Rev. Cara Spaccarelli · 2018 Spark Award Winner

In the summer of 2010 a new priest moved into the rectory at Christ Church on G Street Southeast, bringing a youthful presence to the oldest Episcopal parish in the city of Washington. When Cara Spaccarelli took over as the 28th rector she was just 30, a wife, and the mother of two little boys, one an infant. Since then, she and her family have become active members of the Capitol Hill Community and have brought renewed vibrancy to their historic church.

Cara grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where her parents, like many couples from different faith backgrounds, found a congenial place for their family in the Episcopal Church. Cara was engaged with religious activities from an early age, her spirituality encouraged at the Catholic high school she attended. At Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, she majored in American Studies and planned to become a social worker. A summer job at a church-affiliated camp changed that. It was there that she felt a call to live into her faith as a priest, “shaping opportunities for people to find and see God in the world.” She later met Michael Lawyer, a Minnesotan and “cradle” Episcopalian, and they married during her first year at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. At her first job, at the Cathedral of St. Mark’s in Minneapolis, she was ordained and gained valuable experience with youth and adult education and outreach programs. Meanwhile, Michael went to law school and got a job with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was eager to pursue that work in Washington. That Christ Church was looking for a priest at just that time was serendipity. 

At Christ Church, Cara wanted to ensure that the parish had not just a fascinating past (Thomas Jefferson attended; John Philip Sousa lived next door and he and his family were members) but also a dynamic future. She knew it was crucial to engage parishioners with opportunities for both outreach into the broader community and for deeper individual spiritual experience. She has done this with small discussion groups, a young adult group, the “Laundry Love” outreach ministry, and a monthly children’s worship service with informal dinner afterwards. She has also led the church through a Capital Campaign that raised $970,000 for a new organ and modifications to the parish hall to accommodate membership that has almost doubled during her time there.

Cara and Michael’s sons, Riley and Aden, are students at Brent Elementary School, where Cara has been part of the PTA fundraising team. She has coached with Soccer on the Hill. Michael is active with the church’s beer brewing group and other shenanigans. And on summer evenings you can find the whole family outdoors hosting “grill and chill” suppers on Christ Church’s expansive front lawn where, for them and for many others, family, church, and neighborhood life all come happily together.