Membership at St. Alban's
All are welcome at St. Alban's. If you're not already a member, at some point, we hope you will choose to become one.
The St. Alban’s community is made up of people who come from a wide variety of spiritual traditions and who are at many points in their own spiritual development. For this reason, we offer a number of ways to participate in our worship and ministries. We welcome the faithful, the seeker, and the doubter for God’s embrace is wide and God’s good news is for all. From the time of your first visit here, we welcome you to enter fully into worship, to receive Holy Communion, and to be part of our parish family.
Newcomers
For many people, it takes a while to assess a spiritual community and decide whether they wish to make it their spiritual home. For us, the key question is whether this is a community that challenges you to grow. We encourage newcomers to fill out a welcome card, attend services, engage with our opportunities to serve and to learn, meet the people who are here, and look for a sense of belonging. We will work with you in this time of discernment, helping you to meet people and figure out what’s here and how to participate in it. We understand that there can be many doors into a community of faith and we are committed to helping you find the door that works for you.
Church Membership
Once you have decided that you wish to pitch your tent here for a while, you are ready to become a member of the parish by registering your baptism with the church office and stating that you wish to be a member here. To take that step, please complete this form.
If you come from a non-Christian faith tradition or from no faith tradition at all, the clergy would love to speak with you about baptism when you are ready for it. Members are eligible to be married here and to vote in elections for our parish leadership.
While visitors are mostly people whom we serve, we hope that members will take their place in the life of this community, as active engagement is the foundation for spiritual growth. We expect that our members will:
- attend worship frequently
- participate in ministry outside of Sunday worship. We have a wide array of ministries that range from weekly commitments to monthly ones, and even to occasional service, so you can pick not only your interests but also work with the time you have to give. We also know that there are times in every person’s life (such as caring for a newborn or a sick relative, or after a bereavement) in which what you may most need from this community is a place of prayer and support.
- enroll your children or teenagers in our formation programs and support them in participating.
- try to nourish your own spiritual growth, either by making use of the classes and resources that we provide, or by reading or prayer on your own.
- support the parish financially, either by making an annual pledge or by making a regular non-pledge contribution.
If you wish to take this step, and if you were previously a member of another church, you only need to ask us to initiate a Letter of Transfer. If you come from another faith tradition, that’s fine. We welcome you.
Membership in the Episcopal Church
While our community includes people who were raised in other traditions, many people do eventually decide that they wish to become Episcopalian. If you wish to learn more about the Episcopal Church, we offer an adult confirmation class twice a year that explores our spirituality, history, and traditions. Many people take it simply to explore and deepen their spirituality. If you have been baptized in another tradition and wish to become Episcopalian, we will present you to be confirmed or received by the Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde. (And we’ll even explain the difference as part of the class.) At that point, you would be able to participate in parish leadership at the highest level, the Vestry (our governing board). Contact The Rev'd Yoimel González Hernández to learn more.