Two Bishops Visiting Christ Trinity in Sheffield

02:25PM / Tuesday, March 25, 2025Print Story | Email Story

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, will be the presider at Christ Trinity Church on Sunday, March 30, at 10 a.m.

Fisher visits all the 50-plus congregations in the diocese every two years. Bishop Nathan D. Pipho, of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will preach.

Christ Trinity is an officially Federated congregation connected fully with both the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and the New England Synod ELCA. This is the first time both bishops have shared the visitation day in Sheffield.

The Rev. Erik Karas, who has led the congregation since 2017, will welcome the bishops to this growing community of faith. Following the service on Sunday, the bishops will enjoy coffee hour with the community and will meet with the vestry afterwards. This is the governing body of the congregation elected by the members.

Christ Trinity is deeply engaged in the local community. In addition to the ecumenical "Trail Magic" ministry, which offers hospitality and a meal to hikers, Christ Trinity has a summer cycling hospitality program. The church provides water, a rest station, chairs and a table, and a fix-it station for small bicycle problems. Believe Out Loud, an Episcopal designation, and Reconciling Works, a Lutheran designation, mark this congregation as intentionally LBGTQ-plus affirming. The rainbow chairs on the front lawn are a sign of this welcome.

Tags: religious service,

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South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning.

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76.

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains.

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.

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