Ann joined Holy Trinity’s community in February 2024, making an immediate impact, firstly through her work in the garden and since December as our new treasurer. Morag Jordan talked to Ann over a cup of tea to find out how she came to Holy Trinity and the part it plays in her life.
How Ann came to Holy Trinity
Ann has been visiting France since she was a teenager and spent a great deal of time studying, working and travelling abroad. After decades working in banking and accounting firms in New York and Chicago, Ann moved back to her hometown, Bloomington, a beautiful university town in southern Indiana, where she worked as Development Director raising funds for the Sycamore Land Trust, a conservation non-profit.
Ann and her siblings were baptised Catholic but she did not grow up in a church-going family. Her
parents were very involved with civil rights, politics, and charity work, and set an example for their children on the need to be actively involved in the community and beyond, to make a positive difference. At university Ann studied History and Asian studies including Buddhist philosophy, and in Chicago Ann was very involved in raising funds and awareness for Tibetan refugees fleeing Chinese control of their country.
Before moving to Nice, Ann was a long-term member and volunteer of the Unitarian Universalist Church which has its roots in liberal Protestant Christianity. She helped with fundraising and was President of the Women’s Association.
Ann had always planned to retire abroad. A good friend living part-time in Monaco invited her over for a long holiday a few years ago and she fell in love with Nice and the Riviera: “it felt like coming home”.
For a few months after she arrived in the area in the fall of 2023 but before moving to Nice, Ann enjoyed attending services at various local churches and going to concerts of sacred music. She had walked by Holy Trinity a few times but the gate was always closed. One Friday she saw the gate was open and came into the church. She met Christine Harvey, busy arranging flowers, who welcomed her warmly and then when Fr Jeremy turned up he encouraged Ann to come to his installation service the following Sunday.
Ann loved this beautiful service with its ceremony, rituals and music and was thrilled by the sheer beauty of the church. She sat next to Robert Keen who was very welcoming and introduced Ann to Jill Pirdas, Ella Dyer and other members of the warm and friendly community at the reception that followed – she had found a home.
Holy Trinity in Ann’s Life
Last year, Ann spent time weeding in the garden and cemetery, with guidance from Christine Harvey and Jill Pirdas. She also learnt about previous parishioners through caring for the tombstones and reading the words of their loved ones.
Over the past year Ann has learnt much at Holy Trinity: “every week I learn something and get inspired to be a better person”. Ann has loved learning more about the Bible through Fr Jeremy’s sermons, the prayers and readings, and participating in Anglican rituals, traditions and history. She is very impressed by the years of hard work that so many people have devoted to support the church and the community and how newcomers are also getting involved as volunteers and donors.
Before moving to France, Ann knew that she wanted “to find an organisation I could feel passionate about and where I could put my finance and fund-raising background to good use”. And now, the church “has become the centre of my life here in Nice”.
As Holy Trinity’s new treasurer, Ann has been working over the past three months to gather and absorb all the financial information she needs to understand how our church and Association Cultuelle work. She is very grateful for all the support she continues to receive regarding church finances, particularly from Michael Killbourn, Peter Harvey, Fr Jeremy, Richard Challoner and Gerard Jordan; and many others have offered advice, insight and support.
Ann feels very positive about the church’s finances and our community’s future and is looking forward to working with others to further developing fundraising “so we can plan for the future and continue to maintain and enhance the beautiful buildings and grounds we have”.
Ann feels fortunate to have found such a wonderful church with its inspiring chaplain and his wife Christine, and its welcoming community; and Holy Trinity is very lucky that Ann found her way here and is so willing to share with us her enthusiasm and experience, her time and her talents!