In Search of Growth
When the Rev. Dr. Vincent Pizzuto became vicar of St. Columba’s Church in Inverness, a small coastal town 50 miles north of San Francisco, the roster had dwindled to a scant seven people.
Built in 1930 as a four-floor summer mansion on the Point Reyes Peninsula, St. Columba’s history dates to the early 1900s, when land was donated to the second Bishop of California, the Rt. Rev. William Ford Nichols. It became a mission of the Diocese of California in 1931. When St. Columba’s outgrew its chapel and began seeking a larger space, the property—originally called Frick Mansion and designed to resemble a church, for hosting the weddings of owner Robert N. Frick’s daughters—was acquired by the church in 1951. It became a parish 28 years later.
In the 1970s and ’80s, the parish was home to several young families. But changing demographics and a succession of vicars resulted in only a handful of people calling St. Columba’s home.
By the time Pizzuto took the helm in January 2017, he knew the parish had more to offer the intellectual and vibrantly artistic town on the California coast.
On the far reaches of the San Francisco Bay Area, Inverness was already home to numerous spiritual centers, including Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a spiritual training institution in the Insight Meditation tradition, and Green Gulch Farm, a farm and center for the practice of Sōtō Zen.
“Where was the Christian contemplative voice here?” Pizzuto said. “So many people don’t realize that we already have an ancient, vibrant practice within the Christian tradition. But there wasn’t a place to explore these methods of practice and prayer in a contemplative center, at least not then and not here.”
Pizzuto, a full professor at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco, teaches primarily in New Testament and Christian mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Learning to live as a contemplative person in the world is critical, both for Pizzuto and for members of his mission.
Pizzuto believed people would be drawn to an intentional contemplative community that was both cross-centered and relationally oriented.
It started with Fireside Chats, a monthly series of intellectual presentations that “fly in the face of the cheap stuff, the strawman,” Pizzuto said. As vicar, he knew he couldn’t just wait for people to enter the church building on a Sunday morning—but they would likely walk through the doors for a communal meal or to listen to someone with academic credentials.
In a community largely made up of retired professors from the University of California, Berkeley, and other smart, creative people, the invitation to attend “Atheists, Agnostics, and Mystics Crossing the Divide” proved quite a hit.
By the time Pizzuto’s book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life, appeared in 2018, the monthly series had outgrown the original space. A quirky crew of regular participants had begun to find a home in “that uncanny ‘spiritual vortex’ we call ‘St. Columba’s,” as he writes in the book. Built on the theology of the Incarnation, the church started to grow once again.
“We started looking at mistakes in the Gospels and discovering fascinating little fun facts about the Bible,” he told TLC. “‘How come nobody told me this?’ people would ask. Even though I knew these were folks who’d never walk in the door on a Sunday morning, their whole attitude had been transformed. St. Columba’s became a key player in West Marin.”
Just as Pizzuto built rapport and became a known entity among locals, St. Columba’s became a relevant player on both a local and global level.
Locally, St. Columba’s began giving back to the local community. Parishioners volunteered with the local soup kitchen; the building, which can house up to 32 guests, offered emergency shelter to fire evacuees.
As a growing voice within the contemplative movement, St. Columba’s also began to expand its offerings, first with the Iona Lecture Series in 2018 and then with contemplative residency programs a couple of years later. Pizzuto and the Community of St. Columba’s, Inverness, host a variety of intellectual gatherings, led by myriad experts in the field. Pizzuto recalls a journalist who taught on the unintended clash between local Native American cultures and the National Parks structure, and a professor who discussed connections between quasars, black holes, and new telescopes.
The latest contemplative residency included authors, university professors, spiritual leaders, scholars, journalists, and editors, all of whom immersed themselves in deep silence, shared meals, and evening conferences for 11 days during the summer.
When reactions to COVID shut down churches across the globe, Pizzuto quickly decided to go online but not film any Eucharists. Instead, the community offered a Morning Prayer service, followed by a virtual coffee hour and small groups—and people around the world, seeking holy connection, began to tune in on Sunday mornings.
Now, St. Columba’s Inverness has experienced vigorous growth. With 125 people now on the roster, the community serves three types of people: those who are local to West Marin, those who are proximate to the Bay Area at large, and those who live far from California and only engage online.
But in all these spaces, people find a deep, rich way of Christian contemplation that’s tethered liturgically in the Episcopal tradition.
“The love that’s in our community is very palpable,” Pizzuto said.
Cara Meredith, a freelance writer and postulant for holy orders in the Diocese of California, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
