Miles Memorial United Methodist Church stands in the heart of Ocean View, a part of Norfolk with several miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline. Its address is 9450 Granby St., between the Ocean View Golf Course and Government Avenue, and its parking lot is behind the church on Selby Place. Miles Memorial is known for a Methodist history that began in 1909, two distinct Sunday worship services, music for adults and children, and ministries that reach through a community breakfast, clothes closet, mission work and long-running Ocean View traditions.
Contemporary Music and Traditional Hymns on Sunday
Sunday worship at Miles Memorial comes in two forms. Contemporary Worship begins at 9:00 a.m. with newer Christian music and a small band. Traditional Worship begins at 11:15 a.m. with older hymns associated with Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Martin Luther and others. Sunday School classes meet at 10:15 a.m. Worship services last about 60 minutes.
The 9:00 service is livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. Miles Memorial's music ministry welcomes singers, guitar, string and woodwind players, handbell ringers and people who serve with media and livestream equipment. During a typical Sunday service, worship can draw on guitars, strings, percussion, woodwinds, handbells and voices.
Pastor Gary Shaw is a retired elder from the New England Conference and a graduate of Boston University School of Theology. He began serving local churches in 1978 and served eight years as a District Superintendent. His preaching is described as relevant to the present, using stories from past and present, faith and hope, and humor. Minister of Music Lynne Henderson joined Miles in 2003 after growing up in a family of church musicians.
The congregation has included lay readers in worship since the ministry of Rev. Murray Unruh, when lay people began reading Scripture each Sunday morning. The contemporary service was created during Rev. Gus Wright's ministry, beginning in the chapel before increased attendance moved it to the sanctuary. Its defining feature remains modern Christian music with a small band.
For a first visit, clothing can be casual or more formal; both are welcome. Free off-street parking is available behind the church on Selby Place, with an overflow lot at Granby Street and Government Avenue. Children are always welcome for worship. A nursery serves children too young to attend the service, and child care workers and teachers are certified in the United Methodist Safe Sanctuaries program.
Community Worship and Breakfast on Wednesday Morning
Wednesday morning has its own rhythm at Miles Memorial. Community Worship and Breakfast begins in the chapel at 7:30 a.m., followed by breakfast and the clothes closet from 8:00 to 9:00. The short worship service precedes the meal, and the closet provides clothing for people in need. The schedule combines spiritual care, a shared breakfast and practical assistance within the church's week.
This ministry grew out of the same local concern that has shaped Miles Memorial for generations. The church's historical record includes support for families, tutoring students, shelter ministries and care for people with developmental disabilities, while mission projects and service organizations continue that work. The Wednesday gathering gives that outreach a regular place in the life of the congregation.
From the Aldrich Home to an Ocean View Church
When Methodism began in Ocean View in 1909, the community was a sparsely settled summer resort of cottages and scattered houses. William Mahone had laid out its streets in 1854 while building the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. One trolley line ran along Granby Street, while another crossed the present Ocean View Golf Course. Open-sided trolley cars carried resort crowds during the summer for a fare of ten cents.
A few families wanting to start a church met in the home of Thomas Henry and Annie Spencer Aldrich at First View Street and D View Avenue. Although Aldrich was Catholic and his wife was Baptist, their home hosted the beginning of a Methodist fellowship. The group soon outgrew the house and moved into the new 1908 Ocean View Public School. William J. Land, a member of its first Bible class, became the first Sunday School superintendent and helped supply an early piano. Norfolk Methodists soon recognized the group and selected its vicinity for a new church.
William Land donated a lot at Cherry and First View Streets. Masonic ceremonies marked the cornerstone on May 17, 1911, and the $5,000 church was consecrated on October 29. At the end of 1911, the three congregations served by the circuit reported 65 church members and 110 Sunday School students. Records in 1913 named the body the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Across more than a century, 32 pastors have served appointments ranging from one to seven years. Miles Memorial describes the United Methodist itinerant tradition through bishops' appointments and a consultative process involving district superintendents, pastors and staff-parish relations committees. The changing succession brought different gifts to the same congregation, while names such as Asbury, Aldersgate, Wesleymen and Nellie Church became enduring Sunday School class names.
Sunday School Growth and the Granby Street Sanctuary
By the 1920s, Sunday School had outgrown the first church. The congregation bought an adjoining lot and completed a 45-by-90-foot, two-story brick education building in 1923. In 1930, its first-floor social hall became a worship sanctuary with a four-column portico, and Lawrence J. Pace gave the church a Wurlitzer pipe organ valued at $12,000. Membership reached 619 in 1937, and the final payment on the old debt came in 1941. The 1939 merger of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church gave the church the name Ocean View Methodist Church.
New construction took shape after the congregation bought eight Pinewell lots in 1944, four facing Granby Street and four facing Selby Place. Captain Rufus L. Miles, a local oyster-packing company owner and church benefactor, helped acquire two of the lots and gave $10,000 to the building fund. Groundbreaking came on Easter Sunday 1949, with about 300 church members present, and the cornerstone was laid that July. The new plant included a sanctuary, chapel, recreation room and educational wing. Services began there on March 19, 1950, and formal consecration services followed on Easter Sunday, April 9. On October 8, 1950, Quarterly Conference action changed the name to Miles Memorial Methodist Church in honor of Captain Miles.
The present building retains several visible pieces of that history. The chapel is the Severn Webb Memorial Chapel. Memorial art glass dedicated in 1953 depicts the life of Christ from the Annunciation through the Ascension in the sanctuary, while the chapel windows carry symbols of the four Evangelists. During the 1953 Sunday School year, attendance ranged from 700 to 900, showing that education remained central even as the congregation expanded.
Education, Music and a Church Open to the City
Sunday School reached 1,000 on Easter 1956, and 16 new classrooms were completed that September. By 1958, membership had grown to 2,387, Sunday School enrollment stood at 1,626 and Vacation Church School reached 198. The church had already hired Rosa Belle Stewart as its first full-time Minister of Music in 1955. In 1957, Rev. L.T. Hathaway became the first Associate Minister with special emphasis on youth. When Norfolk public schools did not open in 1958, Miles Memorial opened its building to tutor local junior high and high school students.
The building has long hosted activity beyond worship. The Ocean View Alcoholics Anonymous Club began meeting there in May 1951, and the church continues to serve as a regular meeting place. Miles Memorial has sponsored and hosted Boy Scout troops, including Troop 19, organized there in 1952. A prayer breakfast begun in 1966, a memorial library established in 1970, and a 1972 Day of Dedication marking the retirement of all church indebtedness are other parts of its long record. In 1968, the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church produced the present name, Miles Memorial United Methodist Church.
In 1961, Miles Memorial pledged just under $40,000 to a Virginia Conference campaign for Christian higher education that included support for Virginia Wesleyan College. A 1965 Homecoming brought morning and evening worship, an old-fashioned hymn sing and a picnic dinner.
Softball, Christmas Plays and Familiar Ocean View Gatherings
Softball has been part of Miles Memorial's ministry since 1964, when Frank Hill and Mack Johnson organized the first men's team for the Norfolk Church Softball League. Miles teams won eight church league championships under several coaches, and the tradition continued after the men's and co-ed eras with a new co-ed program. The church describes the sport as a place for recreation, Christian fellowship, friendly competition and community outreach, with generations of players representing Miles Memorial on and off the field.
Seasonal gatherings carry familiar names and rhythms: an annual Fish Fry with platters, hush puppies and sides; a Fall Festival with local craft vendors, barbecue, Brunswick stew, funnel cakes, hayrides and children's games; a pumpkin patch followed by a Christmas tree lot; and a family Trunk-or-Treat gathering. The Miles Players' Christmas play has become one of the church's longest-running traditions, while Easter and Christmas musicals unite the congregation in song and worship. Because Ocean View is described as a military town, Miles Memorial has also presented patriotic celebrations with local service members taking part.
The Fall Festival and pumpkin patch share the church's corner property on Granby Street and Government Avenue. The tree lot sells locally cut Fraser firs and becomes a place for family photographs and fellowship around a fire. These traditions connect worship with the life of Ocean View beyond Sunday morning.
United Methodist Women and Men in Service
United Methodist Women at Miles describe their purpose as knowing God, experiencing freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ, developing supportive fellowship and expanding mission through the global ministries of the church. Service projects have included health and school kits, bag lunches for the NEST program, activity nights at Heart Havens and Lydia Roper Home, scholarships for children of incarcerated mothers through All God's Children Camp, Thanksgiving baskets for United Methodist Family Services, and donations to the Wesley Community Center and other local ministries.
United Methodist Men gather for dinner on the second Monday of every month, combining food, fun and fellowship with opportunities for Bible study, prayer and mission. The men's ministry has also sponsored Miles Memorial's golf tournament and, for a time, its men's softball team. The church also offers study groups for all ages. Formal Sunday School classes meet every Sunday, while other Bible study groups gather in the church or in individual homes at various times.
Children, Youth and Hands-On Mission
Teen Disciples in Fellowship, or TDIF, meets every other Sunday at 11:15 for Bible study, lessons and service to the church and community. The group's motto, "Get UP and DO," reflects its fundraising for families in need, church giving, tithing and mission work, including labor and repair projects at a church camp across the bay. Miles Memorial also offers a youth Sunday School class.
Girls Like Us, or GLU, is a Christian-based, non-denominational program for elementary-school girls that centers confidence and self-esteem. Participants meet women of the Bible and consider traits such as courage, leadership, strength, kindness and generosity. Sessions are interactive, combining Bible stories, music, crafts and games. For younger children, KidzBells is a handbell choir, and Vacation Bible School generally runs for one week with activities and songs based on Scripture for children from toddler through elementary age, ending with a family celebration.
Operation Christmas Child is an Advent tradition at Miles. Adults and youth gather for a meal and fill shoeboxes with age-appropriate toys, hygiene products, school supplies and written material explaining the Good News in each child's native language. Mission work has included a trip to Chile and two construction trips to the Jubilee Center in Sneedville, Tennessee, where teams completed projects for area residents.
Music remains another shared discipline, with adult and children's handbell choirs alongside vocalists and instrumentalists. The music ministry describes worship as a way to make people aware of God's presence and to encourage, comfort, instruct, challenge and celebrate one another. People with musical gifts or media skills are welcome to participate.
Grace, the Bible and a Vital Balance
Miles Memorial's stated beliefs include the Bible, God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and humanity, along with the cross, forgiveness of sins, disciplined living and the centrality of love. The church also names conversion, assurance and Christian perfection, the Church, the Kingdom of God and the life everlasting.
United Methodism is described in terms of vitality and balance. Its vital gift is the grace of God in the hearts of people. The Bible is exalted as the dynamic word of God, understood through biblical revelation and confirmed in Christian experience. At the same time, Miles Memorial's description of Methodist life balances personal salvation with social responsibility: whatever harms people is treated as an affront to Christ, and concern extends to inhumanity and injustice.
This social emphasis appears in Miles Memorial's choices as well as its statement of belief. Members have supported Christian higher education, tutoring when public schools closed, the shoebox ministry for children around the world, shelter ministries, people with developmental disabilities, families in need and construction work in Appalachia. The church's mission statement is simple: "We exist to connect people to Jesus and with others."
Welcome Without a Dress Code
Miles Memorial says it cares about people, not what they are wearing, who they vote for or how many tattoos they have. Its description of the congregation is a church of imperfect, broken people seeking to know Jesus and serve others together, with the conviction that every person's story matters. The welcome extends to children for worship, nursery care, Sunday School, youth fellowship and the annual Vacation Bible School.
The congregation's own words capture its tone: "No matter what you've been through or where you come from, you are welcome here." That welcome is paired with practical community work: a Wednesday worship gathering, breakfast and clothes closet, recovery meetings, mission projects, sports, music and seasonal gatherings that bring people together in Ocean View. Miles Memorial remains a century-plus Methodist congregation whose worship, education and service have been shaped by Ocean View since its first gathering in 1909.