Welcome to the Church of the Messiah

Congratulations to our 2024 Hegg Award recipients

Julie Crawford
Julie is an Associate of The Community of St John Baptist. She has been instrumental in working with collective partnerships and resources to see that the Garden of Hope at the Convent of St. John the Baptist in Mendham, has been renovated with three primary goals: increase yield of fresh vegetables, creation of a pollinator plot, and creation of sacred space for community use. Produce from the garden is provided to local and regional food pantries, Chester Area Senior Housing, and is used for meals at Homeless Solutions. As an extension, Good News Gardens are now established at Cross Roads and as an urban model at St Andrews and Holy Communion in South Orange.  
​Julie has participated in the Diocese Pilgrimage Across NJ, Going Local, Listening Tables, and Sacred Grounds programs. She has served as a bell choir member for many years at our parish, a Sunday School and VBS teacher; she is a licensed Lay Worship Leader and is a Co-convener for the Harriet Tubman Regional Ministry Network. This past year she completed the first cohort training program The Collaboratory Program at Princeton Theological Seminary as a mentor for a young adult member of Messiah - only one of 19 churches chosen nationwide.

​Her tireless work educating and coordinating has benefited so many and the ripple effects she has created will hopefully continue for many generations to come.
John Pietrowski
John established Facebook live for our parish during COVID in 2020 so that our congregants could watch services from home.  He has been at church assuring that this live broadcast is of good quality for all but a few Sundays since February 2020. John has also served as our treasurer for the last 4 years. He has modernized our whole accounting system and presents the budget every month at our vestry meeting and at our finance committee meetings. His knowledge of non-profit financial management is invaluable, and he has been pivotal in our ability to move forward with our collaboration with sharing clergy with St. Mary's, Sparta. The talent and time John shares with us at Messiah is immeasurable.