The Church of the Good Shepherd sits on Braddock Road at its intersection with Olley Lane in Burke, Virginia, three miles west of the Capital Beltway. The Episcopal parish has built its identity around three things: a serious commitment to the Anglican worship tradition, a graded music program that runs from preschoolers through adults, and an outreach operation that puts the parish kitchen to work thirty-four nights a year. Its self-description is unusually direct: "Grounded by the centuries-old Anglican tradition, we stand at the intersection of the earliest Christian beliefs and the rapidly changing contemporary world." The parish considers itself open and affirming and welcomes people of every background.
An Episcopal Parish of Faith, Hope, and Love
The parish mission is three words long: "The Church of the Good Shepherd is a Christ-centered community sharing God's love." The vision adds that the community "strives to strengthen faith, build community, serve others." The Rev. Redmond Self serves as Associate Rector. A twelve-member Vestry, elected to three-year overlapping terms, oversees parish life, with Fred Gibson as Senior Warden and John Dohn as Junior Warden. Standing committees handle Buildings and Grounds, Finance, the Memorial and Meditation Gardens, Misconduct Prevention, and Stewardship, alongside ministry groups for the Altar Guild, Daughters of the King, Flower Guild, Outreach, and the Welcoming Ministry.
Sunday Worship: Spoken at Eight, Sung at Ten-Fifteen
On most Sundays, the parish gathers for the Holy Eucharist twice in the sanctuary. The 8:00 a.m. service is a quiet, contemplative spoken rite without music. The 10:15 a.m. service is the principal Sunday liturgy, with hymns, the Senior Choir, and special music, and it is streamed live on Facebook through GS Worship Livestream. Both services share the same Episcopal shape: readings from the Old Testament, a Psalm, a New Testament epistle, and a Gospel, followed by a sermon, the Nicene Creed, prayers of the people, the exchange of the peace, and Communion at the altar rail. All who seek a closer relationship with God in Christ are welcome to receive communion or a blessing, regardless of age or denomination.
Between the two services, at 9:00 a.m., the parish holds its parish-wide Formation Hour. Children in kindergarten through sixth grade gather for Children's Formation in the lower-level Shepherd's Nook, with classes split between K through 3 and 4 through 6 using an Episcopal curriculum tied to the Sunday Gospel. Episcopal Youth Community (EYC) for grades 7 through 12 meets in the lower level as well. Parents of little ones can stay in the Shepherd's Nook for "Parenting in the Pews," and adults are invited to the Atrium for the Sunday Adult Forum. Coffee and donuts in the Narthex follow each service.
For families with very young children, a Family Room is open during both services. The Parlor is set up with toys, books, and a television carrying the service audio and video, so Spirit-filled young ones can play while parents keep up with the liturgy. Families can come and go from the room as needed throughout the service.
Throughout the Week: Holy Eucharist, Compline, and Healing
The liturgical life of Good Shepherd does not end on Sunday morning. The parish gathers for a noon Holy Eucharist in the sanctuary every Tuesday and for a contemplative Holy Eucharist with Anointing for Healing on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Both weekday celebrations use the same Eucharistic Prayer as Sunday, with the Wednesday service set in a circle of chairs in the sanctuary and shaped around extended silence.
On Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Compline - the church's traditional end-of-day prayer - is prayed together on Zoom, with a printed leaflet available for those who want to follow along. The combination of midweek Eucharist and twice-weekly online Compline gives the parish a daily rhythm of prayer that has continued through both ordinary time and pandemic.
The Choir Loft: An Anglican Music Tradition
"Those who sing, pray twice," runs the heading on the music page, and Good Shepherd has built an unusually deep musical tradition around that conviction. The Senior Choir leads music at the 10:15 a.m. service and at special services through the church year - Lessons and Carols, Christmas Eve, Holy Week, and major works with chamber orchestra each year. The choir rehearses on Wednesdays from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. and on Sunday mornings at 9:15. Nancy Smith serves as Choirmaster, and Alex Bean as Director of Music Ministries.
Below the senior choir sits a graded children's music program. Youth Choir, for students in grades 4 through 12, rehearses most Sundays at noon and sings in worship at least once a month. KidsJAM - Kids, Jesus, and Music - meets once or twice a month at 11:30 a.m. for PreK through 3rd graders, mixing singing, movement, and playful music-making. The parish is a member of the Royal School of Church Music America and offers RSCM training to young singers in the choirs.
For those who prefer bells to voices, Ring and Rejoice is the parish's adult and teen handbell choir (ages 16 and up), directed by Walt Todenhoft. The choir rehearses on Mondays from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., provides music in worship throughout the year, performs for residents of Greenspring Retirement Community, and joins a regional handbell festival each spring that brings together ten to twenty other handbell choirs for a mass ringing event.
Children, Youth, and the Good Shepherd Preschool
The parish treats the formation of children as central rather than as an adjunct. Children's Formation on Sunday mornings uses a curriculum published by the Episcopal Church and tied to the Gospel lesson and the church season. Younger children learn through Godly Play, a creative, imaginative approach that lets them reenact the stories of the Bible in a calm, carefully prepared room in the lower level. Fourth through sixth graders use Spark, a video- and discussion-based curriculum, and gather socially once a month for Sparks Fly on Friday evenings. Episcopal Youth Community, the parish's youth group, offers Sunday morning formation as well as a calendar of fellowship and service events throughout the year.
Children can also serve the parish in worship. Acolytes - children in fourth grade and up, as well as adults - assist the clergy by lighting candles, carrying the processional cross, holding torches or banners, and helping prepare the altar for communion. Older youth take visible roles as crucifers and torch bearers at major services.
Sharing the building is the Good Shepherd Preschool, directed by Jennifer Brown, where, in the church's phrase, "learning is fun." The preschool is a separate program with its own phone line, and its families participate in parish life - the preschool's home-baked Christmas cookies are folded into the parish's Christmas Boxes outreach to children in need each year.
Adults Growing Deeper
The Adult Forum meets in the Atrium between services on Sunday mornings and is described as "an opportunity for fellowship and learning throughout the year." Studies change with the seasons and have included Episcopal 101 (an introduction to the Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Communion, and the liturgy), a study of the Apostles' Creed, and Prayer Practices, a teaching-and-activity format introducing different forms of prayer. On Wednesday afternoons the parish offers a Bible study built around N.T. Wright's Gospel of Mark for Everyone.
Two newer initiatives give the Adult Forum a broader reach. Sacred Ground Circle is a dialogue series on race grounded in faith, part of the Episcopal Church's Becoming Beloved Community commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice. Good Shepherd at Greenspring is a fellowship and reflection group based at the Greenspring senior living community, open to anyone but especially serving parishioners who live there. (Formerly) Catholic Cafe offers fellowship and support for former Catholics and their families, regardless of denomination.
Sacraments and the Memorial Garden
The parish prepares members for all of the Church's sacramental milestones. Baptism is the rite by which Christians are initiated into the Body of Christ; at Good Shepherd, it is typically administered on Sunday morning during one of the services, with the clergy meeting parents and godparents in advance. The church sets aside Easter, Pentecost, All Saints' Day, and the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord as especially appropriate days. Confirmation is the rite in which those already baptized make a mature commitment to Christ and receive the laying on of hands by a bishop, and questions about preparation are directed to the clergy. The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage requires extended preparation with the clergy, and inquiries are routed through the parish office. Funerals follow the memorial services in the Book of Common Prayer; the parish provides a Funeral Customary and Guidelines document for families to use in planning.
Just outside the church building is the Good Shepherd Memorial Garden, built in 2004 and intended as "a place of peace and natural beauty." Cremains are interred directly in the soil in a biodegradable container, perpetually cared for by the parish, and the garden is open for prayer and reflection throughout the year. It is tended by a dedicated Memorial and Meditation Gardens committee.
Serving Neighbors Near and Far
Outreach at Good Shepherd is an entire ministry of the congregation rather than a side program. The Outreach Committee meets the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. and welcomes new members. Funds come from the parish budget, individual donations, the Compassion Fund, and fundraising events.
The biggest local commitment is to FACETS, which serves poor and homeless individuals and families in Fairfax County. Good Shepherd fields five Hot Meals teams that cook and deliver meals thirty-four nights a year, about 100 FACETS clients per night. The parish also conducts annual baby-supplies and school-supplies drives and provides direct financial support to FACETS.
Other ongoing ministries include:
- Fairfax FISH (For Immediate Sympathetic Help). An ecumenical program of fourteen local churches that helps people facing temporary need for food, medicine, or financial aid.
- Food4Thought. About thirty-nine bags of weekend food for food-insecure students and families of nearby Little Run Elementary School, packed every other month while school is in session.
- Feed a Family for Thanksgiving. Turkey and grocery gift cards for local families in need each November.
- Christmas Boxes. One hundred or more wrapped boxes of Christmas gifts for children served by Britepaths in Fairfax and Jubilee Housing in Washington, D.C., each Advent.
- School Supply Drives. An annual collection for students in need.
- Food Collections. Two "Pack the Pickup" drives a year that have delivered more than a thousand pounds of groceries to Food for Others and the George Mason Patriot Pantry.
- Faith, Hope, and Joy Episcopal School, Honduras. Sponsorship of sixteen children at the Episcopal grade school in San Pedro Sula.
- Blood Drives. Two drives a year with the Inova Blood Donor Services mobile unit, supplying about fifteen local hospitals and medical centers.
- Episcopal Relief & Development and the United Thank Offering. Annual contributions to the wider Episcopal response to crisis and development.
- Grocery Gift Cards. One-time $25 grocery cards (and gas cards) for people who come to the church asking for food, along with information on area food banks.
Pastoral care is coordinated by lay people. Lay Eucharistic Visitors take Holy Eucharist to those who cannot attend services. The Flower Ministry turns altar flowers into bouquets for home delivery. The Bereavement Support Ministry helps families plan receptions after a funeral. Daughters of the King, an international order of women in prayer, service, and evangelism, usually meets on the third Saturday of the month at noon.
The Good Shepherd Players: A Theatrical Ministry
For forty-five years, the Good Shepherd Players have mounted a Broadway-style musical every year in the Parish Hall, drawing on community members of all ages as cast, crew, and audience. The list of past productions is a roll call of American musical theater - Oliver!, Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Bye Bye Birdie, Anything Goes, And Then There Were None, and Seussical the Musical, among others. Tickets have been sold through gsmusic.ticketleap.com, and the troupe's cabarets and special performances have become a fixture of parish life. After a recent period of reflection by the board and Vestry on the shifting volunteer base, the parish is discerning how a new theatrical ministry might take root in the years ahead.
A separate summer arts program continues at the parish. The Summer Musical Theatre Camp offers a half-day Imagination Station camp for rising K through 2nd graders, a one-week Frozen JR. camp for grades 3 through 9, and a two-week intensive on Anastasia: Youth Edition for rising 8th through 12th graders, all directed by Elle Ames.
Planning a First Visit
Good Shepherd sits at 9350 Braddock Road, with the recommended entrance off Olley Lane at the driveway marked "Church Entrance." Eastbound traffic exits via Olley Lane as well. The parish office is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and is closed on Mondays and Fridays. The office phone is 703-323-5400 and the email is officemanager@good-shepherd.net.
Visitors who want to follow along with the liturgy can find the service leaflet on the Worship page. A hearing assistance system using AuraCast technology is available in the sanctuary, and large-print materials can be requested in advance. The Family Room and the coffee hour in the Narthex make the morning easier for families. Giving is available online through the Realm portal, and the parish's weekly Shepherd's Staff newsletter keeps the congregation connected between Sundays.