The Rev. Marjorie Bevans was welcomed as the new rector at St. Michaels of the Valley Episcopal Church Ligonier, PA on August 1st, 2023. When asked about her experience at St. Michaels thus far, the Rev. Marjorie Bevans expressed: “Oh, it’s just been wonderful! I really am so grateful to be here. People have been so sweet and friendly, so supportive and patient with me as I’m taking my time getting to know people. They let me have the time I need to take care of the transitional things, which was a blessing.”
Mother Marjorie majored in philosophy at the University of Virginia and attended seminary at Nashotah House in Wisconsin. She has served as an Episcopal priest for 23 years, the last 12 of which have been as Rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Throughout her life and ministry, Mother Marjorie has also had a passion Christian apologetics as well as a love for the outdoors both of which are expressed in ways that connect people to God and one another.
In the summer of 2022, Mother Marjorie also spent time at Oxford furthering her study in Christian apologetics, an area that has been an integral part of her vocation. “Basically it started when I began to take being a Christian seriously and I had come out of college and had studied philosophy and had my own personal, not really objections to the Christian faith, but it just didn’t make as much sense to me as other things did and so I started to do some reading and read some classic apologetics material St. Augustine’s City of God and The Confessions, a lot of works from the Roman Catholic tradition around the turn of the 20th century.” Flowing from her love of people and her own transformative journey in Christian apologetics, Mother Marjorie hopes to begin a Theology Pub where young adults gather to talk about some of the classic objections to the Christian faith. She says, “What we’re hoping to do is have enough of a conversation going that we could invite others, people who just happen to be where we are, strangers, to come join us if they’d like.”
Mother Marjorie’s enduring love of the outdoors has also been an avenue for ministry that has found a complimentary home in Ligonier. At her previous parish in West Virginia, Mother Marjorie started a chapter of “Holy Hikes,” an outdoors ministry centered on communion with others and with God in creation. This ministry was particularly restorative for the youth ministry at her previous parish during the recent pandemic. Mother Marjorie observes: “When I’m doing something like that, I try to remind them of what it must’ve been like to be a disciple following Jesus around and being down on the sea of Galilee and walking on the mountain where the Transfiguration occurred…These are the kinds of places Jesus took the disciples and the prayed so that’s what we do, we pray.” In reflecting on the area surrounding St. Michaels, Mother Marjorie says: “It’s very much like my home parish where I came from before I was ordained in Virginia. It’s in the middle of fox hunting country and that’s where I came from and so I got to bless the hounds on Saturday and I hopped on a horse and went fox hunting, my first time in a very long time. There are a lot of horsemen here, a lot of outdoor people.” It seems Mother Marjorie and St. Michaels of the Valley are a complimentary match in their love of God, love of people and love of God’s creation.
“It’s been a long and interesting journey since I committed my life to Christ and to serving him in the church. You just never know where it’s going to lead you. For me, I feel like I’ve almost been led full-circle.”