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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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Articles

St. Alban's Search for a New Rector

07.11.22 | News

    Updates

    December 14, 2022 – Since the last update, the Vestry has made good progress in our rector search. Having vetted selected applicants with our Diocese, we are now contacting their references. We expect to have completed in-person interviews of two candidates by mid-January. At that point, we will take stock and consider whether further interviews are warranted.

    October 26, 2022 - Since our last report, the vestry has conducted two additional interviews, making a total of eight candidates with whom we have held such discussions via Zoom. With no present plans to interview additional candidates, the vestry is now sifting through the interviews and related written applications to propose which of the eight should be invited for in-person interviews and to vet our proposal with the Diocese. The schedule is becoming somewhat complicated with Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas just around the corner. We proceed apace but with care and deliberation.

    October 4, 2002 - Out of a total of 25 applicants for our open rector position, the vestry has thus far scheduled six candidates for first-round interviews. We will have completed and assessed those sessions via Zoom by the end of this week. Meanwhile, the vestry is reviewing the four most recently submitted applications to decide whether to offer interviews to any of these candidates. Once all first-round interviews have been completed, invitations will go out to a small number of candidates to visit St. Alban’s for a second interview in person, after we’ve consulted with the diocesan Officer for Transition Ministry and conducted further inquiries. For additional information, please see the September 7 update below.

    September 7, 2022 – With 19 applications in hand, we have thus far invited four candidates to sit for interviews scheduled for late September and early October. Other such invitations are in the works, and still, others may follow as the vestry completes its evaluation of the applications already received and any others received in the coming weeks. 

    A Message from the Senior Warden

    Our rector, Geoffrey Hoare, will complete his ministry at St. Alban’s on Sunday, September 25, 2022, after which he and his family will depart for their new home in North Carolina.  We approach this impending development with mixed emotions:  gratitude for Geoffrey’s work among us and for the gracious contributions that he, Sage, Ruthie, and Allyson have made to our common life; sadness at our impending loss; faith in the future that God is calling us to build in our church.  In that spirit of optimism, the Vestry has set about the process of preparing to call a new rector.  

    We are guided in this effort by the Bishop and staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.  Below we summarize the search process as delineated by the Diocese and report St. Alban’s progress down that path.  This page will be updated from time to time as developments warrant.

    On behalf of the Vestry, I wish to express our deep appreciation for all who have assisted in preparing for our search, especially those parishioners who took part in the focus groups or completed the survey that informed our Parish Vitality Assessment. It is well worth quoting here a key conclusion from that assessment:  “Strikingly evident throughout the exercise has been the love that participants feel for St. Alban’s and the mutual commitment and affection that exist among so many of our parishioners.  We are indeed a vital parish!” 

    Ted Swett, Senior Warden

    July 13, 2022

     
    The Rector We Seek 

    We seek a spiritual leader who will engage joyfully on personal, spiritual, and intellectual levels with parishioners of different generations, backgrounds, ethnicities, and viewpoints.  A preacher centered in Christ, grounded in scripture, skilled at conveying the relevance of the Gospel to contemporary life, and alive to the beauty of liturgy and the power of sacred music. A collaborative problem-solver, humbly self-confident and experienced in working in teams. One possessing strong executive skills, including those of supervision, delegation, mentoring, and networking.  A mature individual comfortable managing disagreement without escalation. A forward-looking builder able to balance tradition and change while uniting people of differing viewpoints in pursuit of abundant and evolving life in the Spirit.

    Preparations – Status

    Preparations Explained

    St. Alban’s is initiating the search for a new rector while Geoffrey Hoare is still with us, rather than waiting until he departs.  Moreover, we intend to call the new rector without taking the intermediate step of appointing an interim rector or priest-in-charge.  By taking this approach, we hope to maintain momentum in the life of our parish and avoid an inordinately long “gap” period during which the position will remain vacant.    

    We have followed the Diocese’s updated protocol for parishes readying themselves to call a rector.  One basic innovation is that the Vestry, itself, now serves as the search committee, rather than delegating that responsibility to a separate group.  The diocesan Transition Officer, Canon Robert Phillips, met with the Vestry and with the parish at large in February to explain the protocol.  The Vestry then initiated the sequence of internal steps the Diocese requires in preparing to initiate the search formally and publicly.  Those steps have been as follows: 

    1. Financial review. The Vestry submitted detailed information to the Diocese on our finances, along with a draft job description and essential elements of a proposed compensation package for a new rector.  Our financial review culminated in a vestry meeting with Canon Andrew Walter conducted via Zoom on March 9, 2022.  Canon Walter confirmed that St. Alban’s financial condition is strong and that the package of compensation and benefits that we contemplate to attract an experienced priest will be competitive.  
    2. Parish Vitality Assessment. The Parish Vitality Assessment is essentially a self-examination of the church as an aid to discerning what sort of person should lead the parish as a rector going forward. Our assessment began in April in consultation with Canon Anne-Marie Jeffery with the goal of taking parish-wide soundings to inform the Vestry’s sense of our collective identity:  who we are as a parish, what we are doing well, where we should strive to improve, and develop, and what our priorities should be as we enter the next stage of St. Alban’s evolving life.  The vitality assessment drew on three main sources of information:  a series of parish focus groups, supplemented by a written survey; interviews of our rector and associate rectors; and data collected by the staff on a range of subjects.  The focus groups and written survey probed seven “Vital Signs of Parish Health” as delineated by the Diocese.  The “signs” are tools for evaluating the state of the parish in terms of mission and vision, the path of discipleship, financial practices, leadership, welcoming and connecting ministries, worship, and outreach or “blessing our community.” A summary of our findings is posted on St. Alban’s website
    3. Website Review. The diocesan protocol calls for a high-level website review.  The review is not meant to precipitate immediate changes, but rather to evaluate whether the existing site reasonably reflects the parish’s current sense of itself and to identify aspects of the site that may call for updating in due course.  Our review was completed on June 15, 2022.
    4. Parish Profile. The next step was to prepare a parish profile for the database maintained by the Office of Transition Ministry or “OTM” of the national Episcopal Church. This document provides succinct responses to a specific set of questions. It has been accepted by the Diocese and posted on St. Alban’s website.
    5. Diocesan Meeting. On July 5, 2022, the Vestry held a “next steps” meeting with Canon Anne-Marie Jeffery, our diocesan facilitator for the search, along with Associate Rector Jim Quigley. Canon Jeffery reviewed our Parish Vitality Assessment, our Parish Profile, and our job description for the position of rector, complimented St. Alban’s on our preparations, and pronounced us ready to initiate our search publicly.
    6. OTM Posting. On July 11, 2022, the Office of Transition Ministry (OTM) of the Episcopal Church posted our Parish Profile and related information. This posting formally and publicly announces our search for a new rector and invites applications. 

    Conducting the Search

    Applications will be directed to the Wardens and evaluated by the Vestry as a whole.  In addition, the Vestry will engage in informal consultations with friends of the parish, Bishop Budde, and others in the Diocese and beyond.  We will also avail ourselves of means besides the OTM of publicizing the open position, such as the Episcopal News Service and social media. Any parishioner who wishes to call the Vestry’s attention to a particular candidate should contact the wardens at Please do not contact candidates directly.

    Once we have accumulated some promising applications, we will interview selected candidates on a rolling basis. The Vestry will conduct a first round of interviews. The diocesan Transition Officer will then conduct a “red flag” check for potential problems concerning applicants of interest. A second round of interviews for a narrowed field of candidates will follow. We will carry out our own careful inquiries about such persons, and Bishop Budde may consult with the bishops of the candidates’ own dioceses as a further check before the parish makes a call.

    The final candidate will be selected by vote of the Vestry, subject to the approval of the Bishop, and we will then issue a call.  

    Our interview process will include two rounds. Only candidates the vestry deems “finalists” will be invited to a second session. 

    The first round of interviews will take place via Zoom, and the second round in person. A team of five vestry members will conduct the first round, with all other members being asked to participate as observers. Michele Armitage, a very experienced recruiter, will lead the team. The wardens will take part as interviewers in the second round.  

    We will invest up to one hour in each first-round interview.  These will focus on several “core competencies”: (1) a gift for inspiring and relevant preaching, (2) an engaging and uplifting approach to liturgy, worship, and sacred music, (3) the ability to connect and build relationships on a personal level with a wide variety of parishioners, (4) a talent for managing and motivating others working in teams and complex environments, and (5) the ability to support the annual appeal and grow our donor base. 

    It's a “hot market” for priestly talents, but we are pursuing the search with vigor, determination, and faith.  Please watch this space for further updates as our search proceeds and direct any questions to .