About Our Church
Who We Are. How We Began.
Our Vision
O God, help us to be progressive Christians in an open,
inclusive and affirming community of faith.
​
O Jesus, guide us in providing a safe harbor for those
on their spiritual journey.
​
O Holy Spirit, be with us in our endeavors to reflect
God’s peace and loving justice into our world
Our Interim Priest
The Rev. Dr. Jane Maynard
On Jan. 21, 2024, St. Paul's welcomed the Rev. Dr. Jane Maynard as interim, following the retirement of the Rev. Kathleen Kingslight.
Before coming to St. Paul’s, Jane served four congregations in the Diocese of Olympia, most recently as an interim at St. Thomas, Medina, in 2021-2022, where she had also served as interim in
2008-09.
She worked as an interim at Good Samaritan in Sammamish and Epiphany in Seattle, and as rector at Christ Church in Tacoma. Jane also served as an
interim at St. Mark's in Medford, Ore., from 2022 to 2023. Besides her work in parishes, Jane has a long and varied history in ministry. She served as a hospital chaplain in Boise and San Francisco, a pastoral counselor in Claremont, Calif., and a seminary professor at The Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley.
While at CDSP, Jane taught courses in pastoral care and, as the Director of Field Education, placed and supported students preparing for ordination in parishes, chaplaincies and agency ministries throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area and beyond.
Jane moved to Seattle in 2003 to serve as the interim Dean of Diocese of Olympia’s School of Theology and Ministry.
Jane holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in developmental psychology from the University of Illinois in Urbana, a master of divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, a master of theological studies in pastoral counseling and a Ph.D in religion and personality from the Claremont School of Theology.
Jane’s dissertation research focused on the writings of Julian of Norwich as a resource for survivors of traumatic loss resulting from AIDS.
Jane is married to Jim Treyens. They share a love of reading, traveling and choral music. Together, they have three grown children: Dan, a fisheries biologist and whitewater enthusiast; Beckie, a renewable energy and energy efficiency expert; and Marc, a network administrator with a passion for community service.
They share their home with Coco, a 1-year-old Javanese.
Our Associate Priest
The Rev. Linda Logan
The Reverend Linda M. Logan, just named associate priest here at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, moved to Bremerton last fall following her retirement as rector of two small parishes in the Diocese of Central New York: Trinity Episcopal Church in the village of Boonville, and Trinity Episcopal Church in the village of Camden. Mother Linda had been rector of Trinity, Boonville, since July of 2003, when she came to Central New York to serve as rector of a three-church cluster composed of the churches in the villages of Boonville, Port Leyden and Constableville. Following
the dissolution of the cluster in the spring of 2009, she continued as rector of Trinity. In 2016, she became the priest, later the rector, of Trinity Episcopal Church in Camden.
During her tenure at Trinity, Boonville, that parish grew in program, membership and pledged income, with Mother Linda writing and celebrating liturgies for children and adults, starting formation programs for middle school and high school youth, and leading a book and discussion group for adults.
She also led the parish through stewardship programs. In 2005 the parish carried out a capital campaign and from 2005 through 2008 completed a three-phase rebuilding program that included major structural repairs and historic restoration of the 1909 tracker organ and the 1860s-era stained glass windows.
At Trinity, Camden (33 miles to the west of Boonville), Mother Linda celebrated the Eucharist on Sundays and weekly on Wednesdays. She also led a book and discussion group and provided pastoral care.
From 2004-2020, Mother Linda served as chair of Matthew's Place Ministries, an ecumenically-sponsored food pantry and thrift store in Boonville. From 2009 on, she was known throughout the wide broadcast area of WBRV Radio in Lowville which weekly carried her sermons; broadcasts which, with the start of the pandemic, also offered the music of the talented musicians of the parish and the Adirondack Community Chorus.
In the Diocese of Central New York, Mother Linda served on the board of directors of the Foundation of the Diocese and as a member of the diocesan Formation for Ministry Committee and the Task Force for Formation charged with developing standards of learning and competencies for persons studying for ordained and licensed lay ministries.
She served as a tutor and mentor to persons studying for the priesthood and, for diocesan ministry fairs, led workshops in writing children's liturgies. In 2017 she began serving on the diocesan Episcopal Fund for Human Need. She also served on the Resolutions Committee of the annual diocesan convention, in which position she wrote the resolutions honoring persons who retired, interviewing persons close to them in order to do so.
Mother Linda moved to Central New York from the Diocese of South Dakota. where she served from 1998-2003 as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Pierre. While at that parish, she served as mentor to a local student working on a Master of Divinity degree in the Native Ministries Program of the Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, British Columbia. She served as a member of the Board of Examining Chaplains/Theological Education Committee of the Diocese of South Dakota.
She also served as dean of the Central Deanery of the diocese and in that position facilitated the planning and hosting of the diocesan convention, the diocesan middle school convention, the diocesan high school convention, and deanery preaching missions that featured the Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, Bishop of Alaska, and the Rt. Rev. John S. Thornton, retired Bishop of Idaho.
For one summer, Mother Linda also served as supply priest for the four churches of the Mnisose (mah-nee'-sho-shay) Cluster of the deanery, serving churches on the Lower Brule and Crow Creek Indian Reservations and in the town of Chamberlain. She continued to serve as supply priest for Holy Comforter on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation until that mission received its own priest the following year.
Mother Linda became an Episcopal priest in 1997 following years of working in university and church editorial positions and several years of teaching high school English and journalism and adult basic education. From 1981-1986, she served as assistant editor, then editor, of the Publications Service Bureau for the statewide system of the University of Tennessee. In 1986 she became communications officer for the Knoxville-based Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee and editor of the diocesan newspaper, The East Tennessee Episcopalian.
As editor of that newspaper, she won national awards from the Associated Church Press and Episcopal Communicators. In 1990 she was named Religion Journalist of the Year by the Tennessee Association of Churches which commended her for her reporting of ecumenical news in the state, national, and international arenas.
In 1990, she left the Diocese of East Tennessee to enter the Episcopal Convent of St. Helena in New Windsor, New York. In November of 1991, she left the convent and returned to the family home in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where she did freelance writing for "Episcopal Life," the national newspaper of the Episcopal Church, and re-certified to teach on the secondary level.
In 1992 she began teaching high school English and journalism at Bonneville High School in Idaho Falls. She left that position two years later to enter seminary at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California. After completing the Master of Divinity degree at that school, she became the associate rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Pierre, South Dakota. She became rector the following year.
She earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Idaho State University and did graduate work in English at Vanderbilt University. For one school year she taught English and journalism at Gatlinburg High School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, then moved to Nashville where she worked, first as assistant director of communications for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, then as a teacher in various programs of the Adult Education Program of Nashville Public Schools.
She was born in Honolulu to Lt. j.g. John Alexander Logan II and Jeanne Allen Logan. At the age of six weeks, she moved with her parents and brother to New London, Connecticut, where her father served as an officer on submarines. Several years later, the family moved to Pittsburgh, where her father joined Westinghouse Bettis Laboratory and began an extensive and distinguished career in nuclear engineering research and design for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and, later, the U.S. Department of Energy. In 1961, the family moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho, then the site of the largest defense-related nuclear research facility in the world.
Mother Linda moved to Bremerton in October of 2023 to retire near her sister, Ellen Moore, and brother-in-law, David Moore, and their daughter, Anna Marie, who is now in her last semester at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. With Mother Linda came her current family of beloved cats — Sir Tom of Warwick and Lady Rose of Downton. The rest of her family live in Madison, Wisconsin; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Toronto; and Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Our Church History
The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, between the U.S. government and the Suquamish and other area tribes, had made the land available for non-Native settlement. Bremerton, named for founder William Bremer, was incorporated as a city in 1901. St. Paul’s became an Episcopal mission in downtown Bremerton. The first service was conducted in Charleston,
Navy officials had a low opinion of Bremerton public behavior in the city's early days.
what’s now part of West Bremerton, in the Presbyterian Church.
But church leaders in this new town, population 1,700, faced an uphill battle. Bremerton quickly become known for its gambling, prostitution, wild saloons, opium houses and robberies of sailors. Charles Darling, assistant secretary of the Navy, in 1902 pulled all repair work from Bremerton and moved it to Mare Island near San Francisco.
In 1903, Bremerton’s leaders responded by revoking all liquor licenses in town. Business and civic leaders in Seattle also wanted the economic boost the Navy brought, and Darling moved work back to Bremerton. Saloons soon prospered again, though.
In 2013, the church completed a renovation of the Parish Hall kitchen to provide better services to the diner and to other organizations and groups using the building. Providing space to nonprofits is part of the vision for serving the community.
Now the church faces another crossroads. Harrison Medical Center, a focal point of this neighborhood for decades, has moved to Silverdale. It’s unclear what will happen to this area.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, thrusting Kitsap County and the rest of the country into a recession. St. Paul’s closed the church and services moved to Facebook. We worshipped from home, but as “together” as possible.
Ever industrious, the congregation took the opportunity to repaint the church sanctuary and make much-needed repairs to the roof.
Finally, on Pentecost 2021, St. Paul’s reopened and people returned to worshipping together in their beloved church. Services continue to be streamed on Facebook.
You’d think that would be the end. But then in November 2021 a storm and a rare “atmospheric river” slammed Bremerton and caused severe damage and leaks to our recently repaired sanctuary roof. Undaunted, the parish moved services downstairs to the Parish Hall during months of repairs and remodeling to the sanctuary (and ultimately the leak-damaged Parish Hall itself).
The congregation finally returned to the remodeled sanctuary on April 10, 2022 — Palm Sunday.
In January 2024, the Rev. Kathleen Kingslight retired from St. Paul's after 14 years as rector. An interim, the Rev. Dr. Jane Maynard was named in mid-January.
Hang on as our second century continues ….
St. Paul’s was formed in Bremerton, Washington, in 1902, 11 years after a Naval Station was established on the shore of Sinclair Inlet at Turner Point.
This was in the territory of the Suquamish Tribe, which had called this area home for as long as 5,000 years.
But St. Paul’s was doing well enough to move to a new location — Sixth Street and Chester — in 1915. Then came the U.S. entry into World War 1 in 1917, the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 and then the Great Depression in 1929. St. Paul’s survived it all. And following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy Yard took on a vital role, and Bremerton grew to about 80,000 people.
Starting in the late 1930s, the church became well-known in the late 1930s for making and canning English plum puddings for the holiday season as a fund-raiser. These were sold in stores and became quite popular, and St. Paul’s became known around Kitsap as “the Church of the Plum Puddings.” This tradition lasted for 40 years.
St. Paul’s finally became a Parish, graduating from Mission status, in January 1943.
In 1957, the U.S. Government began to sell the land on which war-time housing stood, giving first right of refusal to area churches. St. Paul’s a year later bought a 7.9 acre tract of prime view property in East Bremerton, its current location — 700 Callahan Drive.
In 1968, St. Paul’s leaders finished the new church home near the recently constructed Harrison Hospital. It included a new Balcom & Vaughan pipe organ.
Then in 1986, church leaders made the commitment to remain in Bremerton despite the rapid development of Silverdale thanks to the
deployment of Trident submarines
at nearby Bangor.
St. Paul's popular plum pudding was sold in stores as a church fundrasier starting in the 1930s.
The church the next year completed a major rebuilding and redevelopment on the Callahan property — the building we know today.
St. Paul’s continued with an increasingly progressive vision, supporting the local LGBTQ community and partnering with Lord’s Neighborhood Diner to host a weekend meals program in the Parish Hall for low-income families.