faith: Rev. Susan McGarry of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church celebrates 30 years in ministry

“Instead of going to a restaurant and having people spend $45 on food, I said, ‘Hey, why not have the party here and raise outreach funds instead? It could be a fundraiser as well as a celebration,’” said McGarry. After McGarry chose six of her favorite charities to benefit from the fundraiser - including local organizations Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Religious Action for Affordable Housing and SafeHouse - volunteers set up games at the party. The party’s approximate 60 attendees competed in the games and raised more than $1,000.

“It was great,” said McGarry, who says she aims each day to live according to how she believes God meant for the world to be.

While many of the faithful may base their behaviors on biblical instructions, McGarry has spent her life learning just what those instructions really mean. As the Episcopalian denomination is a “questioning church,” as McGarry puts it, she has spent two years in Jerusalem, learned Hebrew and completed a Ph.D. in Ancient and Biblical Studies to help answer the questions of members of her congregation.

“I wanted to really be able to teach and know the Bible, and the brief semester at the seminary didn’t give as deep enough understanding as I had wanted,” said McGarry, who completed her Ph.D. this past spring. And when it comes to practicing what she preaches, McGarry, quite literally, does just that.

“I think God intends this world to be different than it is,” she said. “I think he intends it to be a more loving, peaceful world, where domination and exploitation are not the norm.”

To help create that intended world, McGarry has been taking action for decades.

“I was on the Interfaith Council of Congregations that funded many anti-poverty projects in town, and that organization’s programs were designed to actually break the cycles of poverty,” she said. “It has since folded, but that organization was where I met extraordinary people. I met the heroic people working on the ground who get things done.”

McGarry has also worked with the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Religious Action for Affordable Housing and programs within her congregation, just to name a few. In addition, McGarry has spent her whole career working for rights on behalf of lesbians, gays, transvestites and transsexuals (LGTT), as she believes that part of being a successful leader is realizing that religion is a changing institution.

“When I first went to the seminary, our church wasn’t even ordaining women,” said McGarry, who wasn’t yet serving St. Aidan’s at the time of her ordination. “We’ve struggled with inclusions. It’s an exciting time to be including the LGTT, because we - as Episcopalians - are ahead in sexual orientation, whereas we were behind in the inclusion of women. It’s exciting to have both of these movements be in my lifetime.”

When McGarry teaches faith to younger generations, she also includes the other two members of her family: a 2-year-old boy from Vietnam and an 8-year-old girl from China. Being a single mother to the children has “really enriched” McGarry’s life, she says.

Reflecting upon her time as a reverend and where she hopes to take her ministry in the future, McGarry remains humble.

“I’m not sure that I’ve morphed this congregation’s identity, because this congregation has long been involved in issues of justice,” she says. “But the focus of activism has just changed, from nuclear disarmament to housing, hunger and the environment. In creating the Kingdom of God on Earth, I hope I’ve fostered it in a lot of new ways.”

Stephanie Fenton covers Faith for AnnArbor.com. Stephanie can be contacted at Fenton.Stephanie@gmail.com.