Parish History
The land currently occupied by the parish of St. Paul’s Church is the homeland of the Salish People. While the indigenous population never had a permanent encampment in the Queen Anne neighborhood, or specifically on the section of land that holds St. Paul’s Church, there were summer and winter hunting camps near the site. Just a few blocks from the parish, the current site of the Seattle Center, was Baba ‘kwob (prairies), a gathering place for tribal festivals.
St. Paul’s Church was begun as a log cabin mission in 1892 by the early settlers of Queen Anne Town, a neighborhood directly north of downtown Seattle distinguished by a prominent hill featuring many homes with a Queen Anne style of architecture. In 1895 it officially became St. Paul’s Mission. In 1903, land for the present site at the foot of Queen Anne Hill was purchased and, soon after, the first church building was erected. During the next three decades, St. Paul’s became one of the major Episcopal churches in the city. Several additions, including the still-in-use All Saints Chapel, were made in 1938.
In the late 1950s, the vestry purchased land at the top of Queen Anne Hill with a view toward rebuilding St. Paul’s in the neighborhood’s more affluent, residential quarter. At the same time, our sixth rector, John Lockerby, was called by the parish. Father John persuaded the vestry to sell the newly acquired property on Galer Street to stay at its current, historic site with the explicit purpose of remaining closer to the city, our mission site.
Father John’s urban sensibilities were rooted in the words of the parish’s patron, St. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles: “Rise up and go into the city, where you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:6). To this day, St. Paul’s parish retains a strong urban identity and sense of mission to a diverse, cosmopolitan population; a sense of connection to the city and outreach to the disenfranchised of our funky, vibrant, uptown neighborhood. At the same time, Father John led the parish’s endeavor to raze the original wood-frame structure (which was, reportedly, damaged beyond repair) and erect a soaring new mid-century modern structure, contemporaneous with the Seattle World’s Fair of 1962.
Following Father John’s historic and landmark tenure, St. Paul’s fully developed into a city parish with a distinctive and affirming outreach to a diverse, urban population. Our Anglo-Catholic identity (beautiful liturgy that inspires prophetic social action) was also more deliberately cultivated during this period.
The Reverend Roy Coulter followed Father John, bringing an extraverted and charismatic personality to an otherwise introverted community. A young Father Ralph Carskadden began his ministry as a curate with Father Coulter during this period.
In the 1980s, St. Paul’s called the Reverend Peter Moore. This was a poignant, difficult, and inspiring period in the history of St. Paul’s, marked by the HIV/AIDS pandemic that devastated urban populations across America. St. Paul’s walked with the disenfranchised who had often been rejected by their own faith communities.
Father Peter is famous for proclaiming, through Seattle’s media channels, the parish’s willingness to host memorial services for any friends and family devastated by the loss of a loved one to AIDS, irrespective of their faith affiliation. During this time, St. Paul’s lost a significant portion of our own parish population to AIDS. The church was full of bodies, grief, and sadness during this period. Through it all, St. Paul’s remains proud of its role as a sacred house of support, solace and comfort during this tragic time in history.
The Reverend Morrie Hauge was called to the parish in the 1990s. St. Paul’s first openly gay and partnered rector, Father Morrie continued to extend the branch of welcome to Seattle’s queer community. Following Father Morrie’s retirement in the early 2000s, the parish experienced an extended interim period, which also saw a measurable decline in numbers, energy, and attendance.
In 2005, the Reverend Melissa Skelton was called to St. Paul’s as our tenth Rector, to lead the parish into a deeper ministry of spirituality, community, and growth, all out of the progressive, affirming Anglo-Catholic identity of the parish. Mother Melissa began her service to St. Paul’s by deliberately and explicitly inviting and welcoming young families to the parish. St. Paul’s built a Godly Play program and young couples with children joined to participate in it.
By 2012, the parish was thriving with young families; 22 people, mostly infants, were baptized in 2012. St. Paul’s parish tripled in size under Melissa Skelton’s leadership. In 2009, the parish committed itself to a self-funded capital campaign and ambitious building renovation. A fully restored and rejuvenated nave reopened its doors on Christmas Eve 2011.
In early 2011, St. Paul’s started a monthly dinner for the hungry in the neighborhood. Called the Fatted Calf Café, the ministry served as a practical expression of the parish’s commitment to social justice and hospitality. Because of the value of this ministry, and thanks to a very generous anonymous donation and the gifts of many others in the parish, St. Paul’s undertook a complete renovation of its outdated kitchen.
In late 2013, Melissa Skelton was elected, and in early 2014, consecrated as the Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster (Vancouver, BC and surrounding area) in the Anglican Church of Canada. Teams were formed both to assess St. Paul’s unique character and needs and to search for a new Rector, and the parish entered another interim period. During this time, the spirit of the congregation remained strong with a thoughtful Vestry and broad lay leadership of parish teams and programs. The parish was ably served during this time by priests Samuel Torvend, and later, Catharine Reid, clergy already ministering in the congregation, who each oversaw good work already in progress and kept a steady hand on the helm.
In June of 2015, Mother Sara Fischer, Canon for Congregational Development in the Diocese of Oregon, was called as St. Paul’s eleventh rector, with a view towards consolidating recent parish growth, increasing the connection of parishioners across its many masses, bolstering St. Paul’s practice of stewardship, and enhancing the congregation’s engagement with the surrounding community. Throughout her time here, Mother Sara helped establish the Art Heals Project, with the Mental Health Chaplaincy. In addition, she started parish conversations about race, which has led to continued engagement with the Episcopal Church’s Sacred Ground curriculum and the formation of the Anti-Racism Commission. In 2017, Mother Sara and her associate rector, Father Robert Rhodes, developed Wednesday Night Church, a midweek formation opportunity for worship, learning, and companionship. Father Rob left the parish in the fall of 2019, and in the spring of 2020, Mother Sara accepted the position of Rector at Saints Peter & Paul Episcopal Church/Iglesia Episcopal San Pedro y San Pablo in Portland, Oregon.
That spring, of course, marked the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. St. Paul’s entered another interim period, led first by Mother Mary MacKenzie, and then by the Reverend Nat Johnson, who had served as our curate in the year before their ordination in June 2020. Reverend Nat led the parish during the hard days when the global pandemic and the Seattle housing crisis brought great upheaval to Uptown Seattle, and to our labyrinth garden.
In November 2022, St. Paul’s called the Reverend Stephen Crippen to serve as our twelfth rector. Father Stephen had been a member of St. Paul’s in the aughts, and served from 2014-2017 as our deacon, but this is nonetheless a new adventure for all of us. Father Stephen and our lay leadership are revitalizing the parish after several challenging years; leading the capital campaign to repair and restore our buildings, replace our roof, and improve accessibility in our buildings and grounds; and both deepen and broaden our shared lay leadership across many ministries. In 2023 we are launching the Parish Ministry Council, a lay leadership structure that will support our many efforts and both welcome and form new leaders.
St. Paul’s celebrated 100 years at 15 Roy Street in 2003 (see Seattle Times article). Over the last 120 years, this parish has been a home for prophetic Christian contemplation and action, ever looking outward in mission. This diverse and sometimes challenging parish has also enjoyed a long history of stability with its rectors. The Holy Spirit continues to guide our household of faith through the mysteries and paradoxes of our collective life in Christ. We pray, as we continue into the next hundred years, that this place may blossom and touch the lives of generations to come with the joy of Christ that so many have known here.