One senses a bit of irony watching the gently flowing fountain in the center of the meditation garden at the Church of St. John and St. Mark in Albany, Ga.

The waters there have not always been so tame. The flood of 1994 - locally termed the flood of the century - helped create the new church of St. John and St. Mark from two racially distinct congregations.

It seemed as if the river had overwhelmed when the flood destroyed St. John's, established by the Diocese of Georgia in 1903 as Albany's first African American Episcopal congregation. The flood also heavily damaged St. Mark's, traditionally an all-white congregation established in 1953.

By 1995 St. Mark's church and parish hall had been rebuilt and the two congregations worshiped there. After two years they decided to merge as a formal effort to express the family they had become.

In January 1998 they celebrated their new identity as a racially diverse congregation that maintains an intentional balance of leadership from the two parent churches. Celebrating is something St. John and St. Mark's does well, whether it's the first Easter after a second flood drove them out or the dedication of their new built-on-stilts parish hall.

The people of the mission church, who describe themselves as an inclusive spiritual community, have enhanced their efforts to reach out, by building their new, larger, parish hall to help the church serve as a center for spirituality in the Albany area.

It is that ministry of weekly healing services, monthly meditation through a labyrinth and free yoga classes, quarterly seminars on topics from centering prayer to creation-centered spirituality, and an annual 12-week course on natural spirituality that has attracted media attention and new members.

The congregation, which expects to apply for parish status at diocesan convention next February - the first time it will be eligible - has attracted at least 16 new members who discovered St. John and St. Mark's by attending its special events, said the Rev. Joe Clift, vicar.