The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour sits at 1700 Powder Mill Road, on the edge of the Hillandale neighborhood in Silver Spring, Maryland, where a tall cross tops the bell tower and the parish's welcome - "a home for all of God's people" - is lived out in a congregation that gathers each Sunday in both English and Spanish.
A Mission Born of a Growing Region
The congregation traces its beginnings to 1956, when the Rev. Harwood Bowman, then rector of the Church of Our Saviour in Brookland in Northeast Washington, called for the construction of a new Episcopal mission in Montgomery County. Bowman chose the Hillandale site knowing that the Capital Beltway would pass nearby, and he wanted a place that would welcome people "from all over" rather than serve a defined parish boundary.
The mission first met in the Hillandale firehouse, then moved to the undercroft of a new building still under construction. On February 2, 1964, 614 people crowded into the church for its dedication. Our Saviour-Hillandale and Our Saviour-Brookland operated as one parish until that year, when the Vestry voted to separate the congregations. In 1966 the Diocese of Washington received Our Saviour, Hillandale as a full and separate congregation.
Five rectors have served the parish. The Rev. Harwood C. Bowman retired in December 1984 after nearly thirty years. The Rev. John F. Koepke, III served from 1986 to 1997. The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton served from 1996 until 2004, when he became Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, Connecticut. The Rev. Robert Harvey served from 2006 to 2016. The current rector, The Rev. Francisco Valle, was installed in a bilingual service and now leads the parish with his wife, Lourdes Orellana, and their three children.
Some members have worshipped at Our Saviour from those early days, most of them at the 8:00 AM service, and they hold stories that even dispel the long-standing mystery of the church bell. Theirs is a parish where first names and faith are still shared over coffee.
Sunday Worship in Three Gatherings
Sunday worship is centered on the Eucharist, with three services drawing an average attendance of about 375. The 8:00 AM service is Holy Eucharist, Rite II, with the smaller crowd that includes many of the long-attending members. The 10:00 AM service is also Holy Eucharist, Rite II, and is the largest gathering of the morning. A 1:00 PM Misa en Español is the weekly Spanish-language service.
Because members have grown up with many different styles of Anglican worship, the parish does not fit neatly into "high" or "low." Incense and sanctus bells appear at festival Eucharists. Children join their parents at the Peace, and many baptized children receive Holy Communion. On the last Sunday of every month, the children gather for a children's sermon, and on Youth Sunday the young people of the parish gather around the altar in the Sanctuary for the Holy Mass, with those at the front of the church being the first to receive Communion.
The acolytes lead the priests from the Sanctuary to the center aisle of the Nave for the reading of the Holy Gospel, bringing the Word of the Lord into the midst of the people. At the 10:00 AM service, the Collect - the opening prayer of the day - is often prayed in English and then again in another language represented by members of the congregation, a small but steady witness to the parish's cultural diversity.
After each service, the community gathers for Coffee Hour, with food, beverages, and conversation in the Undercroft or the conference room. After the 10:00 AM service the gathering expands: hosts have been known to serve anything from donuts and bagels to full three-course meals, and a 120-inch projection screen paired with a 7.2 surround-sound system makes the room a place for both gospel music and the occasional game or film. Four teams take turns hosting: Team Red Rose on the first Sunday, Team Green House on the second, Team Yellow Mellow on the third, and Team Purple Bunch on the fourth.
The Clergy
The Rev. Francisco Valle serves as Rector. Born and raised in El Salvador, he attended the José Simeón Cañas National Institute and earned an Associate Degree in Social and Human Sciences. He was admitted in 1990 to the Roman Catholic Regional Seminary "San José de la Montaña" in San Salvador, where he studied Philosophy for three years before going on to earn a Master of Divinity in 1996. In August 1997 he was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zacatecoluca in La Paz, El Salvador, and was appointed rector of Saint Peter the Apostle Church in San Pedro Masahuat and of the Clara Luna de Samayoa Parochial School. In 2001 he was called to serve as a missionary priest for the pastoral care of migrant workers and their families in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. In 2014, after years of prayerful discernment, he was received as an Episcopal priest for the Diocese of Washington. He and his wife, Lourdes Orellana, are the parents of three children.
The Rev. Adela Vasquez serves as Assistant Priest. Originally from the department of Cuscatlán in El Salvador, she immigrated to the United States in 1992 and was received into the Episcopal Church in 2010 at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. As a lay leader she served as Eucharistic Minister, catechist, lector, and a visitor of the sick. She was ordained a deacon by Bishop Mariann E. Budde at the Washington National Cathedral, and now serves Our Saviour in Hillandale alongside the rector. She and her husband, Francisco Vasquez, have two children, Jesse and Zenaida.
Christian Formation for Every Age
Christian formation at Our Saviour is built around the 10:00 AM service. Children's Sunday school meets each Sunday during the service, with adult volunteers always welcome to teach and assist. Spanish-language Sunday school meets at 11:30 AM, between the English service and the Spanish service. On the last Sunday of the month, a children's sermon invites the younger members of the congregation to listen closely before joining their families at the altar.
The parish also hosts a chapter of the international Mothers' Union, a Christian organization founded in 1876 in the United Kingdom by Mary Elizabeth Sumner, wife of the then Rector of Winchester Cathedral, and now grown to more than four million members in eighty-four countries. The Mothers' Union at Our Saviour was created on April 29, 2001, under the leadership of the Rev. Mark Pendleton, and meets on the second Saturday of each month. Its work here includes supporting the parish's youth, food pantry, and Soup Kitchen, as well as feeding homeless shelters for women and supporting centers for teenage mothers. Membership is open to all baptized Christians - single, married, parents, grandparents, young adults, and men - and the local branch is led by Tinny Kenny-Panda.
Healing prayer is offered each Sunday during Communion at the 10:00 AM service. Members of the Healing Prayer Ministry - Ella Robinson, Emerica Williams, Adrian Maynard, and Victor Robinson - meet in the Chapel to pray with anyone who wishes prayers for healing or other life events. The Healing Prayer ministers are part of a long pastoral care tradition that includes hospital visits, home visits, and confidential conversations with the clergy.
Music at the Heart of Worship
Music is one of the most visible threads running through the parish. The Chancel Choir of Our Saviour sings every Sunday during the 10:00 AM service, except for its August hiatus, and adds its voice to other special services throughout the program year. Rehearsals take place on Thursday evenings at 7:30 PM and Sunday mornings at 9:15 AM. The choir is all-volunteer except for the director, and new members are always welcome.
At the 10:00 AM service the choir is accompanied by the organ or a baby grand piano under the direction of organist and choir director Bruce Cole. At the 1:00 PM Spanish-language service the music takes on a distinctive Latino flavor, with guitar and percussion, and the singing is hearty and vibrant. The contrast between the two services is one of the quiet joys of the parish week.
Soup to Go, the Food Pantry, and Samaritan Ministry
Outreach at Our Saviour is woven into the parish's identity. The Soup to Go ministry, founded in November 2015 by Olivette Guy-Williams, began modestly: six hot meals a week, prepared on Thursday mornings and delivered on foot to people living under the Capital Beltway. Volunteers today prepare as many as one hundred meals every Thursday, and during the warmer months the program is renamed "Sandwiches to Go." Latino congregants under the leadership of the rector now make up a significant part of the volunteer cadre, and even the youth from the Spanish service pitch in. Anyone wishing to participate can simply show up at the church at 10:00 AM on Thursdays.
The parish Food Pantry is another long-running outreach. Congregants pick up extra items as they do their own grocery shopping, and the shelves are stocked for anyone in need who walks in. Patrons may take two items from each specialized shelf - vegetables, meats, cereal, juices, and more - no questions asked.
Since November 2015 the parish has also hosted the Silver Spring satellite office of Samaritan Ministry, a faith-based consortium of twelve Episcopal churches in the Washington metropolitan area that provides one-on-one coaching for people living on the edge of poverty and homelessness. The office is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Caseworkers and volunteers help participants set manageable goals and take next steps toward stable housing and employment, with help in resume writing, one-on-one computer mentoring, job readiness coaching, and financial management. The program is open to anyone ready to take "next steps," regardless of income or place of residence. The coordinator at Our Saviour is Kathy Staudt, and the parish was recognized as the year's Outstanding Partner Church at Samaritan Ministry's gala.
The parish also partners with the Colesville Council of Community Congregations (C-4) on its annual Christmas toy drive, and with the African and Caribbean Immigration and Social Services Inc. (ACISS), which offers counsel to immigrants during regular business hours from Tuesday through Friday. Alcoholics Anonymous meets at the church facilities five days a week, and Overeaters Anonymous meets one day a week. School supply drives have reached children at the Langley Park McCormick Elementary School in Prince George's County, with the Women's Auxiliary packing reusable bags of sharpeners, erasers, markers, pencil cases, pencils, rulers, scissors, white boards, and hand sanitizer wipes that are presented at the altar and then delivered to the school.
The Men's Organization and the Women's Auxiliary
The COS Men's Organization, re-established in 2015, is a semi-autonomous group open to all male members of the church over the age of eighteen, with affiliate membership available to non-members. The organization has become a key fundraiser for the parish, hosting an Annual Thanksgiving Service on the second Sunday of September and an annual Super Bowl Viewing Party in partnership with the COS Women's Auxiliary. The group has renovated the Undercroft, installed a 7.2 surround-sound theatre system, repaired the entry doors, and built a new playground that was completed in January 2020.
The COS Women's Auxiliary, a community of women over the age of eighteen organized to foster camaraderie and service, holds regular meetings on the third Sunday of each month at 12:30 PM in the Undercroft. The group's work ranges from supporting parish ministries to reaching out to the wider community, including the school package drive for Langley Park McCormick Elementary School and an annual dinner-dance that brings members together for fellowship and fundraising.
The Building and the Undercroft
The edifice of Our Saviour is often described as beautiful, magnificent, or even majestic. From any direction the cross on the steeple is visible above manicured lawns, flower gardens, decorative shrubbery, and shade trees that give way to an adequate parking lot with handicap-accessible spaces. Inside, three levels make the building unusually flexible.
The main level houses the Nave and Sanctuary, overlooked by a balcony, along with offices and a conference room. The Sanctuary holds the altar and seating for additional clergy and the choir; a smaller Chapel on the same level hosts smaller services, prayer sessions, and overflow seating on extra-crowded occasions. The upper level is given over to multi-purpose rooms of various sizes, and the lower level - the Undercroft - contains more multi-purpose rooms, a commercial kitchen, and a spacious hall. Restrooms are on every level.
The Undercroft is the parish's most adaptable space. Equipped with a high-fidelity public address system, both wired and cordless microphones, a 1080p ceiling-mounted digital projector, a 120-inch retractable screen, HD cable service, high-speed broadband WiFi, a 7.2 surround-sound theatre system, and a fully furnished stainless-steel commercial kitchen, it is regularly rented for parties, receptions, and community organization meetings, and is also used for seminars, small meetings, and conventions. On Sunday mornings the Undercroft even becomes a worship home for another congregation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian faith.
A playground was added in January 2020 after a groundbreaking ceremony the previous November. With the help of the COS Women's Auxiliary and members of the general congregation, the COS Men's Organization saw a long-standing vision come to life. The ribbon was cut on a sunny Sunday in late February, and children have been making use of it ever since.
Governance and the Wider Church
The Church of Our Saviour is governed by the Rector, the Wardens, and a Vestry of twelve members. Four members are elected each year at the annual parish meeting for three-year terms, alongside the People's Warden and a Diocesan Delegate. The Rector's Warden has financial responsibility for the parish and works with the Rector on administrative matters, while the People's Warden has responsibility for the facility and its use and, with the Rector, for the program ministries of the parish. Three standing committees report to the Vestry each month: Finance, Stewardship, and Buildings and Grounds.
The parish is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, led by the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the ninth Bishop of Washington, who was consecrated after serving eighteen years as rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. The Diocese of Washington has more than 41,000 members in 98 congregations in Washington, D.C., and in Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles, and St. Mary's counties in Maryland. The parishes range from tiny rural churches to large urban parishes, and their people come from many nations and cultures.
A Parish Open to Its Neighborhood
The members of Our Saviour, Hillandale live out their identity as "a home for all of God's people." A bilingual installation service for a rector who came to Silver Spring from El Salvador. A choir that sings in English on Sunday morning and accompanies Spanish-language worship with guitar and percussion a few hours later. A playground where children gather after the 10:00 AM service, and an Undercroft where the same space hosts a Soup to Go brigade on Thursday and a worship service for an Ethiopian Orthodox congregation on Sunday. A food pantry open to anyone who walks in, a satellite office for one of the region's oldest faith-based programs for the homeless and those in poverty, and a parish that asks its members to give what they have in time, talent, and treasure.
It is, in the end, an ordinary Episcopal parish with the look of a cross on every horizon and the habit of hospitality that suits a congregation which has been welcoming people "from all over" since the days of the Hillandale firehouse.