the state, looking to "show and tell" the love of Christ to these young lives on the rocks.

     Epiphany's name recalls the holiday which many churches observe on Jan. 6, recalling the time when the "wise men" visited young Jesus (Matthew 2), honoring Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. A dictionary defines the word epiphany as meaning "a revelatory manifestation of a divine being," as well as "a spiritual event in which the essence of a given object of manifestation appears to the subject, as in a sudden flash of recognition."

     Along those same lines, Trinity's Epiphany volunteers hope to play a part in making the love of Jesus Christ absolutely clear to the DJJ residents (both the boys, most of whom are housed in Columbia; and the girls, who are mostly based in Greenwood). Activities occur during every month of the year, whether in the form of full-scale weekends or the reunions that are held at least once a month, offering the Stars a chance to refocus on the lessons of their special weekend, and to renew the friendships they may have built with volunteers. Reunions, like the weekends themselves, feature a mixture of prayer, music, encouraging messages, snacks, basic Bible lessons and simple fellowship in a relatively relaxing setting.

     Conway resident Peggy New, who has visited Aiken on several occasions and spoken to the Trinity congregation, is the ministry's executive director, and can be reached at NATEPIFANY@aol.com.  The ministry also maintains a website with ample information about efforts in South Carolina and far beyond:  www.epiphanyministry.com. 

     To help support Epiphany as well as Kairos Prison Ministry and similar outreaches, Trinity Church maintains the Jamie New Memorial Fund, named in memory of Peggy's son, who was killed in a traffic accident. She and other leaders of the ministry can be reached at P.O. Box 1903, Irmo, S.C. 29063.

This page was made possible by the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church.