Join us in person on Sundays
mask optional or by Zoom

Our last regular Sunday service
will be August 30

Service Time is 9 am

Fellowship will follow with light refreshments

Info for Attending Service

Setting Down of Ministry at St. John’s

With much sadness we share the news that our last regular Sunday service will be August 30.

Every Episcopal Church dates its beginning to Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles. The Episcopal Church belongs to a tradition that teaches that the faith is communicated “hand to hand,” learned from one person to another. Similarly, churches do not just begin, but are birthed out of a long lineage, sometimes planted by a committee of the diocese, sometimes started as a mission of another local church.

Just as each church has a moment of beginning, so a church may also have a moment when the people of that church can no longer carry the ministry forward. When this happens, the church becomes inactive. However, the impact of the church is everlasting. The gifts of the church continue in the people who have been inspired to grow in their faith, in the memories of how the neighborhood has been nurtured by the church and its ministries, and in the items of the church that will be shared with other churches so that the ministry lives on. Stewardship of the real property is the responsibility of the Executive Board and the Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia.

The last regular Sunday service at St. John’s will be Sunday, August 30. The final service to mark the closing of the church is currently being scheduled. You are most warmly welcome to both.

The Rev’d Shirley Smith Graham
Canon for Congregational Vitality
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia

St. John’s Last Regular Sunday Service Will Be August 30, 2026

St. John’s Episcopal Church, long regarded as Glencarlyn’s “community church”, is closing its doors at the end of August. St. John’s was founded in 1890 after Glencarlyn residents petitioned the Virginia Seminary in Alexandria. Services were initially in homes or in a long-gone large pavilion in the park. Services were held Carlin Hall after it was completed in 1892 and continued there until a small chapel was built in on the corner of 4^th and Lexington in 1910. (see photo) The current church was completed in 1957 followed by an addition during the 1960s. St. John’s has always been a welcoming congregation with attendees from various religious backgrounds joining in prayer since the beginning.

The families of St. John’s have served the Glencarlyn community in many other ways. For decades they provided opportunities for the residents of the community to gather and socialize. A boy scout troop was based there. Each spring a Mother’s Day high tea was held with all the formality one would expect, down to tuxedoed waiters pouring champagne. Each year on Mardi Gras, the day before the season of Lent starts, St. John’s would host a celebratory pancake supper for the community. For many years the church held two spaghetti suppers.

On Glencarlyn Day, St. John’s was the place to go to get cold drinks and hot dogs fresh off the grill, after families of the church marched in the Glencarlyn Day parade. In recent years on that day, children of all ages were invited to ring the steeple bell and receive a certificate of accomplishment signed by Quasimodo himself. Over the years St. John’s and the Glencarlyn community have marked the Christmas season with a community carol singing, followed by refreshments. In the fall there was the Blessing of the Animals.

In addition to serving Glencarlyn, members have been supporting those in need in the wider community. Once a month St. John’s prepares lunch bags for residents of the local shelter. A group regularly volunteers at the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) packaging food to be distributed to families in need. In 2024 St. John’s began hosting the Little Free Food Pantry in Glencarlyn, inviting anyone who could to contribute to donate and those in need to take what they needed. Church members frequently monitor the pantry’s supply, restocking from food and donations from the church members which is augmented by regular generous donations from many residents of Glencarlyn and elsewhere in the county.

For over 130 years St. John’s and the Glencarlyn neighborhood have had a productive and supportive relationship, which is now coming to an end. The church’s ministries will end with our last Sunday service on
August 30.

The date of a final service to mark St. John’s closing will be shared with the community once it is scheduled. You are warmly invited to attend both. 

Little Free Food Pantry in Glencarlyn

The Little Free Food Pantry may need a new home after St. John's stops holding regular services.

Items that are regularly in high demand include canned protein (tuna or chicken), cereal (both cold and oatmeal), ready-to-eat meals (such as Beef-a-roni), ready-to-eat soup, pasta, spaghetti sauce, shelf-stable milk, water, dry lentils and beans, plain rice, peanut butter, and crackers.(but no glass containers, please).

More information about it
and how you can support it with food
or monetary donations.  Click Here