St. Mary's Episcopal Church has stood on the corner of Lancaster and Louella Avenue in Wayne, Pennsylvania for more than a century and a quarter, a stone sanctuary in the heart of a Main Line village. Its motto is "Love of God... Love of Neighbor, Friend, and Stranger Alike," a phrase that also serves as the working mission of the parish, adopted by the Vestry in 2015: to follow Jesus' teaching to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

A Parish That Grew Up With Wayne

The church building dates to 1887, and the parish has been on this corner for over 130 years, growing alongside the village of Wayne itself. Three buildings stand on the property: the historic church, the Parish House, and the Fr. Greene Room inside the Parish House. A Capital Reserve Fund exists specifically to maintain them. In recent summers, parishioners led by Tom Sean Kelleher have tackled a major restoration of the stained-glass window frames: scraping weathered glazing, sanding wood, applying two coats of primer and a coat of Sherwin-Williams Eclipse paint, and cleaning and restoring the protective plexiglass on dozens of windows whose subject matter ranges from St. Stephen to the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The work is a parish-wide effort with roles for everyone, from hospitality and refreshments through ladder-climbing painters.

Two Sundays, One Thursday of Worship

Two distinct Sunday liturgies shape the week. At 7:45 a.m. in the Lady Chapel, the early service celebrates the Holy Eucharist using Rite I, the older prayer-book language. At 10:00 a.m., the full congregation fills the Sanctuary for Rite II with organ, choir, and congregational singing. On High Holy Days both services expand with incense, special ceremonial, and additional musical programming.

Coffee Hour follows the 10:00 service in the Parish House, and a Nursery is open Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to noon for infants and young children.

Mid-week brings two more services. On most Thursdays at noon, a Healing Eucharist is celebrated in the Lady Chapel, with the laying on of hands and anointing with oil available for those who desire it. A trained lay Healing Minister is also present after communion each Sunday in the Lady Chapel, the North Transept of the Sanctuary, for anyone who would like individual prayer.

The Daily Office of the church is prayed publicly Monday through Friday, with Morning Prayer at 9:30 a.m. and Evening Prayer at 5:00 p.m. Both services are livestreamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Boxcast, and live prayer requests are accepted in the comments of the Facebook broadcast during Morning Prayer.

Music at the Center of the Liturgy

Music is one of St. Mary's defining ministries. Dr. Gordon Turk, the Organist and Choir Master, leads a volunteer choir supported by professional singers, with orchestral forces added on major feast days. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Dr. Turk is also Auditorium Organist and Artist in Residence at the historic Ocean Grove Auditorium in New Jersey and Artistic Director of the Summer Stars Chamber Music Festival. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Verizon Hall, and the Bolshoi Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in the Fr. Greene Room, and new singers of any age are always welcome. Dr. Turk can be found after Sunday services or contacted directly.

Major musical services throughout the church year include:

• The Service of Advent Lessons and Carols, with readings and choral music tracing back to the King's College Chapel Cambridge tradition and carols from England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the West Indies, and America.
• Two Christmas Eve liturgies: a Family Service with Carols and the Children's Pageant earlier in the evening, and a late-night Candlelight Service with full orchestra and choir.
• A Good Friday "Music of the Passion" featuring "The Crucifixion" by Sir John Stainer.
• A Choral Evensong for All Saints' Day in early November, sung jointly with the choir of Good Samaritan, Paoli, and conducted by Richard Zuch from the transept, with music by Flor Peeters, Charles Villiers Stanford, and Ernest Bullock.
• A Rossini "Stabat Mater" concert each spring with the St. Mary's Masterworks Chorale and professional soloists, with the orchestral accompaniment transcribed for and played on the organ by Dr. Turk.
• An annual "Hymning through Lent" series of organ meditations.

Christian Formation for All Ages

Adult and Youth Spiritual Formation meets Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in the Navajo Room, timed between the two Sunday services and alongside the Nursery so families can attend together. Topics are wide-ranging, alternating between lay-led, guest-speaker, and rector-led sessions, and announced weekly in the parish newsletter and the Sunday bulletin. Sessions have covered theological questions, the history of Black churches in Philadelphia, missionary work in the Episcopal tradition, agricultural images in scripture, and Advent Quiet Mornings on the theme of Hope in Christ. There is no charge and no prior reading required.

A separate Monday Morning Bible Study meets on Zoom at 11:00 a.m. The group reads through a book of the Bible slowly and discussively, currently working through St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, with no preparation needed to drop in. Erlis Wickersham coordinates both this study and the Sunday Adult Formation.

Children's Life

Children are woven into the Sunday liturgy rather than separated from it. During the 10:00 service, after the singing of the Gradual Hymn before the Gospel, the children follow the Cross out of the Sanctuary into Children's Chapel. Led by Edith Helms, the parish's children's chaplain, the chapel is focused on ages 3 to 12 and offers about half an hour of songs, games, stories, and art. The children return to the Sanctuary in time for communion, again following the Cross.

For the youngest, the Nursery in the Parish House is open Sundays from 9:30 a.m. until noon, and welcomes infants through pre-chapel-age children.

Fellowship, Breakfasts, and the Fall Food Festival

Life beyond the liturgy at St. Mary's has its own rhythms. The Merry Men of St. Mary's host a parish breakfast on most First Sundays from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.: pancakes, home-baked bread, and an easy warmth that has become a Sunday morning tradition.

The Fall Food Festival, organized by the Women of St. Mary's, is the parish's largest community event of the year. A buffet lunch in the Fr. Greene Room features Sweet and Savory baked goods, take-home frozen casseroles, crêpes à la mode, gifts by "Water is Life Kenya," and other booths. Out on the front lawn, children enjoy a moon bounce house and yard games, while Noah's Ark Thrift Shop stays open below the Sanctuary. The day's signature tradition is the Lucky Ducky 50/50 Raffle, with the rector himself drawing the winning duck after lunch. Musical entertainment is provided by multi-talented parishioners, and all proceeds support local outreach organizations.

In early autumn the parish hosts an Oktoberfest Dinner, a German-cuisine evening that doubles as the unofficial start of the new church year. An annual "Extreme" Bocce Tournament, hosted at the home of parishioners David and Kirsten Parsells, brings lawn games and poolside lunch to the parish. Periodic gatherings with Liberti Church, the parish's partner congregation in Philadelphia, weave another set of friendships into the parish's fellowship life.

An Outward-Facing Community

The Outreach Ministry is a volunteer-led effort to extend help, materially and spiritually, to neighbors in Wayne and beyond. The work takes many forms:

• The Little Free Pantry, stocked with non-perishable food year-round and often refreshed with breakfast favorites at the start of the school year.
• Good Works Home Repair Days, organized with a Christian nonprofit based in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Volunteers, all skill levels welcome, paint, do general carpentry, clean, and help with renovations for low-income families.
• A Refugee Assistance Program that partners with local agencies.
• Short-term mission trips.
• An annual Christmas in July "White Gift" collection, with new children's gifts wrapped in plain white paper delivered to St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Chester, Pennsylvania.
• An annual Unity in Our Community Backpack Drive, organized with Radnor Township and other local partners, providing backpacks to local children at the start of the school year.
• Regular donations and grants to a wide network of partner charities: Episcopal Community Services, St. Gabriel's Church, St. Mary's Chester Food Cupboard, Thistle Hills in Coatesville, Family Promise of the Main Line, American Red Cross, Purple Heart, Marian's Attic (which raises money for Laurel House, a domestic violence agency in Norristown), The Wardrobe in Lansdowne, My Brother's House, and Planet Aid.

A Lay Pastoral Care team works alongside these ministries, sending monthly greetings to parishioners who are isolated, ill, or otherwise unable to attend services, and arranging phone check-ins, home visits, and bedside communion when needed.

Noah's Ark Thrift Shop

Tucked into the basement of the Sanctuary, through the breezeway and around back to a "little red door," the Noah's Ark Thrift Shop has been a mainstay of St. Mary's outreach for many years. The shop sells affordable, donated clothing and household items to the wider community, accepts donations in person or via a Donation Closet under the breezeway, and channels its proceeds to other outreach organizations. Open seasonally on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the shop is staffed by volunteers and refreshed with merchandise from across the Main Line. Twice a year the unsold inventory is donated locally or shipped overseas.

Serving the Liturgy

A wide crew of laypeople makes Sunday possible. The St. Mary's Altar Guild, open to male and female volunteers of any age, prepares the vessels, vestments, linens, and furnishings of the chancel for each celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Ushers, acolytes, Eucharistic Ministers, Readers, Healing Ministers, and the Livestream Team round out the liturgical team. Fr. Conor trains new acolytes personally. Eucharistic Visitors carry communion from the church to those who cannot attend in person.

Buildings, Grounds, and the Garden

The Buildings and Grounds Commission, led by the rector with a Vestry liaison, tends to the parish's three buildings and surrounding gardens. Beyond the famous summer window restoration project, the Commission's gardening volunteers plant and maintain the property under the coordination of Laurie Buechle and Louisa Ridgeway. The Commission meets on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Navajo Room, and meetings are open to anyone wishing to observe. The parish also hosts Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (the Wayne/St. Mary's AA group) on the grounds.

Clergy, Staff, and Vestry

St. Mary's eleventh rector is the Rev. Conor Alexander. Called to the parish with a love of contemplative prayer, particularly the Daily Office and the Jesus Prayer, Fr. Conor has described his early months at St. Mary's as a season of deep listening, gathering information and getting to know the people, the Vestry, and the many ministries of the parish.

Around him, Dr. Gordon Turk serves as Organist and Choir Master, Erlis Wickersham coordinates Adult and Youth Spiritual Formation, and Edith Helms leads Children's Chapel.

The Vestry carries legal responsibility for the parish's property and resources and works with the rector on defining and articulating the congregation's mission. It is led by Rector's Warden Peter Burke, with Treasurer Tom Buechle and Vestry Secretary Erlis Wickersham. Ordinary parishioners take on operational leadership throughout the parish: Outreach planning, the Altar Guild, the Thrift Shop, the annual Food Festival, and the Coffee Hour hospitality.

An Anglican Tradition in the Episcopal Church

St. Mary's is a parish of The Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion. Worship at both Sunday services uses the Book of Common Prayer: Rite I at the earlier service and Rite II at the later one. The bishop visits each year for confirmations, receptions, and the reaffirmation of baptismal vows, a high point of the Advent season and a moment that draws visitors and longtime members together around the font and the altar.

A Continual Welcome

The parish's own words remain the best introduction. "As an Episcopal Church, we love our liturgy. We will pray and sing and learn together through liturgy that honors God and feeds our soul. When you come visit, we will welcome you with open arms. As we grow in your relationship with us, we will hold your hand and cry with you if you are sick or distressed, and we will rejoice with you as you celebrate life's milestones. We will challenge you to learn more about God and how God will reconcile the world back unto himself. And we will prepare you to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ."