Grace Church sits at the end of Church Street on a bluff above the York River in the historic Village of Yorktown, Virginia, where it has stood since 1697. It is an Episcopal parish - part of The Episcopal Church, a branch of what the parish calls the Jesus Movement - and its recurring refrain is "Walking in Love, Welcoming All." The congregation of about 200 includes Democrats and Republicans, military and civilian families, gay and straight and questioning, single and married, the put-together and the falling apart. The campus of three buildings and a centuries-old cemetery supports a parish that runs a preschool, a noon healing service, a labyrinth open to seekers, two weekly Centering Prayer groups, several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and a TransAmerica Bicycle Trail hospitality program - all within walking distance of Main Street and the Yorktown waterfront.
A Church That Survived Cornwallis and a Tavern Fire
Grace's story reaches back further than its 1697 walls. The first Anglican church in York-Hampton Parish was built near Wormley Creek in 1634, close to the present-day U.S. Coast Guard Yorktown station, where a 1655 tombstone still marks the site. After the Ports Act of 1691 laid out the Town of York, the foundation and walls of the current church were built of slabs of marl - ancient clay and shells cut from the riverbank. The marl would later be hardened and reused after a tavern fire ripped through the village in March 1814, destroying the church and most of what had become a small port city. The reconstruction of 1848 rebuilt only the original portion within the standing walls and hid the damage under a stucco overcoat - layers that are still visible in an excavated stretch of wall between the church and cemetery.
Two wars added their marks. During the Revolutionary War, Lord Cornwallis's soldiers occupied the building as a powder magazine, severely damaging it shortly before the British surrendered to General Washington on October 19, 1781. During the Civil War, the belfry served as a lookout tower and the church itself became a hospital; the bell cast in 1725 was carried off and later recovered in Philadelphia, where it was recast in its original form and returned in 1889. The Nelson family - Scotch Tom, William, and Thomas Nelson Jr., the wartime general and signer of the Declaration of Independence - were active vestry members and are buried in the churchyard, as is Colonel George Read, a descendant of Edward II and ancestor of George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and Elizabeth I of Great Britain. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark, and the nonprofit Grace Historical Church Preservation Foundation, established in 2006, raises funds for its upkeep.
Three Buildings on the River
Grace has three buildings clustered along the river. The historic church itself, where Sunday and Wednesday worship take place, stands at 115 Church Street. The Parish Hall at 111 Church Street houses the administrative offices, the Day School classrooms, the nursery, and the gathering space used for coffee hour and many small-group meetings. Riverview, the recently rebuilt house at 109 Church Street, sits on the bluff above the York River and hosts Centering Prayer, the Grace-ful Knitters, men's groups around an outdoor fire, and out-of-town cyclists completing the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail.
All three worship and meeting spaces are accessible, with parking and reserved spaces for those with disabilities in front of the Parish Hall and in the public lot across from the church entrance. The churchyard cemetery, in use since 1701, includes the tombs of the Nelsons and Colonel Read and his wife. Within the same grounds stands a 31-foot canvas labyrinth modeled on the floor of Chartres Cathedral, in use since 1995 for walking meditation.
Two Sunday Mornings in the Historic Church
Two Sunday services bookend the week. At 8:30 a.m., Rite I Holy Eucharist gathers in the historic church for a more traditional but still musical liturgy. At 10:30 a.m., Rite II Holy Eucharist offers a more family-friendly service with congregational hymns and a broader musical selection. Announcements begin at 8:20 and 10:20 respectively. On the first Sunday of the month, the later service moves to the Parish Hall.
Nursery care is available on the lower level of the Parish Hall from 10:15 to 11:45 a.m. for children age 5 and younger, and Children's Chapel for Kindergarten through fifth grade meets in Room 3 during the 10:30 service, rejoining the congregation before the Peace. Children are welcome to partake in Communion as soon as their parents feel they are ready.
The 10:30 service is livestreamed at graceyorktown.online.church, with no login or membership required, and is later posted to Grace's YouTube channel. Bulletins are typically posted online the Friday before the service in the FridayGram newsletter. Coffee and lemonade follow the later service in the Parish Hall or on the lawn.
Both services use the patterns found in The Book of Common Prayer. Typically the congregation stands to sing and pray, sits to listen, and exchanges the Peace before sharing bread and wine. All baptized Christians are welcome at the Altar; anyone may come forward to receive a blessing.
Wednesday Healing at Noon
At noon on Wednesdays, the historic church hosts a brief Holy Eucharist with prayers for healing, led by the rector, The Rev. Seldon Walker. The service typically concludes after about 40 minutes and is open to all. On weekdays, members and visitors are invited to pray along with Daily Morning Prayer using the "Forward Day by Day" booklets, available in both pocket and large-print formats from the church office.
Centering Prayer, Twice Weekly
Centering Prayer is woven into parish life both online and in person. The practice, developed in its modern form by the late Fr. Thomas Keating and grounded in Matthew 6:8, finds weekly expression in two gatherings: a Zoom meeting on Mondays at 7:30 a.m., and a Tuesday in-person gathering at Riverview from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Both begin with short readings about Centering Prayer practice and from Scripture, then settle into 20 minutes of silence before reflection and a closing prayer. First-timers are given a brief orientation.
Knitting, Prayer Shawls, and Pastoral Care
The Grace-ful Knitters have gathered every Thursday afternoon in Riverview since the fall of 2010. The group knits prayer shawls for the parish's Prayer Shawl ministry - shawls blessed during services and given by clergy or any member of Grace to anyone who might need a tangible sign of comfort during hard times. Prayer shawls from Grace have made their way around the world. The knitters also make hats for the homeless, scarves and accessories for the Red Scarf Project, and items for Yorktown's Natasha House. Beginners are welcome, and yarn and needles are provided.
Pastoral care is coordinated by a team that meets each Monday morning to assess needs for visits, meals, phone calls, transportation, Communion, or clergy calls. The parish's Meals Ministry delivers occasional meals to households going through a medical emergency, and the Funeral Support team provides receptions in the Parish Hall, staffed in part by the Daughters of the King. Prayer shawls can be requested through the church office.
The Day School Since 1955
Grace Episcopal Day School has operated as a ministry of the parish since February 28, 1955, when three mothers asked the church leadership to start a kindergarten and nursery school after years of carpooling to Williamsburg. The first class of 17 kindergarteners met in what is now the sacristy behind the chapel. Today the Day School operates five classrooms with capacity for about 60 children, ranging from two-year-olds through a half-day Kindergarten, with a class limit of 10 to 12 in the older groups. The curriculum follows the developmental-interaction approach and incorporates Virginia Standards of Learning in the Kindergarten; weekly chapel is led by a member of the clergy or lay staff. Children of all religions, races, and ethnic backgrounds attend.
The school is religion-based and religiously exempt from state licensure, but it is inspected annually by the York County Health Department, Fire Department, and Building Inspector. The Director, Jean Grinnell, is in her 18th year at Grace; she holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech in Elementary Education. The Day School Board, including the Rector, a Vestry representative, the Day School Treasurer, and three parishioners with professional experience in early childhood education, oversees operations. Registration typically opens to currently enrolled families at the beginning of February and to the general public about two weeks later.
Filling the York County Food Closet
Grace has supported the York County Food Closet, an outreach ministry of St. Luke's United Methodist Church, for more than 40 years through regular donations of canned goods and financial support. On the second Sunday of every month, a large red Radio Flyer wagon - the "Red Ball Express," named for the World War II logistics operation - rolls out at both worship services to collect food for the Closet. The ministry is now one of the most consistent and largest single donors of the Food Closet, with the parish's youth organizing food drives alongside parishioner donations.
Since 2011, the parish has also practiced a weekly Backpack Ministry, providing food over weekends, breaks, and summers to Yorktown Middle School students identified as living in poverty. Grace members have served the homeless through PORT (People Offering Resources Together, a program of LINK of Hampton Roads) for more than 20 years, rotating with other churches to staff overnight winter shelter. Each fall, the Parish Hall becomes a Rise Against Hunger meal-packing site, where about 10,000 meals are packaged in a single afternoon for shipment to locations around the world; volunteers from the nearby U.S. Coast Guard Training Center regularly help with the packing. Grace volunteers also join others to glean crops left in local fields through the Society of St. Andrews.
Sharing What the Parish Has
Grace opens its buildings and resources to partners across the Peninsula. Twice a year for several years running, the Parish Hall has hosted an American Red Cross blood drive open to non-parishioners. Each Advent, Angel Tree tags let parishioners buy gifts for children whose parents are incarcerated, a parish tradition now spanning 15 years and reaching families from the Peninsula to West Point. The Lackey Clinic, a Christian free health-care ministry founded in 1995 that serves about 5,000 people in Yorktown, Poquoson, Newport News, Williamsburg, and James City County, has received volunteer hours and financial support from Grace almost since its founding.
Since 2003, the Cyclist Support Group has hosted riders beginning or ending the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail - a coast-to-coast trail from Oregon to Virginia - for potluck lunches, accommodations in private homes or Riverview, rides to and from airports, train and bus stations, and trips to the bike shop. Guests have arrived from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Korea, and the Philippines. The register in Riverview is a moving account of the ministry: "Thank you John (Oppenhuizen) and all the members of Grace Church for the very warm welcome and generosity during my two-day stay at the brick house," wrote Edgardo Fausto from Manila. "God bless!"
Creation Care and the Blessing of Animals
Grace keeps a labeled bin in the Parish Hall filled with dog and cat food, kitty litter, and bowls for the Peninsula Pet Pantry through the St. Francis Project, helping families in financial strain keep beloved pets out of shelters. Parishioners also tend the gardens around the church, Parish Hall, and Riverview, sometimes together, sometimes alone. The churchyard includes a chainsaw sculpture of St. Francis carved from a Jerusalem pine that once grew there, providing the backdrop for the annual Blessing of the Animals, held on the first Sunday of October in honor of the Feast of St. Francis. Pets of every kind - dogs, cats, horses, geckos - sit with their people while clergy offer individual blessings.
Adult Formation: EfM and Sacred Ground
Grace hosts several sustained adult formation programs. Education for Ministry (EfM) is a four-year theological curriculum administered by the University of the South School of Theology, with daytime and evening groups meeting on Monday mornings. Each year of the program covers the Old Testament, New Testament, Christian church history, and ethics and theology.
Sacred Ground, an 11-part film- and readings-based dialogue series on race grounded in faith, is offered by the national Episcopal Church as part of its "Becoming Beloved Community" commitment to racial healing. Since December 2020, six classes of Grace "graduates" have walked through chapters of America's history of race and racism, including indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories intersecting with European American histories. The series is open to all and is especially designed to help white people talk with other white people about race.
Cursillo, a three-day weekend retreat described as a living expression of Christ's love lived in a color-, joy-, and music-filled three days, has drawn many Grace parishioners over the years through the Diocese of Southern Virginia. Adult Forums supplement the Sunday services on a regular basis, and Spiritual Direction is offered by appointment with the parish's Resident Spiritual Director, Elsa Bakkum, M.Div.
Children, Youth, and the Nursery
Children are welcome at all services. Children's Chapel gathers children from Kindergarten through fifth grade during the 10:30 service in Room 3 on the lower level of the Parish Hall, where trained adult volunteers lead them through a service of their own before rejoining the sanctuary just before the Peace. The Nursery, on the same lower level, welcomes children age 5 and younger from 10:15 to 11:45 a.m. Middle and high school students are included in occasional outings - escape rooms, kayaking, bowling - tailored to their ages.
Men's Groups, Daughters of the King, and More
Three active men's groups meet at Grace: two on weekday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m., and a third Saturday morning. The weekday groups gather either outdoors around a fire on the bluff at Riverview or indoors as the weather dictates, sharing a check-in, a discussion of an engaging book, food, and camaraderie. A monthly Men's Breakfast convenes in the Parish Hall at 7:30 a.m. on the first Saturday of the month.
The Daughters of the King, St. Michael and All Angels chapter, is open to lay and ordained women who seek a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. Members take lifelong vows to uphold a Rule of Prayer and a Rule of Service and are recognized in worship by their silver cross. The chapter is led by a president, vice president and prayer list keeper, secretary, treasurer, and chaplain, each serving one-year terms.
Recovery at the Parish Hall
The Parish Hall hosts two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings each week. On Saturday nights at 7 p.m., an open meeting welcomes anyone interested in A.A.'s program of recovery, with non-alcoholics invited as observers. On Thursday nights at 7 p.m., the AA Shoulder to Shoulder group holds a closed, Big Book-format meeting for those with a desire to stop drinking. Both meetings are wheelchair accessible.
The Labyrinth, the Easter Vigil, and Memorial Days
Since its dedication in 1995, the Grace Church Labyrinth has been offered in workshops at the church and around the region. The 31-foot canvas replicates the labyrinth laid into the floor of Chartres Cathedral around AD 1220 and predates Christianity by centuries; in the Middle Ages the Christian Church adopted the labyrinth as a symbol of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Labyrinth walks are scheduled as a ministry of the church, offering a meditation for healing, self-understanding, and centering. Hundreds of seekers have walked its path since 1995.
The annual Holy Saturday Easter Vigil typically draws hundreds to the banks of the York River, where Episcopal congregations and other area churches gather at dusk for drumming, fire, processions, and baptisms. Grace has participated since 2012 in what has become a multidenominational collaboration. Worshippers are invited to bring a chair or blanket.
Grace has long commemorated Memorial Day and Veterans' Day in the historic church before processing to the cemetery, where the names of military veterans buried there are read aloud - beginning with the Revolutionary War and including the Civil War, Philippine Insurrection, World Wars I and II, Korea, and the Cold War. "Taps" is played and the 1725 bell is tolled to honor those who served. The Daughters of the King also host a quiet Service of Remembrance during Advent, on a Sunday afternoon in early December, for those mourning a loved one. Attendees are invited to bring a photo and light a candle.
Art in Worship: Crosses and Chalices
The artistic life of the parish is anchored by the Easter Crosses, a tradition that began in 1993 with a collaboration between then-Rector Reverend Carleton Bakkum and folk artist Nancy Thomas. "The World Cross," a painted wood piece, started a series that has grown to more than 30 commissioned crosses, typically unveiled at the outdoor Easter service and joining the procession through the churchyard. In 2019, former Associate Rector The Rev. Dr. Jacqueline R. Soltys spearheaded a project that produced 14 parishioner-designed and hand-painted chalices and patens, used to share Holy Eucharist at the 2020 annual meeting. The parish's kneelers, inspired by the National Cathedral, were stitched by a Tuesday-afternoon women's group and completed by August 1976.
Worship and Beliefs: Walking the Way of Love
Grace is part of The Episcopal Church, a branch of what the parish calls the Jesus Movement. Members seek to walk the Way of Love, loving God and their neighbor; the parish's recurring conviction is that if it is not about love, it is not about Jesus. Worship follows The Book of Common Prayer; services take place indoors and out, with the Blessing of the Animals at the St. Francis Garden, occasional picnics on the lawn, and the Easter Vigil on the banks of the York River near the Watermen's Museum. The Eucharist is the family meal of Christians, in which all baptized Christians are welcome to share bread and wine. "If you are hungry for God, come share Eucharist with us; we believe that Jesus invites all to his table."
The parish's rector is The Rev. Seldon M. Walker, a lifelong Virginian and Episcopalian who began serving Grace in mid-August 2020 after time as an associate priest at Historic Christ Church in Alexandria. A geologist by training, he holds a B.S. in Geological Sciences from James Madison University and a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. He and his wife April have twin boys, Levi and Hayes. The Director of Music is Suzanne Daniel, who has led various choirs and played organ, piano, and flute at Grace since 2008. Elsa Bakkum serves as Resident Spiritual Director, holding hour-long appointments by arrangement in a model shaped by psychology, the Enneagram, and dream work.
That is Grace Episcopal Church: a 325-year-old parish in the Village of Yorktown with a deep historic footprint, a Day School, a labyrinth, a cemetery, and a calendar of services, classes, meetings, and meal-packings that bring a varied congregation around the same old altar on a bluff above the York River.