Winnie Varghese

The Very Rev. Winnie Sara Varghese (born May 28, 1972) is the 12th dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. She is the first woman and person of color to hold this position in the Cathedral’s 133-year history.

Rev. Varghese is a widely recognized leader in the Episcopal Church. She was called “the future of our church,” by the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, the canon theologian at the Washington National Cathedral and visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.^[1] Union Theological Seminary said that “Varghese has become one of the most prominent religious voices for justice and inclusion in our time.”^[2]

Early life and education

Varghese was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, to parents who immigrated from India in 1970. Her brother is the comic Paul Varghese.

Varghese lived in India during part of her early childhood. She completed undergraduate studies at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She earned a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 1999 and was ordained to the transitional diaconate in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in the same year. She was ordinated into the priesthood on January 8, 2000.

The Episcopal Church USA

Varghese served as the Rector of St. Luke’s Atlanta from 2021 to 2024.

Prior to St. Luke’s Atlanta, Varghese served at Trinity Church NYC where she held several roles, including leading the domestic grants and service programs and peer leadership development for Anglican Communion leaders.

Prior to joining Trinity Wall Street, Varghese served as the first female Rector of the historic St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery. The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, the first woman ordained bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, preached at the installation. ^[3]

Prior to St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, Varghese served as Episcopal Chaplain at Columbia University, and before that, at UCLA.

Varghese helped the Diocese of New York develop a credit union that serves New Yorkers with a goal of expanding access to financial services for low income households and others that may struggle to be welcomed by traditional banks. ^[4]

She is currently a member of the Committee for Corporate Social Responsibility, Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, 2023-present. She previously served as Chair of the Committee on the State of the Church, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, 2015-2018 and Voting Secretary and Deputy to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church (New York), in 2015 and 2018.

She was elected to the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church from 2006 - 2012.

Leadership

Rev. Winnie Varghese is a co-founder and Director of Enfleshing Witness: Rewilding Otherwise Preaching.^[5] This initiative, funded by Lilly Endowment via St. Luke’s Atlanta,^[6] supports Black, Indigenous and otherwise racially minoritized preachers in developing their preaching practices.

Rev. Varghese is a Trustee of Union Theological Seminary, 2019 - 2025.

Awards and recognition

• Auburn Theological Seminary Lives of Commitment Award, 2019^[7]
• City & State Community Engagement Power 50, 2021^[8]
• Metropolitan College of New York, Doctor of Humane Letters, June 2019^[9]

Publications

• Church Meets World^[10]
• What Shall We Become^[11]