Trinity Church will continue to play “positive role” in community

[media-credit id=3 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]LENOX – The Rev. Michael Tuck, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, and his family have made Lenox their home for the past nine months.

He began his position as rector last September.

Prior to Fr. Tuck’s arrival, the Rev. Dr. Randy Wilbur served as Trininty’s minister.

Both he and his wife, Anne Marie, or “Annie” as she is called, are from the Norwood, Penn., area, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

They are parents to Holland, or “Holly,” seven years old, and Porter, four.

Fr. Tuck came to Lenox from serving as curate at St. Stephen’s Church in Providence, R.I., and as campus minister at Brown University.

Living in The Berkshires is a new experience for the family. The first time Fr. Tuck saw the area was during the church job interviewing process.

Strong sense of community

“The sense of community in Lenox is powerful,” he said while seated on a couch in the rectory’s living room. “This is village life.”

In some ways, it’s similar to places the Tucks saw during their two years in England, when the rector was in Seminary at the Church of England’s College of the Resurrection in Mirfield.

It’s their first actual experience with small town living since the areas they grew up in were industrial.

Fr. Tuck is a thin man with a warm way about him. He has a well-trimmed beard and mustache and brown eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. In his mid-30s, is dark hair is sprinkled with gray.

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Grew up Episcopal

He’s been involved with the Episcopal church all of his life. His late father was also an Episcopal rector.

“I always suspected I would play an active role in the church,” he said, “but I didn’t think it’d be in ordained ministry.”

Drawn to the intellectual, he pursued medieval studies and mathematics at Brown University in Providence. He eventually worked as a human resources consultant.

During his early 20s, he felt the call to ordained ministry, he said, which is now his passion.

The only priest among sibs

He was the only one of his three siblings to become a priest. He has a brother who teaches archaeology at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, another brother in Dallas, Texas, and a sister in Philadelphia.

His mother is also still living.

As the new rector at Trinity, he hopes to offer the community, of between 90 and 100 people weekly, a chance to grow in their lives in Christ, he said.

“There’s an interplay between what gives you excitement and energy and where the need is,” he said.

The Episcopal church is the American branch of the Anglican Church of England.

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Sermons Fr. Tuck prepares are based on the Scriptures, and he preaches from his written manuscript. Prior to writing a sermon, he reads, prays and listens to commentaries.

By Thursday of each week, he’s ready to write. Each 70-1100-word sermon takes a total of about six to eight hours to prepare and write.

Curious and intellectual

Fr. Tuck considers himself to be a very curious person, fairly intellectual and with very little attention to detail. He likes to think he’s kind of laid back and he has a good sense of humor.

“I enjoy talking to people about what they could be,” he said.

He is extremely interested in the health and growth of Trinity Church.

He plans to continue offering a strong program for youth, which was decided upon prior to his arrival in Lenox, he said. He also plans to offer worship that is good and well-ordered, or, as he said, “good, clean worship.”

The youth of today

Fr. Tuck acknowledged many young people these days prefer to separate themselves from organized religion.

If they have had a negative experience with church, he said he would tell them he was sorry for that.

Then he would add, “I think you are missing out on something.”

The analogy he gave was young people who go to the beach and want to look good cannot expect to instantly get a rock hard body. They have to work on it and train for it in advance.

Affiliation with a church makes the good times better and gives a person what is needed for the hard times, he said.

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“I think if young people have questions, the church can give the answers,” Fr. Tuck said. “They might find something of value here.”

He said he hoped they would have a positive impression.

Father loves to cook

When he’s not involved with church work, you might find the young rector in the kitchen.

“I like to cook a great deal,” he said, noting he enjoys trying new dishes, including English, Italian and Mexican, and cooks almost every night.

“I’m not complaining,” his wife said, smiling. She’s happy to turn the kitchen over to her husband.

People from throughout The Berkshires are familiar with Trinity Church since Alcoholic Anonymous and Al-Anon meetings are held there regularly.

“We do whatever we can to help people,” Fr. Tuck said. “It’s the responsibility of the church to provide space.”

“I’m delighted and excited to be here in Lenox,” Fr. Tuck said. “I hope Trinity will continue to play a positive role in the community.”

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on June 6, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry