Grace Episcopal Church stands on Jamaica Avenue in the heart of Jamaica, Queens, where it has gathered Anglicans for more than three centuries. Founded in 1702 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, it is the first church organized in what is now the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, the second-oldest Episcopal church in New York State, and the acknowledged "mother church" of the Episcopal congregations in the town of Jamaica. Its 1862 Gothic Revival sanctuary, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1967, anchors a campus that includes the 1912 Grace Memorial House and a cemetery placed on the Register in 1963. Today, members and neighbors know the parish as both a historic landmark and an active outreach hub, with a weekly soup kitchen, a biweekly Saturday meal program, and a robust health and wellness initiative that has trained parishioners as Mental Health First Aiders.
Three Centuries on Jamaica Avenue
The parish story begins in 1702, when the Reverend Patrick Gordon, a Royal Navy chaplain appointed Rector of Queens by the Bishop of London, died in Jamaica that July. Congregants first worshipped in the "Old Stone Church," a shared space used with the Presbyterians, until the first Grace Church was built in 1734 on land provided by the 1733 deed of the Heathcote widow. A second building, erected through the generosity of the Honorable Rufus King - the first American ambassador to England and a signer of the Constitution - was consecrated in 1822 and lost to fire three decades later. Among the parish's distinguished early rectors was the Reverend Samuel Seabury, who went on to become the first Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America.
Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Grace Church kept pace with a Jamaica community that grew from a small village into a major metropolis. In 1856 a wooden building on Flushing Avenue (now Parsons Boulevard) was raised to house Sunday School classes; the cornerstone for the larger Grace Memorial House was laid in 1912 through the gifts of many parishioners. Under the leadership of the Reverend Herbert Thompson Jr., members incorporated the Grace Episcopal Church Jamaica Senior Citizens Housing Development Fund Corporation and secured a $7 million award from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1990 the parish sold the vacant parcel on which "Grace Houses" was erected; the senior and accessible housing community continues to thrive under a board composed largely of Grace Church members.
The parish has held divine services continuously except for one interruption: in 2020, Grace closed its doors for the first time in its history in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Services moved online and, as restrictions eased, settled into a hybrid in-person and virtual format that continues today. The mission statement carried by the parish - "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" - still shapes its outreach to the changing demographics of the surrounding neighborhoods.
The 1862 Gothic Revival Sanctuary
The present sanctuary, opened in September 1862 within a year of the previous building's destruction, is considered one of the finest examples of American Gothic architecture in the region. Grace Memorial House, completed in 1912, holds offices, a gymnasium, an auditorium, and meeting rooms, and is also home to the King Room event space - a large room available with tables, chairs, and a full kitchen for private and community gatherings. The church cemetery was cited to the National Register in 1963, four years before the sanctuary itself received the designation in 1967.
Sundays at Grace: Mass and Sunday School
The Sunday schedule centers on a 9:30 a.m. Mass celebrated in the historic sanctuary and broadcast simultaneously on Facebook and Zoom, with dial-in audio available for those who prefer to listen by phone. The parish Sunday School meets at 9:30 a.m. as well, gathering in the Parish Hall from October through June. The first Sunday of each month (excluding July, August, and September) is observed as Youth Sunday, when children attend and fully participate in the Mass: ushering visitors to seats, reading lessons, leading prayers, receiving the offertory, transporting the elements to the altar, and assisting the ushers during communion. Throughout the year, Sunday School children present special performances at Harvest, the Christmas Pageant, Palm Sunday, and Easter, including the Passion narrative and traditional Easter hymns.
The Adult Choir and a Living Music Tradition
Grace Church has had a choir for nearly as long as it has had a building, and today the Adult Choir includes eleven choristers under the direction of Organist and Choirmaster Donald Morton and Assistant Organist Timothy Thomas. The Choir leads the service in singing hymns that range from traditional fourteenth- and fifteenth-century pieces to twenty-first-century gospel and contemporary music, drawing on both The Hymnal 1982 and the African-American Episcopal hymnal Lift Every Voice and Sing II. In addition to hymns, the Choir chants the Psalms in the Anglican tradition using The Anglican Chant Psalter and leads the responses during the sung Mass, with anthems and special musical offerings on major feast days.
The Choir sings every Sunday from Homecoming Sunday through the last Sunday of June, plus the Great Vigil of Easter, the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and selected funerals. Rehearsal is held on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in the undercroft, with additional rehearsals called by the Choirmaster as needed.
Lay Ministries Inside the Sanctuary
The worship life of the parish is supported by a constellation of lay ministries. The Acolytes Guild, with roots tracing back to roughly 250 A.D., currently serves in the roles of Crucifers and Torch Bearers; children age ten and older are welcome to join. The Altar Guild prepares the altar, vestments, and elements for every service, weddings, and funerals, carefully rotating hangings to match the liturgical calendar. Lay Eucharistic Ministers assist the celebrant in administering the consecrated bread and wine and, immediately following Mass, take the Sacrament to members who are homebound or hospitalized; Lay Eucharistic Visitors carry that ministry further under license from the Diocese of Long Island, after training at The Mercer School of Theology.
Lay Readers proclaim the lessons and prayers at Sunday services and on special occasions including Good Friday, the Great Vigil of Easter, Christmas Lessons and Carols, and Kwanzaa (usually celebrated the Sunday after Christmas). The Ushers Guild welcomes and seats parishioners, distributes bulletins, presents the offertory, guides the flow of communion each week, and clears the sanctuary before and after each service.
Pastoral Care: AFP and Cursillo
Two long-standing pastoral ministries shape the inner life of the parish. The Grace Church chapter of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer, established in 1954, brings together fifteen to twenty members who commit to daily intercessory prayer and Bible study and meet weekly on Wednesdays from the third week of September through the last week of June for fellowship, prayer, and study. The AFP also sponsors an Annual Parish Quiet Day on the Wednesday of Holy Week and a quarterly Prayer Partner Network that pairs members of the congregation to pray for one another.
The Cursillo movement at Grace counts more than twenty Cursillistas who preach, teach, care, share, and sing in the wider parish. The local chapter, like others across the Episcopal Church, traces its structure to a transformative weekend retreat and a lifelong "Fourth Day" of prayer, study, and witness. Rainbow Ultreyas - community reunions of Cursillistas - meet in the Parish Hall on the third Monday of January, April, July, and October at 7:30 p.m., and visitors are always welcome.
Outreach: Soup Kitchen, Open Hands at Grace, and the Health and Wellness Ministry
Outreach sits at the heart of Grace's identity. The Soup Kitchen, founded in September 1991 by Phillis Ellis, Reginald Richards, and other concerned parishioners, began as a joint venture with First Reform Church, First Presbyterian Church, and Presentation Catholic Church. It now serves more than one hundred hot meals every Tuesday at the Memorial House and depends entirely on donations of food and money from parishioners, neighbors, other churches, and businesses. Special holiday meals are also served on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Open Hands at Grace extends that hospitality with a biweekly Saturday meal program serving the food insecure across Queens. Volunteers from the parish and the wider community prepare hearty, home-cooked meals every other Saturday and provide seasonal care packages and holiday meals when possible, sharing the love of Christ through service, hospitality, and kindness.
The Health and Wellness Ministry, launched in February 2017, connects parishioners and community members with information and resources on health, wellness, nutrition, and access to care. It has produced a regular newsletter covering topics from the Affordable Care Act to advanced health-care planning, coordinated exercise and fitness programs with professional trainers for parishioners and Grace Houses residents, and supported training that has certified Grace Church members as Mental Health First Aid volunteers and exercise fitness trainers. The ministry has acquired gym equipment - balance balls, fitness mats, resistance bands, free weights, and an exercise bike - to support this initiative. Each year, ministry members partner with the Queens County Faith-based Advisory Group and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to staff health-promotion kiosks at the Jamaica Arts and Music Summer (JAMS) Festival and the Sutphin Boulevard Harvest Festival, offering blood pressure screenings and health education materials. A long-running chair yoga program complements the fitness work for members and neighbors.
A Bible Study Tradition
Midweek formation continues with a 7 p.m. Bible Study and Evensong on Wednesdays during the program year. The gathering pauses for the summer and resumes in the fall alongside the choir season and the AFP schedule.
Leadership
The Reverend Dr. Rudolph Anthony, born and raised in Belize, became Priest-in-Charge of Grace Episcopal Church in May 2023. A lifelong educator, he holds degrees from Belize Teachers' College, the University of the West Indies, George Mercer School of Theology, SUNY Empire State College, Orlando College, New York University, and New York Theological Seminary, including a doctorate in Ministry. Before coming to Grace, he served as a teacher and principal in Belizean Anglican primary schools, an educator in the New York City public school system, principal of Belize's largest government high school in Belmopan, deputy chief inspector of schools, secretary general of UNESCO, mathematics professor at the University of Belize, Priest-in-Charge of five mission churches and the cathedral in the Diocese of Belize, chaplain of Belize Central Prison, priest in the Diocese of New York for three years, and rector of Saint Augustine's Anglican Church in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, for six years.
He is assisted in worship by Organist and Choirmaster Donald Morton and Assistant Organist Timothy Thomas, who together lead the parish's enduring tradition of music.