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
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Weddings

“Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which two persons enter into a life-long union, make their vows before God and the Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill their vows.”

—The Book of Common Prayer, page 861

Christian marriage is a solemn and public covenant. In the Episcopal Church, it is required that at least one of the parties must be a baptized Christian, that the ceremony be attested by at least two witnesses, and that the marriage conform to the laws of the state and canons of the church.

St. Luke’s offers this sacrament in full to all of our members, both opposite and same-gender couples. Our church is no mere venue but a sacred space where a public profession of commitment should strengthen a committed relationship and enable couples to rely on their family, friends, and our parish for support. The ceremony is conducted according to the rites set forth in our Book of Common Prayer. Whether a couple invites only two witnesses or 500, our church is a beautiful setting. It is customary to celebrate marriage within the context of the Holy Eucharist.

Once two persons have made a public commitment at the church, it is expected they will participate in the life and worship of St. Luke’s or a church in the community where they plan to make their home.

Couples should contact the church and receive approval from the clergy before scheduling a wedding date and at least three months in advance to ensure there are no conflicts. Marriages are not celebrated during Lent or the eve of Pentecost. Couples are required to meet with the officiating priest for a specified number of times before being married. If one of the parties has had a marriage end in by dissolution, an application must be submitted to secure permission to marry again.

Because a marriage is centered around the two persons entering into the coventential relationship, it is St. Luke’s custom to communicate only with the couple about wedding plans, rather than designated family members or professional wedding advisors. The church has a schedule of fees for music, security, the services of our sextons, acolytes, and, if needed, rental of the Parish Hall for the reception. Altar flowers are arranged by our Flower Guild. At the rehearsal, the officiating priest and the Wedding Guild review our matrimonial customaries with the entire wedding party.

To inquire about a wedding at St. Luke’s, contact the church office at 404-873-7600.

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The Rev. Winnie Varghese
Rector
404-873-7610 
The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
Senior Associate Rector, ​Liturgy and Education
The Rev. Dr. Horace L. Griffin
Associate Priest for Pastoral Care
404-873-7609 
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.

The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey

Senior Associate Rector, ​Liturgy and Education

Elizabeth has served at St. Lukes since February 2015. Elizabeth has a passion for liturgy and a love for all things community. Her focus is around fostering opportunities for spiritual development and growth. Before seminary she developed and subsequently directed the Johnson Intern Program at Chapel of the Cross, an Episcopal Service Corps program in Chapel Hill, NC 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 in compelling questions about God, 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 dogs, Ana and Fig. Elizabeth is always up for travel and adventure. Having been raised in North Carolina and as an alumni of the University, Elizabeth is an avid Duke basketball fan.

The Rev. Dr. Horace L. Griffin

Associate Priest for Pastoral Care
404-873-7609 |

A graduate of Morehouse College, Boston University, and Vanderbilt in theological studies, Horace came to St. Luke's in July 2017 after a twenty-seven year vocation as a college and seminary professor and hospital chaplain. While he has served on a part-time basis at a number of parishes, currently he has oversight for the pastoral care ministry and provides leadership for the fifteen Community Ministries here at St. Luke’s.

An award-winning author of the groundbreaking, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in the Black Church, he was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 2005 and has passionately devoted his parish ministry to social justice, racial reconciliation and LBGTQ equality in the Church.

His fundamental belief that we are called to love God and treat all humans with love and equal justice is at the heart of his ministry. When he is not working on making the world a better place, he enjoys music, concerts, and film. He is interested in reading books on religion, African American and Gay history, and First Ladies.

Matthew Brown

Director of Music
404-873-7620 |

Matthew Michael Brown was appointed Director of Music at St. Luke’s in February, 2020. At St. Luke’s, he oversees a comprehensive sacred music program and is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Music at St. Luke’s series.

He has concertized 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. As a concert artist, he has performed 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; Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta; Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham; Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston; and Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville. He has premiered works by prominent North Carolina composers, Kenneth Frazelle and Dan Locklair, and has facilitated commissions of new music by Barlow Bradford, David Hurd, Simon Lole, Ned Rorem, and Richard Webster. In 2023, under Matthew's leadership, St. Luke's will endeavor to become a national leader in annually commissioning music by underrepresented composers for traditional liturgies of the Episcopal Church.

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 of 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.

He is professionally affiliated with the Association of Anglican Musicians, American Guild of Organists, American Choral Director’s Association, and the Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé Association. He currently serves on the boards of The Leupold Foundation, Atlanta's Taylor National Organ Playing Competition, and chairs the Nominating Committee for 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.

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

  • Mar 19 | The Rev. Winnie Varghese
    The Fourth Sunday in Lent
  • Mar 12 | The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
    The Third Sunday in Lent
  • Mar 5 | The Rev. Winnie Varghese
    The Second Sunday in Lent
  • Feb 26 | The Rev. Dr. Gabrielle Thomas
    The First Sunday in Lent
  • Feb 19 | The Rev. Nicole Lambelet
    Last Sunday after the Epiphany

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Atlanta, GA

435 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Tel: 404-873-7600

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Service Times

Sunday Services at St. Luke's

  • 8 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite I (in person only)
  • 9 a.m. Family Worship Service with Communion (in person and live online)
  • 11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite II (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

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