One of the oldest churches in the United States, where George Washington held his inaugural services and Alexander Hamilton was buried following his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, kicked off a year long celebration of its 300 years of history in May.

A festival Eucharist on Ascension Day for parishioners and guests filled every seat of Trinity Parish, Wall Street's, neo-Gothic church building, as the congregation also marked the structure's 150th anniversary. The current building, designed by Richard Upjohn, is the third Trinity Church to stand on the same site since the parish was founded in 1697.

Today Trinity's congregation of 1,000 people, drawn from all of New York's five boroughs, supports an active outreach to the city, including a homeless shelter, a 24-hour centre for the mentally ill homeless, a home for the elderly and disabled, and a music program that brings concerts to residents of long-term care and treatment facilities. Its activism reflects its history in which Trinity upheld the rights of slaves in pre-Revolutionary America, established missions and social programmes for immigrants during the 19th century, and set up soup kitchens and hostels during the Depression.

The parish is also one of New York's most active, and perhaps oldest, philanthropic organisations, funding projects from the South Bronx to South Africa. Its philanthropy is supported by one of the largest holdings of commercial real estate holdings in the city, encompassing 27 buildings totalling 6 million square feet of office, retail and manufacturing space.