St. Thomas' Parish is a community of Christians on a spiritual journey. Our worship provides a pathway towards a deeper understanding of the risen and transforming Christ. Through joyful singing, engaging preaching, prayer and silence, we come together to share in one bread, one body. Wherever you may be along your own faith journey, there is always room at the table for you.
 Our Sunday liturgies differ in style. The 9:00 a.m. Eucharist is read with instrumental music and a single hymn. At the 11:00 a.m. Eucharist, psalms, hymns and service music are sung, and choral anthems are provided by the St. Thomas' Choir. On the third Sunday of the month, spiritual healing is offered at both services. A Taize prayer service with Eucharist is held every Sunday at 5 p.m. and offers a contemplative liturgy, often accompanied by recorder and cello. Inclusive language is used.
Worship services at St. Thomas' are marked by clarity, simplicity, and care. One parishioner described our worship as "consistent, beautiful, flowing naturally, and comforting, timeless, and something constant in our lives." The language of The Book of Common Prayer and a high respect for thoughtful and well executed liturgy are treasured here. In the gardens, the altar ruins are a favorite focal point for special services, especially for Palm Sunday, the Easter Vigil, the Blessing of Animals and Gay Pride.
Childcare service is available in the Church nursery for infants and toddlers during the 11:00 service.
» Read our Sunday order of service
» View photos of worship at St. Thomas'
Saint Thomas' Choir
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: 'The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.
- Kurt Vonnegut
St. Thomas' Parish has maintained a choir of the highest standards through good times and bad, through the loss of a gothic edifice to fire and the subsequent move to "the Upper Room", through the civil unrest of the 1960s and liturgical renewal of the 1970s, and now through a period of dramatic growth and rebirth. Both professional and volunteer members rehearse weekly, perfecting a wide variety of works drawn from the output of composers of all periods. While the library may focus on staples of the Anglican choral tradition, changing demographics and a general evolution of the congregation call for an increasingly open and diverse program. Tallis and Taverner motets are sung alongside African-American spirituals, Taize chants and newly-composed pieces. Choral music at St. Thomas' reflects the weekly propers and acts as food for the soul.
» View St. Thomas' Choral Music Schedule
Covenanting of Same-Sex Unions
In the fall of 1995 the Vestry of St. Thomas' began process of study and discernment on marriage and the covenanting of same-sex unions. The process involved an increasing number of members of the congregation, resulting in a resolution at our March 1998 Annual Meeting expressing enthusiastic support for the Vestry's efforts in development of a liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions.
Then Bishop of Washington, the Rt. Rev. Ronald Haines, asked that the parish document the process used and the theological understanding of scripture, tradition and reason that had led to the design of the liturgy. That understanding and the resulting liturgy was distributed to the parish in a report entitled, "Report on Marriage and the Covenanting of Same-Sex Unions".
The liturgy has been used in our parish and not only remains the standard for same-sex union liturgies at St. Thomas', but has served as a model for covenant liturgies developed in other parts of the Episcopal Church (e.g., that drafted at the diocesan level for the Diocese of Vermont).
» Read the Report on the Convenanting of Same-Sex Unions
» Episcopal Diocese of Washington article about developing the Rite
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