Grace Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal parish in Syracuse, New York. The Gothic Revival building was designed by Horatio Nelson White and was built in 1876. It is located at 819 Madison Avenue near Syracuse University. On March 20, 1973, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1957, the parish joined with St. Philip's, a historically black Episcopal church. That move made it one of the first fully integrated Episcopal churches in the country. By the 1960s, they were providing a home for one of the first Head Start programs and training volunteers for the Peace Corps and Vista. They even hosted meetings for the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE).
In the late 1900s, the church baptized and ordained David Pendleton Oakerhater, a Cheyenne warrior and political prisoner who devoted his life to serving his people and the Episcopal Church. He was elevated to sainthood in 1992, making this building a national shrine for the first Native Episcopal saint. The church installed windows in his honor in 2004.
Today, the parish remains an active social justice parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. They were among the first in the diocese to participate in Central New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride in 2008. The congregation is among the most racially integrated in the nation today.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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