On behalf of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, Arkansas, we invite you to consider whether God is calling you to be our Dean and Rector and enter into mutual discernment with us.
Trinity is a healthy, happy parish. Our past Dean, the Rt. Rev. Amy Meaux, was recently ordained Bishop of the Diocese of West Missouri. We accomplished great things together.
We started a new Wednesday service focused on families with young children. We recruited an exceptional Director of Music, Colin MacKnight, whose latest project is performing the complete works of Bach’s organ music at free, public recitals. We planted over 250 oak, maple, hickory, and magnolia trees throughout Little Rock to help our neighbors recover from a devastating tornado.
We are poised to do more under new leadership. As part of our own discernment in this call, we held a town hall, conducted a congregational survey, and spoke directly with members of our church community. This is what we heard: our members love their church and want to share it with more people in our community, particularly families; they want to foster closer relationships with each other; and they want to deepen their understanding of God.
Earlier this year, our Vestry challenged the congregation to pay off Trinity’s debt so that our next Dean could focus on God’s work free from financial pressure. We raised the funds—over $350,000—in six weeks. That is our gift to our next spiritual leader.
On Dean Meaux’s last Sunday, we prayed “O God, you have bound us together for a time as pastor and people to work for the advancement of your kingdom in this place: We give you humble and hearty thanks for the ministry which we have shared in these years now past.” God could be, at this very moment, binding you with us. We are praying for you. And we cannot wait to enter into discernment together.
Sincerely yours,
G. Richard Smith, M.D. & Melonese Clarke
Search Committee Co-Chairs
An inviting presence. Someone who, when you see them approaching, excites you. Someone who has a long line of people waiting to speak with them after the service. Someone who, as one of our younger members put it, “can relate to a teenager without trying to act like a teenager. Someone who can help me explain my beliefs to friends who don’t believe.”
Trinity’s pews are filled with quiet, active souls. People who are ready to connect, help, contribute in some new way. We need someone who will bring us together in ways we cannot yet see ourselves.
Trinity, like any church with a proud tradition, can be resistant to change. Yet we feel called to a visionary dean. A truth teller, courageous and brave. Someone who will lead us forward together to do the work that God is calling us to do.
What will that take? Trust. And trust takes time. We hope that our next Dean will find a home at Trinity and stay awhile.
Our congregation is both intellectual and impassioned, and we hunger for powerful words from the pulpit that move both the head and the heart. What makes a sermon great? The only consistent answer is in the effect: it is an event that people do not want to miss.
Trinity’s Dean is both the shepherd of a flock and a leader in the community and Diocese. Our world and church are changing. Our next Dean needs to be a person who sees in every challenge an opportunity for reconciliation and growth.
Trinity is a vibrant parish with diverse members who come together in fellowship across age, gender, race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and ideology. Overall, our members are ready and willing to try new ideas while still honoring our traditions and legacies. A recent survey of over 180 congregants rated us as being both a high energy and high satisfaction congregation.
Average in-person Sunday attendance over the last three years is 215, while 297 households contribute annually through pledges or regular gifts. High in-person attendance in 2025 was 651 parishioners on Easter Sunday. Almost one-half of our members are age 65 or older and have been members of the parish for more than 20 years. We are truly a multigenerational community, with a few families spanning six generations. The educational level is high: 91% of adults are college graduates, with 46% possessing a graduate degree.
Our traditional liturgical worship is supported by exceptional church music—both choral and instrumental—and maintains a healthy balance that invites everyone to participate. We currently offer two main Sunday-morning services: an 8:00 a.m. contemplative service with a Rite I spoken liturgy, and a festive 10:30 a.m. service with music, typically Rite II. Trinity also offers a 4:00 p.m. Evensong every Sunday from September through May. Together with our clergy, our altar guild, vergers, acolytes, readers, intercessors, musicians, and other lay worship leaders strive to make every service unique and meaningful. There is care and intentionality in every part of our worship, and everyone involved views their role as an expression of Christ’s love.
We are a welcoming congregation. Trinity has greeters and ushers at each service, and a docent-led tour of the Cathedral is offered every Sunday. The All Saints Guild guides and assists families and visitors at funerals. We lease space on our campus to the local Interfaith Center and participate in activities with them to open our teaching to a broader audience, and, to us, a broader outlook. Our Early Childhood Education Program serves families from across Central Arkansas. Given that our mission is “to proclaim the Word of God by sharing our gifts, ourselves, and our properties through ministry to each other, our neighbors, and our community as we serve God and represent the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas,” the parish is very interested in utilizing our properties in even more ways to continue our outreach to the sick, friendless, needy, and those who seek a church home.
Trinity’s campus extends beyond one city block and is full of opportunity to be “a house of prayer for all people.” The Cathedral building was designed in English Gothic Revival style and is a cruciform shape. Construction began in 1884 and was completed in 1892. The grounds were redesigned by P. Allen Smith, who happens to be a parishioner. They feature a fountain and Treadway Memorial Garden, where the ashes of parishioners are interred.
Unlike many cathedrals in the United States, Trinity was conceived of and constructed to be the Cathedral for the Diocese of Arkansas. The Diocesan offices are located on our campus. Diocesan events such as convention, ordinations, and the blessing of Chrism are held at Trinity. We also hold certain holiday services, such as on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, to which members of local congregations are encouraged to attend.
The Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas consists of 30 parishes, 24 missions, and 2 preaching stations, for a total of 56 congregations.
The Diocese had approximately 13,000 members as of 2023. It is overseen by the Rt. Rev. John T.W. Harmon. Bishop Harmon is assisted in pastoral work by approximately 100 ordained clergy, including priests and deacons, both active and retired.
Bishop Brown holding letter from President Eisenhower.
Photo courtesy of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The ordination of Peggy Bosmyer.
Photo courtesy of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Diocese of Arkansas has a long history of courageous leadership in Arkansas and the greater Episcopal Church. Our bishops in the 1950s—first the Rt. Rev. Bland Mitchell, then the Rt. Rev. Robert R. Brown— vocally supported the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education and worked hard to end the crisis involving the Little Rock Nine at Central High School. The Rev. Peggy Bosmyer was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Christoph Keller, Jr. in 1977; she was the first female priest ordained south of the Mason Dixon line. The Rt. Rev. Larry Maze boldly supported gay and lesbian members of the Church, and the Diocese conducted its first blessing of a same-sex relationship in 2006.
Rooted in the Anglican choral tradition, Trinity’s music program includes several choirs, chorister and choral scholar programs, a concert series, and one of fewer than fifty active bell towers in the United States.
Trinity’s Director of Music is Dr. Colin MacKnight, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate from The Juilliard School. Dr. MacKnight typically plays at least one evening recital per year. His latest project is performing all 18 hours of Bach’s organ music at free, public recitals. On March 21, 2025, he directed a concert with the Trinity Choir and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrating Bach’s 340th birthday. And on July 28, 2025, he performed “Clavier-Ubung III,” said to be Bach’s largest, most important (and most difficult) organ work.
Trinity is committed to the life-long formation of its members. Not only do we have staff support for children, youth, and family formation, but we have staff support for adult formation as well.
Led by Emma Mitchell, Trinity offers a variety of programming for our youngest members:
The vision for adult formation is discerned by the Vestry’s Theological Enrichment Committee and is spearheaded by our curate, the Rev. Thomas Alexander. Trinity’s adult formation efforts focus on three areas: Bible; Christian Thought (e.g., theology, history, philosophy); and Christian Practice (e.g., prayer, spirituality, ethics, liturgy). Ideally, there is at least one class or group focused on each area at any given time during the program year.
First organized in 2016, the Insights Lecture Series is a ministry by which Trinity has done what Cathedrals have been doing for centuries: being a place where the public can gather and think deeply on the teachings of God. Trinity has been fortunate enough to bring some truly exceptional theologians, historians, and writers to Little Rock including Marilynne Robinson, Elaine Pagels, Rachel Heald Evans, Diana Butler Bass, and Jon Meacham. In so doing, Trinity has welcomed hundreds of people from across our community who hunger for the intellectual character of the Christian life.
The Series was, of course, put on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was reinaugurated last year with a lecture given by the Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings on the theology of city planning. This topic was selected because the Little Rock city government was in the process of developing a Downtown Master Plan.
Helping our neighbors is an important part of Trinity’s work and culture. In 2023, Trinity partnered with the Arkansas Hunger Alliance to start the Broadway Community Garden on a previously vacant lot across the street from the parish. The garden features a Little Free Pantry, where anyone is free to take food. Trinity partnered with the Interfaith Center in resettling refugees from Afghanistan. The parish also regularly provides space for Al-Anon and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.
— Matthew 25:35-36
Our Matthew 25 Committee oversees many of Trinity Cathedral’s community outreach efforts. The Committee has grown in membership and enthusiasm steadily since its formation in 2015.
After a devastating tornado tore through the middle of Little Rock in 2023, the Matthew 25 Committee delivered large plastic tubs of cleaning supplies to hard hit neighborhoods. In the two years since, members of the Committee have planted over 250 large oak, maple, hickory and magnolia trees in these neighborhoods to replace those destroyed in the storm. Before each Mother’s Day, the Committee gathers over 150 purses filled with items a mother typically carries in her purse and provided them to children in homeless shelters to give to their mothers, in a gift bag with tissue paper and a card. The Committee organizes parish in-gatherings to support different community organizations such as “Undie Sunday,” “Warm & Fuzzy Tree,” and a “Back to School” supplies drive.
In addition to these specific missions, the Committee focuses on assisting organizations that have a historic relationship with Trinity or the Diocese of Arkansas. Organizations with whom a relationship exists include St. Francis House, Dorcas House, Gaines House, Phoenix House, El Zocalo, and Life Skills for Youth.
Little Rock is a vibrant mid-South city, recently named by Livability Magazine as one of the top 100 best places to live in the United States. With a strong economy, excellent health care, and a low cost of living, Little Rock is a wonderful place to call home.
Little Rock is the geographic center of Arkansas, the state’s capital, and its most populous city with approximately 200,000 residents and 750,000 in the metro area. Little Rock offers many cultural attractions, such as the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (termed by Forbes Magazine as “America’s most inviting art museum”), the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum (host of the Clinton School of Public Service), and the Little Rock Central High National Historic Site (named a top ten site on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail). Of course, young children may prefer the Museum of Discovery or the Little Rock Zoo.
Little Rock rests at the foot of the beautiful Ouachita Mountains on the Arkansas River, making it a perfect setting for outdoor recreation. Arkansas is called “The Natural State” for a reason! Near Little Rock are mountains for hiking, rivers for fishing and floating (including the Buffalo River, America’s first national river), lands for hunting, lakes for boating and water skiing, and 1,200 miles of bike trails. Within Little Rock itself, there is the Arkansas River Trail, Riverfront Park, and Pinnacle Mountain State Park.
The city has several outstanding venues for live music, from historic dive bars to Simmons Bank Arena, which has hosted Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, and the Rolling Stones. Theater aficionados have ample options. Robinson Performance Hall hosts the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks and Pops series, as well as a Broadway touring series. The Arkansas Repertory Theatre is the oldest nonprofit theatre in Arkansas and is affiliated with Actors’ Equity. Little Rock is also home to numerous community theaters, including Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, Argenta Contemporary Theater, The Weekend Theater, the Studio Theatre, and Actors Theatre of Little Rock.
Little Rock has a variety of options for education, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, and a number of private schools. The Little Rock School District includes historic Little Rock Central High School, which regularly has the largest number of National Merit Semi-Finalists in the State. And, of course, Trinity has a special relationship with Episcopal Collegiate School, an elite academic institution where clergy receive a 50% tuition discount for up to two children (private school tuition is reduced further by a school voucher payment of $6,672 per child).
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Sunday Services:
8:00 am - Holy Eucharist Rite I, spoken
8:30 am - Continental breakfast & conversations in Morrison Hall
9:15 am - Children’s & Adult Formation
10:30 am - Holy Eucharist Rite II, choral
4:00 pm - Evensong, September - May
Wednesday Services
Koinonia – Geared to families with children in 5th grade or younger but all are welcome.1st & 3rd Wednesdays during school year; dinner at 5:30; worship at 6:00 pm
Holy Eucharist with Healing Litany
Wednesdays at 5:30 pm in Pierce Chapel
Morning Prayer
(Monday-Thursday; Tuesday with expansive language)
8:30 am in Pierce Chapel
Evening Prayer
Thursdays at 5:15 in Pierce Chapel
