Sacred Ground: A film based dialogue on race and faith

The Rev. Winnie Varghese

A national leader in the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Winnie Varghese is known for her inspired writing, teaching and preaching. Before becoming the 23rd rector of St. Luke's, she served as Priest for Ministry and Program Coordination at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City.

Prior to Trinity, Winnie served as Rector and Priest-in-Charge at St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York. Winnie was also Chaplain at both Columbia University and University of California Los Angeles. She is a native of Dallas, Texas and is married to Elizabeth Toledo, a public relations executive. They have two grown children.

Winnie serves on the Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary, she chaired the General Convention’s Committee on the State of the Church from 2015 to 2018, and she served on the Board of Trustees of the Episcopal Divinity School, 2013-2016. She is also a published author, editor, and podcaster.

Winnie’s parents immigrated to the United States from India, and Winnie spent part of her early childhood years there. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA and earned her bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She then attended Union Theological Seminary and graduated with her Master of Divinity degree in 1999. She was ordained to the deaconate in Los Angeles in 1999 and to the priesthood six months later in 2000.

Matthew Brown

Matthew Michael Brown, a native of North Carolina, is Director of Music at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta where he leads a vibrant and diverse sacred music program affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music in America. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Music at St. Luke’s series.

As a concert artist, he has performed in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Barcelona Cathedral, Spain; Église Saint-Marceau, Orléans, France; Spivey Hall at Clayton State University; Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; Washington National Cathedral; Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York; Princeton University Chapel; Mormon Tabernacle Assembly Hall on Temple Square; Trinity Church on Copley Square, Boston; and the Episcopal Cathedrals of Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston, and Nashville. Several performances have been heard in radio broadcasts of American Public Media’s Pipe Dreams and the nationally syndicated program, With Heart and Voice.

He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music. He also holds the Sacred Music Diploma from Eastman's Institute for Music Leadership. As a grant recipient from the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and The Robert Carwithen Foundation, he pursued two years of post-graduate organ studies with Dame Gillian Weir. His other major teachers included David Higgs, Jack Mitchener, and Wayne Leupold. Earlier in his career, he benefited from master classes with Marie-Claire Alain, Michel Bouvard, David Craighead, Ewald Kooiman, and Susan Landale.

An advocate for established and emerging composers, he has premiered major works by Kenneth Frazelle (Aria with Diversions) and Dan Locklair (Requiem) and has also facilitated commissions from Barlow Bradford, Simon Lole, Ned Rorem, and Richard Webster. In 2023, Music at St. Luke’s began an ambitious commitment to annually commission music by underrepresented composers for traditional liturgies of the Episcopal Church. This initiative launched with new compositions from David Hurd, Texu Kim, and Dorothy Papadakos to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the parish’s renowned Alston Memorial Organ.

Matthew is an active member of the Association of Anglican Musicians, American Guild of Organists, American Choral Director’s Association, and the Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé Association. He currently serves as Vice-President for The Leupold Foundation and on committees for the Taylor National Organ Playing Competition and the Association of Anglican Musicians. Since 2015, he has managed the Royal School of Church Music Carolina Summer Choral Residency at Duke University. This summer, he will serve as lead faculty for the 48th Annual Mississippi Conference on Liturgy and Music and will mentor the Gerre Hancock Intern for the Association of Anglican Musicians next year.

In recognition for his significant work to the cause and advancement of church music, he was recently made an Honorary Member (HonRSCM) of the Royal School of Church Music in Chester Cathedral, UK.