How it all started...
On September 8, 1974, twenty-four families gathered in a classroom at Irmo High School with a borrowed piano and celebrated the Eucharist. Before anyone went home that day, they had chosen a name, signed a petition to the Bishop, and become a church.
No building. No budget. Just bread, wine, and a conviction that God was doing something new in the Irmo and Lake Murray area.
Our founding priest, Fr. John Haynes, put it this way: "There are no 'theys' in this church. 'We' are 'they.'"
When it came time to build a church home, the people of Saint Mary's did not hire it out. A parishioner and builder named Ritchie Meech led the construction himself, finishing the building in just seventy-nine days, and never took a dime for it. Our first pews came from a Presbyterian church auction. Our altar, still the heart of our sanctuary today, was crafted by hand from an old door and wood scraps.
We love that our altar is made of salvaged things. It preaches a better sermon than most of us ever will: God takes what the world overlooks and makes it holy.
No building. No budget. Just bread, wine, and a conviction that God was doing something new in the Irmo and Lake Murray area.
Our founding priest, Fr. John Haynes, put it this way: "There are no 'theys' in this church. 'We' are 'they.'"
When it came time to build a church home, the people of Saint Mary's did not hire it out. A parishioner and builder named Ritchie Meech led the construction himself, finishing the building in just seventy-nine days, and never took a dime for it. Our first pews came from a Presbyterian church auction. Our altar, still the heart of our sanctuary today, was crafted by hand from an old door and wood scraps.
We love that our altar is made of salvaged things. It preaches a better sermon than most of us ever will: God takes what the world overlooks and makes it holy.
Expanding the vision...
Saint Mary's was never meant to be big for its own sake. Fr. Haynes hoped we would become "not so much a large congregation as a strong and loyal one," a church that helps start other churches.
Just three years after our founding, families from Saint Mary's were sent out from our altar with prayer and blessing to plant a new mission near Lake Murray: St. Francis of Assisi, Chapin, which thrives to this day. By 1978 we had grown into a full parish, one of the fastest growing in the diocese. And the vision kept unfolding.
Over the decades, this community built and beautified a campus full of places to meet God. The Mary Meech Mungo Chapel, an intimate sanctuary where our healing Eucharist has been a refuge for members and neighbors alike. The Memorial Garden, a cloistered garden of stucco walls and brick paths, watched over by a marble statue of Saint Mary sculpted in Italy. Fourteen hand-sculpted Stations of the Cross in the blues, whites, and golds of heaven. A fresco of the Madonna and Child, painted by a parish artist, reminding us that whatever happens under our roof, we gather beneath the gaze of a mother holding her child close.
Classrooms were added. A library was built and filled. Vans were bought to carry children. Every expansion answered the same question: who else can we welcome?
Just three years after our founding, families from Saint Mary's were sent out from our altar with prayer and blessing to plant a new mission near Lake Murray: St. Francis of Assisi, Chapin, which thrives to this day. By 1978 we had grown into a full parish, one of the fastest growing in the diocese. And the vision kept unfolding.
Over the decades, this community built and beautified a campus full of places to meet God. The Mary Meech Mungo Chapel, an intimate sanctuary where our healing Eucharist has been a refuge for members and neighbors alike. The Memorial Garden, a cloistered garden of stucco walls and brick paths, watched over by a marble statue of Saint Mary sculpted in Italy. Fourteen hand-sculpted Stations of the Cross in the blues, whites, and golds of heaven. A fresco of the Madonna and Child, painted by a parish artist, reminding us that whatever happens under our roof, we gather beneath the gaze of a mother holding her child close.
Classrooms were added. A library was built and filled. Vans were bought to carry children. Every expansion answered the same question: who else can we welcome?
Where we are headed...
Every generation at Saint Mary's has done the same thing those twenty-four families did in 1974: shown up, rolled up their sleeves, and trusted that God was not finished yet.
He still isn't.
We are a parish with a founder's heart. The same Spirit that gathered two dozen families in a borrowed classroom is gathering people still, and we believe the best chapters of this story have not been written. We are here to worship God in the beauty of holiness, to raise up disciples of every age, and to love the Irmo, Harbison, and Lake Murray communities the way Christ first loved us.
Whether you grew up Episcopalian or have never set foot in a church, there is a place for you in this story. Come and see.
Join us Sundays at 9:30 AM for Holy Eucharist.
He still isn't.
We are a parish with a founder's heart. The same Spirit that gathered two dozen families in a borrowed classroom is gathering people still, and we believe the best chapters of this story have not been written. We are here to worship God in the beauty of holiness, to raise up disciples of every age, and to love the Irmo, Harbison, and Lake Murray communities the way Christ first loved us.
Whether you grew up Episcopalian or have never set foot in a church, there is a place for you in this story. Come and see.
Join us Sundays at 9:30 AM for Holy Eucharist.
