About
Welcome! Located across from Capitol Square in downtown Richmond, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is an urban fellowship for all people with an active congregation that is enriched by our history and focused on our mission of proclaiming Christ in the heart of the city. In addition to being a source of strength and a place for Sunday worship for people throughout the community, we are a Monday through Friday resource for those who live, work and play in the neighborhood. Consider St. Paul’s your spiritual home for all that you do downtown.
Racial Justice
St. Paul’s is committed to naming and dismantling systemic racism. We foster community healing and support the work of reparative action through local, regional, and international dialogue and action.
Being a Spiritual Center for Downtown
St. Paul’s extends a generous, affirming, and inclusive welcome. We are a place for serving, partnering, gathering, learning, growing, and worshiping.
Progressive Christian Thinking
St. Paul’s embraces our commitment to nurture a curiosity of spirit and mind. We are a spiritual space in which a diversity of people and perspectives are supported and shaped.
Transformative and Relevant Worship
St. Paul’s offers worship and liturgical experiences that are beautiful, thoughtful, grounded in the Episcopal tradition, and reflective of a God who is speaking into current conversations and contexts.
Embracing and Caring for All Ages
St. Paul’s builds a multi-generational community. We engage and support people through all of life’s journeys and transitions.
The Episcopal Church
The mission of The Episcopal Church, as stated in the Book of Common Prayer’s catechism, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” In step with that mission, we follow Jesus into loving, liberating, and life-giving relationships with God, with each other, and with the earth.
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
The Diocese of Virginia is made up of more than 68,000 baptized members in 173 congregations from Northern Virginia to the James River, from the Shenandoah Valley to the Chesapeake Bay. We are members of an inclusive faith that welcomes everyone to join us on our journey in Christ.
The St. Paul’s congregation grew out of Monumental Protestant Episcopal Church on Broad Street (est. 1814). With the substantial transfer of that earlier church’s clergy, vestry, and over 200 members, the new church debuted as the Diocese’s largest parish.
A vestry is a governing body for an Episcopal church. The functions of the vestry are outlined in the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. St. Paul’s is led by a Vestry consisting of 12 members with four new members elected each year to serve a 3-year term. The Treasurer is not a member of the vestry. The senior warden and junior warden lead the vestry.