After readying for two years, the congregation of Grace Episcopal Church welcomed Reverend Dr. Kathy Dunagan as their new priest this spring.
Dunagan’s rigorous theological and counseling training is leavened by advanced degrees in music, an Appalachian upbringing and a love of gardening and community, all of which inform a quietly exuberant spirituality to the 125-year-old church.
Dunagan was spiritual since she was a child, writes Grace Episcopal congregant Joyce Muldoon about the priest’s Appalachian youth.
“Once there was a young girl of 13 named Kathy who prayed by a mountain stream in Damascus, Virginia,” Muldoon wrote in an article describing the church’s preparation for the priest’s arrival.
Dunagan recalls learning to simply be quiet, think and listen.
“In my 13-year-old moment with God, I was with a group and we were told to go off alone and sit quietly to read the Bible or pray. It was probably the first time I attempted to sit quietly with God. So, it was not so much what I prayed as that I listened. I believe everyone can hear God’s call for their life’s work if they learn to sit quietly with God, and listen.”
Cultivating that introspection into academic structure, Dunagan holds a sheaf of degrees from elite southern universities: Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, and a doctor of ministry degree from the University of the South, Sewanee.
She also holds a degree in vocal music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, plays the mandolin and guitar and is developing a Bluegrass Mass.
“I could sing and so I majored in voice. My gifts in music made learning and connecting with people easy when I was young. When it was time to move from college to graduate school, shifting from music to theology was also easy because of my passion for intellectual and spiritual pursuits. I still enjoy singing and picking and have found the local bluegrass jams around the New River Valley welcoming and fun – though a bit beyond my current skills on the mandolin! Still, a great place to grow.”
For Grace Episcopal, her arrival to the church was a great relief. After the retirement of the Rev. David Rose, Grace Church experienced two long years without a permanent rector, Muldoon wrote.
Supply priests filled in, while the congregation undertook a self-study of discerning who Grace Church was and wished to be.
Like birds preparing a nest, while it waited, the congregation updated the website, painted and remodeled the rectory. Volunteers refreshed the church buildings and grounds, Muldoon remembers.
“Some church families “adopted a room” in the Sunday School building to make ready for a new spiritual leader,” she wrote. “Adopting a room’ means cleaning out old furniture, washing windows or painting. Decluttering. Readying as if for a new family member. A family would sign up for a particular room and take ownership to make it presentable and useful again.”
Just as Grace was waiting for her, Dunagan too was waiting, but seemed to be coming gradually closer to Radford, serving as Interim Rector of both the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Danville and at St. Thomas, in Abingdon, and serving as Canon Missioner for the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia.
For Dunagan, a new priest learns about her new church and its people over time, building relationships. She feels that discerning a mission, finding the one theme or focus that serves as a platform from which to launch a new ministry is important, but more important is to spend time forming relationships.
“So, the hundredth Sunday is a whole lot like the first Sunday except that, by the hundredth you know better how to respond to seekers and better how to offer guidance,” Dunagan said in an email.
Born in Bristol, Kathy is at home with southwest Virginia traditions.
“The move to Radford and the New River Valley feels more like the Southwest Virginia home that I love, the mountain vistas, four full seasons and a certain earthy kindness that reminds me of my Tazewell County grandparents,” Dunagan said.
Congregant Muldoon says Kathy is an enthusiastic Radford citizen. “As she works in her garden behind the rectory or takes walks with her husband, Joe, and their cocker spaniel, Prancer, she says that she feels joy and peace at coming to the area.”
Muldoon recalls when, under the direction of the Senior Warden Ann Walker, Kathy Dunagan was called to be Grace’s new rector.
“One of the most exciting and moving moments of her new ministry this spring was the Celebration of a New Ministry to which all the clergy of the Diocese were invited.
Recently, Bishop Mark Bourlakas and the diocesan canons, a number of retired clergy and some New River Valley clergy members attended Rev. Dunagan’s dedication at Grace.“
In that dedication, Rev. Dunagan knelt in the midst of her new congregation and prayed to “devote herself, body, soul and spirit” to God Muldoon recalls.
Of course, a priest has both spiritual and earthly duties and a new parish means learning a new town with its history, factions and needs.
A newcomer needs to discover a parish’s strengths even if parishioners themselves can’t see them, but Dunagan seems to find the role easy.
“Becoming a priest is a long process, one that forms the person of faith to be grounded as a spiritual leader. I’m quite comfortable wearing a clerical collar and meeting new people in the journey.”
The mission of the Episcopal Church seeks to inspire people to work with the poor the weak, the sick and the lonely, collaborating and working together, finding common ground.
Grace will continue its outreach in the community through the Hospitality Rooms, Clothing Bank, Boys’ Home, Food Bank, Canterbury House, Summer Sunday School, and more.
“This is a place where I follow more than lead. The good people of Grace Church know how to be missional, they know the community and the local ministries better than I,” she said. “I will support their already strong outreach efforts. My goal is to lead this parish community in new ways of mindfulness and quite listening for God to renew our souls and then send us back out.”
Muldoon feels that under Rev. Dunagan’s capable new leadership, Grace Church, Radford, has embarked on living a renewed spiritual life.
“This renewal seems a fitting new beginning for the historic 125-year-old church on Fourth and Harvey Streets in Radford,” Muldoon wrote.
