About
Our Vision
We envision a church that reflects the fullness of God’s people—where young and elder, rich and poor, immigrant and native-born, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, White, queer, straight, and trans individuals flourish together not separate. Where diverse cultures and traditions meet and transform one another, and where the church stands boldly for justice, unity, liberation, reconciliation, and hope.
Our Movement Chant: [Come Along. Belong. Love Strong. Right the Wrong.]
Our Values
Belonging Without Erasure - every person bears the image of God. No one should have to hide or surrender parts of their identity to belong.
Justice as Faithfulness - following Jesus calls us to pursue racial reconciliation, immigrant dignity, and the flourishing of LGBTQIA+ people. Justice is not optional, it is part of the gospel.
Shared Life and Shared Power - a faithful church reflects many voices, cultures, and experiences. Leadership, worship, service, and decision-making are shared across the community.
Our Staff
Halima Ellams (she/her)
Lutheran Volunteer Corps Fellow
Halima Ellams is a Lutheran Volunteer Corps Fellow. She was born in Nigeria and moved to America with my family as a child. Adapting to a new country came with many challenges, but these experiences taught her valuable lessons. Her parents instilled in her a strong drive and determination to reach her goals. She is a graduate of CUNY Hunter College in New York City with a B.A. in political science. She served at Samaritan Ministry in Washington D.C. as an Associate Caseworker.
Stefan Brodd, (he/him)
Cantor
Stefan Brodd is the cantor at St. Matthew and First Trinity Lutheran Churches in Washington, D.C., and for the Churches of Sweden, Norway and Finland, also in Washington. He has served as musical director and accompanist for many musical theater productions for the City of Greenbelt, and has played at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Landsburgh Theatre, Signature Theatre, and Gunston Arts Center. Stefan also accompanies and arranges music for performers on Embassy Row and at gala events in Washington venues. He has accompanied Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, Tony and Emmy Award winner Christine Baranski, and Helen Hayes Award winner Floyd King, among others.
Stefan holds a bachelor’s degree in music and mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, he was particularly proud of his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer mission, which verified the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe and earned its principal scientists the Nobel Prize for Physics.
The Rev. Dr. Moses D. Barrios, (el/he)
Pastor
The Rev. Dr. Moses D. Barrios is an Indigenous Mayan minister, son of Central American immigrants, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Having served numerous diverse and inclusive congregations in Southern California, Northern California, and Hawaiʻi, he now serves as Assistant to the Bishop for Congregational Renewal, Multiethnic and Intersectional Ministries in the Metropolitan DC Synod and as Pastor of St. Matthew in Southwest Washington, D.C. He also leads the ELCA’s Multiethnic and Intersectional Network, guiding national lay and rostered leaders, synodical and Churchwide leaders in cultivating a church that is warmer, more inviting, making room for true belonging that better reflects the diversity of God’s people.
Pastor Moses received both his graduate and post-graduate degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. His doctoral project titled, “Confronting the Lack of Racial Unity in the American Christian Church,” is the one of his passions behind his ministry work. His other theological and biblical studies derive from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (P.L.T.S.) in Berkeley, CA, The Hispanic Center for Theological Studies (C.H.E.T.) an affiliate of North Park Theological Seminary in Compton, CA and Chicago, IL and Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, MN. He is an Ordained Roster Minister of Word and Sacrament with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
A prophetic preacher and public theologian, Moses is deeply committed to justice, inclusion, reconciliation, healing, liberation, and congregational transformation, empowering communities to participate in Christ’s renewing and liberating work in the world. He is married to his wife and ministry partner, Brenda, and together they are the proud parents of three young adult children who attend college in the Bronx, New York and work in Virginia.
Get to know our new pastor! Video below.
Our Leadership
Edna Hicks, President
Phumile Chibambo, Vice-President
Mary Essex, Financial Secretary
Karen Sellars, Council Member
Bupe Mwangota, Council Member
Glorious Broughton, Council Member
Sam Gordon, Church Trustee
Dan Felger, Church Trustee
The Rev. Dr. Moses Barrios, Pastor
Our Mode of Being Human
The Way of Jesus
Christians are called to live by a distinct set of priorities.
A mode of being human where:
Love is stronger than fear,
belonging replaces exclusion, the Holy Spirit empowers us,
justice accompanies reconciliation,
and hope in Christ refuses to give up.
We believe the promise at the heart of the gospel:
God is restoring all things.
Love will have the final word.
And the church is called to live that future now.
We Are Lutheran
St. Matthew D.C. is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We are a congregation with a Lutheran theological imagination that practices the sacraments of baptism and communion as Jesus did. We are a sacramental community that partakes of wine and bread as a weekly nourishment. Through these sacraments, God's grace and promises are made tangible and palpable. At the heart of the gospel, according to our Lutheran tradition, we believe this is the theological underpinning of justification by grace through faith. Christ is our touchstone, and so we walk in liberation, free to love neighbor and walk in beauty. Thanks be to God!
The ELCA confesses the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In our preaching and teaching the ELCA trusts the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. Born out of the study and teaching of Martin Luther, the Lutheran tradition holds that the love and grace of God have no prerequisites and are indeed intended for all people, no matter how flawed. Being in receipt of this saving grace, Lutherans are called to love and serve their neighbors and the world, and St. Matthew is committed and striving to doing that in Southwest D.C.
St. Matthew was formed in 1893 and incorporated in 1900. The original church was located on D St. between 10th and 11th St. in Northeast Washington, D.C. The congregation eventually grew too large for this location, and on April 6, 1930 a new church on Kentucky Avenue at 15th St. in Southeast Washington, D.C. was dedicated. As the District of Columbia continued to change, the St. Matthew congregation once again felt the need to move. On May 9, 1962 St. Matthew purchased a 50,000 square-foot site at Delaware Ave. and M St. in Southwest D.C., which is where the present church is located. St. Matthew grew to become a diverse congregation, reflecting the diversity of Washington, D.C. as well as the diversity of the kingdom of God. Over time, its church facility suffered a number of structural problems. On March 16, 2008, the congregation left the building and began worship at other locations in the area, including with First Trinity Lutheran Church in Northwest Washington, D.C. During this time, the congregation engaged in activities to realize their vision of a new, state-of-the-art church facility that would fit their needs and the needs of their ministry in the community.
St. Matthew eventually entered into a partnership with a real estate developer to create a new church facility as part of a multi-use space that included an apartment complex in the same location as the previous church in Southwest Washington, D.C. In January 2019, the St. Matthew congregation dedicated its new church. St. Matthew continues its partnership with First Trinity Lutheran Church with whom they spent so many years in fellowship as their building was being planned and constructed. St. Matthew's new property is a true community building filled with non-profit partners and hosting events throughout the year. See more detail on our building share page.
In early 2026 St. Matthew called The Rev. Dr. Moses D. Barrios to be their next pastor. He comes with a track-record of growing multiethnic and intersectional congregations in Los Angeles, CA and most notably in Honolulu, Hawai’i where his congregation grew from 40 to 300 active members, friends and supporters. Becoming one of the fastest growing churches in the ELCA. He revitalized a declining, aging, and racially homogenous congregation into a young, diverse, intersectional, ecumenical, and multiethnic congregation. Known for his boldness, activism, and embodiment of inclusion and love, Pastor Moses arrives to Southwest D.C. with similar intentions, empowered by the liberating presence of the Holy Spirit and in communion with the Divine. The next chapter of our congregation is being written, come and join our story!