Sunday Services at 8 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11:15 a.m. · Details

  435 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30308  ·   404-873-7600  ·         Give

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
  • Welcome
    • Visiting
    • Find Us
    • Leadership
    • Becoming a Member
    • History of St. Luke's
    • Calendar
  • Worship
    • Sundays
    • Streaming Online
    • Sermons
    • Baptisms
    • Confirmation
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
  • Music
    • Adult Choirs
    • Children and Youth Choirs
    • Music at St. Luke's Series
    • The Alston Organ
    • The Bell Tower
  • Serve
    • Community Ministries (Outreach)
    • Serve at St. Luke's
    • Campus of Miracles
  • Connect
    • Realm Login
    • Realm FAQs
    • Children, Youth and Families
    • Pastoral Care
    • Registration and Sign Ups
    • Contact
  • Learn
    • Recordings
    • Parish Library
    • Stained Glass Tours
  • Give
    • 2024 Stewardship Campaign
    • Prepare Ye the Way II
    • Planned Giving
    • The Good Shepherd Society
    • Memorial Gifts

Funerals

“The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all its meaning in the resurrection.”

The Book of Common Prayer, page 507.

The death of anyone associated with St. Luke’s should be reported to the church as soon as possible. The date and other funeral arrangements should be made in consultation with the clergy and not announced until a priest has given approval. To reach our clergy outside of office hours, telephone our main number, 404-873-7600, and choose the option for reaching the priest on call.

As specified in the Book of Common Prayer, “Baptized Christians are properly buried from the church.” Funerals are generally held with the body, either in a coffin or as ashes, present and covered with a pall. If it is not possible for the body to be present, a Memorial Service may be held, using the same rites and language as the Burial Office. All funeral services follow the rites set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, but is is customary for St. Luke’s to provide an Order of Service with the entire liturgy to facilitate participation by everyone.

St. Luke’s has both a Columbarium, located in our Bell Tower, and a Memorial Garden for the interment of ashes. Families may receive friends in the Parish Hall or Hamilton Room prior to the funeral or host a reception afterward. We provide a room for the family to gather prior to the funeral. Our Funeral Guild ensures there is a guest register and people to direct first-time visitors to the appropriate places.

Holy Eucharist is customarily offered at funerals and encouraged for regular communicants. Scripture choices are specified by the Book of Common prayer. An organist from St. Luke’s is available to play hymns and provide other music chosen in consultation with the clergy. Music is meant to complement the liturgy and emphasize themes of resurrection, comfort, strength, and thanksgiving. It is also appropriate to discuss with the clergy the possibility of including hymns especially meaningful to the deceased.

To make a funeral an easy and positive experience for loved ones, we encourage parishioners to outline their funeral preferences ahead of time. To obtain a funeral plan form or for more information on funerals, please contact the church office at 404-873-7600.

Share this page: Funerals
The Rev. Winnie Varghese
Rector
404-873-7610 
Matthew Brown
Director of Music
404-873-7620 
Mark Simmons
Director of Membership & Stewardship
404-873-7624 

The Rev. Winnie Varghese

Rector
404-873-7610 |

A national leader in the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Winnie Varghese is known for her inspired writing, teaching and preaching. Before becoming the 23rd rector of St. Luke's, she served as Priest for Ministry and Program Coordination at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City.

Prior to Trinity, Winnie served as Rector and Priest-in-Charge at St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York. Winnie was also Chaplain at both Columbia University and University of California Los Angeles. She is a native of Dallas, Texas and is married to Elizabeth Toledo, a public relations executive. They have two grown children.

Winnie serves on the Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary, she chaired the General Convention’s Committee on the State of the Church from 2015 to 2018, and she served on the Board of Trustees of the Episcopal Divinity School, 2013-2016. She is also a published author, editor, and podcaster.

Winnie’s parents immigrated to the United States from India, and Winnie spent part of her early childhood years there. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA and earned her bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She then attended Union Theological Seminary and graduated with her Master of Divinity degree in 1999. She was ordained to the deaconate in Los Angeles in 1999 and to the priesthood six months later in 2000.

Matthew Brown

Director of Music
404-873-7620 |

Matthew Michael Brown, a native of North Carolina, is Director of Music at St. Luke’s, where he leads a vibrant sacred music program affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music in America and is Founder and Artistic Director of the Music at St. Luke’s series.

As a concert artist, he has performed for series and festivals in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Barcelona Cathedral, Spain; Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; Washington National Cathedral; Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York; Princeton University Chapel; Assembly Hall of the Mormon Tabernacle; Trinity Church on Copley Square, Boston; and the Episcopal Cathedrals of Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston, and Nashville. Several performances have been heard in radio broadcasts of American Public Media’s Pipe Dreams and the nationally syndicated program, With Heart and Voice.

He earned degrees in organ performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music. He also holds the Sacred Music Diploma from Eastman's Institute for Music Leadership. As a grant recipient from the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and The Robert Carwithen Foundation, he pursued two years of post-graduate organ studies with Dame Gillian Weir. Other major teachers included David Higgs, Jack Mitchener, and Wayne Leupold. Earlier in his career, he benefited from master classes with Marie-Claire Alain, Michel Bouvard, David Craighead, and Ewald Kooiman, and was a pianist for the New York City voice studio of Rita Shane, dramatic coloratura soprano for many of the world’s leading opera houses.

An advocate for new music, he has premiered major works by Kenneth Frazelle and Dan Locklair. He has also facilitated commissions from Barlow Bradford, David Hurd, Simon Lole, Ned Rorem, and Richard Webster. Beginning in 2023, the music program at St. Luke’s Atlanta will endeavor to become a leader in annually commissioning music by underrepresented composers for traditional liturgies of the Episcopal Church. This initiative launched with new compositions by David Hurd, Texu Kim, and Dorothy Papadakos to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Alston Memorial Organ.

Matthew is a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians, American Guild of Organists, American Choral Director’s Association, and the Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé Association in Paris, France. He currently serves as Vice-President for The Leupold Foundation and on committees for the Taylor National Organ Playing Competition and the Southeast Region of the American Guild of Organists.

Each summer, he manages the Royal School of Church Music in America’s Carolina Summer Choral Residency at Duke University. In recognition for his significant work and contributions to the cause and advancement of church music, he will be made an Honorary Member (HonRSCM) of the Royal School of Church Music this October in Chester Cathedral (UK).


Mark Simmons

Director of Membership & Stewardship
404-873-7624 |
Mark loves people! He has worked in the nonprofit world virtually his whole career with major stints at the American Red Cross and two other communities of faith. Mark’s role at St. Luke’s is to help members and newcomers make connections with people and ministries of the parish, in addition to coordinating efforts to fund the church’s ministries. He finds his work fulfilling and important because it helps him and others connect with something bigger than the self and to make the world a better place.

Mark is a Louisiana native, but considers himself fully Georgian, having lived his adult life here. He dabbles with making pottery, trying new recipes in his wok, and he always has an in-progress book on his nightstand. Mark and his partner, Kippy, have been together many years and live in Cobb County with their wirehaired dachshund. Mark loves being a part of the warm, welcoming, inquiring, and difference-making community of St. Luke’s.
Worship Sundays Streaming Live Online Sermons Baptism Confirmation Weddings Funerals

Sermons

  • Sep 24 | The Rev. Winnie Varghese
    Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
  • Sep 17 | Mignon Crawford
    Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
  • Sep 10 | The Rev. Winnie Varghese
    Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
  • Sep 3 | ​The Rev. Matt Babcock
    Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
  • Aug 27 | The Rev. Winnie Varghese
    Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Atlanta, GA

435 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Tel: 404-873-7600

  View Entire Post

Service Times

Sunday Services at St. Luke's

  • 8 a.m. Worship Service with Communion (in person only)
  • 9 a.m. Family Worship Service with Communion (in person and live online)
  • 11:15 a.m. Worship Service with Communion (in person and live online)

Bookmark stlukesatlanta.org/live/ for live services, bulletins and updates.

St. Luke's Live


Location

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
435 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Contact Us
404-873-7600

Newsletter Signup

Everything is Waiting for You! Support St. Luke's by committing to the 2024 Stewardship Campaign.

Pledge Now Learn More