The Bishop’s Church Emergency Fund (BCEF) provides financial support for church buildings in the diocese needing repairs and renovation, usually with a special focus on emergency and unforeseen needs. Through the BCEF, you can support the critical needs identified by the Bishop.
The fourth BCEF call of 2025* is for rectory maintenance for Holy Trinity, Hillsdale. You can donate online, or mail a check payable to Diocese of Newark with BCEF Call #4 in the memo line to: Diocese of Newark, Attn: BCEF, 94 E. Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Livingston, NJ 07039.
*Due to disruptions with the relocation of Diocesan Offices, the BCEF program was delayed. For record keeping purposes this is considered a 2025 call.
In the northeastern part of our diocese, the borough of Hillsdale is a lovely Bergen County community of about 10,000 residents. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church was founded in 1889 and met for a time in the Erie Lackawanna train station that still stands within walking distance of the modern A-frame building in the center of town that has been the parish’s home since 1966. In May 1945 Holy Trinity transitioned from mission status to become an independent parish. Though Hillsdale is a very affluent community, there are still pockets of need that the borough’s churches, Holy Trinity among them, work together to address.
Devoted church wardens Patty Bradley and Bill Ferara have each been members of Holy Trinity for more than 50 years. During that span, Bill has served on the vestry five times, having retired from his career as a CPA in 2005. After attending the church as a child, Patty was married at Holy Trinity in 1986. The wardens explained that their parish is lay-led and is also joined for Sunday worship by the Church of the Annunciation in nearby Oradell, the two churches meeting together each Sunday at alternating locations.
The daughter of an Episcopal priest, Patty humorously observes that the coffee hour at Holy Trinity has become the parish’s “eighth sacrament.” “It’s a time when we go out of our way to welcome visitors and to share wonderful home-baked refreshments brought by our members. Holy Trinity is an incredibly hospitable place.” With an average of 18 worshippers each Sunday, Patty explains that Holy Trinity, like many churches, has not yet fully recovered from the downturn in attendance owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But even given its small congregation, the parish has maintained a strong commitment to outreach ministries, chiefly centered around issues of hunger relief. Parishioners work with Family Promise of Bergen County to prepare and deliver full-course meals to nearby Hackensack on a bi-monthly basis. Closer to home, the parish collects food for the Helping Hand Food Pantry, a cooperative ministry of Hillsdale churches. Parishioners also assist in staffing the pantry.
Though members of Holy Trinity’s vestry share responsibility for the various aspects of parish life, Bill Ferara has assumed leadership in remedying some serious issues with the church’s rectory. Located across the street from the church at 88 Trinity Place, the rectory is a three-bedroom brick home built in the mid-1950s on property donated to the church. Bill explained that for the past year the house has been rented to clergy from a neighboring town, providing a much-needed income stream for Holy Trinity—one the vestry very much needs to maintain.
During a time when the property was unoccupied, unbeknownst to the parish, a sizable infestation of mice took over the basement and other hidden areas of the building. The result was extensive physical damage along with a significant mold problem. Ridding the property of the rodents and the waste they left behind, together with repairing the sheetrock damaged by the mold, resulted in nearly $9,000 of expenses—a very daunting amount for the parish. A sum close to this was acquired through a loan from the diocese. This final BCEF call of 2025 is to assist Holy Trinity in repaying this loan. Please be as generous as you can in helping them with this worthy effort.
God’s peace,
+Carlye J. Hughes
The Rt. Rev. Carlye J. Hughes
Bishop of Newark
