Rev. Joe Ashby and wife Rev. Kay Ashby retiring from Mansfield, Ashland churches
It's a busy time for the Rev. Joe Ashby and his wife. the Rev. Kay Ashby. as both are saying goodbye to their church communities.
Both are retiring from their respective churches this month ― Joe Ashby from Grace Episcopal Church in Mansfield on Jan. 28 and Kay Ashby from St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Ashland on Sunday.
Joe Ashby, 68, came to the Mansfield church at 41 Bowman St., 17½ years ago.
A native of Kentucky and graduate of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, he served churches in Kentucky and Arkansas before serving as rector of St. Paul's Church in Muskegon, Michigan, for seven years before coming to Mansfield in 2006.
After seminary he initially went back to Kentucky and was a pastor at Grace Church in Hopkinsville, near Fort Campbell U.S. Army base.
"It's kind of an unusual thing I began, started at a Grace church," he said.
His final service at Grace Episcopal Church will be 9:30 a.m. Jan. 28. A reception will follow.
Grace Episcopal Church will celebrate the retirement by hosting two community events. The first is an evensong celebration at 5 p.m. Sunday. Joe Ashby said good friend Norman Jones, formerly dean and director of Ohio State University Mansfield, is returning to preach at the service. Jones and his wife, Heidi Jones, attended the church before moving to Columbus, where Norman Jones serves as vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies at Ohio State.
Ashby's wife will be in attendance at the Mansfield church Jan. 28 for her husband's final church service.
The Rev. Kay Ashby, who hails from Arkansas, will preach her final service Sunday and her husband plans to be in the pews in the Ashland church that morning. The two met in Austin, Texas, in seminary. She was ordained in 1991.
Food pantry will continue
Known as the church with the red door at the corner of Third and Bowman streets, the Grace Episcopal food pantry operation on Thursday mornings and the second and fourth Wednesday evenings is run mostly by volunteers and will continue. The church is in the midst of a capital campaign.
The pantry started long before Joe Ashby arrived in the city. He said he is proud the pantry is able to serve so many. The church has also seen major renovations to the building during his tenure. The church has had some very good interfaith dialogues and the congregation is growing, he added.
The church tagline ― God loves you. No exceptions ― still applies, he said. Joe Ashby is the fourth rector at Grace Episcopal since 1940.
Ashbys plan to spend more time with their granddaughters
Joe Ashby said he is going to miss the people. Although the couple reside in Mansfield, they plan to spend more time with their son, Stephen Ashby, and his wife, Emily Ashby, and their daughters, ages 4 and 2, who live in Cleveland.
They plan to stay in Mansfield for now and have scheduled a trip to Italy this coming spring to attend a nephew's wedding.
The Ashbys' son is an Episcopal pastor at two churches, one in Lyndhurst and the other in Mayfield Village. His son's wife also is a pastor, at the United Church of Christ in Cleveland.
Reminiscing
Joe Ashby said it's a good time to retire. He is 68.
"We're both in good health and the congregation, it's a good time to pass onto someone else," he said.
Joe Ashby said he was a history major at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, with plans to become a lawyer.
"I became an Episcopalian while there," he said. Life took him in a different direction but he still loves history.
Joe Ashby is going to miss Sunday services and he has always loved teaching Bible study.
He's going to miss the people and the relationships. "That's what makes it hard. Changing roles. I won't be their pastor anymore and I will have to try and separate myself from it for a while so that they can move into a new place," he said.
He said he was moved to tears recently after recalling a boy he met at age 3 in his congregation.
"He's going off to college," he said.
The couple plan to travel and Joe Ashby also plans to take up riding his bicycle again.
"I was not a bicyclist until I came to Mansfield," he said.
Jones said, "Father Joe has been so special to me, my family, our church, and the community. He has been a gentle and inspiring spiritual leader to the congregation at Grace Episcopal Church and beyond. He’s been a passionate advocate for the least among us in our community in many ways, especially through the church food pantry. It’s far from easy to be a good pastor, and he has done it with grace, humor, and a generous heart consistently for decades. He will be greatly missed."
A search will begin to find a new rector and an interim rector will come to the church, Joe Ashby said.
lwhitmir@gannett.com
419-521-7223
X (formerly Twitter): @LWhitmir
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Married pastors retiring from Ohio churches after years of service
