Melissa Z. Sullivan
I am humbled to be considered for a seat on the Vestry. My husband Mark Sullivan is the head of the Buildings Committee. Our children were baptized at Trinity Church. Our daughter Elizabeth is in her second year of singing with the Trinity Treble Choir. She is in fifth grade at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. Our son James is in the sixth grade at Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart. Both schools are where students are encouraged to have an active faith in God. Our family resides in Pennington, with our two German Shorthaired Pointers, Elu and Remi. I strongly believe in traditional family values.
I have studied art, philosophy, and religion for as long as I can remember. Upon graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, I went to work in Manhattan in various artistic pursuits. For Trinity Church, I have advised on interior color improvements that wash our church walls with warmth, comfort, and light. I hope to make a deeper contribution to our church and expand our presence in the community, by strengthening the children's and youth program opportunities for the sake of the next generation. The book of Samuel 16:7 says, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearances, but the Lord looks on the heart." The above passage serves as a gentle reminder to embrace the heart of our community.
Helen Berke
My husband, The Reverend Allan King, and I began attending Trinity Church in 2004. We moved to Princeton from the Boston area due to my job relocation. We have one daughter and a Trans grandchild. I received my MBA in Marketing and spent thirty years working for a major consumer goods corporation.
One Sunday in 2005, I read a notice in the Sunday Epistle for the Crisis Ministry aka Arm in Arm expressing their need for volunteers to work in their Homeless Prevention Department. I went to Trenton for an interview and was very impressed with the atmosphere, the team and the clients. It was one of those sudden moments of grace when I knew that I needed to volunteer there. For the next fifteen years I spent one or two days a week there learning how to help clients and learning about life experiences from clients. The most important lesson I learned is that we are all in this together and without judgement or scorn we have to be willing to help each other. I had the honor of being on the Board of the Crisis Ministry for six years.
At Trinity I have been a desk volunteer, worked on Rummage and St. Nicks. I am interested in continuing to build community at Trinity. I love the Liturgy, the music and the atmosphere. I believe that we need to work together to ensure that years from now Trinity is still here so that someone in the future may be sitting in a pew and will read or hear something that will send them on an adventure that will change and broaden their lives.
Brett Haroldson
Brett Haroldson was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Baptized at Nassau Presbyterian, Haroldson was confirmed in the Anglican faith at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in 2004.
Haroldson graduated from Princeton Day School and then attended American University where he graduated with a BA in visual media. In 2016, he graduated from Rutgers School of Law. At Rutgers, Haroldson was Associate Notes Editor of the Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion, which published his note, Saved by the Bells: A Look at Campanological Rights of U.S. Churches. The note won the Albert P. Blaustein Award for excellence in legal scholarship in 2016. He is currently a Deputy Attorney General for the State of New Jersey serving as Special Assistant to the Director of the Division of Law.
Faith has always been an important part of Haroldson's life. As a young boy, his grandmother frequently took him to Catholic mass. He connected with the theology and liturgy; however, after coming out of the closet at age sixteen, Haroldson no longer felt accepted by the Catholic Church. Then he discovered Episcopalianism. His nephew was baptized at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. The church was extremely LGBTQ+ affirming. In addition, the music was fantastic, and the liturgy seemed even more authentic and rooted in centuries of tradition than the Vatican II liturgy he had become accustomed to. The church preached love, charity, and acceptance above all else. He never looked back.
After college, Haroldson moved to Los Angeles where he was very active at All Saints Beverly Hills, serving as an acolyte and an usher for three years. Upon returning to New Jersey, he attended the Episcopal Church at Princeton (ECP) where he served as an acolyte and cooked the annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper at Proctor House.
He came to Trinity after his father died unexpectedly in 2014. Father Paul gave his father the last rights and allowed the family to have a beautiful memorial service at Trinity, despite not knowing the family very well. Haroldson was so moved by this act of kindness that he made the transition from ECP. Eager to give back to Trinity, Haroldson looks forward to bringing his skills, faith, and life experience to the Vestry.
Joseph Syzdek
Joseph grew up in Annandale, Virginia and was an active attender at Friendship United Methodist Church during High School. He graduated from Emory & Henry College in Virginia where he received his Bachelors Degree in Religion and Sociology. After college, Joseph attended Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY where he received his Masters of Divinity.
From Asbury, Joseph and his family moved from Kentucky to Mississippi and then to Philadelphia, PA where he worked in various non-profit organizations. After ten years in the non-profit world, Joseph went to work for a food service contract management company for eight years before making the leap to Financial Services where he worked for The Vanguard Group for the next seventeen years. During his time at Vanguard, he attended St Joseph's University in Philadelphia to work on his MBA.
In 2009, Joseph lost his first wife to a rare form of ovarian cancer. A year later, Joseph met JoAnn and they married in 2011. During the time he lived in Philadelphia, he was an active member of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship (WPMF). After JoAnn and Joseph were married, they attended WPMF but also attended ECP at Princeton University as well as attending occasional services at Trinity. In the summer of 2023, JoAnn and Joseph made the decision to begin attending Trinity and moved their church membership earlier this year.
Joseph has two adult children and three grandchildren and has been married now to JoAnn for over thirteen years. He feels blessed to be at Trinity and counts himself as a life-long learner and seeker of the Kingdom of God. He welcomes the opportunity to serve this congregation.
