In order to understand what makes Grace so amazingly special I am going to tell you a bit about myself and my past. I was raised in the Episcopal Church at Grace Church in Elkridge, MD. One of my first “real” jobs was at the day care center run there. Grace was my home and a second family to me. When it was time to go to college I talk not only to my parents, but too many of surrogate moms and dads I had at Grace. In 2002 at the age of 20, I dropped out of college and joined the US Army as a combat medic. I never felt more purposeful than I did serving my country caring for ill and injured people, not only US Soldiers and allies, but our enemies as well. War opened my eyes to how precious and beautiful life really is. As much as the Army gave me, it took many things away as well. I was sexually assaulted by a member of my unit who was also a pastor in his home church. When charges were brought forth he committed suicide. I became very angry; angry with God, angry with humanity and angry with myself. I stopped going to church. In 2008 I suffered the first of many health crises that would ultimately change the course of my life. I did what any Soldier would do; I grit my teeth, shut my mouth and carried on. In 2012 I could no longer handle the pain and while stationed in Germany I chose to have the total hysterectomy that the doctors had been pushing for. Eight weeks after surgery I went on a mission to Israel. A very long story short the surgery fixed one problem and caused many others. I look back on my mission to Israel as the last time I felt truly healthy, ironic when you consider I had had a major surgery just a few weeks prior. The thing I remember most about that deployment was the feeling that God was in that place, despite all of the bad things happening all around me, God was there and I missed him. Like most people, I may have missed having God in my life but I wasn’t ready to do anything about it. After Israel, I was stationed at Walter Reed and after an interesting year in Wheaton, MD we decided to move to Charles Town. My health continued to fail and ultimately the Army medically retired me after almost 13 years of faithful service. I gave you this long aside so that you understand the first time I came to Grace I was as broken as a person can be. My world was defined by the military and my place in the military. It was all going away, and I was hurt, confused, scared, and lost. My mother sent me an email Anjel had written regarding the DUI incident with the bishop and I appreciated the tone and thought that went into it. I decided to check Grace out. The first service I came to Anjel thought she was giving a sermon to everyone but really she was talking to me. She was talking to me about letting go. About being something different than I thought I was. After service I did a very un-Episcopalian thing and I didn’t go for coffee. I sat in my pew and I wept. There was the God I was looking for, right in front of me. I came to few more services alone and ultimately decided that perhaps it was too far. I tried Zion closer to home but I felt the pull to come back to the place I had felt God. When I came back with my kids in tow the very first week Miss Shirley asked where I had been. You have to understand I talked to Anjel and no one else. I slipped in and out those first few times months ago without my children. How did this person know who I was and that I hadn’t been here? Our attendance became regular during the roughest six months of my life. Anjel knew I was having a hard time but somehow when at church it didn’t seem so bad. Slowly things got easier, I enrolled in school and three months after my retirement date I was offered a job. Our regular attendance had some unexpected but joyous consequences, my daughter Miriam became impatient to be baptized. Just before Thanksgiving last year she was baptized here at Grace. Over time I came to know more and more people in the congregation and even made friends, something I have a very hard time doing. When the call for vestry members went out I pondered it and dismissed the notion. We had been coming to Grace less than a year. The idea kept at me, even when I wasn’t in church and finally I told Mother Anjel that if no one came forward and they still needed a person I wouldn’t mind, but I didn’t want to take anything away from anyone. No one stepped forward and in February it was official. Grace Church helped give me hope when I had none, fellowship when I needed it most and a gift that is impossible to describe. Grace gave me myself, flawed and imperfect and loved. A year ago, my family and I were still newbies to Grace and to the Episcopal Church overall. When the call to confirmation classes came Jannah startled me with letting me know she wanted to attend. Then Jeb, my fiancé, said the same. The pull of the Episcopal Church was strong. I saw being a part of Jesus through Grace as the natural progression of my faith, so I said yes to confirmation as well. Jeb and I volunteered to be a part of the RenewalWorks process. It was an eye opening process. But it was encouraging to us to see that Grace walks its talk. As a church, we desire to serve the community through the outreach of our various programs and partnerships. Then I became sick. I barreled through RenewalWorks and confirmation classes, but it was becoming clear something was really wrong with my health. Then I experienced firsthand the beauty and love of the Grace family. Pat Zupka, Robin Marsan, and Wendy Davis went out their way to drive me to doctor’s appointments when I couldn't drive. Other members of the congregation offered their help if we needed it. Robin rescued me from being stir crazy with lunch at her house. When I would listen to the service on YouTube at home and heard the prayers of the people, I was comforted to know my church family was praying for me. Confirmation was an emotional and spiritual high when Bishop Sutton came to Grace. I pushed my health to its limit because I wanted to be an official part of the church. When Dawn Reid and Jeb held me up while being blessed by the Bishop, it was affirming that I was in the right place at the right time. Simply put, my family and I could not have gone through this health and spiritual journey without Grace, my church family. As mysteriously as my illness came, it slowly went away. I took full advantage and put my energy back to Grace. When an opening became available to serve on the Vestry, I asked to be considered and the answer was a full yes. It's been a new level of serving. I recently went to a conference this week on discipleship on behalf of the Vestry. It was a wonderful experience learning practical ways the church can be disciple of Christ. Just as wonderful is learning that Grace in some ways is already doing this. We read this Scripture at the conference and I thought of Grace. Romans 12:10, 13: 10: “Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.” Through the Food Forest and Farmer’s Market, our formation classes, Bible study during the week, Grace is showing what it means to follow Christ. And it made me so thankful to be a part of this church. So I want to say thank you to each of you. For every prayer, kindness, fellowship, and love you have shown and continue to show. I am so thankful and blessed to be a part of Grace. Good morning, I must start off with the story of how we ended up here at Grace in Brunswick, Maryland, of all of the places we could have landed. As English writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton once said, “Coincidences are spiritual puns.” This story starts back in January of 2013. I was leading a Celtic Morning Prayer service at our parish in Delaware and we had a drop-in visitor, a priest from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, Mary Jayne Ledgerwood. After the service we chatted and invited her to our home for dinner. Fast-forward a couple years. Last August we decided to sell our home in Rehoboth Beach, DE, and move to Lovettsville, VA, with our daughter and son-in-law, Bekah and Sean. We had looked at the web pages for the Episcopal churches in Leesburg and Purcellville. Leesburg was a possibility, but a little far. Purcellville didn’t appear welcoming. Then I had an idea…I know a priest in the Diocese of Virginia, I’ll ask her! So on August 23 of last year I sent a private Facebook message to Mary Jayne and asked her for recommendations for a new church community in Virginia. Mary Jayne immediately told us to cross the Potomac and come to Grace and there we would meet her friend Anjel. She let Anjel know we were looking and within minutes I was receiving messages from Anjel inviting us to try out Grace. We checked the website—“Serving Christ and Welcoming All”, a Believe Out Loud Community, and BONUS, “We are Orthodox and Celtic” in our spirituality. Our first visit to Grace was at the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartans a year ago. We knew we had found a new home. There would be none of the dreaded “church shopping.” One of the writers I read this year in EfM expressed this sentiment, “Judaism and all other western religions are suffering from having become over-verbalized and under-experienced. At Grace I find so much is experience, the kind of experience you get from using all of your senses and doing hard work together as a family. I experience the holiness of the ground we walk on and the presence of the saints in the touch of these beautiful walls. I experience God’s presence in the people here and the way we care for each other, in the chant of the Psalms, in the singing of the Eucharist, watching the children in our Pray Space, and in the breaking of the bread. We praise God in song, smoke, Icon, and in our caring for the least of God’s sheep. I am refreshed and give myself anew with hymns, kneeling, standing, bowing, proclaiming the Word, and coffee hour friendship. Grace is where I turned to after the massacre at a Florida nightclub and while I was overwhelmed with grief I found comfort in the loving presence here and the abundance of hugs. Our Thursday morning Bible Study with Anjel is not only a place for learning history and context, but also a place for exploring and connecting. We call it the “rabbit hole”. What I have experienced here at Grace is not something that is confined to Sundays or even within these walls. I have celebrated, gardened, carried furniture and refrigerators, visited the sick, handed out Christmas gifts, prayed, and served up hotdogs, all part of our family life. We have a common mission here at Grace, to seek and serve God in all persons. Teri and I are Netflix junkies, watching entire seasons of our old favorite shows. This month we are watching Cheers. You all know the theme song: Be glad there’s one place in the world Where everybody knows your name, And they’re always glad you came; You want to go where people know, People are all the same; You want to go where everybody knows your name. I’m glad you came. Thank you. Michael Younkins shares his reflection on what he loves about Grace ChurchWhat I love about Grace Church. There are so many things that it is hard to narrow down. However, here are the highlights: First, the Congregation – From the first time we visited here, Mike and I felt that Grace’s congregation was a loving and warm group of people. Virginia Danner, Nancy Smith, Lila and Bill Wenner, Susan Mann, the Dehlers all made sure to welcome us. We felt that the folks here were family; people who love and accept without hesitation. It was based on this impression that we asked a friend Sophia Schmidt to visit here with us one Sunday and she too, found it to be a “family.” Mike and I started attending once a month with Sophia, then more regularly. Finally, it was with no regrets that we transferred our membership here, to come home and become part of the family of Grace. We have friends here, which odd as it sounds, wasn’t always the case at churches we attended. This means a great deal to us. Second, our Priest – What’s not to love about Anjel? She is someone who speaks her mind with compassion and love, but sometimes, when needed, with lightning and thunder. She brings up social issues to make you aware, moves you into action and bring about change. Anjel knows her Bible, the history, the background story, the ancient language/text and explains what was truly meant. She is always willing to share this knowledge with everyone. Then there's DJ and the choir – Hearing the music now and when we first arrived is night and day. The Organ then was not good, but now, it is so beautiful and DJ brings out its best. The choir, small but mighty, always sings from their hearts and it brings something extra to the service each Sunday. I love the the Church Year services. The Episcopal Church is very rich in ceremony and beautiful services, with Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. Each is separate, distinct and emotionally moving. And then there's the building itself, We were in love with this building from the first visit. This is a like a small cathedral. The nave with its beautiful windows, the high alter with the reredos, the stone walls and columns…. Genius loci, Latin meaning spirit of place. I feel that Grace Episcopal Church most definitely has this. So there is much to love about Grace, its outreach with the food forest and ashes to go, our congregational family, Anjel, DJ. We can’t imagine being anywhere else but here. |
Ministry MinutesEach year during our Annual Giving Campaign, members of Grace Church tell their stories about why they love Grace Church and why they are involved. Each story is different in details but all reflect the love of Christ which is found in this community of faith. Archives
October 2017
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