Rev. Joe Ashby and wife Rev. Kay Ashby retiring this month

It's a busy time for the Rev. Joe Ashby and his wife the Rev. Kay Ashby as both are saying good-bye to their church communities.

Both are retiring from their respective churches this month ― Joe from Grace Episcopal Church in Mansfield on Jan. 28 and Kay from St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Ashland today Jan. 21.

Joe Ashby, 68, came to the Mansfield church at 41 Bowman St., 17.5 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, Mich. 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, Ky. near Fort Campbell U.S. Army base.

"It's kind of an unusual thing I began, started at a Grace church," he said.

His last service at Grace Episcopal Church will be 9:30 a.m. Jan. 28. A reception will follow.

Grace Episcopal Church will celebrate the retirement of Joe Ashby by hosting two events which the community is invited to attend. The first is an evensong celebration that will be held at 5 p.m. Jan. 21. Joe Ashby said good friend Norman Jones, formerly dean and director of Ohio State University Mansfield, is returning to preach at the 5 p.m. service. Jones and his wife Heidi attended the church before moving to Columbus where Norman serves as vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies at Ohio State.

Ashby's wife will be in attendance at the Mansfield church on Jan. 28 for her husband's final church service.

Rev. Kay Ashby, who hails from Arkansas, will preach her last service on Jan. 21 in Ashland and her husband plans to be in the pews in the Ashland church that morning. He met Kay 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 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.

The Ashbys plan to spend more time with their granddaughters in retirement

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 and his wife and Emily and their two young daughters, ages 4 and 2, who live in Cleveland.

They are planning to stay in Mansfield for now and have scheduled a trip to Italy this spring to attend a nephew's wedding.

The Ashbys' son Stephen 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, Ky. 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 awhile so that they can move into a new place," he said Wednesday from the church.

He said he was moved to tears recently after recalling a boy who 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: Rev. Joe Ashby has spent 17.5 years at Grace Episcopal Church