New rector at Trinity

The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper has been named the next rector of Lower Manhattan’s Trinity Church on Broadway at Wall Street. Rev. Cooper will replace the Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews, the church’s current rector, who will retire this year.

When he joins the church on May 2, Cooper will be the 307-year-old parish’s 17th rector and will oversee Trinity and St. Paul’s Chapel, across the street from the World Trade Center site.

Since 1972, Rev. Cooper has worked at Christ Episcopal Church in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where he began with a Sunday congregation of 75 members. The church is now the third largest Episcopal Church in the United States.

Cooper received his bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and his Master of Divinity degree and Doctor of Divinity degree at Virginia Theological Seminary. He previously worked in New York from 1970-1972, when he was appointed assistant rector at St. Peter’s Church in Albany.

In Florida, he founded two not-for-profit life care facilities, Vicar’s Landing and Glenmoor, and also helped to establish a congregation in Ponte Vedra’s sister city in Pontevedra, Spain. Dr. Cooper grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey, and is the son of an Episcopal Priest.