Saint Alban's Episcopal Church stands at the corner of Camden and Magnolia Avenues in El Cajon, just south of downtown and a short walk from the public library. The small white parish at 490 Farragut Circle has made a name for itself well beyond its residential neighborhood through its Refugee Food Pantry, its bilingual Arabic-English Eucharist, and its Welcome Ministry to people experiencing homelessness, an outreach that is now recognized as a model program within the Diocese of San Diego. On any given Sunday morning at nine, a visitor will find a congregation gathering for a traditional Episcopal liturgy led by The Reverend Dr. Richard Vevia, Jr., the Priest-in-Charge, alongside people who arrived at Saint Alban's from a wide variety of Christian backgrounds and from no background at all. The parish describes its mission, in the words of the Book of Common Prayer's catechism, as working to "restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."
Sundays at nine: worship and the livestream
The Sunday service at Saint Alban's begins at 9:00 am and is held in person at the parish church. The service is also livestreamed on the church's Facebook page, so family members, friends, and anyone unable to attend in person can worship along from wherever they are. The livestream is available at facebook.com/StAlbansElCajon.
The worship follows the Episcopal Church's historic liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer, the prayer book the parish holds as "the primary symbol of our unity." Services include readings from Holy Scripture, a sermon, prayers, music, and the celebration of Holy Communion, also called the Eucharist or the Great Thanksgiving. All who have been baptized are welcome to receive the bread and wine at the altar, "to be in communion with God and each other." Sunday bulletins are made available online in the days following each service for anyone who wishes to revisit the readings or the order of worship, and the parish keeps an archive of audio recordings of recent sermons going back several years.
The atmosphere on a Sunday morning is at once prayerful and unhurried. The parish describes its sanctuary as a refuge from the world, "a place to find shelter in the time of turmoil and confusion, a place that we can present ourselves to God." After the service, there is time for fellowship and conversation over coffee, a chance to meet the priest, the lay leaders, and the families whose children have just come up from Sunday School to take communion with their parents.
The Reverend Dr. Richard Vevia, Jr. and the parish team
The Reverend Dr. Richard Vevia, Jr. serves as Priest-in-Charge of Saint Alban's. He is supported by a small staff and a dedicated vestry. Caroline Mahon-Hurd directs the parish's Sunday School program and works with the children and their families each Sunday morning.
The wider leadership of the parish includes the Senior Warden, Mike Park, and Junior Wardens Paul and Jessica Manning. Jaqui Swerdfeger serves as Secretary of the vestry, with Judy Brown as Treasurer. Other members of the vestry include Angelynn Than, Mary Zori, Has Blu Moo, Laurie Ibanez, and Carly Montagne. Lisa Hilliker directs the Altar Guild, and Judy Brown also oversees the Refugee Food Pantry. Denise Cote serves as Assistant to the Priest-in-Charge and Office Manager, and Victoria Mayor coordinates the parish's social media presence. Saint Alban's is a member congregation of the Diocese of San Diego.
The Welcome Ministry and the Refugee Food Pantry of El Cajon
Saint Alban's is best known in the wider El Cajon community for two closely related outreach ministries that share a name and a heart.
The Welcome Ministry, a preaching post recognized by the Diocese of San Diego, reaches out to people experiencing homelessness and to other neighbors on the margins of life in East County. The ministry is also supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and by other partner congregations. The parish has been intentional about working alongside other clergy and other churches in El Cajon; the priest meets monthly for lunch with clergy from a number of different denominations to look for ways to address community needs together. The parish teaches that the team does not want to be "a silo on a hill."
The Refugee Food Pantry, sometimes called the Refugee Ministries of El Cajon, is a sister outreach that grew from the same instinct to serve. The food pantry is supported by Saint Alban's together with the First Presbyterian Church of El Cajon and other partner congregations, and the parish has framed this work as part of what it means to be the church: "To shirk that responsibility and to put it all on someone else's shoulder is just not right. We all are expected to do our part." The pantry distributes food following the Tuesday Arabic-English Eucharist, at 9:30 am, on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
The parish's commitment to this work has shaped the identity of Saint Alban's as much as anything that happens inside the sanctuary walls on a Sunday morning. The message the Welcome Ministry wants to share with everyone in El Cajon, with the families in the new homes across the street, with the people in the larger houses on the surrounding hills, with those in low-income housing, and with those who have no home at all, is simple: "God loves you, just the way you are."
The Tuesday Eucharist in Arabic and English
On the first and third Tuesday mornings of every month, at 8:30 am, Saint Alban's offers a bilingual Holy Eucharist in Arabic and English. The service is a quiet recognition that the Episcopal Church in El Cajon sits within a richly international community, and it has become a treasured rhythm for the small group of Arabic-speaking and English-speaking Episcopalians who gather for it. Immediately after the Tuesday Eucharist, the Refugee Food Pantry opens for distribution at 9:30 am.
For those who attend the Tuesday Eucharist, this is one of the parish's most distinctive offerings, a weekly expression of the Episcopal Church's wider identity as "a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion" with congregations in seventeen nations. The liturgy follows the same Book of Common Prayer used on Sundays, celebrated in two languages for a gathered congregation that crosses national and cultural lines.
Sunday School and the sound of children
Sunday School begins at 9:00 am, alongside the worship service, in the Education Room at Saint Alban's. Children are invited to attend Sunday School and then join their families in the sanctuary in time to receive communion together. Sunday School is held on most Sundays, with one regular exception: on the first Sunday of each month, the children stay in church with their families for a single intergenerational service.
The parish takes seriously the charge that "anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Children are seen and heard at Saint Alban's, both in the classroom and in the nave. Caroline Mahon-Hurd, the Sunday School Director, leads the program with a twofold mission: to teach the children the stories of the Old and New Testaments so they have a working knowledge of scripture, and to point them to Jesus so they grow up both as "a people of the book" and as "people of the person, the person of Jesus Christ." The Christmas Pageant each Advent is one of the program's signature moments, when the children of the parish take over the nave to retell the nativity story in their own voices.
Families and visitors with questions about Sunday School, including children with special needs, can reach the program directly at stalbansundayschool@gmail.com.
Scout Troop 308 and the parish hall
On Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm, the parish hall at Saint Alban's fills with the busy sound of Scout Troop 308. The troop is open and actively welcoming girls between the ages of 11 and 18 who are looking for adventure. The Scoutmaster, Christen Mendiola, can be reached at christenmendiola@gmail.com for anyone interested in joining or learning more about the troop's activities.
For Saint Alban's, hosting the troop is part of what it means to be a parish church in a residential neighborhood: the building is a hub not only on Sunday mornings but on Wednesday evenings and Tuesdays and Thursdays, used and loved by a wider circle than just the Sunday congregation.
An Episcopal welcome to anyone who worships Jesus Christ
Saint Alban's teaches that "The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ, in 109 dioceses and regional areas in 17 nations." The parish follows the wider Episcopal Church's three Priorities: Evangelism, listening for Jesus' movement in our lives and in the world and giving thanks; Reconciliation, embodying "the loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus" with each other; and Creation Care, encountering and honoring the face of God in creation.
At Saint Alban's, that welcome takes a particular shape. The congregation reflects the religious diversity of East County and the wider region, and the parish has made a particular point of holding space for people who have arrived at the Episcopal Church from other Christian traditions. Many of those who call Saint Alban's home did not grow up Episcopalian; some came from Roman Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal, Baptist, or Lutheran backgrounds, and some came to faith for the first time as adults. The parish's teaching is that the church is "a place to find your freedom to express yourself without feeling bound up by too many rules and regulations," and that the shared work of the parish is to walk with each other "the best we know how."
Baptism is the front door to full membership in the parish. In the Episcopal Church, Holy Baptism is "full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body, the Church," and the parish baptizes both children and adults. Once baptized, members are encouraged to commune at the altar as soon as possible, since "liturgy and practice shapes belief."
The Book of Common Prayer and the shape of belief
The Book of Common Prayer is at the heart of Episcopal worship and belief at Saint Alban's. The parish teaches that the prayer book is "a treasure chest full of devotional and teaching resources for individuals and congregations," and it is "the primary symbol of our unity." Approximately seventy percent of the Book of Common Prayer comes directly from the Bible, and Episcopalians read more Holy Scripture in Sunday worship than almost any other Christian tradition, drawing on the lectionary cycle of readings that carries the congregation through most of the Bible over a three-year span.
The Bible is the parish's foundation, "understood through tradition and reason, containing all things necessary for salvation." Worship is filled with Scripture from beginning to end. The Catechism, found in the back of the Book of Common Prayer, is offered "in a question-and-answer format" and "helps teach the foundational truths of the Christian faith." The Creeds, the Apostles' Creed used at baptism and the Nicene Creed used at communion, are the two foundational statements of faith that join Episcopalians "with Christians throughout the ages in affirming our faith in the one God who created us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us." The Baptismal Covenant, the mini-catechism used at baptisms and on Easter and other special occasions, opens with a question-and-answer version of the Apostles' Creed and adds five further questions about how Christians are called to live out their faith in the world.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom," the parish likes to say, drawing on 2 Corinthians. That conviction shapes the tone of worship at Saint Alban's: a parish that takes the historic liturgy seriously, but also takes seriously the freedom of the Spirit to meet people where they are.
Sacraments and the life of faith
The Episcopal Church recognizes seven sacraments, or "outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace." Two are considered the great sacraments, given by Christ himself: Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, also called the Eucharist or the Mass.
Holy Baptism, in the words of the Book of Common Prayer, is "full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body, the Church." In the waters of baptism, the parish teaches, "we are reminded that we belong to God and nothing can separate us from the love of God" and that we are part of "the one, holy, catholic [meaning 'universal'], and apostolic Church." The Episcopal Church baptizes both children and adults, and the parish's practice is that baptized children are welcome to begin receiving communion as soon as they are baptized.
Holy Communion is the central weekly act of worship at Saint Alban's. "It goes by several names: Holy Communion, the Eucharist (which literally means 'thanksgiving'), mass. But whatever it's called, this is the family meal for Christians and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet." As such, the parish teaches, all who have been baptized are welcome to receive the bread and wine, "and be in communion with God and each other."
In addition to Baptism and the Eucharist, the Episcopal Church recognizes five other sacramental markers: Confirmation, the adult affirmation of baptismal vows; Reconciliation of a Penitent, or private confession; Matrimony, Christian marriage; Orders, ordination to deacon, priest, or bishop; and Unction, the anointing with oil of those who are sick or dying. The parish celebrates Confirmation as a special occasion on which members make "an educated and informed presentation of ourselves to the Lord."
A place to serve: the Diocese of San Diego and beyond
Saint Alban's is a parish of the Diocese of San Diego and is active in the wider ministry of that diocese. The parish's Welcome Ministry is a designated preaching post within the diocese, and the congregation regularly partners with other Episcopal congregations, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with the First Presbyterian Church of El Cajon, and with other local churches and organizations that share a vision for meeting the needs of East County.
The work is rooted in the conviction that "a triple-braided cord is not easily broken," and the parish has made a particular point of working with clergy from a number of different denominations who meet monthly for lunch to look for ways to address the needs of the wider El Cajon community together. The parish has also been intentional about not staying behind its walls: the priest teaches that "when we leave this building on Sunday morning, church is not over. The church community worship service is over, but church is just beginning. The church is beginning another week."
Online giving, sermon archive, and visitor notes
Visitors who want to support the work of Saint Alban's can give online through Tithely, the church's electronic giving platform. Donations can be made from a checking or savings account or by credit card, either as one-time gifts or as recurring gifts. The giving categories include the General Fund, the Capital/Building Fund, Refugee, Pastoral, Outreach, and the Welcome Ministry of El Cajon. The system allows the giver to choose to cover the processing fee so that the church receives the full gift.
A sermon archive is available online, with audio recordings of recent sermons going back several years. Visitors can also find the weekly Sunday bulletin and recent newsletters online, and the parish keeps an active Facebook page and a YouTube channel for additional video and audio content.
Office hours at the parish are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Visitors who want to drop by the church before a service, or who have questions about weddings, baptisms, or other pastoral needs, are welcome to reach out to the parish office at 619-444-8212 or by email at generalbusiness@stalbanschurch.info. The church sits at 490 Farragut Circle in El Cajon, just south of downtown and a short walk from the library, with the entrance on Farragut Circle and the building also addressed at Camden and Magnolia Avenues.
For first-time visitors, the practical details of worshipping at Saint Alban's are simple. The Sunday service is at 9:00 am, in person and online. Communion is open to all who have been baptized. The congregation is warm and informal in its welcome, and the building is a small, accessible Episcopal parish church in a residential neighborhood. Children are invited to attend Sunday School at the same hour and then join their families in the sanctuary for communion, except on the first Sunday of each month, when the whole congregation worships together.