Trinity United Methodist Church hosts open house in celebration of its 200th birthday

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Evansville's Trinity United Methodist Church is celebrating its 200th birthday next year but Thursday, celebrations started a bit early.

About four years of planning went into this celebration. An open house at Trinity United Methodist Church as it creeps up on its 200th birthday.

Trinity partnered with community programs such as Vincennes University to pass out clothes, provide meals and shine light on the different opportunities these programs provide.

Philip Hooper has been involved in the church for 10 years and was one of the main driving forces for the night.

He says it was a great opportunity to get a snapshot of what the community has to offer.

"That's really been the highlight for me is seeing everyone that gets to benefit from the stewardship of this building," says Hooper.

The bicentennial celebration comes as a couple long standings churches have closed their doors.

Hooper says he is hopeful they can continue to show off the historic building.

"Everyone is concerned and hopeful about the future and I think that's where we are. We love this space, it's important to us and we want to show it off and we want to be authentic about it. We have a cool space, and people may have no interest in coming to church, but they might want to see the cool architecture so that's why we are doing this each year.