St. John's priest lives by faith and community

Tim Leininger, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·5 min read

Dec. 24—VERNON — For almost a year, the Rev. Marc Eames has been sitting as the senior pastor of St. John's Episcopal Church at 523 Hartford Turnpike.

Originally from Springfield, Eames and his parents moved to Windsor Locks when he was 13, and though he was not raised in a Christian home, discovered his faith from his grandmother's example and his own self-discovery.

He said his chief influence regarding his faith was his grandmother Arlene Vaughn.

Marc Eames

Who he is: Priest-in-charge at St. John's Episcopal Church in Vernon.

Background: Graduated from Windsor Locks High School, earned B.A. in history from UConn, studied at Berkeley Divinity School, a part of Yale Divinity School.

Major influences: His grandmother's volunteer services at church and in the community, and his own self-discovery.

Quote: "I've always been really interested in history, and the more I read about historical figures I admired, the more I saw that faith was an important part of their lives and I wanted to learn more about it."

"She was a devout Methodist, and she was very involved with her church's soup kitchen," Eames said. She respected my parents' wishes that we weren't raised any particular faith, but she did show me what a life of faith looks like by your actions.

"I knew there was something different about her, even as a very young person," he said. "I came to understand what motivated her as I entered into my late teens."

Not being in a Christian household, Eames said, he came into his faith on his own.

"I've always been really interested in history, and the more I read about historical figures I admired, the more that I saw that faith was an important part of their lives and I wanted to learn more about it," he said.

"One summer I decided to read the Bible all the way through, and that's what I did," he said. "I couldn't say that I figured it out, but it was interesting. I rode my bike to one of the local churches and started attending."

His independent discovery of his faith left Eames out of the community aspect of growing up in the church. He said he never went to church summer camp or Sunday School.

"I came to see the importance of the community life of faith later," he said. "I developed a deeper relationship with God and came to see that it is not just about Jesus. Jesus had a passion for the people of God, for his community, but it took me a while to see that."

When he graduated from high school in Windsor Locks, he attended the University of Connecticut, receiving his B.A. in history.

"I received a scholarship from the Jewish Studies Department to study biblical archeology over in Israel, and spent time in Israel and Jordan on a few occasions," he said.

"It was over there that I really discovered liturgy and really delved into the mystery of God. I was amazed at what I saw over there. When I came back, I wanted to find something similar. I knew pretty quickly that I was not going to have the understanding and passion for the Greek language to become Greek Orthodox or anything like that. Eventually I found the Episcopal Church, and that's where I have been ever since ... in 2000.

About that time, Eames said, he moved to Boston, becoming the rector at the Church of the Advent in Medfield. The church ended up sponsoring him for ordination.

"I was sponsored for ordination through the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and they sent me to Yale Divinity School. I studied at Berkeley Divinity School, which is the Episcopal seminary at Yale. That was from 2004 to 2007. That was a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed studying there. I think it's a fantastic institution."

After finishing seminary, Eames returned to Medfield, where he ministered until the beginning of 2022, when he returned to Connecticut, this time in at St. John's Episcopal Church.

"It is closer to family, which is important," he said. "My wife, Gretchen, and I both have parents that are still living, but there are health challenges. We wanted to make sure we're a little closer by."

Eames said there are "some real challenges" the church is currently addressing, but also "tremendous opportunity."

"I think our world right now is in a particularly dark period," he said. "Our politics are unhealthy. There's a great lack of faith in our institutions. Social media, for all the blessings it has given us, has also given us an increase in judgment of each other. I think the message that God loves you whatever your faults, and that there is a community here that would love for you to be a part of it and engaged in a really positive way, helping one another, showing love for one another, is a message that is appealing to a lot of people."

Eames said that with a year of being at St. John's, he is working on recovering church attendance and programs after being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's not without challenges," he said. "When I accepted the position, I had never heard of the Omicron variant. It played a very big role in my first few months here. Practically all of my in-person meetings were canceled and we had a sizable group of our parishioners who got COVID in the past year.

There were real challenges, but there were also opportunities. We were able to do some fun things together that we had not been able to do in a long time.

In June, with everyone outside and with COVID numbers better, we threw a big pig roast and invited as many people as we could."

He said he'd like to build a stronger interfaith community and ecumenical community. "It would be nice to kind of re-establish some of that."

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