{"id":866443,"date":"2025-08-19T23:12:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/she-is-the-future-of-our-church-winnie-varghese-named-first-woman-dean-of-st-john-the-divine\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T23:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:12:02","slug":"she-is-the-future-of-our-church-winnie-varghese-named-first-woman-dean-of-st-john-the-divine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/she-is-the-future-of-our-church-winnie-varghese-named-first-woman-dean-of-st-john-the-divine\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She is the future of our church.\u2019 Winnie Varghese named first woman dean of St. John the Divine."},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEW YORK (RNS) \u2014 When the Rev. Winnie Varghese, 53, took a seat on the broad steps of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, as the late afternoon sun beat down across New York City, there were tears apparent in her eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a beautiful responsibility it is to have to think about how to care for people and how to care for community,\u201d Varghese told RNS outside the cathedral on Monday (July 14), on the heels of being named the church\u2019s new dean. \u201cHow do you get your head around it, you know?<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. John the Divine was so in my imagination as a young person, a place where really magical things happened,\u201d Varghese said. \u201cIn my growing-up mind, it was kind of a big statement of what the church was supposed to be about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born to immigrant Indian parents and raised in Dallas, Varghese first encountered the historic cathedral not in person, but in the pages of her local newspaper. She remembered, as a 12-year-old, reading about a winding procession of camels, elephants and other animals making their way around the church for its annual St. Francis Day celebration, a tradition that honors St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shifted my imagination from what I thought were the narrow lanes of what faith had to do with to the entire planet,\u201d Varghese said. \u201cThat there\u2019s nothing that our faith doesn\u2019t have to do with, that God doesn\u2019t have to do with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On July 1, Varghese became the first woman elected to lead the largest Episcopal cathedral in the United States. She lives in New York City with her spouse and two grown children. The appointment of Varghese, a queer woman of Indian descent, to the prominent pulpit represents the Episcopal church\u2019s continued push toward inclusion and its outspoken embrace of many progressive causes, especially around immigration and LGBTQ affirmation.<\/p>\n

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FILE \u2013 The Rev. Winnie Varghese speaks during a press conference at St. James Terrace, Thursday, May 18, 2023, in the Bronx, New York. (Photo by Meagan Saliashvili)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Varghese is known for her leadership on these issues, frequently speaking on LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice and the public life of the church. In 2022, she preached at<\/a> the Washington National Cathedral for a Sunday Pride service.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the future of our church,\u201d said the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, the canon theologian at the Washington National Cathedral and visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School. Douglas was the first Black woman to be elected as the dean of any Episcopal seminary in the world. She also served as co-chair on the search committee that ultimately hired Varghese.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of who she is, because of the power, the competency of who she is, she\u2019s going to be breaking a lot of glass ceilings,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cBut for Winnie, it\u2019s not simply about winning, it\u2019s about who she\u2019s bringing with her through those doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since 2021, Varghese has served as rector of St. Luke\u2019s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, one of the largest Episcopal parishes in the region. Before that, she was the rector of St. Mark\u2019s Church in-the-Bowery in Manhattan\u2019s East Village. She is also the author of two books: \u201cChurch Meets World\u201d and \u201cWhat We Shall Become.\u201d Still, when she was considering applying for her current role, uncertainty lingered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember thinking, people like me don\u2019t do jobs like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The Rev. Winnie Varghese poses inside the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Monday, July 14, 2025, in New York City. (RNS photo\/Fiona Murphy)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Rt. Rev. Matthew Heyd, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, played an important role in Varghese\u2019s appointment as dean, naming the search committee that set out to find the cathedral\u2019s next leader.<\/p>\n

A colleague who has known Varghese for more than two decades, Heyd said her candidacy quickly rose to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere she\u2019s been, her thinking, her preaching, her writing has transformed the community,\u201d he said. \u201cShe helps widen our imagination for what\u2019s possible, if we\u2019re not afraid.\u201d For Heyd, her election also signals an intention for the diocese at large. \u201cThere\u2019s no more visible leadership role than being dean at the cathedral,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we believe our diversity makes us stronger. So we want to model what we believe to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rev. Anne Marie Witchger, the current rector of St. Mark\u2019s Church in-the-Bowery, has followed Varghese\u2019s ministry for much of her adult life. Witchger was trained at Union Theological Seminary, where, according to her, Varghese, who graduated in 1999, remains something of a legend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in awe of Winnie,\u201d Witchger said. \u201cShe embodies the priesthood in a way that is authentic, thoughtful, courageous and wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two later connected through justice work in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, including a public response to the police killing of parishioner Deborah Danner and through diocesan racial justice pilgrimages to the South.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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RELATED:<\/strong> The Radical Simplicity of a Credit Union: Rev. Winnie Varghese<\/a><\/p>\n

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When Varghese was elected rector of St. Mark\u2019s in-the-Bowery, she recalled walking into her welcoming celebration to find a large plastic banner that read: \u201cFirst woman!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, oh God, that\u2019s always true,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I had thought about it that way, I think I would have been afraid. But to show up as yourself doing your best to do what you\u2019re supposed to do, that seems possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ordained in 2000, Varghese entered the ministry at a time when hiring a queer woman of color into a leadership role in the Episcopal Church was uncommon. According to Church Pension Group data<\/a>, from 2011 to 2021, only 14% of Episcopal priests identified as people of color; an even smaller share were women of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made no sense to people,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do. This is the packaging I come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as Varghese begins to lead one of the world\u2019s largest gothic cathedrals, the weight of the position is not lost on her. She is stepping into a tense political climate, especially in New York, where immigration policy and the threat of raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looms large for faith-based communities, many of whom serve immigrants.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt least for me, this is the first time in my life when I\u2019m not sure anywhere feels protected,\u201d Varghese said.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

FILE \u2013 A bronze statue of the Archangel Gabriel blowing a trumpet stands atop the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine as the sun rises in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York on Sunday, March 26, 2023. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Like many faith leaders across the country, Varghese also confronts the challenge of declining church attendance, a reality she now faces at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In recent years, Sunday services at the cathedral have dwindled from five or six each week to just one or two, with weekly attendance dropping from the thousands in the cathedral\u2019s heyday to approximately 350 parishioners today.<\/p>\n

At St. Mark\u2019s Church in-the-Bowery, Varghese faced similar concerns. In response, she asked parishioners to physically turn and face outward at the end of each service \u2014 a gesture meant to embody the call to welcome others in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing greater to building church community than to know that you came seeking something and you found it, invite others to take that journey with you,\u201d Varghese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In New York, she hopes to create a similar outward-facing spirit and invite people back to the city\u2019s most storied Episcopal cathedral.<\/p>\n

Since its construction in 1892, St. John the Divine has forged an identity in New York City as the church of music and art. Its nave has staged jazz vespers and art installations ranging from Xu\u202fBing\u2019s phoenixes to Anne Patterson\u2019s miles of colored ribbon. Paintings and photographs are routinely hung along the limestone walls. The last commissioned work by Keith Haring, the last work he completed before his death from AIDS at age 31, serves as the altarpiece in one of the cathedral\u2019s chapels.<\/p>\n

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The Rev. Winnie Varghese sits in front of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Monday, July 14, 2025, in New York City. (RNS photo\/Fiona Murphy)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As dean, Varghese faces the challenge of stewarding the physical structure of the cathedral, nicknamed \u201cSt. John the Unfinished<\/a>\u201d for its long incomplete construction. Spanning 13 acres in Manhattan, the building demands constant upkeep. \u201cThere\u2019s always a punch list, many million dollar punch list, that the head of facilities has,\u201d Varghese said, noting that even routine updates like reinforcing stained glass or improving climate control can run into the millions.<\/p>\n

One immediate project involves restoring the cathedral\u2019s west wall, which must be completed before the organ can be reinstalled. \u201cThat\u2019s a $4 million project,\u201d she said. The Diocese of New York does not directly fund the cathedral.\u201cWe need to generate more income annually to sustain the program and the physical plant,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m inviting people that care about the mission of this place to put their money against their mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varghese said her goal is to carry on the legacy and to ensure the cathedral feels warm, accessible and alive.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think places like this call us back to the tradition, to look back and interrogate, which ideally gives us a little bit of distance from the chaos of the moment, and offers a kind of framework for what could be,\u201d Varghese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Sept. 27, Varghese will be formally installed as the dean at St. John the Divine. A few weeks later, she will lead the St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals \u2014 camels, snakes and all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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NEW YORK (RNS) \u2014 When the Rev. Winnie Varghese, 53, took a seat on the broad steps of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, as the late afternoon sun beat down across New York City, there were tears apparent in her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWhat a beautiful responsibility it is to have to think about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":866444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40876,809],"tags":[124338,5894],"class_list":{"0":"post-866443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-she","8":"category-future","9":"tag-she","10":"tag-future"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}