ELY- The Sunday, Oct. 1, church service at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Ely was not your typical call to worship, and the pews were filled with a far more diverse crowd than on a regular Sunday. Parishioners arrived bearing cats in crates, dogs on leashes, and photographs of deceased pets to their morning service to be blessed by their priest, Mary Groeninger. It’s all part of their annual Blessing of the Animals in honor of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a 12th-century Italian friar known for his love of all creatures great and small.
Not including the pets, around a dozen members attended the service, with another congregant watching and interacting over Zoom. About fifty people call St. Mary’s their home church, with attendance rotating as congregants lead their busy lives.
“A lot of our members are families, and a lot of families are super busy. You have to adapt and know that not everyone is going to be here every week,” said Groeninger. “We have a lot of kids that attend this church, and every week, there will always be some children, but I never know which ones. But because we tend to have kids, I often read from a picture book instead of doing a sermon, or I do something that is called ‘Godly Play,’ where I act out the story on the ground…and the adults love that too, actually. We do interactive stuff here.”
St. Mary’s is a welcoming and comfortable church on the outskirts of Ely, located next to the golf course. During the week, the church shares the meeting space with Northern Lights Clubhouse. On Sundays, if the weather is pleasant, the parishioners gather outside. Indoors, they sit on couches and in chairs in a circle rather than in traditional church pews. One driving by this place of worship would probably not realize it is a church at all, as the congregation meets in the house of a late parishioner.
The house was willed to the church by Mary Catherine Brown, who spearheaded the formation of the Ely branch of St. Mary’s. Brown and her husband, Allen, moved to Ely in the 1970s and wanted an Episcopal church to attend. Tower’s Episcopal church only met in the summer and holidays, as it had no heating or plumbing. The building was deconsecrated in 2012 and moved down Hwy. 169 to the other end of Tower in 2015. It has since been renovated and reopened as the Lake Vermilion Cultural Center.
“When Will [Helms] and I moved here, we wondered where we were going to attend church. We heard of the Episcopal church in Tower, but it rarely met, and it was kind of faraway…then we get this phone call out of the blue. It was Mary Catherine Brown telling us, ‘We have a service that meets at our house on Wednesday evening, and you will attend,’ But it didn’t meet that often, maybe once or twice a month, and we met at coffee houses as well. Then the Presbyterians invited us to meet at their church as well…but when Mary passed away, she willed the house to the Episcopal Church, and that is how we ended up here,” Groeninger said.
Groeninger and Pam Webster were ordained as priests in 2010 and started at St. Mary’s in the same year. The two worked together to cover services, with Groeninger covering the Ely church and Webster going to Tower until its closing.
“Several of us were working very hard to establish a church in Ely, and the church allowed us to use Mary Brown’s house. Gradually, we acquired new members. Our mission has been to serve the people of Ely,” said Webster, who now resides in Alabama full-time with husband Peter Davis, but the two visit Ely regularly.
“For me personally, it was an amazing experience. I especially enjoy marrying people and, in contrast, being with people facing death and in transition, which I have done in several places either through hospice or work referral,” said Webster about her time as a priest at St. Mary’s.
Groeninger and Helms moved to Ely in 1994 and raised their three children in the Episcopal Church. Groeninger is from Massachusetts, and Helms is from Virginia. The couple met at the University of Virginia and were married in a Catholic Church, not becoming Episcopalians until later. Their children were baptized by priests Roger Weaver and Pat Gillespie.
St. Mary’s congregation is a close-knit group of individuals, and a common theme among the members is the sense of inclusion and peace they find in the church.
“It’s not a one-way conversation,” St. Mary’s member Jim Barrott said about the sermon, “It’s a talk, and we can converse. It’s laid-back and intimate.”
Barrott is a retired Forest Service worker who primarily resides in Duluth, spending some of his time in Ely and attending services at St. Mary when he does. Barrott has a Lutheran background, and after searching for a church to attend in Ely, he found the Episcopal Church to be a good fit for him.
Members Bob and Mary Ann Stark, who have been visiting Ely since 1993 and relocated permanently in 2020, feel similarly. The couple were both Catholic since the 12th grade and became Episcopalians in 2011.
“This church is inclusive; you can offer opinions without judgment, and everyone is welcome. The spirit of God is alive and well here,” said Mary Ann.