Welcome to the Most Divisive Parish in America

When you think about Washington, D.C., you might imagine similar things: politics, culture, and a district filled with our nation’s history. What you probably don’t think about is Anglican churches, the kinds of churches that recall an older history, older at least than the monuments to church freedom that mainly decorate the capital. Yet, in the last three years, three Anglican churches have trained and sent out dozens of pastors to places like Pittsburgh, Boston, Virginia, England, and others — not in spite of D.C. but strategically from it. The mechanism is what they just call the pastoral residency program: a two- to three-year training program for men and women who want more hands-on experience in pastoral work, not too different from medical residency. Would-be clergy get a chance to apply what they learn in seminary classrooms to the real world — and, in this case, in the metro area…