About Us / Staff

WHO WE ARE

The members and friends of Grace Episcopal Church welcome all persons. When you come through our big red doors, you are already blessed, for written in stone above the doors is "Grace and Peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ."
To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest; to all who mourn and long for comfort; to all who struggle and desire victory; to all who sin and need a Savior; to all who are strangers and want fellowship; to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness; to all who may have been hurt by a church before, and to all who come, this parish church called Grace opens her big red doors offers welcome.

First Time Visitor?

We welcome you to Grace Episcopal Church and hope that your visit is truly blessed and fulfilling. We believe our church is not so much a stately building but rather the good people within. We are a wonderful family of individuals with diverse backgrounds and interests who have chosen to worship here, united in our faith.

We do our best to act on Jesus's charge to "love one another." We take great joy in your visit, and we are all available to answer questions you may have, or direct you someone who can best answer.

Most of all, we wish you would consider Grace as your church home.

Contact / Visit Us

Please contact us at office@gracekingston.org or 570.287.8440 for more information about Grace Church. You can also fill in the information at right and
we will contact you.

Visitors are always welcome at our Saturday service (spoken) at 5pm or our Sunday service at 10am (choral eucharist). Weekly fellowship follows the 10am service.

Grace Church is located at
30 Butler St. in Kingston, PA.

OUR STAFF

The Reverend Dan Gross

Priest-in-Charge
570.442.4257

I was born in Colorado, spent most of my childhood in California, but have lived in the Middle Atlantic region since I was 16. I studied history at Columbia University in New York City and worked in Manhattan briefly after graduation. I then spent 18 years in Washington, D.C., working for nonprofit organizations. My work was varied, involving policy research, government relations, and organizational management.
I could not have guessed when I entered college I would eventually enter the priesthood and serve God's people in the Episcopal Church. I was brought up in no particular faith; my parents considered themselves agnostic. God call me to faith when I was in my teens and to faith in Jesus Christ when I was in college. At the beginning of my senior year, I began worshiping at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan. Before the first semester was over, I had been baptized and confirmed.
Over the next 16 years, I wrestled with my faith. I knew I believed in God, but had questions about what it meant to be a Christian. I found important answers to those questions in my mid thirties, when I began attending All Souls Episcopal Church in Washington. There I realized God was calling me to participate more fully in the Body of Christ and I became active in parish life, serving as an usher, lector, vestry member, and junior warden.
Before long, I realized the work I did for the church was far more important to me than what I did for a living. In 2001, I was admitted to the ordination process in the Diocese of Washington and
entered Yale Divinity School. During my time at Yale, I served as a seminarian at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
I graduated from Yale in 2004 and worked for three years as the curate at Christ’s Church in Rye, New York. The people of Christ’s Church blessed me with remarkable opportunities for ministry and taught me more than I could possibly have taught them.
In September 2007, I was called as rector to Emmanuel Church in Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. My eight years with the people there taught me even more about what it means to be a parish priest. I feel honored to have served God at Emmanuel and in the Diocese of Easton.
I returned to the New York metropolitan area in 2015. After two years as rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church on Staten Island, I decided to return to ministry in a large parish and accepted a call to serve as associate rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, New Jersey. Although associates often focus on one or two areas of parish ministry, my duties at St. Peter’s have been varied and remarkably similar in their challenges to my work as a rector. This discovery helped me discern that God was calling me back to the work of leading a small parish.
I am eager to get to know the people of Grace Church. While my greatest interest in life is people, I also enjoy studying history, reading novels, and going for long walks. I look forward to exploring Kingston and the Wyoming Valley.

Patty Warwick

MINISTER of MUSIC
570.287.8440

Music has always been a part of Patty's life. Even though she was playing out of her older brother's books, her piano teacher would not allow her to begin lessons until she was eight years old. Her parents were leaders in the church and community of churches. When she was in elementary school, Patty was sometimes told to choose three hymns for Sunday School, because their pianist and assistant pianist--high school students--were not going to be there. Patty began organ lessons at age thirteen and continued to play wherever and whenever expected by her parents. Patty started her first church position of Organist and Choir Director for Adults and Children with her parents driving her to church, because she only had a learner's permit. She served there for two yeras, until high school graduation.
       Patty is orginally from New Ringgold, Schuylkill County. She left the area to attend Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and she says, "The thrill to sing with the world's best vocalists and orchestras in New York City and Philadelphia was a highlight of my education." Patty was required to spend one year working in a church before graduating, and she spend three of her four years at school serving in two different churches. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music Degree with principal study in organ and a minor in voice.
       Patty decided it was time to move again; marriage and a new home, living in the Wyoming Valley. For the last 25 years, she has spent her time as a Substitute Organist and Choir Director serving the churches and congregations in Northeast Pennsylvania. She came to Grace Church in June as Minister of Music and will begin regularly playing the organ on Sundays beginning in September. In addition to working in the church, Patty gives private lessons for piano and organ to children and adults. She prefers for children to be five years old or starting kindergarten rather than making them wait, as she had to, until they are eight years old.
       "I have been blessed by serving in these churches," says Patty. "It's a special feeling to have so many people who are family. This summer will be the start of an exciting new era at Grace Episcopal Church. It is a new church family for me. I will work closely with Father John and the members of the church in working out God's purpose."

Nancy Pleskach

CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR
office@gracekingston.org
570.287.8440

Nancy was born and raised in New Jersey, and after getting married in 1981, she moved to Kingston with her husband, Scott. Together they raised four children who still reside in the area. Nancy has been the Church Administrator for Grace since the fall of 1995. Of her sixteen years working at Grace, Nancy says, "It has been more than just a job. Every day has been a gift."