On February 27, 1823, a community working to become a new church in Center City Philadelphia consecrated the result: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The new congregation, formally born two weeks after Ash Wednesday, bore the way of Lent in its DNA. Committed to self-reflection and renewal, to Lent as the way of Opportunity, this group forged its own path to Christ and a changing world.

St. Stephen’s evolved under its community’s approach to a tumultuous world: wars, pandemics, urban change and turmoil, technological developments. Its religious stance, marked by the congregation’s choice of rector, evolved as well, from its original mix of early 19th-century high-church principles to include liberal and evangelical views into the late 20th century.

In 2017, after suspending religious activities for a year, St. Stephen’s re-opened its doors on Ash Wednesday—reaffirming Lent as its season of Opportunity—to embrace the great flow of the world outside as a radically redefined congregation.

 In the pandemic of 2020-21 St. Stephen’s took even more radical steps into the beyond in its move to a virtual world with new activities and an even more varied and fluid congregation. For this Lenten birthday, there’s much to reflect on, to reaffirm, and to be grateful for.

Most of all, we honor YOU, St. Stephen’s congregation in this virtual world wherever you are, some of whom we’ve never met in person and may never do so.

You’re a living part of our community today!