Our Story

A Valley of Many Histories

We are a young church in an old and complex place. Harrisonburg sits in the Shenandoah Valley, a place shaped long before European settlement by Indigenous peoples, including the Monacan, and later by long-settled families and steady arrival. Some of us come from generations who have lived and worked here, formed by land, labor, and habits of faith passed down over time. Others arrived more recently—through James Madison University or Eastern Mennonite University, through work or study, or through refugee resettlement, having come from places marked by war and displacement. Harrisonburg holds these lives together, often uneasily, within the same neighborhoods and schools. 

Gathered around Good News

We began here in 2010, when a small group of us started gathering with a shared conviction: that the gospel is not only something to affirm, but good news—rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—that orders a common life. We wanted to follow Jesus in a way that was grounded in historic Christian faith and attentive to the lives we were actually living, in classrooms and kitchens, workplaces and neighborhoods, friendships both old and newly formed. We were not starting from nothing. The Mennonite presence in the Valley—its emphasis on community, humility, peacemaking, and faithful work—had already shaped the moral landscape of the city. As Anglicans, we brought a different inheritance: a faith shaped by liturgy and common prayer, where Scripture is read week by week, Word and Sacrament are held together, and belief is formed through shared worship over time rather than individual intensity alone. Early on, we learned that being faithful here would require paying attention—listening carefully to the place and to one another. 

Rooted in the City

In our earliest years, we met wherever we could. For a time, Sunday worship took place in a living room, crowded and imperfect, with children underfoot and conversations that carried on long after prayers ended. As the community grew, we moved into borrowed and repurposed spaces downtown, including the old Madison Mortgages building on East Market Street and the former Auto Parts, Inc. building on North Liberty Street. Though our early years were marked by frequent moves, we consistently sensed a call to remain in downtown Harrisonburg. Over time, our life together became more settled as we put down roots at 75 North Mason Street, in the old Carter Bank building downtown. That stability allowed ministries to deepen, staff to be developed and supported, and relationships with other churches in the city to grow. As the building was renovated and shared more fully, our life together opened outward in service to the local community. 

A Church Beyond Borders

We were also drawn into relationships beyond Harrisonburg. Through connections with Christians in other parts of the world, we came to see more clearly that the church belongs to Christ before it belongs to any one place. Our long-standing relationship with the church in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains has been especially formative, alongside other global partnerships, teaching us about perseverance, suffering, and hope. These relationships have shaped how we pray, how we give, and how we understand our place within the wider body of Christ. That same conviction has shaped our desire to give ourselves away through church planting. Over time, we have shared people, leadership, and resources to help establish new congregations. Our participation in these missional ventures is the overflow of the health and blessing God has shown to our own life together, offered back for the sake of the kingdom of God. 

A Small Story in God’s Larger One

Today, we remain a community still being formed. Our story is a small one, set within a much larger story: the story of what God is doing in Harrisonburg and among God’s people around the world. By grace, we seek to live faithfully here, under the reign of Jesus Christ, for the glory of God and the good of the city.