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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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Becoming Human

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12.24.16

Becoming Human

Becoming Human

Series: Christmas

Speaker: The Rev'd Jim Quigley

Good evening!  On behalf of the people of St. Alban’s Church and in the name of God we thank you for being here with us on this Holy Night, this night with a Godly cause: that we may see the light of God shining on the earth, that we might see Jesus, Emmanuel – God With Us – and that each of us leaving here might shine in this world with a new light in our hearts…  that like Luke’s shepherds we might leave this place glorifying and praising God for all that we have heard and seen, as it has been told us. 

What we have been told tonight is that in “those days” a decree went out from the Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  That Joseph went from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem.  That Joseph was with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.  That while they were there the time came for her to deliver the child.  And that Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and that they wrapped the child in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.   

We’ve been told that there were shepherds in the fields in that region, keeping watch over their flocks by night.  That the shepherds were terrified by the presence of an angel and the glory of the Lord shining around them but that were told to take heart because in the midst of their fear God was bringing good news for all the people, and that to them that day was born in the city of David a savior – the messiah.  That if they looked, they’d find their salvation and they’d know their savior because he’d be wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.  And so they went in search of their salvation, and found their savior just as had been promised.  When they found that salvation they rejoiced, and they made known what they had seen.  We’re told that amongst that rejoicing Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.  

Before we rejoice this Christmas, with Mary let’s treasure these words and ponder them in our hearts.  Not with our heads, mind you, but with our hearts.  If we ponder the Christmas story with our heads rather than our hearts we’ll just end up scratching them.  But if we ponder the Christmas story of the Gospels with our hearts then a world of possibility opens itself to us.  That world of possibility is what the church proclaims to us tonight… that tonight unto this world a savior is born, and that this birth brings with it the possibility and promise of our salvation. 

At heart, the Christmas story proclaims one very simple message.  The heart of the Christmas story is that when the Virgin Mary gave birth to the baby Jesus, God became human.  That’s really it… nothing more, and nothing less.  In becoming Jesus, God became human.  As a matter of the heart, and in order to save us... God became human.  In order to heal us… God became human.  In order to grant us eternal life… God became human.  In order to love us… God became human.  The Shepherds rejoiced because… God became human.  On this most holy night we rejoice because… God became human.  That’s what’s been told to us tonight.  That’s the Christmas story.  

It’s funny that sometimes when we fall short as people we say, “Forgive me, I’m only human.”  But falling short isn’t being human it’s being inhuman.  As defined, someone who is inhuman lacks qualities of compassion and mercy.  In the fourth century a theologian named Athanasius wrote that:  “God became human so that human beings could become more like God.”  In the light of our Christmas story we might rather say that God became human not so we could become more like God but so that we might become a little more human.  In that light we’d say, “Forgive us, we’re still becoming human!”  More compassionate, more loving, more giving, more forgiving... more human.  

There’s a story that on Christmas Eve in 1914 Allied soldiers and German soldiers wandered out into “No Man’s Land” for an impromptu ceasefire, singing “Stille Nacht/Silent Night” together.  The next day the fighting resumed but on that holy night they became human, a glimpse of what each of us in Christ and on Christmas are called to become, and to do.  To break ranks with the economic, social, political or religious allegiances that divide us.  Christmas is a reminder of the possibility of that kind of human transformation.  In becoming human God has shown us the light and the pathway to our salvation and for that matter the salvation of this world – being fully connected to God and being fully connected to one another… being fully human. 

The Shepherds left the manger in “those days” praising and glorifying God for all that they had heard and seen.  At St. Alban’s Church we hope to praise and glorify God not just at Christmas but each and every week of the year.  We praise and glorify God when we offer lunches and educational programs for our poor, lonely and elderly neighbors every weekday with Iona services.  We praise and glorify God when we prepare casseroles So (that) Others Might Eat.  We praise and glorify God by feeding the hungry on the Grate Patrol.  We praise and glorify God when we use the income from our Opportunity Shop to help “the least of these” in our midst.  We praise and glorify God when within this body of Christ we forgive one another for… being inhuman as we sometimes are.  We will praise and glorify God again tomorrow when we welcome our neighbors for whom there is no room in the inn on Christmas day and serve them a delicious Christmas dinner in love.   On this holy night we invite you as the Church to join us in striving to become more human.  

Howard Thurman wrote “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins:  To find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bing peace among people, to make music in the heart.”  May each of us treasure the Christmas story as it has been told to us, and ponder its Truth our hearts.  Open your heart to the story of Christmas, a story that invites each of us to become more human.  And let the invitation to become more human, in the light of the Gospel, be for each of us an invitation to know our savior and realize where our salvation lays. 

Amen, and Merry Christmas!