Who We Are

What We Believe

First Trinity is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 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. For us, the word “evangelical” simply refers to this centering in the Good News of Jesus’s liberating, saving power as proclaimed in the Gospel.

Born out of the study and teaching of Martin Luther, over 500 years ago, the Lutheran tradition holds that the love and grace of God is freely given to all people; we do not need to do anything to “earn” this grace. In response to this priceless gift of God’s saving grace, Lutherans are called to love and serve their neighbors, and First Trinity is committed to using its location in the heart of the nation’s capital to do just that. We are blocks from the United States Capitol, and we have been a staging area for joining in action events such as the March for Our Lives.

The teachings of Jesus proclaim inclusion for all. We are called to practice this radical welcome and work toward justice for all people, including immigrants, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, and children.

We celebrate two sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist (Holy Communion), and we celebrate the latter every Sunday. We recognize other “rites” of the church as sacramental, such as confession and confirmation.  Our services also include scripture readings, a sermon, prayers, music, and thanksgiving for our gifts.
Since 1992, First Trinity Lutheran Church has been a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) congregation, promising the welcome, inclusion, celebration, and advocacy for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions, as well as working for racial equity and engaging in anti-racism work in cooperation with ReconcilingWorks. This means that everyone is a valued child of God and welcome to join with us on Sundays or at any time.

Our Mission and Values

Mission

First Trinity Lutheran Church is a diverse, caring and welcoming Christian community in the heart of our nation’s capital, loving and serving our neighbors. We celebrate and demonstrate our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ through inspirational worship, prayer, and selfless, loving service to others.

Values

At First Trinity Lutheran Church, we are committed to our shared values held in our hearts and minds and demonstrated through our actions. By grace through faith grounded in the Gospel, we affirm the following values:

  • WORSHIP – Christ has promised to be present where we are gathered in God’s name. In response, we come together as a family of believers to joyfully praise and receive God through word, sacrament, prayer, and music.

  • INCLUSION – Out of great love, God created all people in God’s Image. Because God loves us, we celebrate the rich diversity of God’s creation and are intentionally inclusive in embracing all people in everything we do.

  • MUTUAL SUPPORT – God created us to be in relationship with God and with each other. Therefore we love, serve, forgive and support our siblings in the First Trinity family.

  • COMMUNITY MINISTRIES – Christ commanded that we teach God’s Word and love and serve others. Inspired by the Holy Spirit and following Christ, we share the Good News, promote justice, care for God’s creation and serve our neighborhood, the community and the world.

The Rev. Judith VanOsdol, Pastor

The Rev. Judith VanOsdol is an ordained pastor in the ELCA, serving as pastor of First Trinity since 2021. She previously served in parishes in Upstate and Metro New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Buenos Aires. She also served as Director for Evangelical Mission and Assistant to the Bishop in the Upstate NY and Rocky Mountain synods.

Pastor VanOsdol’s global mission service includes working in parish and synodical ministry in Argentina and as Program Director with the Latin American Council of Churches, forming ecumenical leadership teams with churches across Latin America to promote gender justice with a human rights focus. She later served as Program Executive for Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment for the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Rev. VanOsdol has published books together with other leaders of gender justice teams in Latin America and brings a passion for our shared baptismal call to live out our faith in daily life. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Language and Linguistics and a Masters of Divinity (MDiv).  She loves music and recharges by singing, walking, hiking, and exploring God’s gift of nature and the wonderful cultural offerings of Washington, D.C.

Our Staff

Stefan Brodd, 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.

MJ Crom, Operations Manager

MJ handles day-to-day activities in the church office, answers emails and questions, and creates the bulletin, weekly email, and Voice newsletter

History of First Trinity

First Trinity (originally the Trinity German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession) was founded on November 2, 1851. The new congregation was formed by a group unhappy with the preaching of the united Lutheran and Reformed confessions at the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Washington, the only German-language Protestant church in Washington.

The congregation met at Temperance Hall at 9th and E Streets NW, until a new building, at the corner of 4th and E Streets NW, was dedicated in 1857. The congregation had purchased the land in 1852 for a grand total of $1,062.60.

Church services were originally held in German. Groups desiring to worship in English were formed from First Trinity, becoming Grace Lutheran Church in 1876 and Christ Lutheran Church in 1892. Worship services in English began at Trinity on Sunday evenings in 1898.

Trinity formed two mission congregations in the 1900s: Trinity (in Mt. Rainier, Maryland) in 1934 and Bethlehem (in Southeast Washington) in 1942. We have 38 congregations as members of our family tree; check out the full diagram linked below.

In spite of the fact that there was a large exodus to the suburbs, First Trinity voted to remain in downtown D.C. and rebuilt the church building, dedicating the current building on November 22, 1959.

When Trinity was founded, it was a part of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. In 1977, First Trinity applied for concurrent membership in the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and retained concurrent membership in both the Missouri Synod and the AELC (which later became the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) until 2000.

The congregation also completed a significant renovation of their worship space in 2000, and continues to use it as a space to celebrate weekly and special services and to host concerts and other community events with our partners. In 2010, we welcomed St. Matthew Lutheran Church in worshiping with us as they redeveloped their site in Southwest D.C. While St. Matthew has moved back into their own space, we continue close ties and some shared ministries between the two congregations.

As God calls us forward into the future, we seek to honor our past while continuing to evolve and serve as a constant example of God’s love and presence in Washington D.C.