The Rev. Dan Matthews, retired rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in New York City, will preach at the 9 and 11:15 a.m. services Sunday, June 5 at St. James Episcopal Church, located at 766 N. Main Street in Hendersonville.

The event is centered around a stewardship forum between services in Stillwell Hall. The forum will begin at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Matthews, a Chicago native who moved to nearby Canton as a teen, was on duty at the lower Manhattan church at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the nearby World Trade Center. The church became a haven for rescuers and survivors, as it was so close to Ground Zero that falling wreckage from the collapse of the first tower knocked over a nearly century-old sycamore tree on the church grounds.

Trinity Church is perhaps one of the best-known Episcopal churches, with its history closely linked to that of the nation. Among those buried among its three cemeteries are Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the Treasury; Robert Fulton, developer of the first commercially successful steamboat; colonial printer William Bradford; naturalist John James Audobon; John Jacob Astor, patriarch of the family of real-estate magnates; and his great-grandson, famed Titanic victim John Jacob Astor IV.

Matthews ministered in Tennessee and Georgia before becoming rector of the Wall Street church in 1987. He retired in 2003.

As always, the public is welcome to attend. For more information, contact Joel Hafer, St. James rector, at 693-7458 or visit the St. James website at www.stjamesepiscopal.com.

– article submitted by Phil Alexander