First and foremost we are a collection of people who seek to ground all we do ever more deeply in God’s love. We are young and old, gay and straight, longtime residents and newly arrived transplants, born and raised in the church and still wondering what it all means and if it is for us.  All are welcome. No matter what. More than anything this is who we are.

Second, we do not own a building. We have found this invigorating and our community has grown in depth and size in part because of the freedom we have found to focus on God’s mission in the world, on creating sacred space in which to worship week by week at the Great Barrington Community Center and on small group gatherings for worship, contemplative prayer, ESL classes, ecumenical worship and Bible Study in our office and chapel space in downtown Great Barrington.

The truth is though that it was hard to begin with! We are (more than the sum total of) a merger between St. James’ Episcopal Church in Great Barrington and St. George’s Episcopal Church in Lee.  After much discernment – and many complications – these two founding churches chose to sell their buildings so that we could use the money to support all members of our community – those inside—and outside—the church.  Since 2012, we have been worshipping together in rented space in our community. In this way we support our neighbors and they support us – setting up a mutual relationship of love and openness which we hope we carry forth all we do in prayer, worship and work towards justice.

 

OUR STAFF

 

The Rev. Cristina Rathbone, Rector  

(413) 644-0022 revtina@graceberkshires.org

 

Rev. Cristina (Tina) Rathbone began her ministry with Grace as our third rector on August 1, 2021. Prior to coming to the Berkshires Tina served at risk communities in Massachusetts and the Southwest. She served Boston’s Cathedral Church of St. Paul for ten years. As Canon Missioner there, she worked primarily with homeless and marginally housed people. Together with them, she developed a new faith community, MANNA (Many Angels Needed Now and Always), which remains a thriving and multi-faceted ministry of the Cathedral. The daughter of Cuban refugees on her mother’s side, Tina went on to develop The Bridge Chaplaincy with the Diocese of the Rio Grande, helping them find plausible, pastoral and incarnate ways to serve migrants and asylum seekers along the international border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. Most recently she worked with Episcopal Migration Ministries to launch Neighbor to Neighbor, a national network designed to connect Episcopal congregations with newly arrived asylum seekers in their own, local contexts.

 

Joel Jorgensen, Director of Farming at Gideon’s Garden 

~ a collaborative project of Grace Church and Taft Farms

 

Joel’s renewed relationship with agriculture and the earth can be said to be bound together with his faith and work in the church. Working on farms everywhere from his home in Iowa to Minnesota, Arkansas, and Michigan, to California and now Massachusetts, Joel has come to consider farming as more than a job, but rather a discipline through which he and others may be nurtured and formed to the needs of the earth and the communities around him. Joining Grace and Gideon’s Garden, he hopes to bring to the field the breadth of life experience he’s had so far with the depth his ideas and education have given him. When not getting his hands dirty, Joel can be found reading and studying any number of topics which he is almost always dying to talk about.

John Cheek, Choir Director

 

Lee Cheek, Keyboardist

 

Andrea Saville White, Parish Administrator

 

& Charlie, Parish Pup

(413) 644-0022 Office@graceberkshires.org

 

 

OUR VESTRY

The Grace Church Vestry meets every month to work towards realizing our community’s vision of who and what we can become – all together. Prayer is central to this process, as is the work of planning, dreaming, and leading the congregation in every aspect of our lives together. The Vestry is led by the Rector and the Senior and Junior Wardens and supported by the other elected Vestry members. Our Vestry members represent the diverse backgrounds of the members of Grace Church. Each person brings with them their own body of knowledge and experiences. 

Laura Jordahl, Junior Warden