Free & Fit NYC - Grace Church NYC Research for Sunday Visit
Free & Fit NYC - Grace Church NYC Research for Sunday Visit By Tim Cheux
Taken from www.gracechurchnyc.org
There are currently over twenty Churches called “Grace Church” within the Episcopal Dioceses of New York. For our visit this coming weekend Linda Brandt, Colin Williams and I will be visiting the beautiful medieval, gothic and wonderfully located Grace Church on Broadway next to the hustle and bustle of Union Square. Conveniently located next yo my favorite French patisserie shop from London L’Pan Quotidian Grace Church is centrally located, easily accessible and without doubt an icon in its neighborhood. The spire to Grace Church is exactly 230 feet high it is easily identifiable from miles around. The Church grounds boasts a beautiful parish parsonage, vicarage to me, and a School which includes grades K-12 with a full sports, arts and after school activities. Grace Church is precisely located on 800-804 Broadway at the corner of East 10th street which houses the school and is located on 86-98 between East 10th and 12th streets. The Church is based on French Gothic Revival architecture designed by James Renwick Jr. his first major commission of any such Church or building of his day. Grace Church was originally located on 1808 Broadway and Rector Street, where the first service was held on Sunday December 21st. However, under the stewardship of Rector Thomas House Taylor in 1834 the Church moved to its now current location in order to move with the Cities plans and to ensure the Church was moving with the City. After traveling around Europe Taylor felt it was imperative to move to the current style and tradition of Gothic medieval architecture and to embrace European Churches style. The new building was consecrated on March 7, 1846. After Taylors reign as rector the Reverend Henry Codman Potter came in as an advocate for the Social Gospel offering Church day care, taught employment skills and provided families with much needed recreation. During his reign the infamous parish member Catherine Lorillard Wolfe worked tirelessly to support the Church’s mission providing both the Church Parish and stained glass windows on the East side of the Church. During his reign as rector the Reverand William Reed Huntington was the sixth rector at Grace Church and during his reign works included the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, building the Social Gospel and building new Chapels across Manhattan and the local New York area. Following Hunginton and the turn of the twentieth century the Church saw the installation of Bowie, Pitt, Minifir, Allison, Barrett, Abott and todays current rector the Reverand J Donald Waring. On staff at Grace Church you will also find General Theological Seminary's very own Patrick and Thomas. These two fine fellows are also joined by our marvelous registrar Stacie Waring. Behind every good rector is an amazing registrar! The Church has three Sunday services, much like the English service times and tradition I am used to with a formal Holy Eucharist at 9 and 11am, evening service and an abundance of guest preachers who visit to speak in this beautiful location and Church. Grace Church has a wonderful outreach communities program supporting homeless shelters, the New York Girl Scouts, an outreach house of its own in Queens, the New York Boys and Mens choir which features at the 11am service and has been around since the 1920’s.
In addition, Grace Church is an extremely wealthy Church with several donors from its congregation, over one million dollar annual giving targets which are regularly achieved and foundations and charitable relations around the City in its own support for charitable causes and building on its own tradition of preaching the Social Gospel and advocating for the marginalized in New York City. In conclusion, Grace Church does a great job of achieving its mission to restore unity with its people and to lead them to Jesus Christ. Through its tremendous location, tradition and wealth of rich Social Outreach it is a functional, potentially life changing and transformational Church for the Gospel In New York City.
Please email any questions to: Freeandfitnyc@gmail.com
Love and Blessings F& F Team. Join Tim at Free and Fit events by signing up to our events online here at our website www.freenfit.org About the Free & Fit Challenge The Free and Fit course has been created to build strong social skills, charge healthy physical bodies and to instil a well balanced and sound mind. Participants who complete the full course over 12 sessions will learn how to work effectively with their team members to build strong values of power, love, and self discipline. Free & Fit Mission To reduce loneliness through Sports, the Arts, Social Justice and Service. Free & Fit Vision The vision of free and fit course is to engage, motivate, improve and hence find freedom in a physical and spiritual state. As such the freedom that leads to a peaceful heart; leads to a healthy body. The course is built upon the core value of learning together to be disciplined and motivated in our faith as well as our fitness. Free & Fit Website: https://www.freenfit.org/ Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCf4gjFopw_eyr6-w7c3bxiQ Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/pg/freeandfitchallenge Twitter&Instagram: @freeandfitnyc Email: freeandfitnyc@gmail.com Freedom // Fitness // Fellowship Free & Fit Challenge © Copyright 2017 Free & Fit NYC/NJ © Copyright 2017 Free & Fit London © Copyright 2017
