A Brief History of St. Stephen's Church

St. Stephen and theIncarnation was founded in 1925 when the Incarnation parish, begun in 1867 at 12th and N Streets NW, merged with St. Stephen's parish, located at 14th and Irving Streets NW and begun in 1892. For it's first 30 years, St. Stephen and the Incarnation was a typical, well-attended, white middle class church: choir, drama society, dances, bridge luncheons, study groups, neighborhood involvement.

As the neighborhood changed, so did St. Stephen's. This was the first integrated Episcopal church in Washington. In the mid-1950s many African-American families joined what had been an all-white congregation; in 1957, 24 African-American children were baptized here.

In 1960, the Rev. William Wendt became rector, and St. Stephen's took on a very different role. Within years, St. Stephen's was active in the civil rights, women's rights and anti-war movements, as well as many local concerns. The church was described in the Washington Post in the late '60s as "one of the few viable political institutions in this politically emasculated Federal city-a militant, hit-the-street-and-demonstrate church." Speakers at St. Stephen's during these years included Gloria Steinem (who on Father's Day in 1972 preached on sexism and racism) and H. Rap Brown (who was refused permission to speak anywhere else in Washington while charged with incitement to riot). When Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain and riots erupted a block away on 14th Street, St. Stephen's was within hours the site for the first requiem eucharist for Dr. King. Paul Moore, then the Suffragan Bishop of Washington, wrote "The church was so full that people coming in could hardly find a place to stand, yet when the prayers began a reverent silence enveloped the congregation, and we could plainly hear the wail of sirens, the sound of gunshots, and the fearsome sound of men running as fast as they could, soles beating on the pavement."

In the early 1970s, St. Stephen's was at the forefront of efforts in the Episcopal Church to allow women to be ordained as priests. In 1974, ten women were irregularly ordained at an Episcopal church in Philadelphia (that is, ordained before the Church gave its OK), and on Sunday, November 10 of that year, the Rev. Alison Cheek-one of the ten-celebrated the eucharist at our altar during the main Sunday service. This is believed to be the first time that a woman priest celebrated the eucharist in a public service in a U.S. Episcopal church. The Washington Post described it like this: "In a service that ranged from solemn prayer to joyous hugs and bursts of spontaneous applause, a woman celebrated holy communion in an Episcopal church here yesterday for the first time in the history of the denomination." Ten months later, four more women were irregularly ordained-at St. Stephen's. Within a few years, the Episcopal Church gave permission for women to be ordained.

In 1968 we began operation of our hot meal program, Loaves and Fishes. Ever since, we have served hot lunches on weekends to people in need of food; today we serve an average of 300 meals every Saturday and Sunday. This is one of the longest-running soup kitchens on the East Coast.

Our work in our neighborhood led us in the early 1980s to form the Samaritan Ministry, which is now a city-wide social service organization supported by dozens of churches. And for over two decades the Washington Free Clinic has operated in our building.

Throughout these years and the decades to follow, St. Stephen's experimented with the liturgy, trying different ways to bring new life to the two-thousand-year-old liturgy of the Church. Innovations begun at St. Stephen's are now the norm for many churches. At one point, parishioners prepared an inclusive-language version of the lectionary (the compendium of Bible readings for the church year) that was used in churches across the country until modern Bible translators published inclusified versions of the Bible.

Today, St. Stephen's is charting new waters in another aspect of church life. We have completed a multi-year exploration of being led by a team of lay people and volunteer clergy, instead of a rector (a priest on staff who is in charge of the parish). In 2004, we hired The Rev. Frank Dunn to be our "senior priest:" to work with our volunteer clergy team, lay leaders, and parishioners to strengthen our community.