A Parish at the Edge of Irving
Episcopal Church of the Redeemer sits on a quiet curve of Warren Circle in the northeast corner of Irving, Texas, just minutes from the University of Dallas campus. Begun in 1960 as a small mission in what was then open pasture, it has grown into a multi-building campus with a sanctuary, two fellowship halls, a Montessori school, and a columbarium and prayer garden. Its mission is plain and direct: "to share the love of God by inviting and embracing all persons through our worship, discipleship and service." The community describes itself as "a vibrant and progressive Christian community in the midst of a conservative diocese," and survey after survey shows members returning for worship, fellowship, and the sermons that shape their week.
Sunday and Wednesday Worship
Redeemer is a traditional Rite II parish within the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Each Sunday morning begins with a spoken Holy Eucharist at 8:00 a.m., followed by coffee in the parish hall, and continues with a full choral Holy Eucharist at 10:30 a.m. A complete altar party - lay reader, acolytes, and lay Eucharistic ministers, supported by greeters and ushers - serves at both services. The sanctuary and its vestments, vessels, and altar furnishings are cared for by an experienced altar guild, and most Sundays the 10:30 service is livestreamed on Facebook.
A short Rite II Holy Eucharist is also celebrated on Wednesdays at noon, and Morning Prayer is prayed on weekdays at 9:00 a.m. Between Sunday services, adult Christian Formation meets at 9:30 a.m., and children gather for Sunday School during the 10:30 service, returning to their parents before Communion.
Visitors are welcome to come as they are. Jeans and T-shirts sit comfortably beside Sunday best. Ushers hand out a bulletin that follows each piece of the liturgy; the red Book of Common Prayer, the blue Hymnal 1982, and the supplementary Wonder, Love and Praise sit in the pew, and the bulletin tells you which to open when. Anyone who is not baptized, or who simply does not wish to receive Communion, is invited to come forward for a blessing, just crossing arms over the chest.
The Seasons of the Church Year
The rhythms of Redeemer follow the ancient church calendar, anchored each year in Christmas and Easter. Advent is observed in blue or purple vestments with a candle-lit wreath marking each week of waiting; it leads into the twelve days of Christmas, rendered in white and centered on the late-night Christ Mass. Epiphany follows, lighting the baptism of the Lord and the visit of the magi, and lasting in green vestments until the ashes of Ash Wednesday.
Lent, forty weekdays long, is observed with subdued, penitential liturgies in deep purple, as the parish accompanies Jesus from the wilderness through the triumph of Palm Sunday into the shadows of Holy Week. Maundy Thursday brings foot washing, the stripping of the altar, and the Great Litany of intercession. Good Friday gathers the congregation in dim light to share in the sorrow of the cross. The Great Vigil of Easter on Saturday night strikes the new fire, lights the Paschal Candle, and passes that single flame from candle to candle until the nave blazes and the Alleluias return for the first time since before Lent.
Eastertide stretches seven Sundays in white until the Day of Pentecost, when red vestments and red clothing in the pews mark the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The long green Season after Pentecost closes with Trinity or Christ the King Sunday before the cycle begins again.
The Sacraments
Redeemer celebrates the seven sacraments of the Episcopal Church: Holy Eucharist and Holy Baptism, the two Dominical Sacraments given by Christ himself, and five others that grew over time - Confirmation, Reconciliation (Confession), Holy Unction (anointing of the sick), Matrimony, and Ordination. Holy Communion is normally celebrated within the Sunday Eucharist; Holy Baptism is welcomed into the same service, especially appropriate at the Easter Vigil, Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday, or the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. Christian Burial is offered to members, and the ashes of loved ones may rest in the church's columbarium and prayer garden.
From Tudor Manor to Sanctuary
The parish was planted in 1960 when the diocese established the mission Church of the Redeemer in North Irving. The first home was a Tudor-style house, complete with swimming pool, that served as church, rectory, and parish hall all at once. The founding rector, Father Joe Hollifield, shepherded the community through its early years. The current sanctuary, built in a Normandy style and dedicated in 1965, was the fruit of that decade's growth; its modern stained glass and rugged exposed beams still recall the French Provincial architecture of the original manor.
Father Terrance Roper, an Englishman whose accent suited the architecture of the new parish hall, took the helm in 1972 and brought the parish to financial stability. Father Douglas Eberly followed in 1976; under his leadership attendance climbed, Redeemer Montessori School was established as a parish institution, the diocese entertained the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the aging Tudor was eventually replaced by a new parish hall. Father Mark Story and his wife Susan arrived in 1992; Story Hall, the permanent Montessori school building, was completed in 2002 and named for them.
The Reverend Gail Gateley, Redeemer's fifth rector, served from 2003 to 2014. She expanded the parish's outreach, broadened its diversity and inclusiveness, led the capital campaign that produced the modern Ware Hall, and saw the Montessori school earn its full accreditation. The Reverend Canon Victoria Heard, the sixth rector, served from 2016 to 2023, continuing Redeemer's work with the homeless and less fortunate while serving the diocese as President of its Standing Committee and twice as deputy to General Convention. The Reverend Leo Loyola, called in 2024 as the seventh rector, launched the parish's sixty-fifth anniversary celebration and increased youth participation in the liturgy before concluding his service in early 2026. The Reverend Stephen Waller currently serves as Locum Tenens while the parish conducts a formal search for its next rector.
Sanctuary, Story Hall, and Ware Hall
Three buildings stand on the Redeemer campus. The sanctuary, the heart of the parish, retains the feel of its 1965 dedication: contemporary in design, anchored by the Christus Rex, a Christ the King figure hand-carved in Genoa, Italy, and given by Father Joe Hollifield. Above the altar, the reredos designed and built by parish member Waldo Cecil to mark the sanctuary's twenty-fifth anniversary sends 365 textured beams outward from the head of Christ, recalling the days of the church year; twelve major beams mark the apostles, and forty sunken ones the days of Lent. Stations of the Cross, donated by Cara Ingram, line the east and west walls for Holy Week, and pew candles, gifted by Dick and Mary Beth Comstock, glow through holy days.
To the east, in the narthex, hangs the original altar of the parish, mounted on the wall and painted by member and local artist Wayne Amerine with the seven sacraments of the church. Amerine's work can also be seen on the bishop's chair at the altar, and one of his paintings, Father and Child, hangs in the Dallas Museum of Art.
Story Hall, dedicated in 2002, is a simple building with French Provincial touches - broken crosses in its brick columns and dark wooden roof supports - and houses the Montessori school. Ware Hall, opened in the fall of 2013, contrasts in style with bright glass walls and high oak-beamed ceilings. From its foyer a large west window looks onto the columbarium and prayer garden, designed as a memorial to past parishioners. A statue of the Madonna, moved from the courtyard in 1992, now greets visitors approaching the garden. First internments there took place in May 2014.
Music at Redeemer
The music ministry, led by organist and choirmaster Cliff Varnon, supports congregational singing at the 10:30 Sunday Holy Eucharist and offers special music on holy days. The choir has begun the tradition of singing Evensong on special holy days and rehearses Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. From the chant of the Great Vigil of Easter to the Alleluias of Easter morning and the hymn-singing of Pentecost, the music of the parish follows the seasons of the church year.
Christian Education
Redeemer's children gather for Sunday School during the 10:30 service, using the Godly Play curriculum for ages three through six in a Montessori-style, hands-on environment of Bible stories and wondering. Children in first through fifth grade meet in a separate class. All mentors and volunteers working with children are Safe Church Certified. A long-running Tuesday morning Bible Study meets weekly both in person and on Zoom, working through the Letter to the Hebrews and continuing into the Book of Ruth. Vacation Bible School for youth is co-hosted each summer with neighboring Woodhaven Presbyterian, and Camp All Saints of the Diocese of Dallas offers summer camp for older children and youth. Inquirers classes for adults considering confirmation or reception into the Episcopal Church are offered periodically.
Mission and Outreach
The heart of Redeemer, the parish notes, is in outreach. The Mission and Outreach committee organizes a year of service projects that change monthly, and the parish budget funds several ongoing partners. Through Irving ISD Partners in Education and the diocese's One Church One School Initiative, Redeemer mentors students at W.T. Hanes Elementary, hosts teacher appreciation events, and runs uniform and school supply drives.
Family Promise of Irving, an alliance of a dozen local churches, shelters homeless families with food, housing, and life-skills training. Redeemer partners with Woodhaven Presbyterian to provide meals, overnight hosts, and van drivers. Irving Cares, the local food bank, receives regular collections of non-perishables, as well as seasonal holiday meals and box fans in summer. The parish also supports Heifer International, hosts on-site blood drives for Carter BloodCare, gathers toys each year for the Irving Police and Fire Department's Blue Christmas project, and welcomes neighbors and their pets to an annual Blessing of the Pets near the Feast of St. Francis.
The parish hall opens to community groups beyond the church: the Irving Chorale, local Toastmasters clubs, and the Nichols Park Neighborhood Association meet there regularly.
Redeemer Montessori School
Founded in 1978 with five students, Redeemer Montessori School is an educational ministry of the parish and one of its most visible works in the wider community. The school moved from portable buildings into the permanent Story Hall in 1998 and gained full American Montessori Society accreditation in 2008, the first Montessori school in Dallas County to do so. Today the school serves about 150 students ages 18 months through sixth grade, with four preprimary classrooms, two lower elementary classrooms, an upper elementary classroom, and a toddler house, taught by twelve full-time teachers.
Director Shanon Flowers joined Redeemer Montessori in 2012, moving to Texas from Kansas where she had spent sixteen years in Montessori education. She expanded the toddler program and continues to lead the school, while the rector serves as titular headmaster and the vestry as the school board. The school is accredited by both the American Montessori Society and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Lay Ministries and Pastoral Care
Many hands keep Redeemer running. The Daughters of the King (DOK) Ruth Chapter is a spiritual sisterhood of women who take lifelong vows of prayer and service and who keep a confidential prayer list for the parish. St. Veronica's Guild quietly provides food and help to members in times of need, with no officers and no meetings, simply a network that responds when called. St. Anne's Guild runs the Sunday morning Gift Shop, which sells Christian books, gifts, stationery, and collectibles and donates its profits to church-approved missions.
Pastoral care is shared between ordained and lay ministers. Priests and members of the Community of Hope visit the sick and homebound, licensed Lay Eucharistic Visitors bring Communion on Sundays to those who cannot attend, the priest takes Holy Communion during the week on request, and the priest is also available for spiritual direction, counseling, and Reconciliation of a Penitent. Names for the Daughters' prayer list may be added through the prayer box in the narthex or by contacting the parish office.
Becoming a Member
Those new to the Episcopal Church often attend Inquirers classes before the bishop confirms or receives them. Members transferring from another Episcopal parish ask their previous priest for a letter of transfer. Baptisms are scheduled for All Saints' Day, the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, the Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, Pentecost, or one designated Sunday in summer, with preparation sessions for parents and godparents beforehand. Couples considering a wedding at Redeemer are asked to contact the rector several months in advance, since Marriages are generally not performed during Lent or Advent.
Online giving to the General Fund, the Rector's Ministry Fund, Parish Building and Memorial Gifts, or other special giving is handled through the Realm platform. Gifts may also be made by designating Redeemer (#2123) on the Tom Thumb Good Neighbor program or #82880 on the Kroger Community Rewards program in support of the Montessori school.