St. John’s Episcopal Church is a vibrant community of faith, hope, and love in the heart of Johnson City.
We are firmly rooted in a diverse neighborhood and seek to be a place of welcome, dignity, and joy for all people. We challenge and commit ourselves to walk the way of love and reconciliation as disciples of Jesus. Prayer and worship sustain and strengthen us to grow spiritually and in generous outreach to the world.
We count as our greatest gifts all those who walk through our doors and God’s Spirit in our midst to guide and direct us in our ministries and life together.
Sunday Worship & Formation
8:00 AM – Holy Eucharist Rite I (Chapel)
9:15 AM – Christian Formation for all Ages
10:30 AM – Holy Eucharist Rite II (Nave) with livestream
Poetry, Prayer, and Silence
Summer Sabbath Day
Save the Date: June 27, 2026, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm
CLICK HERE to register
Parker Palmer’s book, A Hidden Wholeness, begins with a true story that serves as a metaphor and cautionary tale for our time. In the middle of the last century, farmers in the Midwest, at the first sign of a blizzard, would tie a rope from the backdoor of their home to the barn. A blizzard, or “whiteout,” can be so blinding that farmers had learned the hard way that they needed a way to get to the barn to feed their animals and then find their way back again. Too many of them knew stories of friends or neighbors who had lost their way. Groping in the blizzard as they tried to get home again, they perished in their own backyard.
We are living in a time of hyperconnectivity that has ironically led to social isolation and epidemic loneliness. It is a time of some spiritual poverty and anxiety, chaos and overload, as people struggle to find their way “home” again: home to our true life, to loving relationships, and to a deeper grounding in the God of peace.
Ancient Christian contemplative tradition has long affirmed that God is not something we need to acquire. “You were closer to me than I was to myself,” said St. Augustine in the 4th century. And in our own day, Thomas Merton put it this way:
All we need is to experience what we already possess. The trouble is we aren’t taking the time to do so. If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo, and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves.
At the Summer Sabbath Day—with the help of short teachings, poetry, prayer, silence, and journaling, we’ll be slowing down to a human tempo and listening to the One who has been with us all along.
Our retreat leader is the Reverend Gary Jones, a recently retired Episcopal priest from Richmond, Virginia. Gary has practiced meditation for decades, and he now gives retreats and teaches meditation practices, especially those rooted in ancient Christian tradition. You can learn more about Gary at contemplativechapel.org.
