By Hannah Shiblaq | hshiblaq@alextimes.com
On Sunday, Rev. Oran Warder – the second longest serving rector in the 217-year history of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Old Town – preached his last sermon. His final services are scheduled for Nov. 22.
Lisa Eskew, St. Paul’s junior warden and a long-time parishioner, said he will be missed.
“I was like, ‘I thought you’d do my funeral,’” she laughed. “… It’s hard not to feel the loss, but I’m grateful that that’s how I feel.”
Warder announced his retirement on Nov. 24, 2025, in a letter addressed to the “people of St. Paul’s.”
“This decision was not an easy one,” he wrote. “Serving as your rector has been, and continues to be, one of the greatest joys and blessings of my life.”
Warder will depart from Alexandria in his retirement; he and his wife, Barbara, are moving to the Shenandoah Valley, where they have owned a home for a number of years.
Warder told the Times he plans to get involved in his new home’s local church but wants to “keep a low profile for a while,” vowing “not to do anything” besides learn what he likes to do.
“I don’t have any hobbies,” Warder joked, “so I need to develop some.”
Warder came to St. Paul’s in 1999, and said he is most proud of the congregation’s growth, updates to the church’s facilities, the strengthening of its finances and “commitment to serving the community” that took place during his tenure.
While at St. Paul’s, Warder taught liturgics – “the practice of being a priest,” he said – at the Virginia Theological Seminary, which is the largest and second-oldest Episcopal seminary in the country.
He also served on the Board of Governors of the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia, which serves six institutions. Warder is currently on the school board of one, St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, from which his two oldest children graduated.
“I’ve loved that work because … it’s connected but not directly related to what I was doing every day,” he said. “It exercised a different part of my brain.”
Warder is also an honorary canon of the Cathedral of St. Matthew in the Diocese of Renk in South Sudan. St. Paul’s has provided financial support to the church in South Sudan for many years, including building and rebuilding a school that was destroyed during fighting with Sudan. St. Paul’s provides its sanctuary for Sudanese services, which are held every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Eskew, who has been a member of St. Paul’s for more than 20 years, has only ever had Warder as rector. Being junior warden, her primary focus is on the upkeep of the church and its amenities – something she and Warder worked on together to achieve “the best presentation” for the congregation.
Eskew described Warder’s tenure as “transformational” to St. Paul’s, from prioritizing the restoration of the church’s building and grounds to helping “fortify” its ability to give aid.
Warder noted that St. Paul’s Lazarus Ministry provides emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities and medical expenses for Alexandria residents.
“The support has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, and sadly the need has gotten bigger, and it’s not ever going to go away,” he said. “But we’ve really worked hard to try and meet it as best we can.”
St. Paul’s, he said, is part of a larger network in Alexandria which “really want[s] to do the best and the right thing for folks that are struggling.”
“Oran has really worked over his 27 years to encourage parishioners to be generous and to have the vestries work very diligently to make the … improvements that have been needed to … expand our outreach programs,” St. Paul’s Discernment Committee Co-Chair Larry Campbell told the Times. The Discernment Committee is tasked with finding Warder’s replacement as rector.
Campbell was working as the church’s treasurer when Warder first became rector in 1999. Just two years later, when Warder was still “fairly new” to Alexandria, the community was struck by the 9/11 attacks.
“It was the first time I’d ever been a rector. I’d always served on staffs and worked for someone else,” Warder said. “… It certainly tested, ‘What do you do? How do you respond? How do you pastor to a whole people and to a community?’”
The COVID-19 pandemic also presented an unusual set of challenges. Warder noted that the only other time St. Paul’s had been closed was during the Civil War, when it served as a hospital for three years.
“It just challenged every bit of creativity we had,” he said, “to figure out how to keep the community together.”
After holding virtual services only for several months during the pandemic, Warder began holding outdoor services in the St. Paul’s Cemetery, using a tomb of one of the church’s deceased parishioners as the altar. Numerous parishioners have said they consider those services – held outdoors in the cold, with wildlife of all kinds flying above and scurrying below – among the most meaningful they had ever attended.
“I was disappointed when services were moved back indoors, even though it was of course the right thing to do once the COVID-19 vaccines made it safe,” former vestry member Denise Dunbar* said.
“But it was a very special time and Oran did a marvelous job.”
Former Senior Warden Steve May highlighted both Warder’s sense of empathy and “terrific vision as a leader,” recalling the series of challenges St. Paul’s faced following the 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire – the first openly gay priest to be elected a bishop in a major Christian denomination.
The election was part of the reason for the breakaways of two of the Washington area’s most wealthy and prestigious congregations: the Truro Anglican Church and The Falls Church Anglican in Fairfax County.
Warder navigated the challenges facing the church “really skillfully,” May said.
Warder dealt with personal tragedy during his time at St. Paul’s when his first wife Amy fell ill with cancer and consequently passed away in 2008; the two had been married for 22 years.
“He had great vision on what he wanted in terms of growing people’s faith, growing the parish and, at the same time, he never lost track of the fact that he needed to be there for other people,” May said, “even when he was going through his own tough times.”
May cited his tenure working alongside Warder as “one of the great pleasures” of his career and life.
“If you go back in the history of our rectors, there’s some extraordinary talents going back to the very beginning,” May said. “… I think he’s really in the top tier of all of those.”
St. Paul’s is currently looking for a new permanent rector, Campbell said – a task for the Discernment Committee.
The Discernment Committee outlines a profile for the position which will then be published by the Diocese of Virginia and made available for potential candidates. Campbell said the goal is to publish the profile by February or March of 2027.
“Our hope is … by late summer, we will be able to recommend a candidate to the vestry,” he said, noting that it is up to the vestry to accept this recommendation, which is usually of one candidate. Other candidates who apply through the Diocese will also be interviewed, he said.
Incoming Interim Rector Rev. C. Neal Goldsborough will begin his post on Jan. 1, 2027, serving for a year before the appointment of the permanent rector on Jan. 20, 2028.
Warder said he knows Goldsborough as the former rector of St. Luke’s Church in Fort Hunt and as a longtime board member of Virginia Theological Seminary. St. Paul’s will be Goldsborough’s fourth interim position, the May 19 announcement read.
“They’re going to be very well-served,” Warder said.
Guidance for selecting the permanent rector is provided by way of community feedback in survey responses and listening sessions, Campbell said.
“Reflected in [those] has been people’s appreciation for how much Oran has contributed to St. Paul’s over the years,” he said.
May observed that while religion’s “core” role in modern society has lessened, St. Paul’s has only “grown,” he said – something he attributes to Warder.
“It’s vibrant and grown because of him,” he said. “Because people would come in and go, ‘Wow, I want to come back here. I want to be here on Sunday and hear what he has to say.’”
May described Warder’s sermons as “folksy [and] down to earth but incredibly thoughtful.”
“If you’re a parishioner, you get [them] every week,” he said. “If you come in as a familiar guest, you sit down and you go, ‘Yeah, I’m home.’ … It’s hard to find a talent like that.”
Campbell echoed May, noting that Warder’s sermons were “one of the first things [he] noticed” about him.
Campbell, May and Eskew agreed that the congregation is going to miss him. In conversation with Warder, the feeling seemed to be more than mutual.
Warder said he’s going to miss everything that working at St. Paul’s has brought him – the church itself, Alexandria at large and, most of all, the people he’s come to know.
He cited “being part of people’s lives intimately for generations” as one of “the great benefits of being a longtime pastor.”
Warder has officiated at 10 weddings so far this year; on the date of his interview with the Times on Oct. 27, he only had three remaining.
“I’ve known …, in one case, both the bride and the groom their whole lives,” he said. “… I’m baptizing children of people I’ve baptized. … It really is a full circle.”
Despite her sadness, Eskew said Warder has set the church up for success in the years to come.
“He would hate the feeling that things would fall apart if he left,” she said. “… That’s not what he’s prepared us to do. He has strengthened our community and prepared the next person to come in.”
As for what makes a good rector, Warder said it’s all about caring “for the people you’re called to serve.”
“You can’t serve people you don’t love,” he said. “And it’s been a real pleasure to love these people.”
*Denise Dunbar is publisher of the Alexandria Times and president of Alexandria Community Media, which owns the Times.
The post Rev. Oran Warder, longtime St. Paul’s rector, to retire appeared first on Alexandria Times.
