Christ Church, Washington Parish
620 G Street, S.E.
Washington, DC  20003
202/547-9300
www.washingtonparish.org
Established 1794; 179 members
The Rev. Martha Wallace, Interim Rector
The Rev. Dr. Bill Doggett, Associate Rector

Body of Christ aims to introduce readers to a different parish in the church family of the Diocese of Washington each month. This month, writer Diane Ney speaks with the Rev. Martha Wallace, rector of Christ, Washington, to learn more about the life, history, plans and character of that congregation.

WW: On its Web site, Christ Church describes itself as a “welcoming, diverse, thankful and joyous community of faith.” How is that reflected in the life of the church?

WALLACE: Well, in the year I’ve been here as interim rector, I’ve seen those qualities reflected in many ways. We were thankful and joyous certainly in our celebration last fall of the 200th anniversary of the dedication of our sanctuary. We had a wonderful time! The Bishop visited to help us rededicate our church in September. In October, we had a Heritage Dinner, with former secretary of state Madeleine Albright as our keynote speaker. The dinner was the highpoint of our Heritage Campaign to raise $200,000 over a three-year period to pay for projects in our five-year strategic plan. The first project paid for by the Heritage Fund was the renovation of the rectory for the new rector, who will be called this year. Thanks to the generosity of our parish, we completed that major renovation without borrowing.

WW: So, well before the end of the three years...

WALLACE: We’ve already received gifts and pledges totaling $170,000. (I’m determined to get that other $30,000 in pledges before I leave.) Continuing the Heritage Weekend celebration, we had a festive Eucharist and a chamber concert of late Baroque music with two of the musicians being members of our parish. We ended with a Christmas Concert by the Marine Band Brass Quintet, honoring John Phillip Sousa, the 17th director of the Marine Band and a lifelong member of our parish. It was a great end to our 200th anniversary celebration. On display at the concert was a fabulous, one-of-a-kind quilt designed and made by a quilting group that meets at our church. They make a quilt every year for charity. Their beautiful quilt this year was a Sousa quilt, with twelve stars representing twelve of Sousa’s marches. That quilt had been raffled earlier in the year to raise more than $2,000 that was donated to Episcopal Relief and Development for the Millennium Development Goal Poverty Reduction Programs.

WW: It sounds like quite a magnanimous celebration. You say the parish is welcoming and diverse.

WALLACE: Absolutely. We have different groups using our facility many nights of the week: Alcoholics Anonymous, Weight Watchers, young people being trained in martial arts. The G Street Cooperative Play Group meets here five mornings a week. Last year, they gave us a big gift. They paid to repaint the woodwork in our parish hall and painted the nursery and put down new flooring.

WW: You also work with a food bank, don’t you?

WALLACE: We collect food weekly for the Pleasant Lane Baptist Church’s food bank.  In summer, a farmer uses our parking lot to distribute vegetables to his shareholders and he donates all the extra vegetables to us for the Church of the Brethren Soup Kitchen. We provided 49 Thanksgiving baskets to Capitol Hill Group Ministries this past Thanksgiving. We also do a toy drive for the families of people going through CHGM’s substance abuse recovery program. We call it Tommy’s Toys, because Tommy Wells, our city council member and one of our parishioners, got us involved in that ministry.  We also collect school supplies for CHGM at the beginning of the school year. On the first Sunday of every month, we chop lots of veggies for the Church of the Brethren Soup Kitchen and make 100 bag lunches that we deliver to the local shelter. Our church also collects phone cards for wounded vets at Walter Reed Army Hospital every summer.

WW: For a relatively small parish, Christ Church provides a lot of support to area programs.

WALLACE: We give it our best shot, that’s for sure. In addition to the hands on ministry, in 2009 our outreach groups gave more than $17,000 to support local and global organizations. 

WW: The new rector will be joining a very pro-active parish.

WALLACE: It’s a church in transition and a growing church. We had five new families join this past year. Christ Church’s members are very forward-looking and very excited about welcoming their new rector, who will be blessed as I have been to share ministry with so many wonderful and caring people.