Grace Episcopal Church Pontiac IL

Mission Statement

All we do is measured by how well we:

Welcome all God's children into an opportunity...

- To join a supportive family of faith - To grow together spiritually in Christ - To reach out into the community to touch lives for the better through God's love

 

Download Grace Episcopal Church vCard with Service Times

Click here to contact the church  

Download Rector The Rev. Carolyn Bavaro vCard

Click here to contact The Rev. Carolyn Bavaro  

 

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/parish/grace-episcopal-church-pontiac-il  

 

 

The most direct route to Grace Episcopal Church from the North:

Take the I-55 South to St. Louis
(As you travel through the suburbs, at the toll booth after Ogden Avenue, stay "hard right" for the I-55 South to St. Louis ramp.)

Continue on I-55 South and exit at #197 / IL-116; Pontiac / Flanagan

Go left at the end of the ramp. You are on IL-116 that changes its name to Reynolds Street as you proceed directly straight ahead into town and over the railroad tracks continuing on until you get to the 2nd stop sign after the tracks (Mill Street).

Turn right on Mill Street and proceed on for several blocks to the 4 way stop at Torrance Avenue.

Turn left on Torrance Avenue going a few blocks up to the corner of Manlove Street where Grace Episcopal Church is located on the corner.

The most direct route to Grace Episcopal Church from the South:

Take I-55 North and exit at #197 / IL-116; Pontiac / Flanagan

Go right at the end of the ramp. You are on IL-116 that changes its name to Reynolds Street as you proceed directly straight ahead into town and over the railroad tracks continuing on until you get to the 2nd stop sign after the tracks (Mill Street).

Turn right on Mill Street and proceed on for several blocks to the 4 way stop at Torrance Avenue.

Turn left on Torrance Avenue going a few blocks up to the corner of Manlove Street where Grace Episcopal Church is located on the corner.  

Please share parking information and/or parking experience!  

 

 

 

While the formal founding of Grace Episcopal Church, Pontiac, Illinois is observed as being organized on December 11, 1878, the seeds of its growth were planted twenty years earlier. The first Episcopal service was conducted in 1858 at the Methodist Church. The following year Episcopal services were conducted by a clergy person on alternate Sundays of summer and fall at the courthouse. Finally, in 1878 Grace Church mission was organized. The stone church on N. Main St. on the courthouse square was built and dedicated in 1887, opened for services on February 20, 1887 and on November 12, 1889 it was consecrated upon the retirement of the $800 debt incurred to build it. On Easter Sunday 1907 the congregation had a pleasant surprise when the deed to the house at Frisbee place was laid on the offering plate by Mrs. Harriet Humiston for use as a rectory.

Under Rev. George E, Young Grace Church flourished and was admitted to parish status on April 9, 1913. Over the intervening years our congregation experienced successes and discouragements but remained earnest, faithful and persevering as it returned to mission status in 1930 after the financial crash of the stock market. By 1958 the congregation was breaking ground for the new church on the current four acre site on the southeast corner of Torrance and Manlove streets; laid the cornerstone in 1959, then opened for services and was dedicated on September 25, 1960. In the interim, the old stone church was extensively damaged by a fire in a nearby building and was sold, but the church was allowed to remove all furnishings, windows and altar rail which were all incorporated into the new church.

Our congregation returned to parish status with the consecration of the new church on October 24, 1973. For a variety of reasons the priests over the history of Grace Episcopal Church, Pontiac have experienced short tenures. Nevertheless, the parishioners from one generation to the next have kept the missionary power whose source is love and devotion to Christ burning in their hearts from age to age.

In more recent years as a memorial in loving memory of his wife, Erma W. Pearre, the late Jerome Pearre made possible the Grace Episcopal Church Parish Hall expansion and improvement project that extended the Hall with a beautifully appointed commercial style kitchen and added a lovely more informal contemporary sacred space for a chapel and library complete with a chapel window depicting a contemporary scene of the dawn of the resurrection donated by Erma’s daughter, Vickie Glennon. All dedicated for the glory of God and for the use of God’s people.

There is no way that a complete history of more than 125 years in the life of a church congregation can be fully rendered from sometimes incomplete and sketchy records of the past. As with all the saints of every generation and age in the church, so much that has occurred is known only to God – the sacrifices, heartaches, successes, joys, failings, kindnesses and generosities. It is our prayer for this newest chapter of our faith community’s story that we will grow and flourish more fully as Grace Church living into God’s purposes for the light of the world.

“Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; Glory to God from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21