Grace Memorial Episcopal Church

What I like about this church is they do a lot of outreach work to help their fellow man in the community. They do a lot to assist the homeless community by providing weekly sack lunches and a Friday night meal for those in need. The homeless are treated with respect and dignity. There are a lot of different ways to be involved with the church.

Grace us unusually welcoming and diverse. People are white and black; young and old; gay and straight. I love the mix. It is also the right size for people to get to know you and to make a meaningful contribution. Everything that I was looking for myself and my grand-​daughter

Beautiful Episcopal church in NE Portland, near Lloyd center area.

I feel bad about giving a church with good intentions a bad review, but I honestly cannot when one of the priests demonstrates behavior I consider presumptuous and self-​centered.
I first came here in October and attended a few times up until December. Because I initially thought the church seemed like the right fit, I decided to join the Catechumenate in order to get baptized on Easter. While I was home for Christmas break, I realized that this church was not the right fit for me for a variety of reasons. However, I decided to attend the first Catechumenate session to see what it was like.
Attending the first session confirmed my initial thought that the Catechumenate was not right for me. I emailed one of the priests and wrote that I would not continue with the Catechumenate for personal reasons. The priest’s email claimed to have understood my reasons, but started a sentence with «While I think the Catechumenate experience might have helped you discern some direction…»
This line made me upset and felt guilt-​tripped. Okay, the priest is entitled to her opinion, but just because people have opinions does not mean that the other person needs to hear it. Some of my reasons for leaving would not have been appropriate for me to mention and she hardly knew me, so it obviously was not her place to tell me what she thinks I should have done. While Catechumenate is one way to discern direction, it is not the ONLY way. Maybe that was not the particular priest’s intention, but her message to me came off that Catechumenate was the right and only way to approach my spiritual journey.
Despite feeling completely certain that I wanted to get baptized a month earlier, I realized that I am not ready to get baptized. After that first session, I did not return to Grace as I knew I was going to leave Portland in the next few months. Conversations with others – including an RCIA director – confirmed my belief that the behavior exhibited by the priest reflected that her personal opinion was more important than accepting that I made the right decision.
Please look elsewhere for a church, as I don’t want you to go through the same experience I went through! I have finally come to the understanding that a good clergy person will see going through an initiation process as a decision not to be taken lightly, and not guilt trip me if I decided that I am not ready to get baptized at a given moment. In my opinion, the priest’s actions speak poorly of the church by making me feel as if the clergy cares about making decisions based on their own interests rather than those of their parishioners.