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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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What the Light Reveals

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02.02.20

What the Light Reveals

What the Light Reveals

Series: Epiphany

Speaker: The Rev'd Emily Griffin

What exactly are we celebrating today? Every six years or so, whenever February 2 falls on a Sunday, we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for the Feast of the Presentation, otherwise known as Candlemas. I know - it’s not a ratings grabber or a money magnet like the Super Bowl; even Groundhog Day gets more press. No one could accuse us of chasing headlines on this one. It’s about as churchy as we can get. But really, why the flashback now? I mean – who wants to hear about a sword piercing Mary’s soul when the baby Jesus is just 6 weeks old? Christmas was only 40 days ago. It feels like a little too much truth for a Sunday morning, when the impeachment hearings have already plunged us into darkness and daylight itself is still a precious commodity. We all know Lent is coming; can’t we keep the shadow of death at bay just a little bit longer?

The more we dig into this feast, the harder it is to know what we’re celebrating. Officially, we are remembering the moment when Mary and Joseph present their infant at the Temple to God. They come for a couple of reasons, neither of which seems immediately relevant. The first is for Mary’s purification. Given that we no longer consider childbirth a matter of ritual impurity requiring animal sacrifice, I think we can move along to the second reason for their visit.

Say what you will about Jesus’ parents; they are following the Jewish law as they understand it. Whatever dreams they may have had for their son, none of them involved his followers starting a new religion. It wasn’t on their horizon. They were trying to raise a nice Jewish boy, and part of that for them meant presenting him to the Lord. Jewish scholars say this wasn’t a universal practice, but we can see where it comes from. Exodus 13 does designate firstborn males as holy to the Lord, and subsequent passages try to work out what that means. In some places, it involved redeeming your son with a nominal fee, symbolically buying him back; in other places, it simply meant an occasion to give thanks for your family line continuing.

Some say Luke, our Gospel writer here, was confused about actual Temple practice or perhaps, like any great storyteller, went for the “good” story over the accurate one. The idea is that Mary and Joseph offer the first fruit of their life together to God, in recognition that that “all things come of Thee, O Lord, and of Thine own have we given thee.” As faithful followers of God, they likely would have done this even if they hadn’t received an angelic heads up beforehand about their son. They knew he was a gift from God, and that he didn’t belong to them (any more than our children belong to us.) Surely that is a worthwhile reminder. Every child regardless of gender is an unspeakable gift from God, and our children, as much as we love them, belong not to us but to God. It’s a hard truth on the days when we want to protect them at all costs, or when we’d like to see a little more return on our investment in them. It can be tempting to act like owners sometimes, but that is not the role God calls us to play. We’re at best caretakers of our children; we’re investing in a future that’s not our own.

But that’s not the only reason we remember today. There is something about this particular child Jesus, something Simeon and Anna see with complete clarity. Anyone who has ever sung Evensong or prayed Compline (again, very churchy activities, I realize) recognizes Simeon’s first words, otherwise known as the Nunc Dimittis: “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised.” In the face of Jesus, we’re told, Simeon sees a Savior, “a light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” 

There’s something about this child; in his light, those who might otherwise fade into the background come center stage. Back in 1st century Palestine, those who weren’t in their prime income producing or childbearing years were given very little weight or value – be it the very young or the very old. They were socially invisible - yet here infants and the elderly are given primacy of place. They’re held up to the light, and they’re honored.

You had to know I’d mention Anna. I can’t let a named woman in the Bible pass me by, much less the only woman in the New Testament explicitly called a prophet. She’s a singular figure in Scripture – a woman who is known neither for her beauty nor her infamy, a widow who is neither a victim nor a recipient of charity, who’s identified not as somebody else’s wife or mother – but for who she is in her own right. She’s known for being faithful, for her prayer life.

As someone who was in the Temple night and day for decades, imagine all she had seen. She knew this community inside and out, it all its beauty and ugliness. She’d lived through more priests than she could count, more false Messiahs than she could name. I don’t know about you, but for me – someone who’s in this worship space a lot, it’s good to know that you can feel like you’ve seen everything and yet, in the face of this child, still see something new.

But what about the rest of us? What’s the good news for the non-churchy among us? Perhaps it’s the reminder that we all belong to God. We’re not owned by our employers or by our family. Nor are we cast adrift by the universe, isolated and alone. When we present ourselves to God in worship, we’re acknowledging what has always been true; that all things come of Thee, O Lord – including us; and of Thine own have we given thee. The point of church, of places of worship like these, isn’t to pretend to a holiness that isn’t there; it’s not to erase or mask who we are. In part, it’s to reveal who we are.

In the light of Christ, it’s true, we see more than might feel manageable on a Sunday morning. We see that tomorrow isn’t promised, that death is real, and that we don’t have unlimited time to make things right.  Simeon wasn’t wrong to say that in Christ, our inner thoughts and fears would be revealed. Nor was he wrong about Mary and the pain she’d risk by loving her son. In loving others, a sword just might pierce our own souls too. Any faith that doesn’t admit that isn’t worth following.

The light does more than just expose our vulnerabilities, though. It can also purify us, if we let it. A refiner’s fire doesn’t sound pleasant, I know, but think about its purpose. It’s to burn away what’s inessential – what doesn’t matter in the end - so that what is essential – what’s most true about us - can remain. In Christ’s light, what is most precious and valuable and beautiful about each one of us as a beloved, irreplaceable child of God has a chance to be seen and honored and, yes, celebrated. In the silence that follows, on this Candlemas, I invite you to sit in the light of Christ for a moment. Feel its warmth, feel its fire, and then carry that light with you when you go. Lord knows, the world needs it; the world needs you. In the Name of the One who gave us light so we could share it, Amen.