The Lucy and Lois Tritton Fellowship: Reimagining Congregational Life for a New Generation Through Educational Equity
Submitted by: University of Connecticut, CT AHEC Network (The Lucy and Lois Tritton Fellowship at University of Connecticut)
July 27, 2026
This Report has been requested by resolution of Annual Convention: Not Sure
There is a particular pride that comes from saying, “I am a cradle Episcopalian.” The phrase evokes inheritance, memory, and belonging. Yet for many Episcopalians of color, that identity carries what W.E.B. Du Bois described as a “double consciousness”: belonging deeply to a tradition while remaining aware of its entanglement with histories of exclusion and slavery. In New Haven, that tension is embodied in the memory of Lucy and Lois Tritton, remembered as the last enslaved Africans sold in the city. Their story reminds us that the Church’s calling is not merely to preserve tradition but to pursue truth, reconciliation, and renewal.
The Lucy and Lois Tritton Fellowship emerges from this conviction. It asks a pressing question: What does faithful religious presence look like among generations being formed in public schools, colleges, universities, and workplaces where the Church is often absent, yet spiritual yearning remains deeply present?
Across the United States, young adults are navigating rising educational debt, social fragmentation, mental health challenges, and growing uncertainty about meaning and vocation. Connecticut reflects these realities. More than half a million residents carry student loan debt, many young people face significant mental health challenges, and growing numbers of adults identify outside traditional religious institutions. These trends suggest not a decline in spiritual longing, but a growing need for communities of belonging, purpose, and accompaniment.
Reimagining Mutual Opportunity
The fellowship builds upon more than three decades of community engagement through the Connecticut Area Health Education Center (CT AHEC). Through workforce development, educational pathways, and community-based learning, CT AHEC engages thousands of youth and young adults annually.
Over time, faith communities have emerged as some of its strongest partners. Episcopal congregations have hosted mobile clinics, caregiver-support programs, palliative-care initiatives, and community outreach efforts. Together, these partnerships revealed an important truth: congregations remain uniquely capable of connecting service, spirituality, relationships, and intergenerational mentorship.
Over the last three years, this insight has been tested through initiatives coordinated by the Rev. Cecil “Ngoni” Tengatenga in partnership with six Episcopal congregations in Connecticut and one Episcopal congregation in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Inspired by the Episcopal Church in Connecticut’s commitment to racial justice and reconciliation, the initiative adopted Lucy and Lois Tritton as its patrons, grounding its work in remembrance, repair, and hope.
Why Lucy and Lois Tritton?
Naming the fellowship after Lucy and Lois Tritton is more than symbolic. As the last enslaved Africans sold in New Haven, they represent both a painful history and an unfinished moral responsibility.
Their memory challenges the Church to acknowledge how religious institutions have participated in systems of inequality while also serving as instruments of liberation. The fellowship therefore understands reconciliation not as historical reflection alone, but as a commitment to accompany communities that continue to experience exclusion and disinvestment.
For a generation searching for authenticity and purpose, the Trittons’ story offers a bridge between faith and action. It reminds participants that spiritual identity is not simply inherited. It is embodied through solidarity, service, and a commitment to human flourishing.
Learning from New Haven
The fellowship’s most important demonstration site emerged through Chapel on the Green, Trinity Church’s longstanding ministry among unhoused and marginalized neighbors in downtown New Haven.
There, healthcare students, clergy, volunteers, and community members gathered in a setting where worship, service, and hospitality were inseparable. A mobile clinic was integrated into the ministry’s ongoing work, creating opportunities for students to learn alongside community members rather than simply serve them.
Approximately 200 residents received support while students representing multiple universities and health-professional programs participated in structured service-learning experiences.
The outcomes were striking. Participants reported greater awareness of social and structural influences on health, a deeper appreciation for the relationship between spirituality and care, and significant growth in their professional identity. More importantly, many described moving from a mindset of “fixing” people toward a practice of accompaniment.
They learned that meaningful service begins with presence, listening, and relationship. Chapel on the Green demonstrated that young adults continue to seek spaces where service, spirituality, justice, and community intersect. When congregations create such spaces, they become places not only of worship but also of formation, civic engagement, and belonging.
Learning from Vieques
The fellowship was also shaped by a growing partnership in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Following Hurricane Maria, healthcare educators and students established a sustained presence on the island, supporting outreach among elderly residents facing significant barriers to care. Subsequent community assessment efforts revealed familiar challenges: provider shortages, transportation barriers, fragmented referral systems, and limited access to specialized services.
Yet researchers also identified significant strengths. The Episcopal Church functioned as far more than a worshipping community. It served as a center for elder support, transportation assistance, pastoral care, healthcare coordination, volunteer mobilization, and community organizing.
Community leaders emphasized that meaningful change depended less on buildings and infrastructure than on trusted relationships, local leadership, and community ownership. These lessons reinforced a core principle of the fellowship: faith communities remain uniquely positioned to integrate spiritual care, social support, civic engagement, and public health.
Though separated by geography and history, New Haven and Vieques share a common lesson. In both places, congregations have emerged as trusted conveners capable of bringing together residents, students, healthcare professionals, and civic leaders around shared challenges and aspirations.
A Fellowship for Belonging
Ultimately, the Lucy and Lois Tritton Fellowship is an investment in the Church’s future public witness. It recognizes that young people continue to hunger for meaning, purpose, and belonging even as traditional religious participation declines.
Like the mustard seed of Scripture, the effort begins modestly. Yet through faithful stewardship, strategic partnership, and grace, it has the potential to grow into a network of congregations, students, educators, healthcare professionals, and community leaders committed to belonging, reconciliation, and hope. In honoring Lucy and Lois Tritton, the fellowship seeks not only to remember the past, but to cultivate a future where faith communities help all people flourish.