Excerpt:
The “Grace” in Grace-on-the-Hill is part tribute to Arents. But it’s also part tribute to “grace,” as in the work of God.
While the church is now more a destination than a neighborhood hub — most Sundays, the pews are filled with people who had to drive in — Bailey said St. Andrew’s still has an obligation to lift up its community, both immediate in Oregon Hill and spread across Richmond.
It also has an obligation to lift up the people who come to help.
That’s where Fado and the five others come in. For 10 months, stretching across a traditional school year, they call Oregon Hill home but spread out in the day to help the community.
Fado and James Post work at Anna Julia Cooper, an Episcopal school across the street from public housing in the East End.
Patrick Keyser walks a few doors down the street and works in the St. Andrew’s office.
Kate McPherson works at St. Andrew’s School, next to the church and still loosely affiliated with it.
Melissa Eadie works in the mission office at the diocesan office on West Franklin Street.
And Stephanie McCullough works at the Blue Sky Fund, which provides outdoor programs to children from the city.
The six also work in the church, perform community service in Oregon Hill and, one day a week, operate a laundry ministry for the homeless.
“It’s been a good experience so far,” said Keyser, a 22-year-old from the town of Burgess, on the Northern Neck. “It hasn’t been perfect, but what is?”
“I’d say it’s been real meaningful, being able to really dig in and make an impact,” McCullough said. “That none of us is from here, and that we may all go somewhere else later in our lives, I don’t think that matters. In this moment, this is right.”
To learn more on the Grace-on-the-Hill program, click here.