A Home on Madison Street Since 1871
Grace Episcopal Church stands at 819 Madison Street in Syracuse, New York, on the corner where Madison meets University Avenue, a block that puts the parish within easy walking distance of Syracuse University. For more than a century and a half, this corner has been the gathering place for a community that calls itself a church of refuge, healing, and hope, a parish where the words above the parish house entrance still ring out: "Friendship and Service."
The parish was established as a mission in 1870, the same year Syracuse University was founded and two years after the creation of the Diocese of Central New York. On March 27, 1871, Grace was organized as the diocese's fourth parish. Within five years the small frame church at Madison and University had grown enough to warrant a new building, and the cornerstone that began that second building is what members marked at the parish's 150th anniversary. Grace's history, the parish writes, gives abundant evidence of God's presence in our midst.
That history is preserved in a parish archive that members can read online. A special issue of the parish newsletter recounts the laying of the cornerstone; a separate document tells the story of Saint Philips Church, an African American congregation whose legacy is part of Grace's; and a downloadable article remembers the parish's connection to the Rev. Betty Bone Schiess, one of the Philadelphia Eleven whose irregular ordination in 1974 helped open the way for women's ordination across the Episcopal Church. The archive also includes a newsletter tracing Grace's ties to the National Shrine of David Oakerhater (O-kuh-ha-tah), a Cheyenne warrior and later Episcopal deacon and monk who became the first Indigenous saint of the Episcopal Church. Together these pieces of memory give the parish a long view of itself as a place where the welcome extends across lines of race, gender, and culture.
"Friendship and Service"
The greeting that opens Grace's home page is direct: "You are always welcome at Grace, and we mean that!" The parish describes itself as the house of a loving God where everyone is welcome, respected, honored, and loved; a church of refuge, healing, and hope; and a place where the soul can feel at home. As a community seeking a deeper relationship with God through loving Jesus and serving neighbor in the tradition of the Episcopal Church, the people of Grace are rooted in friendship and service.
The mission statement makes the same promise in more formal language. Grace Church devotes itself to the teachings of Jesus Christ, celebrates together the Eucharist, and seeks to spread the knowledge of the love of God throughout the community. Its foundation is a loving congregation that welcomes and embraces diversity and seeks to unify people of all ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. In accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ, the parish seeks to increase spiritual growth, feed the hungry, give relief to the sick, tend to those in need, and promote peace, justice, and love.
That welcome is not an abstraction. The preaching, the outreach, and the building itself all reach toward the same conviction: every person who walks through the doors is a precious child of God, and the parish is enriched by whoever comes among them.
Sunday Mornings at Grace
The rhythm of the week at Grace centers on Sunday worship. Two Sunday services with Holy Communion are offered each week, at 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM. Bulletins for both services are posted on the parish site. Between the two services, at 9:30 AM, the parish hosts a Faith Formation Book Study; the current series works through Brian D. McLaren's "Do I Stay Christian?"
Worship at Grace is in the Episcopal tradition: liturgical, rooted in the Book of Common Prayer, and centered on the Eucharist. Visitors will find Rite I and contemporary language used at different services, hymnody from the hymnal, sermons that engage both Scripture and the world, and a community that expects to greet newcomers warmly.
The preaching at Grace draws on the wider Episcopal tradition. The rector, the Rev. Dr. Steve Moore, preaches most Sundays and writes sermons that move easily between the Gospel of the day and the headlines of the week. One week the sermon wrestles with Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard, asking whether life is supposed to be fair and what it means to become generous and grateful people. Another Sunday the preacher reflects on the Good Shepherd and on a God who delights in who we already are. During Holy Week and Easter the rector walks through the temptation in the wilderness, the healing of the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus, the road to Emmaus, and the gift of Pentecost.
Other Sundays bring guest preachers. Lay preachers Adam Eichelberger and Dr. Marian Thompson are regular voices in the pulpit; Deacon Chuck Stewart preaches several times a year; diocesan seminarians such as Matthew Sanaker served a long internship with the parish; supply clergy such as Mother Christine Day fill in during transitions; and visiting bishops including Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe of the Diocese of Central New York preach when the diocesan calendar brings her to Grace. The variety of preachers reflects the parish's connection to a wider church and a wider world.
Sermons are recorded and published in two places. A podcast on Spotify shares each week's message, and a full archive of video sermons is maintained on the Grace Church YouTube channel. Written transcripts of every sermon are also available on the sermon blog, which stretches back through years of preaching.
Wednesday Suppers and the Wider Neighborhood
Wednesday nights at Grace are for fellowship and food. The parish hosts a Wednesday Supper, which the Serve at Grace page describes as one of the centerpieces of parish life, a weekly table that brings together members, students, neighbors, and anyone who wants a meal and a conversation. In a sermon on the parable of the workers in the vineyard, the rector invited students to "come down to our Wednesday night supper or the food distribution" as one way to remember they are connected to the world and not stuck in the ivory tower of academics.
Beyond the supper, Grace's outreach reaches into several Syracuse neighborhoods. The parish supports the InterFaith Food Center at 324 University Avenue with regular food distribution. Members collect Tops and Walmart gift cards for InterFaith Works' refugee program. Each fall, the parish gathers backpacks for children in need. Throughout the year, Grace collects clothing for the Samaritan Center's clothing closet.
The parish lists a wider circle of community partnerships, including Episcopal Relief and Development and Episcopal Migration Ministries, as well as local organizations such as InterFaith Works, Habitat for Humanity, the Tiny Homes Program, and the ACLU. Members are encouraged to find their own ways to live out the Gospel in Syracuse and beyond, through reading with elementary students, mentoring older students, volunteering in hospitals or hospice, or signing up through VolunteerCNY.org. A sermon by Mother Christine Day made the same point: "There are many other ways in our community to follow Jesus and love our neighbor, including helping elementary students to read, helping older students as a mentor, serving as a volunteer in hospitals or in hospice, becoming a literacy volunteer, and so on."
A Building with Many Doors
Grace's campus is more than a Sunday-morning worship space. The parish hall, with seating for up to ninety-six guests and a stage with piano, hosts receptions, banquets, meetings, arts rehearsals, and presentations. A recently remodeled commercial kitchen, with a ten-burner gas stove, refrigerators, freezers, a KitchenAid mixer, and adjustable café tables, can be rented for cooking classes and demonstrations. The Upstairs Conference Room seats fourteen for meetings and small retreats, while the Parlor offers a more casual setting for up to fifteen.
The sanctuary itself is available for weddings and baptisms. Parking is also part of the campus: the lot offers weekday parking for those who work or study near downtown Syracuse and the university district, and on Syracuse University football game days the lot opens for game-day parking within walking distance of the Dome. Income from these rentals helps underwrite the parish's ministry, and renting the spaces also keeps Grace's doors open to the wider community throughout the week.
Roots at Syracuse University
From the start, Grace has been tied to the life of the university next door. The parish has long served as the Episcopal parish for the Syracuse University community, a spiritual home for students, faculty, and staff. For decades, the rector of Grace also served as the Episcopal chaplain at Syracuse University's Hendricks Chapel. The last person to hold that role, the parish notes, was the Rev. Jennifer Baskerville Burrows.
That relationship shows up across the parish's life. Preachers speak easily about SLU students considering how to spend a free evening, about the difficulty of taking six classes, about the strange in-between space of being inside an ivory tower. The parish's Wednesday Suppers and food distribution are described as one way students can step out of that tower and remember they are connected to the wider world. On any given Sunday, students, faculty, longtime members, and Syracuse neighbors share the pews together, and the rector's sermons regularly make room for the questions and pressures of academic life.
Memory and Witness
Grace's historical archive holds several pieces of a longer story. One is the legacy of Saint Philips Church, an African American congregation whose story is folded into Grace's history; an archived PDF on the parish site preserves that connection. Another is the parish's role in the ordination of women: a downloadable article on the Rev. Betty Bone Schiess, one of the Philadelphia Eleven, the women whose irregular ordination in 1974 helped open the way for women's ordination across the Episcopal Church, is part of Grace's archive.
The parish also keeps the memory of David Oakerhater (O-kuh-ha-tah), a Cheyenne warrior and later Episcopal deacon and monk who became the first Indigenous saint of the Episcopal Church. An archived newsletter traces the parish's connection to the National Shrine of David Oakerhater. Together with the 150th anniversary materials, these pieces of memory shape how Grace understands itself as a parish that has long been a place of welcome across lines of race, gender, and culture.
The Preachers and the Pulpit
Grace takes seriously the work of preaching, and the sermons posted on the parish blog give a clear sense of what the pulpit sounds like week to week. The Rev. Dr. Steve Moore's sermons are long, conversational, and deeply engaged with both the day's Gospel and the world outside the church doors. A sermon on the parable of the workers in the vineyard moves from a four-year-old's allowance to the tax system, the cross, and the Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast's line that grateful people are happy. A sermon on the man born blind reaches from a flock of Canadian geese and Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese" to an attack on a synagogue, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the limits of our sight, and the healing power of being grounded and of the earth.
Dr. Marian Thompson's sermons are no less grounded. On the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost she preached from Romans 8 and the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast: while we are busy living ordinary lives, God is quietly at work, and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, she preached from the raising of Lazarus and her own journey to an affirming church in Utica, telling the congregation that God's time is not your time, but it is always right. On the Second Sunday after Pentecost she walked through Matthew 9 and asked the congregation to consider who they have been walking around in their own lives.
Adam Eichelberger, a regular lay preacher at Grace, brings a storyteller's gifts to the readings. On the Third Sunday after Pentecost he preached on Jesus sending the disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and what it means for the church today to take part in the healing, reconciliation, and renewal of the church itself. On the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost he preached on Peter, Dolly Parton, and what it means to give away what we have been given, concluding: "Grace Church, no PIP. Today you're doing a good job."
Deacon Chuck Stewart preached on the five women who saved Moses and the question of who God uses to change the world. Matthew Sanaker, who served a long internship at Grace while studying for ordination, preached on the sending of the disciples, on being born of water and Spirit, on Pentecost and the gifts of the Spirit, and on the choice between the way of Christ and the way of Barabbas on Palm Sunday. Mother Christine Day preached on Ash Wednesday about the meaning of dust and the call to lasting transformation, and on Transfiguration Sunday about not putting faith in a polite compartment of life.
Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe of the Diocese of Central New York preached at Grace on Good Shepherd Sunday 2026. In a sermon centered on the Baptismal Covenant, she told the congregation that we are already known, loved, and delighted in by God, and invited them to let go of their need to be right, to resist fear, and to live boldly as people of love, mercy, and justice.
Across all of these voices runs a common thread. Grace's pulpit is a place where the Gospel meets the headlines, where questions about violence and peace, about justice and mercy, about who belongs and who does not, are taken up week after week without hurry or evasion.
Leadership and Governance
The parish is led by the Rev. Dr. Steve Moore as rector. Two wardens, Susan Keeter and Barbara Slater, share the work of parish leadership alongside the vestry: Jamal Adams, Josie Atkins, MaryLou Clark, Emily Czerkies, Wayne Grove, Alex Lawson, Ernestine Patterson, Dr. Marian Thompson, and Audrey Zaccaraya. John Auwaerter serves as Clerk of the Vestry. The treasurer's seat is currently vacant.
The Diocese of Central New York is Grace's regional body. Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe is the diocesan bishop, and the parish belongs to The Episcopal Church. Grace is connected to a wider network of Episcopal ministries, including Episcopal Relief and Development and Episcopal Migration Ministries.
Staying Connected
Grace supports its ministry through several giving options. Gifts can be made online through the parish's PayPal giving page, in person during worship, or by stopping by the parish office during the week. The parish also maintains a regular newsletter, weekly bulletins for both Sunday services, and an always-up-to-date parish calendar that can be viewed on a phone or a computer.
The parish's podcast is hosted on Spotify, with new episodes posted most weeks alongside the corresponding sermon video on YouTube. The sermon blog carries written transcripts of every message, going back through the church year. For visitors who want a sense of the place before they arrive, the building rental page offers a tour of the parish hall, kitchen, sanctuary, and meeting rooms.
A Place to Come Home To
For more than a century and a half, Grace Church has stood on the corner of Madison and University in Syracuse as a parish rooted in friendship and service. Whether the invitation is to the 8:00 AM or 10:30 AM Sunday Eucharist, to a Wednesday supper with neighbors, to a book study between services, or to a Wednesday night of food distribution with the InterFaith Food Center, the welcome that opens the parish's front page still holds: you are always welcome at Grace, and they mean that.