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

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
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Our History

St. Luke’s story is one of vision, rebirth and service. It begins with Dr. Quintard. Dr. Charles Todd Quintard was born and raised in Connecticut and earned his medical degree in New York. He then moved south, and while a professor in the Medical College in Memphis became friends with the first bishop of Tennessee. Deciding to leave medicine, he studied for holy orders and was ordained a priest in 1856. When the Civil War broke out Dr. Quintard accepted a post as Chaplain of the Army of Tennessee although he had originally been a unionist. In 1863 the Army of Tennessee began a defensive struggle against Union forces and eventually retreated to Atlanta, bringing Dr. Quintard with it.

As the Civil War raged around it, Atlanta had a growing refugee population. Dr. Quintard decided a second Episcopal church was desirable, and with zeal in 1864 oversaw the building of the first St. Luke’s, a wooden structure with a school house appearance. It was consecrated by Bishop Stephen Elliott April 22, 1864, at Broad and Walton Streets. Only four months later it was heavily damaged by Union artillery shelling and later that year was totally destroyed during the burning of Atlanta.

Dr. Quintard became the second bishop of Tennessee soon after the Civil War. As such, he spurred reconciliation between the northern and southern factions of the church. He was known as an opponent of racism and classism. While bishop, he also served for several years as head of the University of the South at Sewanee.

In 1870 the parish was reestablished as St. Stephen’s. On January 8, 1872, the vestry approved a motion made by Dr. John Milton Johnson “that the present name of our parish be changed to that formerly established – St. Luke's. Dr. Johnson had been confirmed in the 1864 St. Luke’s and then served as senior warden for the reestablished parish. The second church building in 1875 was at the corner of Spring and Walton Streets. Financial challenges ensued, and in 1880 Bishop Beckwith accepted St. Luke’s’ offer to become his cathedral church, feeling that would help strengthen the parish. A new cathedral building was erected at the corner of Pryor and Houston Streets. In 1894 the church returned to regular parish status. During this period when financial challenges were ongoing, faithful leadership from the vestry and clergy were notable. One senior warden, Z. D. Harrison, served a total of 37 years!

As the city grew and parish members moved northward, the vestry in 1904 sold the third church building in 1904 for $40,000 and secured a lot on Peachtree Street for $18,000. P. Thornton Marye, a parish member and architect of such landmarks as the Fox Theatre and Terminal Station, created the modified late English Gothic building in which we have worshipped since its consecration in 1906.

The stained glass windows were designed from a master plan and installed over a 60 year period. They are the work of Franz Mayer and Co. of Germany, known for its red and rich purple hues; Heaton, Butler and Bayne Co. of England, known for its subtle green glows, and Willet Stained Glass Co. of Philadelphia, known for its predominantly blue tones. The windows reflect events in the life of Christ from Nativity to Ascension. The smaller aisle windows below each larger one tell an Old Testament story complimentary to the life of Christ event above it. The Ascension Window next to the pulpit was moved from the 3rd church location when the current building was erected. Also moved was a smaller window, called Chorus of Cherubim, now located in the Bell Tower corridor.

The mural above the altar, known as “Christ as the Good Shepherd,” was created by noted muralist Edwin Howland Blashfield and installed in 1913. The effort to fill the blank space over the altar began with Helen Turman, who was referred to Blashfield and traveled to New York to meet with him. He at first declined, but later was persuaded to accept the commission for $5,000, a bargain price. The women of the church raised the money. The mural is considered still to be important as a fine work of art and a symbol of the visual arts in early twentieth century Atlanta.

Dr. Cary B. Wilmer served as rector from 1900 to 1924, the longest tenure of any rector to date. It was under his leadership that St. Luke’s began to earn its reputation for being a voice in Atlanta for moral and social justice.

Additions to the campus over the years have been made to accommodate church growth. The first was in 1924 and another in 1959. A green space of some 4 acres south of the church constituting “The Park at St. Luke’s” was created in the late 1980s in a joint venture with the Georgia Dept. of Transportation. A memorial garden was also created on the north side of the church. A $10 million renovation of the sanctuary was completed in 1999. A new bell tower was dedicated in 2000, which includes 10 change ringing bells. A columbarium is in the lower level of the bell tower.

The Alston Memorial Organ was installed in 1963. It has been modified and expanded since, and contains about 5,000 pipes. The music ministry has a long and influential history in the city. Organists from around the world have played and performed concerts from the organ. The church has a history of talented organists/choirmasters and choristers. The longest serving was Dr. Hugh Hodgson, 1929-1969, who was also the chair of the Department of Music at the University of Georgia.

St. Luke’s is committed to serve as a beacon of outreach and social justice in downtown Atlanta and beyond. It is known as a place which encourages members to live out their baptismal covenant through a variety of outreach ministries. In 1949 the Atlanta Cerebral Palsy School was begun in the Parish House by parishioner Anne Lane and her friend Rebecca Frazer. It is now The Frazer Center, located in the Cator Woolford Gardens on Ponce de Leon Ave. A soup kitchen begun in 1973 has grown to include daily meals, a job assistance program, health referral services, and a mailroom. Known now as Crossroads Community Ministries, it operates from the church campus. Bill Bolling started the Atlanta Community Food Bank in the church basement in 1979. Currently it distributes food to the needy through a network across the country with an independent annual budget in excess of $40 million. The Training and Counseling Center provides pastoral training and mental health services to the community and operates from the historic Edward Gay home on the campus, with several satellite locations around town. The church provides space and support for the Boyce L. Ansley School, providing a formal school atmosphere for children experiencing homelessness. It is named for a long-time parishioner who shared its vision, and is managed by parishioners and others through an independent board.

With about 2,000 members, St. Luke’s sees itself as a dynamic community of faith, striving to live out the Gospel in the heart of Atlanta.

--this history prepared by the Archives Committee in 2019

Share this page: Our History
The Rev. Ed Bacon
Interim Rector
The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
Senior Associate Rector, ​Liturgy and Education
The Rev. Horace L. Griffin
Senior Associate for Pastoral Care and Community Ministries
Matthew Brown
Director of Music
404-873-7620 
Liz Beal Kidd
Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry
404-873-7690 
Elizabeth Moore
Interim Director of Operations
404-873-7663 
Mark Simmons
Director of Membership & Stewardship
404-873-7624 

The Rev. Ed Bacon

Interim Rector

Ed Bacon, the son of a Baptist minister, began his Episcopal journey of faith at St. Luke’s nearly four decades ago when, while serving as our parish’s youth minister, he was granted admission as a postulate for the priesthood. Ed was ordained in 1983 and his ministry led him to become a national voice on issues of faith and justice for all regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.

Until his retirement in May 2016, Ed was the rector of All Saints Church in Pasadena, California – a 4,000 member multi-ethnic urban Episcopal parish, with a reputation for energetic worship, a radically inclusive spirit, and a progressive peace and justice agenda. He shepherded All Saints for more than two decades. Before that he served as dean of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Jackson, Mississippi; rector of St Mark’s in Dalton; and, earlier, when he was a Baptist minister, he was campus minister and dean of students at Mercer University in Macon.

Ed, who holds a master of theology from Emory University and honorary doctorates from The Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Mercer University, is the author of 8 Habits of Love, a guide to living life through love and connection, not fear and isolation. His energies these days focus on leadership in anxious times; living a love-based life as opposed to a fear-based life; peacemaking; interfaith relations; contemplative practices and their impact on relationships, creativity, and brain functioning; and, articulating the Christian faith in non-bigoted, science-friendly, and inclusive ways. He blogs regularly on Medium.com about wholemaking in a tribalized/polarized cultural environment and can be followed there as well as on Facebook and Twitter @RevEdBacon. His new website is Edbacon.co.

Ed has been both a guest and a regular guest host on Oprah Winfrey’s Soul Series on Oprah & Friends Radio, and a guest panelist in the Spirituality 101 segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show’s “Living Your Best Life” series. He is a contributor to Oprah.com and a frequent guest on Super Soul Sunday on the Oprah Winfrey Network and his interviews with her have been chosen as part of Super Soul Conversations by Oprah podcasts. He is the recipient of many awards including the Peace Award and the Compassion Award from the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Los Angeles. In October he was the recipient of the Ruby McKnight Williams Award from the Pasadena NAACP.

Ed and his wife, Hope Hendricks-Bacon, have two adult children and two grandchildren. Since retiring they have lived near their family in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey

Senior Associate Rector, ​Liturgy and Education

Elizabeth Shows Caffey has served at St. Luke's since February 2015. Elizabeth has a passion for liturgy, spiritual development, and a love for all things community. Before seminary she developed and subsequently directed the Johnson Intern Program at Chapel of the Cross, an Episcopal Service Corps Program, while also working as the family coordinator for Chatham Habitat for Humanity. She has served at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City and All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta as the priest for outreach, liturgy and pastoral care. The connecting thread through all of Elizabeth’s work has been engaging the compelling questions about God and living as a person of great faith and intellectual inquiry and responding with action and intention in how we live. She loves camping with her children and dog, Ana, and is always up for travel and adventure. As an alumni and North Carolina native, she is an avid Duke basketball fan.

The Rev. Horace L. Griffin

Senior Associate for Pastoral Care and Community Ministries

Matthew Brown

Director of Music
404-873-7620 |

Matthew Michael Brown joined the St. Luke’s staff as Director of Music in 2020. A native of North Carolina, he holds degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music. His major organ teachers include Dame Gillian Weir, David Higgs, Jack Mitchener, and Wayne Leupold. Mr. Brown frequently concertizes throughout the USA and abroad, and 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 has performed as a guest artist for series and festivals in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Barcelona Cathedral, Spain; 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, Charleston, and Nashville. He serves as course manager for the annual Royal School of Church Music Carolina Course at Duke University. Beyond his professional responsibilities, he enjoys frequent collaborations for music to connect with non-profit organizations which care for society’s most fragile and vulnerable citizens.

Liz Beal Kidd

Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry
404-873-7690 |

Elizabeth Moore

Interim Director of Operations
404-873-7663 |

Mark Simmons

Director of Membership & Stewardship
404-873-7624 |
Welcome to St. Luke's Receive our emails Visiting Finding Us Leadership Vestry Calendar Our History Tour St. Luke's Becoming a Member

Sermons

  • Feb 21 | The Rev. Ed Bacon
    Experiencing the Hidden Ground of Love and Wholeness
  • Feb 14 | Marisa Sifontes
    The Art of Tending Trees
  • Feb 7 | The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
    Courageous Conversations and Liberating Love
  • Jan 31 | The Rev. Ed Bacon
    Healing a Disoriented Spirit
  • Jan 24 | The Rev. Horace L. Griffin
    #FollowingJesus

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Atlanta, GA

435 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Tel: 404-873-7600

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Service Times

During this time of COVID-19, St. Luke's has broadcast its Sunday services live - and we added Noonday Prayers and Compline in the evening, both live five days a week. We learned the magic of Zoom for meetings and classes.

Join us live for online worship Sundays at 10 AM.

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

St. Luke's Live


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

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404-873-7600

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Online Worship

Join us live for online worship Sundays at 10 AM.

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

St. Luke's Live

Our faith teaches us that God’s love is limitless. But like the loaves and fishes, it only multiplies when we offer it to God’s glory. Big Love calls us to be courageous; to prepare the way for miracles.

Big Love is St. Luke's call to collective, courageous generosity. We give each other permission to be extraordinary!

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