Meet Our Pastor

The Reverend Jeffrey Haggray is Senior Pastor of The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, DC. A native of Savannah, Georgia, Haggray earned the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, A Master of Divinity degree from Yale University, and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary. He was awarded the Doctor of Divinity Degree (Honoris Causa) from Alderson Broaddus College.

Haggray’s ministry service includes the following pastorates, The Black Church at Yale, New Haven; Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Pleasantville, NJ; Mount Gilead Baptist Church and Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, both of Washington, DC. Additionally, Haggray served as Executive Director/Minister of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention for eight years. An ordained minister within the American Baptist Churches USA, Haggray also associates with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

Haggray has served in numerous denominational and community capacities, among them Past Chairman of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and of Samaritan Inns. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Commission on Social and Environmental Justice for The Baptist World Alliance, and is Secretary for that agency’s Human Resources Committee. Haggray also serves on the boards of Church World Service (Alliance of Baptists Representative); the Baptist Center for Ethics; and the Racial Justice Working Group for the National Council of Churches. He is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Dr. Haggray is married to the Reverend Shelby Martin Haggray. They are the parents of three children, and reside in the District of Columbia.