During the 100th anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving for Epiphany Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., on May 18, a group of special guests were asked to stand – the descendants of the African American Catholics who founded the parish a century earlier in 1925 after experiencing discrimination at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. Epiphany Parish was officially established that year when the sturdy red brick church was built at 2712 Dumbarton Street, N.W.
“Their (the founders’) courage, faith and trust in the Lord is why we can gather today in this beautiful church,” said Father Stefan Megyery, Epiphany Parish’s pastor.
After Communion, Tanya Wetenhall, a member of the parish council there, noted, “Those parishioners built this parish and its buildings with prayer, sacrifice and a vision for a spiritual home where all would be seen, heard and valued as children of God. Their vision is still the very foundation of Epiphany Catholic Church today.” She then invited the descendants attending the anniversary Mass to stand, “So we may welcome you home!”
The congregation crowding the church gave a long ovation to the descendants.
In the parish’s anniversary booklet titled “A Century of Worship, A Future of Promise,” Linda L. Gray and Mark Holan wrote how about 350 African American Catholics founded Epiphany Parish after they and their forebears had endured more than a century of segregation at Holy Trinity Church, where they had to climb steep stairs and crowd into a balcony that only had space for 100 people, and then had suffered the indignity of waiting at the end of the Communion line until White Catholics had received the Eucharist there.
Among the descendants attending the 100th anniversary Mass for Epiphany Catholic Church was Dorothy Harris Gray, whose mother, Dorothy Williams Harris, was among the parish’s founders. Gray, 92, is a lifelong parishioner who was baptized there in 1932 and served as a lector at the anniversary Mass.
Reflecting on the parish’s founders, she said their faith in God and desire to follow Him led them to work together to establish their new spiritual home. “They wanted to be able to worship without any discrimination or embarrassment,” she said.
The founders held fundraisers for their new church and initially attended Masses in private homes and at Black-owned businesses in Georgetown. In early 1926, Baltimore Archbishop Michael Curley dedicated the new Epiphany Catholic Church. The parish was initially staffed by Josephite priests, including Father Chester C. Ball, a native Washingtonian who led the parish from 1952-58, becoming the first Black priest to serve as a pastor in the nation’s capital.
Dorothy Harris Gray, a retired elementary school teacher, said Epiphany Catholic Church “was a second home” for her and her family over the years as they received the sacraments and faithfully attended Mass there each Sunday, and their lives were woven into the fabric of the parish’s life. In addition to becoming one of the first lay lectors there, she taught Sunday school, sang in the choir and served as prefect of the Sodality. At the anniversary Mass, she wore an “Epiphany of Georgetown” cap.
The descendants attending the Mass and a luncheon that followed included Eugene Davis, a retired assistant analyst at the Civil Service Commission who brought a copy of his baptismal certificate from May 1, 1927. “I was baptized here 98 years ago,” said Davis, whose father Augustine Davis was among Epiphany Parish’s founders. He said coming back to Epiphany Catholic Church “means returning to my roots.”
Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr., the main celebrant at the anniversary Mass, said, “The founders of Epiphany Parish sacrificed all their lives in order to be able to worship God freely with dignity as disciples of Jesus. Because of the love that the original parishioners showed to all who came to worship with them… We are now celebrating the 100th anniversary of this parish.”
In the Epiphany Parish centennial booklet, Father Megyery noted how the parish is named for the feast of the three wise men who followed a star and encountered and worshipped the newborn Jesus, offering gifts to Him. A dramatic circular stained glass window on the wall behind the church’s altar and tabernacle depicts the Epiphany scene.
The pastor said Epiphany Parish’s founders also made a journey to encounter Jesus, and noted that legacy continues today in the diverse parish, which offers a weekly 9 a.m. Sunday Mass in Korean and a noon Mass on the last Sunday of the month in Lithuanian.
The French Catholic community in Washington worshiped at Epiphany Catholic Church from 1960 until 2013. Since 1979, the Lithuanian Catholic Mission of Washington has gathered there for Mass. When Father Paul Lee became the pastor there in 2005, Masses in Korean began to be celebrated there and have continued since then.
“The spirit of our founding fathers and mothers has continued, especially in the way Epiphany has welcomed other communities on their journey to encounter and worship Jesus Christ,” Father Megyery wrote in the anniversary booklet.
The concelebrants at the Mass included Father Megyery, an immigrant from Germany who was ordained as a priest for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington in 2019 and who has been the pastor at Epiphany Parish since 2021; Father Paul Lee, who is now the pastor of the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, Maryland; Father Adam Park, a former pastor of Epiphany Parish who is now a chaplain at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda; and Jesuit Father C. Kevin Gillespie, the pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Georgetown.
Prayers, readings and songs at the Mass were in English and Korean, and a Korean choir of adults, youth and children sang the “Ave Maria” after Communion. Representatives of the English-speaking, Lithuanian and Korean communities offered greetings before the end of the Mass.
“Everybody here is one in the body of Christ,” Bishop Campbell said.
In an interview after the Mass, Audra Plepytė, the ambassador of Lithuania to the United States, said, “We’re very grateful for this parish, that it hosts Lithuanian Masses.”
Tanya Mitchell, a granddaughter of founding Epiphany parishioner Dorothy Harris, said later that the Black Catholic families who started the parish “demonstrated commitment, perseverance, courage and a leap of faith to step out under the foot of racism and make a way for them to worship with dignity, respect and on their own terms.”
Reflecting on the founders’ legacy, Mitchell added, “Now, 100 years later as we celebrate our centenary, it fills my heart to see that Epiphany has become a church full of people from diverse backgrounds who can worship and celebrate together.”
That point about the parish’s legacy was echoed by Daniel Brown, a lawyer who married his wife Marie at Epiphany Catholic Church. The couple from Annandale, Virginia, attended the anniversary celebration with their 10-month-old baby daughter Josephina, who was baptized there. “Today they (parishioners) can all worship together under the same roof, and it’s wonderful to see,” he said.
Caroline Doran, who works in public relations and communications, will be marrying her fiancé Zane Gourzong at Epiphany Catholic Church this fall. They often go to daily Mass there, and she participates in the parish’s Women’s Guild, which brings together women of different ages for prayer and service activities. “This is a great place to build community and intergenerational relations,” she said.
Francesca Kang, a member of the Korean Catholic community at Epiphany Parish who works as a librarian at Georgetown University, praised the parish’s diversity and said the people there from different cultures and backgrounds are united in their faith.
“We add more vibrant color to the parish,” said Kang, who teaches religious education classes to Korean children and youth there. She added, “We learn from the English and Lithuanian communities. It goes both ways.”
The anniversary luncheon, which was promoted as a “parish feast” included fried chicken, green beans, biscuits, shrimp gumbo, grits and traditional Korean dishes including kimchi dumplings and kimbap, a seaweed roll.
Melissa Overmyer, an author with Ascension Press who wrote the book “From Worry to Wonder: A Catholic Guide to Finding Peace through Scripture,” attended the anniversary Mass and luncheon with her husband Dale, who works as an architect. The couple lives in Georgetown.
Also reflecting on the Epiphany Parish founders’ legacy, Melissa Overmyer said, “We’re standing on the shoulders of a lot of courageous people who had conviction and a deep love for God. Now they (parishioners here today) welcome everybody. They throw their arms open to everybody. It’s a beautiful diverse parish. Everybody gets along and brings something to the table.”
