2026 Norfolk, Virginia

October 22 - 25, 2026, the Vergers Guild of the Episcopal Church will gather in Norfolk, Virginia, where Christ & St. Luke’s Church will host the Annual Conference under the theme “History, Music, and Art: Past and Present.” As vergers, we are entrusted not only with the smooth conduct of worship, but also with embodying and interpreting the story of your parish in every procession, every welcome, and every liturgical detail. When we understand the history of our congregations—its founding, its trials, its architectural changes, its music and devotional art —we are better equipped to serve as a living bridge between past and present, honoring inherited traditions while guiding the community into its future. 

This year’s conference will immerse you in that very interplay of story and service. Christ & St. Luke’s, together with its sister parishes St. Andrew’s, Grace Church, and historic St. Paul’s, offers a unique opportunity to explore how buildings, windows, vesture, music, and ritual all arise from particular local histories and theological convictions. Walking through these churches, you will see how choices made generations ago still shape how 

congregations worship and how vergers carry out their rôle today.

In plenaries, workshops, and liturgies, you will be invited to connect what you see and hear in Norfolk with your own parish context, asking: What stories do our walls tell? Which customs carry deep memory? How can a verger’s ministry be more faithful when these stories are known and cherished?

By attending this year's conference, you will gain practical insight into how local history informs everything from liturgical planning and processions to pastoral sensitivity and hospitality. A verger who knows the parish’s saints and benefactors, its seasons of loss and renewal, and the origins of its particular customs can serve clergy and people with greater confidence, nuance, and care. Such knowledge helps you avoid treating worship as generic “Episcopal liturgy” and instead, support the liturgy as it is actually lived in your place, with its particular music, art, architecture, and memory. The 2026 conference in Norfolk is an invitation to deepen that understanding, so that when you return home you can more fully execute your role: steward of order, guardian of tradition, and faithful interpreter of your parish’s story in the worship of the

living God.

In addition, on Friday evening we will screening the 1929 silent movie Phantom of the Opera, with live organ accompaniment by world renown organist, Dorothy Papadakos