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Welcome

Welcome to St. Alban’s Church! Every Sunday, and most days in between, people gather in this place to worship, to learn, to grow, to share the joys and struggles of our lives, and to seek God’s grace in the midst of our lives. We do not come because we have it all figured out, but because we are seeking light on the way. We come as we are and welcome one another.

On this website, you can find information about our worship, our classes for people of all ages, membership at St. Alban's, and about how we seek to make a difference in this world. We warmly encourage you to join us for a Sunday service or for some of the many other events that happen here. You belong at St. Alban’s.

Please fill out this welcome form to connect with us.

Contact us with any questions. Call (202) 363-8286 or email the church office.

 

Service Times 

Weekly In-person Sunday Service Schedule (Please note: Service times may be changed during the seasons of Christmas and Lent and during the summer. Please refer to our calendar to confirm the times.):

8 a.m. (English) in the Church
9 a.m. (English) in the Church
11:15 a.m. (English) in the Church
11:15 a.m. (Spanish) in Nourse Hall (same building as the Church)

Communion in one kind (i.e. wafers) will be offered at the main altar, although we will happily bring communion to those for whom steps are challenging. 

Weekly Live Sunday Services are live-streamed on our Youtube channel (St. Alban's DC) at 9 a.m. every Sunday, as is our Spanish service at 11:15 a.m. 

Evening Prayer Thursdays, 5:30 p.m. via Zoom, join us for a time of reflection and sharing at the close of your busy day. Contact Paul Brewster for the link. 

 

Directions

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church is located next to the Washington National Cathedral at the corner of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues in the northwest section of the District of Columbia.

From either direction on the north loop of the Capital Beltway/I-495 follow signs for Route 355/Wisconsin Ave south toward DC. St. Alban’s is located on the left just before the intersection of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues NW. Make a left onto Lych Gate Rd before you reach Massachusetts Ave. As you enter the drive, the church will be on your left and Satterlee Hall and the Rectory on the right. Stay on Lych Gate until it becomes Pilgrim Rd.

From any Virginia main in-bound thoroughfare (George Washington Memorial Parkway, I-395, Route 50, I-66), follow signs to Rosslyn and take the Key Bridge from Rosslyn north across the Potomac River into Georgetown. Go right on M St, left on Wisconsin Ave. St. Alban’s is located on the right just after the intersection of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues NW. Make a right onto Lych Gate Rd after passing Massachusetts. As you enter the drive, the church will be on your left and Satterlee Hall and the Rectory on the right. Stay on Lych Gate until it becomes Pilgrim Rd.

Parking is available on Pilgrim Road Monday-Friday after 3:30 pm and all day Saturday and Sunday. Parking is also available in the Cathedral’s underground garage for a fee Monday- Saturday and for free on Sunday.  You may also park on neighborhood streets according to DC parking signs.

What to Expect

Visiting a church for the first time can be a bit daunting. So we have tried to put together the answers to some of the questions you’re likely to have and to ensure that you find a warm welcome here. Click on the questions to learn more.)

How do you worship?

What time are services on Sunday morning?

How long do services last?

Where can I park?

Do you offer programs for children?

What should I wear?

Do you have provisions for the differently-abled?

For Your Kids

Children’s Ministry

At St. Alban’s, we believe that a child’s spiritual growth is just as important as their physical and intellectual growth. Our goal is to help children name and value the presence and love of God in their lives. We do this through a variety of means – by providing stable and consistent adult mentors, encouraging strong peer relationships, and supporting parents in their families’ faith lives at home.

Worship: This Fall, Children's Chapel meets during the first half of the 9:00 a.m. service in Nourse Hall (a spacious parish hall in the same building as the main worship space.) Kids and families join "big church" at the Peace so everyone can receive Communion together. To learn more, contact the Rev’d Emily Griffin.

Education: We've resumed our formation programs for the 2022-2023 period. Here’s everything you need to know:

  • Sunday School and Youth Group Classes are from 10:15 to 11:05 a.m.
  • Nursery, 2s & 3s, PreK to 1st Grade, 2nd to 3rd Grade, and 4th to 6th Grade all meet upstairs in Satterlee Hall. Youth classes meet downstairs in Satterlee Hall.
  • If you haven’t registered your child or teen yet, it’s not too late. Register in person at the start of class or click here

Questions? For children, contact the Rev’d Emily Griffin at . For youth, contact the Rev’d Yoimel González Hernández at .

Learn more about Children's Ministries
Youth Ministry

Four teen groups participate in formation classes at St. Alban’s on Sunday mornings. We use the nationally recognized Episcopal curriculum “Journey to Adulthood," or J2A. J2A has two guiding principles: 1) Manhood and womanhood are gifts of God; and 2) Adulthood must be earned. This is a strong program with over 50 youth participating, many of whom engage in a wide variety of ministries at St. Alban’s. Two or three adults mentor each of the groups for two years, sharing their own faith journeys and forming strong bonds of fellowship with the participants.Learn more about Youth Ministries

The Episcopal Church

As Episcopalians, we follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe God is active in our everyday lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.  

The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and with each other in Christ. The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the gospel, and promotes justice, peace and love. The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all of its members.

We uphold the Bible and worship with the Book of Common Prayer. We believe the Holy Scriptures are the revealed Word of God. In worship we unite ourselves with one another to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God's Word, to offer prayer and praise, and to celebrate the Sacraments. The Celebration of Holy Eucharist is the central act of worship in accordance with Jesus' command to His disciples. Holy Communion may be received by all baptized Christians, not only members of the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion with 70 million members in 165 countries.  The word "Episcopal" refers to government by bishops. The historic episcopate continues the work of the first apostles in the Church, guarding the faith, unity and discipline of the Church. Both men and women, including those who are married, are eligible for ordination as deacons, priests and bishops. 

We strive to love our neighbors as ourselves and respect the dignity of every person. We welcome all to find a spiritual home in the Episcopal Church.

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In Loving Memory: G. Thomas Kingsley

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02.03.18

In Loving Memory: G. Thomas Kingsley

In Loving Memory: G. Thomas Kingsley

Category: Memorial Homilies

Speaker: The Rev'd Jim Quigley

A few years ago New York Times columnist David Brooks published a book called The Road to Character.  In it Brooks contrasts resume virtues with what he calls eulogy virtues.  Resume virtues are the things that you put on your resume; the skills you bring to the marketplace. Eulogy virtues are the things that get mentioned at your funeral.  Eulogy virtues describe your depth and the nature of your relationships; are you bold, loving, dependable, and consistent?  In a Ted Talk Brooks explained that he wrote the book because he struggled with tensions between these two poles in his own life and because he believes that we are living in a culture that foments resume virtues more so than eulogy ones.  I did not have the pleasure of knowing Tom Kingsley but those of you gathered at St. Alban’s today in remembrance and thanksgiving for his life might already have a hint as to why in my eulogy for him I have begun by mentioning David Brook’s book.   

When promoting The Road to Character Brooks said that he had been inspired by a book called The Lonely Man of Faith, written by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and published in 1965.  In The Lonely Man of Faith Soloveitchik contrasts two ways of existing in the world.  Those two ways of living are symbolized by Adam 1 and Adam 2.  Adam 1 exists to live externally: to master the world, to build and create companies, to conquer.  By contrast Adam 2 exists internally, in humility.  Adam 2 is one that not only does good but is good; Adam 2 lives in a way that honors God, creation and possibility.  While Adam 1 conquers the world Adam 2 hears a calling and obeys the world.  While Adam 1 accomplishes Adam 2 savors and shows inner consistency and strength.  While Adam 1 asks “How things work?” Adam 2 asks “Why are we here?  Adam 1’s motto is success while Adam 2’s motto is love, redemption and return. 

Soloveitchik maintained that these to mindsets, Adam 1 and Adam 2, are constantly at war within us.  Brooks agrees: at war within us is one desire to live by external success and another to live by internal value, and posits that this war is driven by different logics:  In Adam 1 and the resume life input leads to output and in Adam 2 and the eulogy life giving leads to receiving, losing oneself leads to finding oneself, God, and goodness in the world. 

So if my simple point in this eulogy for Tom isn’t obvious yet, it seems to me that his life defied the logic that inspired Soloveitchick to write the The Lonely Man of Faith and Brooks to write The Road to Character. That in Tom Kingsley Adam 1 and Adam 2 weren’t at war at all; that his resume life and his eulogy life were one in the same…  that both were marked by depth in relationship, in being both bold and humble in loving and by being dependable, committed and consistent.  I once heard it said that a career is what one does to make a living and a vocation is what one does to make a life.  Tom’s vocation was his career and his career was his vocation.  What a blessing! 

As I prepared this homily for Tom his son Matthew wrote me an e-mail saying that he enjoyed sharing any moment with his dad; that his father was funny, positive, upbeat and just easy to be around. Matthew ended the e-mail by saying that he frequently reminds himself “to be like Dad.”  I also got an e-mail from Kathy Pettit, a colleague of Tom’s from the Urban Institute, in which she described Tom as the warm, generous father-figure and weaver who listened to us all, somehow making whole cloth out of all our disparate voices and needs; he was the mastermind, always shaping ideas and helping others see the potential in trying new things or doing things differently or better.  In her e-mail Kathy included testimonies from people to whom Tom was a mentor – they are too numerous to mention. 

Having never met him, as I prepared this homily and as I listened as well as I could to the stories about Tom his faith was never mentioned.  One might wonder then why we gather to remember him this morning in this house of faith rather than somewhere else, the Urban Institute, or anywhere seemingly more connected to what Tom’s life was all about.   But what you may not know is that Tom was baptized at St. Alban’s in April of the year 1979.  I asked Rosalie and Matthew about why, at the age of 43, Tom had decided to receive the Sacrament of Baptism in the church.  The decision to get baptized, after all, isn’t exactly like making a decision to order the soup du jour rather than a salad for lunch.  But neither Rosalie nor Matt could say. And 39 years later we gather here to remember Tom’s life in this Holy place, the very place that on a Sunday morning he was symbolically anointed as one loved by God.  One can only assume that we gather here because that was Tom’s wish.  That we gather here because despite the fact that Tom didn’t wear his faith on his sleeve the way he lived his life was a gift of God, a gift of grace and the gift of a humble and quiet faith; that his undying endeavor to improve the lives of those living in poverty in urban DC or Indonesia or in so many other places and cultures in the world was his answer to a heavenly calling, a calling that he answered, and answered so very, very well.  

All of you know that Tom never retired.  In the In Memoriam Statement from the NNIP Tom’s latest research focused on analyzing patterns of neighborhood poverty and distress. In his final days he was investigating the impacts of the foreclosure crisis and assessing American Indian housing needs and programs.  If only all who have been baptized in the church could live so well! 

We say in the church that when our temporal journey ends a new way of living begins.  Life is changed, not ended.  Our memories of Tom will live on, as will the impact of his life and work in each of you and in God’s world.  For his gracious way of living life and his humble, bold and dedicated witness to the living God we give thanks and praise.  We thank you Tom, for your love, your life, and your example.   May you rest in God’s peace.