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People on the Move: Reverend Thomas J. Triggs
03/14/2008 - By Teja Anderson
Reverend Thomas J. Triggs
Reverend Thomas J. Triggs - Making Old-Time Religion New Again
Reverend Triggs may be new to the Colts Neck Parish, but being a pastor is not new to him. Born in Perth Amboy, his service to the Church and its followers has spanned many years; he was ordained in Metuchen, served 18 years in the Youth Ministry, and went on to become a chaplain and pastor in numerous other parishes in New Jersey. As a student at the University of Notre Dame (in Indiana) he had no intentions of becoming a priest and, in fact, studied accounting. It was at his mother’s urging that he became involved in the Church and, ultimately, that is where he found his true calling. Arriving in Colts Neck from the parish in Cinnaminson, NJ, he replaced Reverend Edward Griswold in March 2007. Reverend Triggs is now responsible for more than 2,200 families, including more than 1,300 children. He does not take this job lightly and appreciates that most of his parishioners reach out to him and are forthcoming with their thoughts and needs – something he most definitely encourages. When prompted, Reverend Triggs asserts that the very best part of his job is the Eucharist.* “Really, the Eucharist is everything to me, everything to us…it’s the whole reason…” The worst part of his job? As is true for many of us, it’s the administrative work; he finds check-writing duties and the like to be a bit exasperating.
Reverend Triggs says that one of the best perks of his job is that he gets to travel. He has been all over the world – from Africa to Europe to Australia. His favorite places were New Zealand, which he found to be incredibly beautiful and welcoming, and Kenya, where he went on safari, and which he says was the most memorable for him. This was perhaps the place where the origins of his vast crucifix and Nativity set collections began. What started as a hobby from his travels soon developed into a staggering collection, which, at one point, he had to put the brakes on. “Really, what else can you give a priest as a gift? I don’t need anything. People started bringing me back crosses and Nativity sets from their vacations…”
Reverend Triggs is well aware that there is a need to attract and keep the younger generation involved in the church. He sees technology as both the problem and one of the solutions for this. In a world where there are so many other, more engaging diversions for young people – video games, iPods®, TV, movies, DVDs, the Internet, cell phones, and sports – it is up to the parents and the Church to make religion important and interesting. Reverend Triggs notes that his church is woefully lacking on the technology front; they have a few older computers that are used by the mostly part-time staff, but they don’t even have a projector for PowerPoint presentations. He also sees e-mail as a great way to conserve money and resources and enable the church to reach the whole congregation effectively. To that end, they have developed a website through which they strive to find new ways to get their message out to both current and prospective members. This is one of the Reverend’s top priorities.
*The Eucharist is one of the two most important Christian sacraments. Almost every Christian denomination celebrates it in some form, whether it’s called Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper. It is a ritual of worship and remembrance that Christians believe was instituted by Jesus at his last meal with his disciples. What began in the early Church as a prayer or blessing over bread and wine associated with a common meal (following the form of an earlier Jewish blessing) has evolved within the theologies of the various denominations into a broad variety of liturgies; these range from the silent communion of the Quaker to the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus of the Roman Catholic Church.
STATS
Favorite restaurants: Buena Sera (Red Bank), Brother’s for Pizza (Colts Neck)
Favorite music: jazz, The Eagles
Favorite movie(s): The Lord of The Rings Trilogy
Pet peeve: slow golfers
Three people you would like to have dinner with: Loggins & Messina, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Jackson Brown
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