The Church Nearest the Capitol
Lutheran Church of the Reformation sits at 212 East Capitol Street NE, one and a half blocks east of the United States Capitol and just behind the Supreme Court. It is the closest church of any faith to either building, a location that has shaped its identity for more than a century and a half. Set in the heart of Capitol Hill, the church is a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a Reconciling in Christ community since 1987. Members and visitors arrive from across Washington, the region, and the country, drawn by a sanctuary that holds several hundred worshipers, a choir with an international reputation, and a wide circle of work serving the neighborhood and the world.
The building itself is an Art Deco landmark constructed in 1934 after the congregation's previous home was taken for the Adams Building of the Library of Congress. From the outside it reads as a house of worship designed for the public square, with proportions that echo the cultural and governmental institutions nearby. Inside, the sanctuary can seat 450, and a series of smaller rooms, a parish hall, and an elevator-served lower level make it possible to host everything from Sunday school classes to neighborhood Boy Scouts, AA meetings, and Capitol Hill birthday parties.
A Congregation Born After the Civil War
Reformation was formed as a congregation in 1869, in the years just after the Civil War. Many of the new arrivals on Capitol Hill at the end of the war had come to Washington to find work, to rebuild their lives, or to take part in the business of a nation still remaking itself. The neighborhood was a mix of African Americans, Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, and others, and Frederick Douglass's first DC home stood just three blocks from the church's original location. The congregation was chartered as "Church of the Reformation (Lutheran)" to signal its place within the broader Protestant, English-speaking church and to push back against the denominational divisions of the day.
By the 1930s the Capitol Hill landscape was changing again. Congress needed the block where the congregation's building stood, and the congregation moved to its current site on East Capitol. The new building was finished in 1934. During and after the war, Reformation members served in the armed forces, intelligence, diplomacy, and federal civilian life in great numbers. Over 300 men and women from the church were active in those years. Choir recordings were broadcast, services were televised, and the congregation became a regional church as members moved out to the new suburbs of Maryland and Northern Virginia. In the 1960s and 1970s the church opened its doors to organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice and to the American Agriculture Movement's Tractorcade.
That civic posture continues today. Members serve on Capitol Hill, in federal agencies, in nonprofits, and in international organizations. The building is shared with groups that lobby Congress, with musical ensembles that need rehearsal rooms, and with neighbors who use the space for gatherings large and small.
Lutheran Faith, Lutheran Liturgy
Reformation is at its heart a liturgical congregation. Worship follows a form that is rooted in the historic church, with a lectionary shared by Christians around the world, congregational participation, stained glass, processions, vestments, and Holy Communion celebrated every Sunday. As a Lutheran congregation it belongs to the Evangelical, Catholic, Ecumenical, and Reforming stream of the Christian tradition, four words that shape the congregation's self-understanding.
Members learn the faith through the church's Lutheranism 101 teaching, which centers on justification by grace through faith: the conviction that nothing we do earns God's love, that everything begins with God's initiative, and that our service and good works are the response to grace received in baptism. The Bible is read through the lens of the gospel, the good news of forgiveness, freedom, and new life in Christ. The church is part of a wider unity that includes full communion partners such as the Moravian Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the Episcopal Church, and the congregation takes seriously dialogue with Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Mennonites, African Methodist Episcopal Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
Two theological commitments have marked the congregation for decades. The first is the ordination of women: women have served as pastors and bishops in the ELCA for a generation. The second is the full welcome of LGBTQ Lutherans. Reformation has been a Reconciling in Christ congregation since 1987, among the earliest in the country, and remains active in the work of ReconcilingWorks.
Sunday Mornings on East Capitol
From early September through May, two Sunday services fill the sanctuary. At 8:30 a.m. a smaller group gathers for a service led from the organ with a singer. At 11:00 a.m. the full congregation gathers, with the Reformation Choir, frequently more than one hundred worshipers, and a livestream that reaches the congregation online. Both services include Holy Communion, and both are participatory, drawing lay leaders from the pews to assist.
From June through Labor Day Weekend, the schedule shifts to a single 10:00 a.m. service that gathers the whole congregation together.
Between the two fall-through-spring services, Sunday Morning Education runs from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. for children, youth and adults, with confirmation classes meeting alongside the other groups.
Fellowship is part of the rhythm. Coffee, snacks, and conversation follow each service. In summer the congregation spills onto the front lawn; in the rest of the year the early service gathers in the Blue Room and the late service moves between the Parish Hall and the front walk.
Children are always welcome in the sanctuary. The Blue Room, at the rear left of the sanctuary, is wired with sound for caregivers and restless children. For children four and younger, a staffed nursery opens at 8:15 a.m. and runs through 12:15 p.m. from September to May on the lower level of the St. John's Building.
The Music of Reformation
Music at Reformation has been a centerpiece of the congregation since the middle of the twentieth century. The Reformation Choir rehearses on Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. from September to June, singing an eclectic repertoire that moves from Renaissance and Baroque to Russian liturgical music, African American spirituals, and contemporary works. The choir has performed at the National Gallery of Art, recorded for RCA Victor with conductor Richard Bales, and traveled internationally to Germany, England, France, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Lithuania, where it appeared with the Lithuanian National Ballet and Opera Orchestra under Robertas Šervenikas. In October 2015 the choir sang at the Berliner Dom to mark the 25th anniversary of German Reunification and gave an a cappella concert at the Marienkirche on the Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
Music Director John Chappell Stowe is Emeritus Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music and a former national vice-president of the American Guild of Organists. Music Director Linda Morgan Stowe spent more than two decades in Episcopal school music education, including positions at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland, and has served on staff with the Royal School of Church Music in summer residencies. Accompanist Neev Heneghan is a senior at Chantilly High School whose performances include Carnegie Hall and Capital One Hall.
The choir has played the central role in the premieres and first recordings of composer Paul Leavitt's major works for chorus and orchestra, and the congregation commissioned Leavitt to write the Cantata Emmanuel in honor of the 140th anniversary of the church's founding. Children who are free have their own place in the music program: the Children's Choir rehearses Sundays at 9:45 a.m. and sings at the 11:00 a.m. service throughout the year.
Children, Youth, and Families
Reformation describes itself as a church that loves families, whether that means an infant dozing in the pew, a child helping bag groceries for the food pantry, or a teenager playing ping pong in the youth room. Sunday School for kindergarten through sixth grade meets at 10:15 a.m. in the Children's Chapel, using a curriculum whose texts match those heard in worship so that children and adults are studying the same scriptures in parallel. Frolic Ministry, for ages four and under, meets once a month at the same hour in a relaxed setting that includes songs, a Bible story, a simple craft, and a snack.
Confirmation at Reformation is a two-year program for seventh and eighth graders that meets Sunday mornings at 9:45 a.m. and gathers through the year for service, fellowship, and a retreat. The DC Youth Group brings together ninth through twelfth graders from Reformation, Augustana Lutheran Church, and St. Paul Lutheran Church for monthly fellowship and learning September through May, plus a summer trip. Teen activities also include meeting with Young Adult mentors and exploring the city together.
For parents, the church has been a built-in substitute for the extended family that many Washington transplants leave behind. Young families have camped together; Reformation Moms have organized an annual Capitol Hill house tour each May; confirmation families share a meal together the night before Confirmation Sunday.
Small Groups and Faith Formation
Small group life at Reformation ranges from weekly Bible study to monthly potlucks and seasonal gatherings. The Young Adult Bible Study meets Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the church, working through seasonal themes that have included book reading, sermon discussion, and shared podcasts. A separate Young Adults group meets about once a month in the evening for food and fellowship and plans quarterly larger events for those with non-traditional work schedules.
Contemplation and the Gospel meets Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., both in person and online, engaging scripture, conversation, and silence through practices like Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina. The Reformation Reads Book Club meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month in a hybrid format and reads across non-fiction and fiction. The LGBTQ and Allies small group gathers throughout the year for potluck dinners and walks together in the Capital Pride Parade each June. Baseball Lunch, one of the church's longest running small groups, gathers throughout the baseball season to talk about the Nationals and other favorite teams.
Thirty Years at the Food Pantry
The Reformation Emergency Food Pantry has been in continuous operation for more than thirty years, providing pre-packaged bags of non-perishable food to Capitol Hill neighbors and others in need. Each bag is sized to sustain a family of four for two days while more permanent connections toward food security are made. The standard bag typically holds green beans, corn, fruit cocktail, tuna, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce, saltines, ramen, oatmeal, toothpaste, and dish soap.
The pantry is open Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed on federal holidays, Easter Monday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and December 26 through 31. Visitors are asked to bring a government-issued ID. Members of the congregation volunteer to keep the shelves stocked and the bags assembled, and many children help after the late service each week. Donations and volunteer inquiries are welcome year-round.
Caring Ministries and the Wider Community
The Caring Ministries team carries much of the quiet work of the congregation. Members cook casseroles for new parents, deliver soup to those who have lost a spouse, and write cards to people who cannot make it to church. A Cards of Caring table in the chapel supplies cards, pens, envelopes, and a current prayer list for anyone who wants to drop a note in the mailbox for mailing by the church office. Visitors and volunteers are welcome to join the team at any time.
Reformation's work in the wider community runs through a network of long-standing partnerships. The Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) is the congregation's chief partner in civic work; since 2013 Reformation has been part of WIN's organizing efforts, with a special focus on the treatment of residents at DC General and the broader housing crisis in the District. The Good Neighbors Refugee Resettlement Team, started by Reformation during Advent 2016, now joins with eight Capitol Hill congregations working with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area to support refugees. The team has helped resettle 112 families, mostly from Afghanistan and recommended by US military officers for Special Immigrant Visas.
Other partnerships include Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington, a faith-based community partnership empowering returning citizens and others experiencing homelessness and unemployment; Everyone Home DC; Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service; Lutheran Social Services; Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries; the Association of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the ELCA; the Association of American Indians and Alaska Natives of the ELCA; and the Sixty6th Synod.
A Global Congregation
Reformation's reach extends well beyond Washington. Through the ELCA and the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 144 churches representing more than 72 million Christians in 98 countries, the congregation is connected to Lutheran communities on every continent. Reformation has direct partnerships with companion churches in El Salvador, Namibia, Palestine, and Israel, and works with Lutheran World Relief on global humanitarian response.
The ELCA itself has roughly 4 million members across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton serves as the ELCA presiding bishop. Reformation is part of the Metro DC Synod, sometimes referenced locally as the Sixty6th Synod, and partners with that regional body on shared ministry including the Capital Pride Parade and Festival.
Worship Online
The 11:00 a.m. Sunday service is available online via livestream on the congregation's YouTube channel, with streaming expanding to Facebook. Bulletins and hymn packets for each Sunday are posted in advance so that those joining from home can follow along, and sermon notes are made available for confirmands and others.
Baptism and Membership
Baptism at Reformation is celebrated at any age, from infancy through adulthood, and is normally done during a worship service by one of the pastors. The congregation asks that families receiving the baptism of an infant also join the congregation, and that adults being baptized become members, so that the church can walk alongside the newly baptized in their ongoing faith development.
Membership at Reformation is intentionally a low bar. Adults who would like to become part of the community typically attend an information session and sometimes a simple meal, with new member orientations held two or three times a year. New members are officially welcomed at a Sunday worship service, and those considering membership are invited to email the church office to be put in touch with a pastor.
A Welcoming Community
Reformation has been a Reconciling in Christ congregation since 1987, one of the earliest ELCA communities to make that commitment, and remains active in the work of ReconcilingWorks. The congregation welcomes and supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Christians and their families in every aspect of church life and leadership. Each June the congregation partners with the Metro DC Synod to march in the Capital Pride Parade and table at the Capital Pride Festival, hosts a screening of LGBTQ-themed films such as 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted a Culture, hosts an annual community crab boil, and marks RIC Sunday with a special worship service.
The congregation's welcome extends across other lines of difference as well. The Holy Spirit, the congregation teaches, bridges gaps and breaks down dividing walls of race and class. Reformation celebrates human cultures and supports the work of racial and economic justice in its neighborhood and beyond.
Getting to Reformation
Reformation sits at 212 East Capitol Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20003. On Sundays, parking meters are not in effect and street parking is free. Monday through Saturday, East Capitol meters allow two hours of parking, and the same is true on surrounding side streets. On evenings and weekends, the Supreme Court parking lot at 3rd and A Street NE is open to the public. The church maintains a small lot for eight vehicles reserved for those with limited mobility, staff, and deliveries, with the entrance at Terrace Court and A Street NE.
By Metro, the closest station is Capitol South on the Blue and Orange lines, about a four-block walk. Union Station on the Red Line is roughly three-quarters of a mile away, about a fifteen-minute walk. Metro buses 32, 34, and 36 and the Circulator stop two blocks south at Independence Avenue and 2nd Street SE, and the Circulator also stops one block west at Maryland Avenue and 1st Street NE in front of the Supreme Court. The 97 rush hour bus stops on East Capitol on the church's block on weekday mornings and evenings.
The sanctuary and downstairs Parish Hall are accessible by elevator off the parking lot. Greeters are happy to help anyone unfamiliar with the building find the elevator and the rooms they need.
The Building and Its Many Uses
Beyond worship, Reformation shares its building widely with the Capitol Hill neighborhood. The Sanctuary, seating 450, hosts concerts, panel discussions, and town-hall-style gatherings. The Parish Hall, the most flexible space, can hold roughly 160 people seated and gives access to a kitchen for self-catered or professionally catered occasions. The Blue Room seats 25 and works well for receptions and small gatherings. The Shalom Room can be set up for panels or small group discussions and seats about 40. The Chapel, seating about 15, provides a quiet space on the sanctuary level. The Library seats about 10 and works well for board meetings. The Fireside Room is set up with couches and chairs around coffee tables, and both it and the Library can serve as luggage storage. The Nursery is used during the week by a playschool co-op and on Sundays by the youngest members of the congregation; the room is kept nut-free because of severe allergy risks.
Reformation hosts the Capitol Hill Chorale and DC Different Drummers for regular rehearsals, along with community Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, AA groups, small yoga and meditation classes, and Capitol Hill families celebrating birthdays. Weddings at Reformation are reserved for members and friends of the congregation.
Becoming Part of Reformation
Visitors are warmly welcomed at worship on Sunday mornings, both in person and online. Those exploring membership are invited to fill out a newcomer card online or speak with a pastor about baptism, membership, or simply getting to know the congregation. The church's Weekly Word e-newsletter arrives in inboxes each Thursday with news of upcoming worship, volunteer opportunities, and events. Volunteer roles on Sunday mornings include worship reader and assisting minister, fellowship hour host, greeter and usher, altar guild, choir and instrumental music, livestream team, online host, Sunday School teacher, and altar flower donor.
Giving is welcome online through the congregation's secure giving portal, by automatic bank transfer through the Simply Giving program, by stock or planned gift through the ELCA Foundation or Thrivent Charitable Impact and Investing, or simply by cash or check in the offering plate.
Whether one arrives from a townhouse on Capitol Hill, a federal office building a few blocks away, or a distant city drawn by the choir, the liturgy, or the welcome, the door on East Capitol opens into a community that has been at the heart of this neighborhood since 1869 and in its present building since 1934.