About Us
Saint Mark's is a community of people who seek to be shaped by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the great commandment to love God and our neighbors. We are called together day by day, week by week to lift our voices in praise of God, to seek God's nearer presence in prayer, and to work for the building up of God's kingdom, especially by reaching out to those in need.
Whether you are here for a minute or two because you happened to walk by, or for an hour because you are visiting Philadelphia and wanted a place to worship, or for a long time because you have been looking for a community of faith and have found it here, you are most welcome here.
We are a parish of the Episcopal Church of the USA, part of the Anglican Communion throughout the world. Specifically, we are a member of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Worship of God
The worship of God is at the very center of everything we do as a parish community, and we take our worship seriously, believing that it offers us an encounter with the living God through Word and Sacrament.
Saint Mark's was founded in 1847 in the midst of a revival in the Anglican church of the kind of rich worship, Gothic architecture, and excellent music that had been lost to Protestant churches after the Reformation of the 16th century. In this 'catholic' revival, Anglicans began again to embrace the rituals of the ancient church with renewed enthusiasm for the gift of the Sacraments, recognizing that a biblically informed, Gospel-centered church need not be at odds with the catholic tradition and is actually strengthened by the expression of God's love in both Word and Sacraments.
Churches that maintain this legacy are often described as 'Anglo-catholic', that is, churches that value both their Anglican heritage (as descendants of the Church of England) and their catholic heritage (as inheritors of the Scriptures, the Creeds, the Sacraments and the apostolic ministry of bishops).
In our close encounter with God through Word and Sacrament, Christian people are called to ministry. In the midst of the city, for us this often means reaching out to those who are in need. A Food Cupboard, which supplies staples for almost 200 families or individuals a month has been operating at Saint Mark's for more than 20 years. In December of 2003 we initiated the Saturday Soup Bowl which often feeds more than 100 hungry people on Saturday mornings.
For some years now, parishioners and clergy of Saint Mark's have made a monthly visit to a local nursing home for a celebration of the Mass and some time of fellowship. Vacation Bible School is a week-long opportunity to work with kids in partnership with neighboring parishes - many of whom come to us from neighborhoods far south of center city.
We continue to look for ways to increase our ministry to the city, and we rely on many hands to help make this happen.
To learn more about Saint Mark's, click on any of the links below.
