OUR JOURNEY

Our History…
Oh so long ago, 400 years to be exact, a church was built within the fort at Jamestown, Virginia.  It burned down a year later and was rebuilt, but, just 3 years later it had fallen to such ruin that another church needed to be built.  (Hummm...)  It was at this time, in 1610, that a group of settlers decided to move off the swampy disease infested Jamestown Island to establish a community and build a church on the shores of Hampton Rhodes.  This settlement ultimately became known as the City of Hampton. The church, which is in continuance to this day, originally carried the name Church of Kecoughtan.  It was re-sited several times, and moved to its current location in 1728 under the name St John’s Episcopal Church.  In 1942 St. John’s planted a mission church in Newport News, which became Grace Episcopal Church.  At Pentecost 2004, the parishioners of this church, after years of prayerful struggling, left its Episcopal property behind to affiliate with the Anglican Mission in America and establish itself as “Mission of Grace.”

Our Faith…
Our loving concern for the brethren of the Episcopal Church, and other mainline churches, will never fail. It is one of our deepest desires that we “all would be one” as our Lord prayed for us way back when there were only two denominations, Jew and Gentile!  We believe that it is the Lord’s great work in these last days to purify His bride for Himself and bring this prayer to fulfillment.  We have no idea how this will all come to pass, and yet we are wholly dedicated to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as He reveals Himself and His will through the uncompromising authority of Holy Scriptures, in union with the counsel and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, to the honor and glory of G-d our Father. It is this pursuit that has brought us to where we are today.

Currently…
We are in the process of being “born again” as a church.  We regard ourselves as a “seed plant” of the Anglican Mission in America and are in the prayerful process of seeking the Lord’s will for our mission, provision of a fulltime priest, and worship ministers. We believe that it is the time to “Behold! The Lord is doing a new thing!  Before our eyes it will spring forth.”  Day by day we are depending upon the direction of the Holy Spirit, the teaching of the Word, the Anglican liturgical practices of that Word, and the unity of the brethren to guide our celebration of worship. We are praying especially as our Lord advised, “…for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into this harvest field” and we welcome all who would feel called to join us in this exciting time of church formation!

ABOUT OUR WORSHIP

Where?…
It is nothing short of miraculous that after leaving everything, the Lord has blessed us with a beautiful and sacred space to call our home and that He has come alongside us with the support of four other Jesus-led churches of different denominations! Together, we share a place in the Livingstone Monastery that we call “the Mosaic.”  This building was once home to a Catholic Monastery and Convent of The Sisters of Poor Clares. Now it is a fledgling experience of a modern day multi-denominational community who worship in different styles but share a common in our faith! Come see this amazing “campus” for the Body of Christ at 28 Harpersville Road, Newport News VA.  Our services are held in the “Adoration Chapel” of the Monastery.

When?…
Because we share the space with these other churches, our original time of worship was a bit unusual: however the Lord has now blessed us with a more "normal" worship time of 11:15 am on Sunday mornings. When you arrive we give you a bulletin stating our order of service, but we don't always follow it! We try to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit who teaches us to do "all things decently and in order." We use projected PowerPoint™ presentations of our services which come mainly from the Book of Common Prayer. However, we are also exploring the rich world of liturgies from the Anglican Communion around the globe and our service ususlly includes prayers and blessings from these sources.  At the beginning of our service, we usually have a time of musical praise and worship. We love to sing the traditional hymns of the church and chant her melodious canticles and prayers, but the musician who knows these tunes recently retired and left the area.   We are seeking a new provision…could this be you?!  We also love the “new song” pouring forth from the Spirit and have several guest musicians who minister contemporary worship music.

Dress is casual, although our priest “vests up.”  Although our dress may be casual, our worship is reverent. We believe church is a place for learning how to be more like Christ, our King, who’s Kingdom we are advancing on earth, so we treasure our sermon time for the equipping of the saints for this daily challenge. Expect much more than a 20 minute homily… Expect to be changed!   Watch out, we hug everybody at the “Passing of the Peace.” We don’t mean to cross anybodies anyone's boundaries; it’s just a habit we’ve acquired from being like family (so stick your hand out quickly if you prefer to shake hands)!  We take prayer seriously so “Prayers of the People” really are our prayers.  Please feel free to speak out your own prayers too.  We are always prepared to minister to individual prayer concerns through the laying on of hands after the service.  Please let our priest, lay minister, or usher know of your desire for prayer.

 

We love kids! We have a Nursery/Sunday School available for children.  Children typically participate in the opening prayers and praise music and then leave for Sunday School. Our usher will bring them back in time for Eucharist or Holy Communion.

 

The climax of our cooperate worship is the celebration the Eucharist or Holy Communion; and we continue, in this Spirit, to the dining hall where we conclude our fellowship with an agape supper!  Come join us for these wonderful hours of His Kingdom coming on to our earth!