Grace Church of Martha's Vineyard
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January 17 - The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Sung Compline
January 10 - First Sunday after the Epiphany
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The History of Grace Church
The first recorded Episcopal service on Martha's Vineyard occurred on Christmas Day, 1862 at Capawock Hall (now the Masonic Hall, Church Street in Vineyard Haven).
Later, that same year, an association was formed with the express purpose to separate from the Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole and to "form an association for the purpose of raising money to build a Church in Vineyard Haven." Architect W. Frank Hurd of Boston was hired to design the Church building. The laying of the corner-stone for Grace Church occurred on September 26, 1882 and the building was completed in 1883. On Sunday, June 3, 1883, Mr. R. A. Ottiwell presided over the first service at Grace Church with approximately 100 persons attending.
The Church was built on land donated by Colonel Asa B. Carey and his wife, Laura, and was located where the Unitarian Church now stands on Main Street in Vineyard Haven. Later, in 1896, Thomas Tankerman conveyed a lot of land on the corner of William Street and Woodlawn Avenue to the "Protestant Episcopal Church". During the ministry of Reverend William Hicks (1894-1898) the Church was moved to its present location on the corner of William Street and Woodlawn Avenue.
Grace Church experienced a series of interim clergy and lay missionaries. Then, in 1919, after years of transient priests, John Higginson Cabot became priest-in-charge and remained until 1925. It was during his tenure that the sacristy and parish hall were built. In 1926 Edith Carey Walker transferred a lot on the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Franklin Street to a trust later transferred to the "Protestant Episcopal Church". That lot was later to become the place where the current Rectory was built. Arthur Bradford Papineau came to the mission in 1925 and was here for 13 years. Through his ministry Grace Church continued to take its place among the established congregations on the Vineyard.
The twenty years from 1939 to 1959 were a time of building. The Reverend John Golding, who came in 1939, established an active music program. The Reverend Thomas Lehman served as rector from 1953-1960. The Parish House on Woodlawn Avenue was built, and he commissioned Allen Crite, a distinguished African-American artist, to paint the mural in the children's chapel. The Church building soon became the center for a wide variety of community activities and a pivotal center for social action and community gatherings.
In 1960 the Reverend Henry L. Bird arrived. Reflecting the times, he was concerned with justice and equality. Inspired by the leadership and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he joined with several parishioners in supporting the creation of a
chapter of the NAACP on the Island. Eventually, his convictions took him to the Civil Rights march in Selma, Alabama. The social activism that Grace Church represented under the leadership of Reverend Bird was not embraced by all parishioners at the time. In fact, it is thought that this disaffected group of parishioners greatly contributed to the establishment of St. Andrews parish in Edgartown as an independent parish.
The Reverend Donald H. Lyons was appointed Rector in 1966. He consolidated Grace Church's role as a liberal, socially active church, addressing such problems and concerns of Island life as high school regionalization, the need for mental health services, and the need for programs and activities for Island youth. During his tenure as Rector, the Church provided land from an earlier bequest for a permanent site for the Lamb family's Camp Jabberwocky. Participants in this program for physically and mentally disabled persons are still an important part of summer worship at Grace Church. The GraceGrace Church choir under Rector Lyonsat Lyons initiated a performance of Part I of Handel's Messiah which soon became part of the Island Community Chorus's regular performances during the Christmas Season. A coffee shop for Island teens, a large children's choir, and the formation of a basketball league all helped to solidify the importance of Grace Church in the life of the Island throughout the year. Donald Lyons continues to sing with the Grace Church Choir, reads scripture during the services, and is considered to be one of the Vineyard's best leading actors and . Don recently celebrated his 90th birthday. A stained glass window was commissioned in hour of his service to the Church and is situated in the Parish Hall.
The arrival of the Reverend Terry L. Henry in June, 1986, marked a time of important transition for Grace Church. In seeking to define the future course of the Church, four primary goals of the parish were agreed upon: to build Christian community; to nurture spiritual life in the parish; to train the congregation for lay ministry and to provide opportunities within the Church for lay ministry to take place. During his ten-year ministry Father Henry led the parish in achieving these goals by helping to create a cooperative relationship between the clergy and parishioners, with the goal of a renewed Christian community – not of a single mind, but with a consensus to respect and welcome diversity. During the tenure of Reverend Henry, Grace Church developed attracted a wide age span and also included parishioners with a wide span of occupations, professions, interests, and spiritual needs. The tenure of Father Henry at Grace ended in the summer of 1996 when he accepted a call to an ecumenical, rural and migrant ministry in the Hudson River Valley.
Father Donnel O'Flynn arrived in 1998 and was Rector until 2004. One of the most important contributions to the worship at Grace Church by Donnel was the establishment of the Burgess Committee. The Right Reverend John Burgess, the first African-American Diocesan Bishop of the Episcopal Church had become active at Grace Church in the 1960's as minister of the summer Chapel of St. Peter Simon in Chilmark.Upon his retirement in 1975, Bishop Burgess and his wife Esther settled on the Vineyard and became active at Grace Church until their deaths. The Burgess Committee oversaw the creation of stained-glass windows at Grace Church to commemorate the ministry of the Reverend Absalom Jones – the first African-American Episcopal priest.– and the Rt. Rev. John Burgess – the first African-American Bishop in the Episcopal Church. The windows were installed in 1999. Father O'Flynn also encouraged the development of an early morning Sunday Service titled "Worship in a New Key" geared to engage very young children in Church worship. Donnel O'Flynn also led Grace Church in establishing "Bridge Housing", a non-profit association to provide affordable housing on the Vineyard.
Father Al Stefanik from Hawaii served as interim priest at Grace Church until the arrival of Father Robert Hensley in 2006. Father Hensley, in cooperation with then Bishop Thomas Shaw, coordinated the participation of Grace in the "Together Now" campaign which eventually provided funds for the restoration of the wall in the Parish Hall and repairs to the Bell Tower. Father Hensley married his partner of many years Michael Helgert not long after gay marriage had been legalized in Massachusetts. Rector Hensley developed a unique annual service at Grace Church titled "Mass on the Grass". This annual summer service was held outdoors on the lawn of the Rectory with a picnic afterwards. Father Hensley also oversaw a complete renovation of the Rectory. The Rectory was raised off of a crumbling brick foundation which was replaced with a full concrete foundation and basement. The interior and exterior of the Rectory were completely renovated and, at his own expense, Rector Hensley installed a wrap around porch which he had seen in an old photo of the Rectory.
Shortly after Rector Hensley's departure in 2015 Father Brian Murdoch was appointed as priest in charge at Grace Church. Father Brian had preached at Grace on several occasions as a guest minister from Boston prior to his appointment as priest in charge. Father Brian brought great enthusiasm and whimsy with him when he arrived. He ended one of the services by blowing on a kazoo from his pocket and the sidewalks at the entrance to the Church were filled with chalked messages of welcome and greeting. He rushed to the Steamship on Ash Wednesday to administer the ashes to passengers going from and coming to the Island. He thought up and implemented a summer intern program for college age students to live and work on the Norton Farm while participating in Christian education at the Rectory and also providing volunteer help at Friday night lobster rolls at Grace Church. Father Brian was also a tireless advocate for the homeless, the addicted and the depressed. Not only did he encourage the use of Grace Church as a meeting place for men and women in the midst of recovery, he spent time with each and every one of them to encourage them to continue with their efforts at recovery. He was quoted on the Church website as saying "To be on this very beautiful Island, detached from America, where one can be a monk in the winter and a surfer in the summer is grand. It suits my Celtic soul." Brian brought a sense of the mystical to worship as the parish hall contained icons and candles and a stained glass window of his favorite Saint – Saint Francis of Assisi. Father Brian's sudden and unexpected death one year prior to his expected ordination as Rector of Grace left the Grace Church parish in mourning. Shortly after his death there was a flood in the kitchen at the Parish Hall which seeped into the basement where the Church Preschool is located. Grace Church has gradually recovered from these devastating events under the guidance of our "interim interim" rector Cynthia Hubbard and our official interim Rector Susan Eibner.
A bright reminder of the endurance of the spirit of Grace Church has been in the ministry of Alden Besse who recently celebrated his 93rd birthday. Confined to a wheelchair, Alden refused to miss a Sunday of worship and as a retired Episcopal Priest with lifelong Vineyard connections, he visited the sick and homebound, bringing flowers to men and women who were going in for surgery or welcoming a newborn in the home. He also worked tirelessly for Crop Walk and the Vineyard Peace Council. He from time to time shared in preaching as have a number of other retired and visiting clergy.
The Rev'd Susan Eibner served as Interim priest in the almost two years following Fr. Brian's death, with the Rev'd Sharon Eckhardt also serving as Pastor when Rev'd Eibner was away.
​ In the Fall of 2018, the Vestry called the Rev'd Stephen Harding to become the next Rector of Grace Church. He, his wife, the Rev'd Dr. Storm K. Swain, and their son Theo, began at Grace Church on All Saints' Day, November 1, 2018.
Jim Norton, John Hickey & material from The History of Grace Episcopal Church 1862-1957 by Ruby Holmes Martyn.