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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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Not In This Alone

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06.27.21

Not In This Alone

Not In This Alone

Series: Pentecost

Speaker: The Rev'd Emily Griffin

We’re not in this alone. Is that good news? The Corinthians weren’t so sure. In today’s first reading, we catch part of a fundraising letter to them from Paul. One could question his rhetorical tactics – is it ever right, for example, for one person to test the genuineness of another’s love? - but undergirding all of it is a core conviction: We are all part of the same human family and, in this case, the same body of Christ. Our needs are connected by definition, regardless of distance or differences in language or culture or class. We can talk in terms of an ecosystem if we like, or of what Dr. King called an “inescapable network of mutuality.” Or we could state it more pointedly: No one is inherently more or less important than anyone else in God’s eyes. There is no first class; or maybe there’s only first class. When it comes to compassion and generosity, God at least is equal opportunity.

How can that be anything other than good news? Well, when you’re an overachieving Corinthian Gentile, it means that Paul won’t just praise you for your striving. For a year now, he has been asking the Gentile congregations he founded to support a group of Jewish followers of Jesus in Jerusalem – people they’ve never met and will likely never meet. The Corinthians responded positively at first, but some didn’t fulfill their pledges. Paul knows they’re a competitive bunch; they always want to know who among them is wise, how they can score higher on what they see as the Christianity test. So, Paul tells them how generous the Macedonians have been; they don’t want to be shown up by the Macedonians, do they?

We might wish for Paul not to make comparisons like this, but sometimes they’re necessary. In a culture that constantly tells us we never have enough, we don’t always know what’s generous by looking at our resources alone. Another’s example can stretch our sense of what’s possible. Besides, we’re bound to make the comparisons anyway. All too often, we gauge our giving based on who we think can afford to give more.

To Paul’s credit, he realizes that our definitions of generosity vary widely. While some of us need to be reminded to give with an open mind and a non-anxious heart, others give beyond what’s reasonable to their detriment. To be clear, God does not ask for what we don’t have, and no church worthy of the name should either. Or as Paul puts it, “if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has.” Our abundance in this moment might be exactly what someone else truly needs. And Paul reminds us - seasons of need come to us all. The need may or may not be financial; it might be physical or emotional or social. We might be sick or scared or lonely. It’s a gift in such moments, particularly when we who have been generous have a hard time asking for help, to know that others can and should be there for us too.

The Corinthians aren’t the only ones who struggle with God’s refusal to give extra credit. Some feel that tension in today’s Gospel as well. You see, Jesus has just returned from the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee. Some wondered what he was doing there with “those people” when there were plenty of his “own kind” to heal back home. We don’t know how long Jairus, a local synagogue leader, had been waiting. But as soon as Jesus steps off the boat, Jairus is there – begging for Jesus to come and heal his dying daughter. While on the way, Jesus feels someone touch the hem of his robe. He feels power going forth from him.

He could have just let it go, but he doesn’t. Whomever he just healed is just as important and valuable as the person he’s going to next. A poor, chronically ill woman comes forward. She was considered socially and ritually impure. She couldn’t touch or be touched without making others unclean. By seeking her out, inviting her voice, and making her healing visible and public, Jesus restores her not just to health but to her community. And he rightly names her courage to tell the whole truth what it is - “faith.”

All of this is great, unless you’re Jairus. You have nothing against this woman; you might be glad that Jesus healed her. But she’s not your daughter, and time’s running out. When you hear that your child has died, you have to wonder about Jesus’ ability to triage, to prioritize. In this case, it all turns out; Jesus gets there, awakens the girl to new life, and two daughters are healed that day.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, though, it’s that it doesn’t always work out so neatly. We’ve all seen unresolvable losses, and try as we might, we can’t ultimately isolate ourselves and pretend that the suffering doesn’t touch us. Our needs are connected by definition, and the millions of lives lost this past year – near and far – they diminish us all.

Not all lives are given equal value in our world, of course; but let’s be honest - we’re the ones who do the devaluing, not God. And it’s understandable to a point. While God’s resources might be unlimited, ours are not. We do have to make choices about when and how to be generous. But let’s not pretend for a moment that our criteria match God’s – or that we’re even capable of deciding another person’s value. So, what do we do? We pray, we learn from our mistakes and the wisdom of others, we partner up and pool our efforts, we give generously according to what we have – and by the grace of God, we do more together than we ever could on our own. We are not in this alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.