Raising $12 million for repairs has been a challenge -- seven years into the "Saving Grace" project, the church's approximately 1,600 parishioners have raised about $4 million, enough to set up scaffolding and get started. Now a new challenge has appeared in the form of a pair of red-tailed hawks and their chicks nesting in the steeple tower -- a challenge that will cost an estimated $60,000 in construction delays.

Red-tailed hawks, commonly called "chickenhawks," are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, making it illegal to move or tamper with the nest or hawks in any way. Fledglings typically nest for around 10 weeks. In the meantime, their parents, sporting four-foot wing spans, cry famous rasping screams often recorded for use in horror films -- as construction workers or others who venture too close to the nests have learned. Since red-tailed hawks are known to mate for life and to return to their nesting sites year after year, Grace's newcomers may become, well, part of Grace's flock.

"We have a wounded building that needs to be healed," says the Rev. Canon Michael Wright, Grace's rector, but as important as that healing is, we need to be focused on the wider world at all times. No matter whether we like them or not, whether they're hawks or doves, they're all God's creatures."

Grace is known for radical hospitality in the form of a strong outreach program that serves the Charleston community with ministries to seafarers, the homeless, the hungry, the lonely and the vulnerable.  Outreach ministry is a priority at Grace in part because of its unifying effect on a parish where a variety of theological opinions are held.

"The sign says 'The Episcopal Church Welcomes you,' and I think that includes hawks," says Wright. "Whether we like it or not, they give us another chance to practice radical hospitality."

--The Rev. Lisa B. Hamilton is correspondent for Provinces I and IV.  She is based in Venice, Florida and Sandisfield, Massachusetts.