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Welcome to St. Simon of Cyrene Episcopal Church

"Where All Are Welcome in the Name of Christ"

Where We Are

810 Matthews Dr, Lincoln Heights, OH 45215
513-771-4828 Office | 513-771-7388 Fax

Worship Times

9:00 AM on Sundays, Holy Eucharist Rite II

1:00 PM on Tuesdays, Bible Study

Latest Events

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Current Newsletter

Grapevine 2nd Qtr 2020
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Past Newsletters

Vestry/Leadership

LaVerne Mitchell, Senior Warden
Eric Elliott, Junior Warden

James Allsop

Ralph Edwards
Warren Foster

Denise Pitts
Toni Cowan

Mary Stenson

Rev. Theorphlis Borden

Rev. Dr. Colenthia Hunter

Church Schedules

We are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement.

Welcome!

We are the Episcopal church in Lincoln Heights. We follow Jesus to learn how to walk in the way of LOVE. No matter what we “do” in the world, we all have the same work, to deepen our practice of loving and be loved. The world offers us many classrooms for this work.

Some classrooms are outside ourselves: our families, the places we work, our neighborhoods, and at St. Simon’s, church is one of our classrooms. Here we practice hospitality as a tangible expression of God’s love in the world. We welcome all the ones the Spirit brings into our community… the single, divorced, gay, married, scholars, plumbers, child and retired. Every Sunday morning we gather at Jesus’ dinner table and share a meal together, and then we do it again after worship in the fellowship hall… because we are Jesus followers, and Jesus made eating a sign of the kingdom… hospitality as an expression of Love.

Some classrooms are within ourselves: our stories of struggle, sacred moments of profound awareness of Love’s presence, the habits and thoughts that keep us from loving ourselves and others, the pieces of our life we don’t want to own or be true about us, the tender memories of those who loved us well and gave us glimpses of our Belovedness. Here at St. Simon’s we believe the most sacred wisdom lives within each of us. God created every person in the image of Love, and our life’s work is excavating that image, and learning to speak our unique name for Love to the world.

This priest and pastor believes her role to be helping each person give voice to the sacred presence within them. I am not the preacher of truth, but the cultivator of wisdom. We are all walking each other home to Love, and I am grateful to be on the journey with the good people of St. Simon’s. Welcome to this community of progressive thinkers, thoughtful pray-ers, passionate singers, caring friends, gracious activists.

I feel privileged to be a part the St. Simon’s community. I’ve been taken in by their warm embrace, their humility of spirit, their deep compassion, their gracious love for one another, and their strong commitment to caring for their neighbors. I invite you to join us on our pilgrimage of Love!

Shalom,
Pastor Mary

St. Simon's History

St. Simon's Mission began in what has been called the "Great Depression". In the 1920's a number of Black families had moved from the crowded West End of Cincinnati to an area north of Lockland and east of Woodlawn. This settlement was called Woodlawn Terrace. It was later to become incorporated as the City of Lincoln Heights. Small houses were built and streets laid out. A few small stores were started. As the Depression began and deepened, many persons became unemployed, some lost homes, others their household belongings, and many of the area families became impoverished.

As the Sisters rode past this area on their way to and from Cincinnati, they became conscious of the poverty and the lack of Churches. Mother Beatrice, our Superior, seeing the condition of Woodlawn Terrace, wrote: "As we drove past I said to the Sisters: 'Something ought to be done!' Then one day, in 1930, an inner Voice said, 'Do it yourself'."

After consulting with her Council, and seeking help from Associates and friends, money was raised to buy a small two-story frame house on the corner of Independence and Douglas Streets in the northeast corner of what was called "the upper subdivision", or more familiarly, "the Upper Sub". The house was fitted out for mission work -- a large first floor room as the Chapel and meeting room (what today would be called a "multipurpose room"), a kitchen; on the second floor a small room for group meetings, a good sized storeroom, and the bathroom.

Underneath the house there was a good-sized furnace room. There were two lots in addition to the one upon which the house stood. At the back of the second lot was a small garage. The house was called "the Mission House of St. Simon of Cyrene."