About
MISSION STATEMENT
"Amazed by grace, led by the Holy Spirit, and with prayerful guidance from Christ, we engage in the lives of our community to glorify God and honor God forever.
"Amazed by grace, led by the Holy Spirit, and with prayerful guidance from Christ, we engage in the lives of our community to glorify God and honor God forever.
BELIEFS
We are Christians of the Reformed Tradition. Some essential tenets of the Reformed Faith to which we hold are:
We are Christians of the Reformed Tradition. Some essential tenets of the Reformed Faith to which we hold are:
- The Sovereignty of God
- The Authority of Scripture
- Salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone In and By Christ Alone to the Glory of God Alone
- The Priesthood of All Believers
- Salvation From Sin and For Service
SACRAMENTS
We celebrate two sacraments: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Baptism celebrates entrance into the covenant community of the Church and the forgiveness of sins. We baptize infants, children, and adults not previously baptized in a Christian church.
The Lord's Supper is also known as Communion and the Eucharist. All baptized believers in Jesus Christ, whether or not a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church, are able to participate in the Lord's Supper.
We celebrate two sacraments: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Baptism celebrates entrance into the covenant community of the Church and the forgiveness of sins. We baptize infants, children, and adults not previously baptized in a Christian church.
The Lord's Supper is also known as Communion and the Eucharist. All baptized believers in Jesus Christ, whether or not a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church, are able to participate in the Lord's Supper.
LEADERSHIP
Our pastor is the Reverend LaVera M. Parato. You can find a link to her website on the Home page by clicking the "Sermons" button.
We are led by a group of elders known as "The Session". Currently our session is made up of 3 elders in addition to the pastor.
Our pastor is the Reverend LaVera M. Parato. You can find a link to her website on the Home page by clicking the "Sermons" button.
We are led by a group of elders known as "The Session". Currently our session is made up of 3 elders in addition to the pastor.
DENOMINATION
Trinity Presbyterian is a Member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina.
We are a Matthew 25 congregation, working towards the 3 main foci of Building Congregational Vitality, Eradicating Systemic Poverty, and Dismantling Structural Racism. We have been working with the Presbyterian Foundation's Project Regeneration in regard to Building Congregational Vitality since Dec. 2022. You can find advocacy action items for the other 2 foci in our Trinity Press newsletter. Click the buttons below to learn more.
Trinity Presbyterian is a Member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina.
We are a Matthew 25 congregation, working towards the 3 main foci of Building Congregational Vitality, Eradicating Systemic Poverty, and Dismantling Structural Racism. We have been working with the Presbyterian Foundation's Project Regeneration in regard to Building Congregational Vitality since Dec. 2022. You can find advocacy action items for the other 2 foci in our Trinity Press newsletter. Click the buttons below to learn more.
HISTORY
An excerpt from the autobiography of George Eugene Wasson
Shortly after our arrival at Cherry Point [in 1952], my friend, [Major Joseph] Joe Nelson, who had served with me on aircraft carriers, at Quantico, Virginia – where we had built our houses, and in Korea, and had returned before me, greeted me with some news: “Gene, we are organizing a new Presbyterian Church and we need your help.” I recognized his proposal as my opportunity to join forces with a potential congregation of people desiring to make a better world.
The initial space that we rented to conduct our worship services was a three-bedroom house in Havelock, the city adjacent to Cherry Point. Our congregation, a mix of civilians and Marines, occupied the living room. Sunday School classes used the bedrooms. [My wife] Marion was asked to coach five people who wanted to learn church music. This group soon became our choir. We crowded into the kitchen. Very soon, we outgrew the building and were able to gain the use of a school building for our Sunday meetings.
Our pastors during this period were Chaplains from the Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point, ministers available from the Presbytery, Synod and elsewhere, and seminary students. One of these pastors was my brother, Arnold Douglas Wasson, who had been ordained in the Methodist Church. He was visiting with us en route to Wadley, Alabama, to become part of the staff of a college. The title of his sermon, printed in our bulletin, was “A Stranger in Paradise.” His first sentence from the pulpit was, “The title of my sermon has nothing to do with my being a Methodist in a Presbyterian church!”
Joe and I found some undeveloped, unused property with adequate space for our future church facilities and a lot across the street where we could build a Manse for future pastors. The Presbytery purchased the property and agreed to pay for the materials.
Our group grew in numbers and dedication enough to call a permanent Pastor, the Reverend George Williams, to help us in training to become Presbyterians and to organize our efforts to become a Presbyterian Church.
Joe and I designed a manse with George Williams: three bedrooms, two baths, a study and a combination living/dining room, plus a large room upstairs, with a two-car garage attached to the house with a breezeway. Joe and I recruited and taught other members of the congregation to participate in the erection of the manse. During the next few tumultuous months of building the manse and clearing the land for our Church building, we moved from the school building to another public building. The materials for the manse cost the Presbytery about $11,000. Members of the congregation and a few Marines that Joe was able to recruit provided almost all of the labor.
The Reverend George Williams got us off to a good start! Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Leukemia before the Manse was habitable and could not return to us from the hospital. Despite our deeply grieved loss, it was time for us to become chartered as a Church in our Presbytery. I had attended churches, from pre-school on, in multiple denominations and at Protestant chapels, but I had never been baptized. To become a charter member of our new Church, I had to be baptized. Accordingly, I was baptized, and immediately thereafter, I became a charter member of our new Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church of Havelock, North Carolina.
The next step of our organization was to elect Elders and Deacons to perform our Church business and functions. I was elected to serve as a Ruling Elder to serve as a member of our Session, the representative body elected to serve our Church. Our first duty was to conduct a fund-raising effort to pay for our annual needs and to accumulate the funds necessary to erect our future Sanctuary for worship services.
We were a new Session with no previous fund-raising experience. Therefore, our Pastor urged us to hire a professional to get us on the right track. We hired a professional for two weeks. He taught us how to conduct a canvass for our first annual church budget and a three-year pledge for our future Church building.
I was selected to train some of our members to participate in an every-member canvass and obtain their pledges. In the process of teaching our canvassers to urge the members of our congregation to pledge a tithe - the Biblical admonition to return one-tenth of our income to God - to our immediate and future Church needs, I concluded that I could not ask others to do something that I was not doing myself. Marion and I pledged ten percent of our income that year, 1955, to our Church, and have continued to do so ever since, except the year that all three of our daughters were in college.
An excerpt from the autobiography of George Eugene Wasson
Shortly after our arrival at Cherry Point [in 1952], my friend, [Major Joseph] Joe Nelson, who had served with me on aircraft carriers, at Quantico, Virginia – where we had built our houses, and in Korea, and had returned before me, greeted me with some news: “Gene, we are organizing a new Presbyterian Church and we need your help.” I recognized his proposal as my opportunity to join forces with a potential congregation of people desiring to make a better world.
The initial space that we rented to conduct our worship services was a three-bedroom house in Havelock, the city adjacent to Cherry Point. Our congregation, a mix of civilians and Marines, occupied the living room. Sunday School classes used the bedrooms. [My wife] Marion was asked to coach five people who wanted to learn church music. This group soon became our choir. We crowded into the kitchen. Very soon, we outgrew the building and were able to gain the use of a school building for our Sunday meetings.
Our pastors during this period were Chaplains from the Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point, ministers available from the Presbytery, Synod and elsewhere, and seminary students. One of these pastors was my brother, Arnold Douglas Wasson, who had been ordained in the Methodist Church. He was visiting with us en route to Wadley, Alabama, to become part of the staff of a college. The title of his sermon, printed in our bulletin, was “A Stranger in Paradise.” His first sentence from the pulpit was, “The title of my sermon has nothing to do with my being a Methodist in a Presbyterian church!”
Joe and I found some undeveloped, unused property with adequate space for our future church facilities and a lot across the street where we could build a Manse for future pastors. The Presbytery purchased the property and agreed to pay for the materials.
Our group grew in numbers and dedication enough to call a permanent Pastor, the Reverend George Williams, to help us in training to become Presbyterians and to organize our efforts to become a Presbyterian Church.
Joe and I designed a manse with George Williams: three bedrooms, two baths, a study and a combination living/dining room, plus a large room upstairs, with a two-car garage attached to the house with a breezeway. Joe and I recruited and taught other members of the congregation to participate in the erection of the manse. During the next few tumultuous months of building the manse and clearing the land for our Church building, we moved from the school building to another public building. The materials for the manse cost the Presbytery about $11,000. Members of the congregation and a few Marines that Joe was able to recruit provided almost all of the labor.
The Reverend George Williams got us off to a good start! Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Leukemia before the Manse was habitable and could not return to us from the hospital. Despite our deeply grieved loss, it was time for us to become chartered as a Church in our Presbytery. I had attended churches, from pre-school on, in multiple denominations and at Protestant chapels, but I had never been baptized. To become a charter member of our new Church, I had to be baptized. Accordingly, I was baptized, and immediately thereafter, I became a charter member of our new Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church of Havelock, North Carolina.
The next step of our organization was to elect Elders and Deacons to perform our Church business and functions. I was elected to serve as a Ruling Elder to serve as a member of our Session, the representative body elected to serve our Church. Our first duty was to conduct a fund-raising effort to pay for our annual needs and to accumulate the funds necessary to erect our future Sanctuary for worship services.
We were a new Session with no previous fund-raising experience. Therefore, our Pastor urged us to hire a professional to get us on the right track. We hired a professional for two weeks. He taught us how to conduct a canvass for our first annual church budget and a three-year pledge for our future Church building.
I was selected to train some of our members to participate in an every-member canvass and obtain their pledges. In the process of teaching our canvassers to urge the members of our congregation to pledge a tithe - the Biblical admonition to return one-tenth of our income to God - to our immediate and future Church needs, I concluded that I could not ask others to do something that I was not doing myself. Marion and I pledged ten percent of our income that year, 1955, to our Church, and have continued to do so ever since, except the year that all three of our daughters were in college.