Set on the corner of Main Street, Hillside, and Phillips Avenues in downtown Glen Ellyn, St. Mark's Episcopal Church is a Gothic Revival stone church whose life reaches well beyond its walls. Its vision - Rooted in Baptism. Growing in Faith. Branching Out into the World. - shows up in three Sunday services a week, a Spanish-language congregation that has worshipped in the nave since at least the early 2000s, a long companion relationship with a parish in San Marcos, Nigromante, Mexico, and a steady stream of meals, mums, pumpkins, and backpacks that move from the building out into the surrounding community.
A Stone Church, a New Building, and a Quiet Columbarium Garden
The present church building was begun in 1949 and dedicated in 1952, a Gothic Revival structure of stone whose nave seats 300 worshippers and whose adjoining chapel seats another 30. In the 1960s the building was extended with new pews, a new pulpit, lighting, and a sound system. Twenty-nine stained glass windows, created and installed by the Charles Connick Associates studio in Boston between 1953 and 1966, fill the walls and are valued for their artistic, theological, and historical meaning.
Across the parking lots stands what everyone at St. Mark's calls "the New Building," a parish hall and education building constructed beginning in 2002 and put into use in September 2003. Mahon Hall, named for beloved former deacon Jeannine Mahon, was dedicated in December 2004 and earned the Village of Glen Ellyn's Traveling Trophy Design Award for the best overall development project completed between July 2003 and July 2004.
Adjacent to the chapel on the north side of the church, the columbarium became available in 1998, was relocated as part of the New Building project in 2003, and expanded in 2018. With 80 wall niches and 60 in-ground plots, it serves as both a consecrated resting place for cremated remains of parish members and their families and a peaceful garden for prayer and meditation.
Three Sunday Services, Two Languages, One Building
St. Mark's offers three Sunday services. At 8:30 a.m., a quiet Rite II Eucharist with music by various instrumentalists and a closing hymn draws those who prefer a contemplative service; a brief coffee moment in the narthex follows. At 10:30 a.m., the full Rite II choral Eucharist features traditional music led by the Adult Choir and guest instrumentalists, with a coffee hour in Mahon Hall afterwards. At 1:00 p.m., the Spanish-language "misa en Español" is led with piano and guitar; a bilingual Spanish/English bulletin helps worshippers in either language follow along.
The 10:30 a.m. service is also streamed live on Zoom (Meeting ID 483-170-780) and YouTube, and the 1:00 p.m. service is streamed on Facebook. All baptized Christians are welcome to receive Holy Communion at any of the three services, including young children.
Weekdays open with prayer. Morning Prayer is prayed on Zoom at 8:30 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Tuesday Bible Study runs from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. on Zoom, and a Prayer Group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 11:00 a.m. on Zoom.
Sunday School, Nursery, and Confirmation for Every Age
Children are part of every service at St. Mark's. The Little Blessings Nursery, staffed by nursery coordinator Norma Cid, who has been with the parish for more than 17 years, is open for infants through age 3 during all three Sunday services, plus older siblings for crafts and play during the 8:30 a.m. service.
During the 10:30 a.m. service, four Sunday School classes gather in Mahon Hall at 10:15 a.m. for a thirty-minute class before rejoining families in the sanctuary at 11:00 a.m.: Play and Pray for Pre-K (ages 3-5), Godly Play for kindergarten and first grade, Faith Builders for second and third grade, and Friends in Faith for fourth and fifth grade. Children whose parents worship at 8:30 a.m. gather with Miss Gina for Godly Play, and families at the 1:00 p.m. service find Godly Play and Spanish-language youth formation before and during the service. Classes run from early September through mid-May and use the Episcopal Church's Weaving God's Promises curriculum.
Vacation Bible School brings Worship, Education, and Service together for one week each summer, welcoming children ages 4 through incoming fifth graders from the parish and the wider community. The Christmas Pageant on the Fourth Sunday of Advent is another annual tradition.
Youth Ministry at St. Mark's extends from middle school through high school. Every incoming sixth grader is asked to take on a worship role - usher, acolyte, reader, or instrumentalist - as a way of rooting themselves in the life of the parish. Confirmation classes for eighth graders meet across the school year, working through Episcopal Tradition, the Sacraments, the Book of Common Prayer, Scripture, prayer, and vocation in large and small groups with adult mentors; the Bishop visits at the end of the year for the laying on of hands. Youth Nights meet twice monthly from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in Mahon Hall, mixing games, small groups, and Scripture-based discussion. Youth also take part in service projects such as making DuPage PADS lunches, the Pumpkin Patch, the Mexico Mission Trip, the Appalachia Service Project trip, Feed My Starving Children, and retreats with the Diocese of Chicago's OneChurch partners Grace Lutheran and St. Luke.
St. Mark's Forum, Daughters of the King, and Sacred Ground
Adult formation at St. Mark's centers on St. Mark's Forum, a Sunday morning gathering from 9:30 to 10:20 a.m. in the Library and on Zoom (Meeting ID 483-170-780). No commitment or RSVP is required; participants drop in when a topic catches their attention. The Forum is also offered asynchronously through recorded discussions.
Two long-standing smaller groups round out formation. Daughters of the King, an Episcopal order for women communicants, has been represented at St. Mark's as the St. Anne Chapter for over 85 years. Daughters take lifetime vows of prayer and service, wear a cross inscribed in Latin meaning "With Heart, mind and spirit, uphold and bear the cross," and serve the parish through altar duty, the Wedding Ministry, the Funeral Reception Ministry, and seasonal decorating. Monthly meetings are open to visitors.
The Sacred Ground group at St. Mark's is part of a national Episcopal program exploring race and faith. Participants look at Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories, through discussions, field trips, and film screenings. From this group, in collaboration with Joseph Standing Bear of the Midwest SOARRING Foundation and using the Downers Grove Public Library Land Acknowledgement as a framework, came the St. Mark's Land Acknowledgement, approved by the Vestry on August 31, 2022, and now posted at two entrances of the church. A Land Acknowledgement, the parish notes, "is the beginning of an ongoing relationship to understand and build community ties between groups of people."
Choirs and a Walker Tracker Organ
Music is woven through the services. St. Mark's Singers, a mixed choir of high schoolers and adults, sings every week at the 10:30 a.m. service and presents regular Choral Evensong; they rehearse Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. and warm up Sundays at 9:30 a.m. The Spanish-language Coro de Alabanza leads the music at the 1:00 p.m. service every Sunday, rehearsing Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Choristers, a children's choir for reading-ready and older children, rehearses Wednesdays from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. and leads worship monthly.
The pipe organ at St. Mark's was custom designed and built by J. W. Walker & Sons, Ltd. of Brandon, Suffolk, England. It arrived for installation on Shrove Tuesday 1991 and was first used at the Great Vigil of Easter that same year. The keyboard action is mechanical (tracker), providing a direct physical link between the player and the pipes, with electric stop action. At installation the organ had two manuals and pedal served by 20 stops across 26 ranks. The case is American Red Oak with hand-carved pipe shades depicting the four Gospel writers in their traditional symbols - an angel for Matthew, a lion for Mark, an ox for Luke, and an eagle for John - and a gold-leaf Latin inscription from the final verse of Psalm 150: "Let everything that breathes praise the Lord."
Branching Out: Meals, Mums, Pumpkins, and a Companion Parish in Mexico
Outreach at St. Mark's operates on a year-round rhythm. Meals-to-Go serves hot to-go meals cooked in Mahon Hall on the first and third Saturdays of every month from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., in partnership with other Glen Ellyn-Wheaton churches, the Glen House Food Pantry, and other charitable organizations. A monthly Community Dinner is held on the fourth Thursday of each month from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in Mahon Hall, open to parishioners, community members, neighbors, and families.
Twice a year, the front lawn of St. Mark's becomes a fundraiser: the Mum Sale every September benefits the Glen House Food Pantry and the Glen Ellyn Walk-In Ministry, and the Pumpkin Patch before Halloween supports DuPage PADS. The parish also collects backpacks and school supplies each August for Holy Family School in Chicago and supports ReVive Center for Housing and Healing by contributing to its annual Christmas baskets for 1,500 low-income families and seniors in Chicago.
A long-running companion relationship with San Marcos, Nigromante, in the Diocese of Southeast Mexico has shaped the parish since 2001. St. Mark's first visited in June 2006 and has sent parishioners - youth and adults - on mission trips every year since, funding scholarships to keep children in school, paying half of Padre Senobio's annual salary, supporting micro-businesses, and (in December 2019) running the first dental mission trip to the village. The parish has hosted Padre Senobio and the former Bishop Benito Juarez over the years. St. Mark's also shares in companion diocesan relationships with the Diocese of Renk in Sudan. Within the United States, parishioners serve through the Appalachia Service Project, doing a week of home repair each summer.
Pastoral Care, Recovery, and Know Your Rights
The Pastoral Care Committee at St. Mark's is built on the Baptismal Covenant's promise to "seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself," and provides hospital and home visits (when public health conditions allow), Meals Ministry, and a Prayer List for those in need of intercessory prayer.
For many years St. Mark's has opened its building to twelve-step groups. Alcoholics Anonymous meets in the Library Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m., in Mahon Hall Tuesday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Thursday evenings at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday mornings at 7:30 a.m. Al-Anon meets Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in Lehman Parlor, Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in Spanish in Room 202, and Saturday mornings at 10:00 a.m. in Lehman Parlor. Alateen meets Monday evenings from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 103. CoDA meets Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m. in Room 202.
The parish also keeps a set of Know Your Rights resources on hand, with information for community members about interactions with immigration enforcement, available in both English and Spanish.
Art, Library, Acolytes, and Scouts
A visual arts group curates and hangs exhibits of visiting artists several times a year, and also maintains, catalogs, and restores the parish's own collection. Displays have included photography, printmaking, painting, iconography, calligraphy, stitchery, woven baskets, and mixed media, with themes drawn from nature, poetry, and the lives of the saints. Richard Rush's Stations of the Cross hang in the church during Lent, with simple twig wreaths during Advent.
The St. Mark's Library has a refreshed lending collection organized by Dewey Decimal Number, with a sign-out sheet for borrowing. The library partners with the Bookstore of Glen Ellyn, which offers 20% off and no sales tax on purchases from St. Mark's gift registry.
The Acolyte Ministry is open to youth starting at age 10. Acolytes light candles, ring the sanctus bells, serve as torchbearers, crucifers, and thurifers, and assist at the altar and credence table.
St. Mark's is the charter organization for Cub Scout Pack 158, formed in September 2024 with 35 Cub Scouts from kindergarten through fifth grade, drawn from Ben Franklin, Churchill, and St. Petronille schools. The parish also charters Boy Scout Troop 44, in existence for more than a century.
Weddings, Baptisms, Funerals, and St. Mark's Preschool
St. Mark's welcomes all people and is an open and affirming church for weddings, which are arranged by contacting the Rector. Baptisms are offered to both infants and adults - "You don't need to have God or faith figured out to be baptized," the parish notes, and the Baptismal Covenant sits at the center of the rite. Funerals are coordinated through the clergy; the Columbarium, the columbarium garden, and the church's stained glass windows are part of the parish's way of accompanying families at the end of life.
On the same campus, St. Mark's Preschool and the Parents' Day Out (PDO) program offer early childhood education for the parish and the wider community. PDO serves children ages 2 through 4+, with a summer program in June and July; two of the program's teachers speak Spanish. St. Mark's is also the home of Scout Pack 158 and Troop 44, along with the Coro de Alabanza, the Choristers, and St. Mark's Singers - all reasons that the building is in use seven days a week.
Beliefs Rooted in the Book of Common Prayer
St. Mark's worship and teaching are shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, the Baptismal Covenant, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Catechism. The parish emphasizes that Scripture is the church's foundation, understood through tradition and reason, and notes that Episcopalians hear more Holy Scripture in Sunday worship than almost any other Christian tradition. The seven recognized Sacraments are central: Holy Baptism, Holy Communion (also called the Eucharist or, in English, mass), Confirmation, Reconciliation of a Penitent, Matrimony, Orders, and Unction.
Glen Ellyn, Main Street, and How to Find St. Mark's
St. Mark's sits at 393 N. Main Street, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, between Main Street, Hillside Avenue, and Phillips Avenue. Parking is available in the east lot off Main Street / Phillips Avenue, in the west lot off Hillside Avenue, and along Phillips Avenue. The church office is open Monday and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to noon and Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., reachable at (630) 858-1020 or [email protected]. The parish is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and, through it, of The Episcopal Church.