Program: Grace House
Location: Syracuse, NY
Director: The Rev. Bridget McManus
Web Site: sites.google.com/site/gracehousesyracuse
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Grace House offers an experience of vocational discernment, service, spiritual reflection, and community living in connection with historic Grace Church in Syracuse, NY. Grace House also partners with the Episcopal Campus Ministry at Syracuse University, a large, diverse research institution located in the center of the city.
Grace House interns will live in community on the city’s slowly revitalizing east side and will work for four days each week in local non-profits committed to social justice. One day each week will be devoted to theological reflection, leadership development, and vocational discernment. Regular retreats and opportunities for spiritual direction are also woven into the program year. In community, the interns will develop a rule of life that encompasses work, study, worship, and Sabbath.
One unique aspect of service in Central New York is our centuries-long history of social change; a tour through our area might include stops on the Underground Railroad, the birthplace of the Women’s Rights movement, and a contemporary effort in the city of Syracuse to fundamentally change the structures of public education, as well as the historic center of the Haudenosanee (Iroquois) confederacy. Grace Church itself has a rich history of social activism. One of the only racially integrated Episcopal churches in upstate New York, it is also both economically and culturally diverse. Grace Church is the site of David Pendleton Oakerhater’s baptism and diaconal ordination and serves as a national shrine for the first Native American deacon of the Episcopal Church. Grace was on the front lines of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and of the movement for women’s ordination in the 1970s. Grace still operates the oldest food pantry in the city of Syracuse, yet also looks forward, as members of the congregation prepare to open an affordable, locally sourced café in the church building.
We seek interns who want to listen together for God’s call to future service even as they thoughtfully attend to Christ’s presence in their day to day activities.
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