by Fran Hegeler

“May you find here, by the grace of God, that which feeds your soul.” The sentiment appears on St. Mary’s Sunday bulletins every week and it came to mind as I was reflecting on my recent conversation with Rob Glen, an ardent attendee at the 5:30 p.m. Sunday service (a.k.a. UnPlugged) and new Vestry member. His expressed enthusiasm about St. Mary’s UnPlugged service indicates that it is not only possible to “find” here that which feeds your soul, but it is also quite possible to “create” it.

Rob and his wife, Susan, were both raised Catholic but gravitated towards the Episcopal faith. They discovered St. Mary’s when they moved to San Francisco in 1999; these days, they attend UnPlugged regularly with their two daughters, Isabel (four) and Charlotte (one-and-a-half). Both children were baptized at St. Mary’s by The Rev. Frannie Hall Kieschnick.

“Once you’ve set foot in St. Mary’s, it’s hard to go anywhere else,” Rob says, “It’s a nice, intimate setting and a terrific parish community. You can tell that everyone is very glad to be here and that people are doing a lot.”

Rob notes that he became more of a joiner in 2000 once he started attending the UnPlugged service. “I was raised to accept things. But I’m the kind of person who likes to take apart the engine and rebuild it,” Rob offered. “I’d heard about the 5:30 p.m. service and we decided to try it. One of the things I like is that I feel totally comfortable asking questions. There’s an openness and willingness to take different approaches to learning the Bible.

“Part of it is also about the time of day. I’m feeling meditative, ready to wrap up the week, to reflect and to start anew. So, we started to attend more after Isabel was born and it wasn’t long before we began to internalize the values and nature of the service. A lot of it had to do with Frannie’s charisma as a homilist and warm person.”

As Rob continues describing different aspects of the UnPlugged service, I close my eyes to imagine them: worship accompanied by acoustic instruments, the communal gathering for the Eucharist and the powerful sense of community that might arise from hands-on participation. For a service that is called "UnPlugged" it seems like parishioners are pretty connected.

"I feel that at this stage of my life-I'm in my late forties, but fairly new to the parish-that I can be a bona fide member of the community," Rob asserts, and it seems only natural that he has joined the Vestry this year; a gift, he says. "It's been great to get to know [Father] Jason. He's been so supportive…I think he enjoys having the 5:30 P.M. service as part of St. Mary's. We're kind of a lab, a blank canvas, a work in progress. While there's probably more paint-by-numbers (meaning traditional) than you might think, there's also room to stretch the Episcopal traditions." Rob names a core group of parishioners-Bill Orrick, Joe Jennings, Peggy da Silva, Julie Parish and Mary Gregory, among others-who have invested so much of themselves in the evolution of this congregation.

"I want people at St. Mary's to feel like UnPlugged is yet another dimension of the parish," Rob says, an open invitation implicit in his comment. "The discernment process was transformational. When Frannie departed, we discovered ourselves as a community and the transition to Lily's leadership is giving us a wonderful opportunity to learn more about who we are."

And, it would seem, a wonderful opportunity for the parish as a whole to discover who 'we' are collectively. Worship at St. Mary's takes many forms. Rob and Susan sensed that St. Mary's was the right place, but it wasn't until they attended UnPlugged that they knew they'd found their spiritual home; maybe that will be true for you, too. Or maybe one Sunday, out of curiosity or convenience, you'll try the 5:30 P.M. service; I know I will.