St. Margaret's Episcopal Church stands on Connecticut Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., at the edge of Dupont Circle and just south of Adams Morgan. For more than 125 years the parish has described its work with a single phrase: "There's always a place at the table." The slogan shows up on the welcome mat of the parish and in the language of its clergy. It also describes the practical ministries that have shaped the church's identity - most visibly, a day program for neighbors experiencing homelessness called Charlie's Place that opens its doors five days a week.
St. Margaret's is a parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and its self-understanding is unusually explicit about belonging. The church describes itself as a warm place to renew faith in God, care for one another, and thrive in a diverse, LGBTQIA-affirming, and inclusive community. "We serve all of our neighbors," the parish says: the affluent and those experiencing homelessness; queer, straight, and transgender; cradle Episcopalians and wandering atheists; kids, retirees, and everyone in between.
Sunday Morning: The Heart of Parish Life
Worship at St. Margaret's gathers on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. for a service of Holy Eucharist that runs about an hour. The congregation meets in the sanctuary in person; a parallel feed runs through Zoom and the parish YouTube channel for those who join from home. Masks are optional. No registration or distancing requirements stand between a visitor and the door.
The liturgy is Episcopal and liturgical, built around the prayers of the Book of Common Prayer and enriched by both the Anglican choral tradition and broader expressions of sacred music, including African American spirituals and contemporary hymnody. A Kids' Corner, in the front of the nave on the right side facing the altar, gives children a place to worship while engaging in playful activities with other children. Parents are encouraged to involve their children in singing, prayer, listening, and the sharing of Holy Eucharist.
Accessibility has been thought through. A Wilson hearing assist system broadcasts the service at 79.4 FM, and receivers are available from ushers; a T-Coil adapter is available on request. An accessible entrance is located off Bancroft Place on the south side of the building.
On Sunday nights at 8:00 p.m., Compline returns the parish to a quieter space. The brief office of nighttime prayers is led live over Zoom, with the Meeting ID 891 4453 1355 and passcode 862672.
A Year of Discernment
The 2025-2026 program year at St. Margaret's carried the title "St. Margaret's in Discernment." Discernment, the rector writes, is "the prayer-filled discipline, individual and communal, that we engage to listen for the Spirit's answer," and the parish has woven it into classes, retreats, and forums that run from early September through Advent.
Newcomers and longtime members sit side by side in St. Margaret's Go!, a three-part Sunday-morning class held at 8:45 a.m. on selected Sundays. Each session explores Episcopal traditions, parish life, and what it means to grow in faith together. The class is led by parishioners Skye Landgraf and Ron Lorentzen, with the rector present for the first session.
For those curious about confirmation, reception, or a deeper grounding in the Episcopal tradition, the Inquirers' Class - "Being With Church" - runs on seven consecutive Sundays from mid-October through late November, 8:45 to 10:00 a.m., co-led by the Rev. Jen Page and Allison Kramer. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde visits the parish each Advent to preside and preach, and to receive new members into the Episcopal Church.
Other formation offerings include Daily Centering Prayer on weekday mornings at 7:30 a.m. over Zoom, and "On the Way," a Monday-evening Bible study and book club that gathers at 6:30 p.m. for an hour of fellowship and mutual support. An annual Advent Retreat closes the season each December.
Charlie's Place: Hospitality at the Edge of Dupont Circle
If any single ministry defines St. Margaret's, it is Charlie's Place. The program began in 1990 as a simple Tuesday and Friday offering of hot rice and beans prepared for neighbors experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. Word spread. By the middle of the next decade the program had grown into a five-day-a-week day program that dishes up meals, housing referrals, social and medical services, and clothing to anyone who walks in. It is named for the Rev. Charlie Gilchrist, one of its founders.
Charlie's Place operates from the parish building and opens its doors on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and on Saturdays from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. The rhythm of a morning at Charlie's Place includes a Bible study group on Tuesday mornings at 7:30, led by parishioners and joined by guests from across the neighborhood and the city. Volunteers sort donations into the clothing closet, prepare and serve food, and offer the kind of consistent, unhurried presence that the program considers as essential as the meals themselves.
The program is led by Executive Director Reggie Cox, a former guest who first walked through the doors of Charlie's Place in 2013 after losing his job, and Floor Coordinator James Herring, who oversees volunteers and the daily programs. Parishioners and outside supporters sustain the work through gifts to the Charlie's Place Amazon Wish List and regular volunteer shifts.
"Charlie's Place offers a warm and calm space where people experiencing homelessness get basic needs met while also finding the resources they need to empower themselves and better their lives," is how the program describes itself. The Clothing Closet in particular provides essential gear for community members who are sleeping rough or who are low-income, and weekday volunteers can serve by sorting donations into the categories and sizes that staff hand out each morning.
Mustard Seed Ministry: Walking Out the Door With Love
On Wednesday afternoons the parish's ministry of hospitality moves from inside the building out onto the streets of Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan. The Mustard Seed Ministry is led by the deacon, the Rev. Francisco Serrano, and gathers volunteers at St. Margaret's at 5:00 p.m. before walking down to Dupont Circle at 4:30 - actually departing at the half-hour - to bring beverages, snacks, and gestures of friendship to neighbors experiencing homelessness.
The ministry is described as a relationship practice as much as a service program. "As a way to deepen relationships with our community," the parish says of the regular walks. Volunteers come weekly, monthly, or once, and are paired with a regular time slot.
How the Parish Came to Be: 125 Years on Connecticut Avenue
The story St. Margaret's tells of itself is not a tidy one. The parish's own history, gathered in the report Unveiling Our Truth: A Racial History of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, published in February 2025, acknowledges both the parish's contributions to dismantling it and its complicity in furthering it.
The parish was founded in the late nineteenth century and takes its place among the earliest congregations of the Diocese of Washington. From its earliest years, women played a leading role - Sophia Little, locally famous for her independence of judgement, was the parish's first champion, and early women parishioners raised money to buy land and build a parish hall in defiance of vestrymen who declared it impossible. The Rev. Dr. Vienna Cobb Anderson became the first woman to serve as a rector of a parish in the Diocese of Washington.
In the 1960s, St. Margaret's took its call to witness for justice seriously. The parish poured its resources into the Adams Morgan neighborhood by paying community organizers' salaries and rent, and by hosting summer programs, jazz workshops, and freedom schools. One priest was hauled before a congressional committee and interrogated about his work and association with Black Power activists.
In the 1980s, as Dupont Circle's gay community was devastated by the AIDS epidemic, St. Margaret's opened its doors. Practical day-to-day support led to spiritual renewal for the church and for the LGBT Roman Catholic organization Dignity, which began meeting at St. Margaret's. The parish committed itself to reflect and support the surrounding neighborhoods that had become bastions of ethnic, economic, cultural, and sexual diversity.
Internationally, St. Margaret's has reached beyond national boundaries for as long as it has existed - from early gifts supporting missionary work abroad to twenty-first-century partnerships. Dozens of parishioners have traveled to the small town of Protección in Honduras to build and repair buildings and to support medical care in a rural village.
In July 2022, St. Margaret's formed a Racial Justice Task Force with a vision to "build and support a beloved community that addresses racial injustice." The task force's major project culminated in the 2025 publication of Unveiling Our Truth, prepared in accordance with "Toward Repentance and Reparations in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington," a resolution passed by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington in 2023, and aligned with The Episcopal Church's "Becoming Beloved Community" framework.
The Rector and the Music That Fills A Service
The Rev. Richard Mosson Weinberg was named the ninth Rector of St. Margaret's in 2020, having served the parish as Associate Rector from 2017 and as priest-in-charge from 2019 after the former rector, the Rt. Rev. Kym Lucas, was elected bishop of Colorado. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University with an M.A. in Arts Management from George Mason University and a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory, Weinberg brings a vocal-performance background to his preaching and an extended Ignatian sensibility to the parish's formation work.
He is supported by three adjunct priests - the Rev. Rachelle Sam, currently Associate Dean of Strategic Implementation and Priorities at Virginia Theological Seminary; the Rev. Caron A. Gwynn, a third-generation Washingtonian and former Assistant Rector at St. Margaret's; and the Rev. Melanie Mullen, who most recently served as The Episcopal Church's Director of Reconciliation, Justice & Creation Care. Two deacons share pastoral and liturgical responsibilities: the Rev. Francisco Serrano, who was ordained at Washington National Cathedral in November 2022 and leads the parish's homeless outreach, and the Rev. Jennifer (Jen) Page, who was ordained a deacon in September 2026 and returned to St. Margaret's after serving her parish internship there.
The music ministry is led by Dr. Timothy Duhr, Director of Music & Liturgy, who oversees the staff and volunteer choir singers and the parish's commitment to the Anglican choral tradition alongside African American spirituals and contemporary hymnody. Interested singers and instrumentalists can reach him by email.
Allison Kramer, a Master of Divinity candidate at Candler Theological Seminary, serves her placement at St. Margaret's and participates in the parish's social justice programs; she is also a candidate for ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church.
Becoming Part of St. Margaret's
For visitors and newcomers, the parish has built a layered set of on-ramps. Sunday Worship at 10:30 a.m. requires no registration and no special dress. The Kids' Corner welcomes children at the front of the nave. The prayer request form is online; so is the volunteer sign-up.
For those exploring membership or deeper connection, St. Margaret's Go! offers three Sundays of introduction to Episcopal tradition and parish life, and the annual Being With Church series leads participants through seven weeks of foundational themes - Jesus, Baptism, Church, Communion, Prayer, Ministry, and Mission - and prepares those who wish to be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church at the bishop's Advent visitation.
Volunteer opportunities range from Charlie's Place shifts to worship roles - welcoming, reading, serving at the altar, supporting the tech team - to the Prayer Shawl Ministry, which started in 2023 and provides handmade shawls, lap robes, baby blankets, and baptism stroller blankets, each blessed by clergy, to those in medical treatment or homebound. Volunteers may also serve in Mustard Seed Ministry, on the Creation Care Committee, with the Racial Justice Committee, on the rummage sale, or by helping with Sunday prayers.
Weddings, Funerals, and a Columbarium on the Avenue
The liturgies of marriage, funeral, and burial at St. Margaret's are marked by the same inclusive welcome that characterizes the parish's life.
The church celebrates the weddings of all couples, including same-sex and interfaith couples. At least one member of the couple must be baptized and be an active member of a church - or actively exploring membership at a church, whether at St. Margaret's or elsewhere. The wedding ceremony is a worship service using the liturgies approved for marriage in the Episcopal Church, and the clergy work closely with each couple in preparation.
The parish has produced two pastoral guides to walk members and friends through end-of-life planning as an act of faith. Preparing for a Funeral explains the choice between Rite One, Rite Two, and Enriching Our Worship 3, the difference between a funeral and a memorial service, and what to expect from the planning process. Faithful Living, Faithful Dying frames end-of-life preparation - medical directives, funeral plans, and wills - as a gift to those who will one day have to make decisions on our behalf.
St. Margaret's Columbarium, located in a side chapel off the sanctuary, provides a sacred space for the inurnment of cremated remains. It is available to members and their families, to former members who have relocated outside the Diocese of Washington, and to others with a familial connection to the parish. Niches can be reserved through an application available from the parish at any time.
The 1894 Legacy Society welcomes anyone who makes a planned legacy gift to the parish, of any size, into its membership.
How to Find and Give
St. Margaret's stands at 1830 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009. The parish phone is 202-232-2995, and the office email is office@stmargaretsdc.org. Parishioners and visitors can give online through Realm, set up a recurring gift through their bank's bill-pay service, drop a check in the offering plate, mail a check to the parish, or text MAGGIE and a dollar amount to 73256. Gifts of stock, securities, and property are welcomed, and the planned giving brochure details options including charitable gift annuities, life insurance, trusts, wills, retirement accounts, and life estates.
The parish building includes accessible parking and the accessible entrance off Bancroft Place. Space rentals are governed by a published agreement and fee schedule, and inquiries about life events - baptisms, weddings, funerals, and columbarium reservations - go to the rector, the Rev. Richard Weinberg.
Sermons are available as a podcast on Spotify, PodcastPeople, and YouTube, and the parish maintains an active Facebook presence. Bulletins for upcoming Sundays, prayer requests, and weekly newsletters are available through the parish website.
The work at St. Margaret's remains what it has been for a hundred and twenty-five years: gathering on Connecticut Avenue, opening the table wider, and going back into the kitchen and out onto the streets to do the same.