St. Paul’s Church to leave Port Gamble

PORT GAMBLE —  After more than 70 years as a place of worship for Episcopalians and Anglican parishioners, St. Paul’s Anglican Church is leaving Port Gamble.

“There is some sadness. It’s a wonderful place to worship,” said Rev. Duncan Clark.

The church, which is under the direction of St. Charles Anglican Church in Poulsbo, is leaving the 125-year-old building for logistical reasons. Clark also had high praise for Olympic Property Group, noting their relationship was a positive one.

The church was built in 1879 by the Port Gamble mill company Pope & Talbot, almost identical in appearance to the Congregational Church in East Machias, Maine, where the founders of the company hailed from. It was home to several denominations — including Congregational and Baptist — until 1932, when August Gay came to town as the mill manager and, with permission of the Diocese of Olympia, spearheaded the effort to make St. Paul’s an Episcopalian church.

Services and activities were held there until the 1970s when it was “bursting at the seams,” Clark said, and a second church was built in Poulsbo with intentions of moving the entire church to the new location at some point.

However, up until last weekend, two Sunday services were held — 8:30 a.m. at St. Paul’s and 10:30 a.m. at St. Charles.

“We love the building up there, we feel like it’s our mother church,” Clark said, referring to the Port Gamble site.

When the church was presented with a new lease for St. Paul’s earlier this year, Clark and his congregation took their future into consideration and how they wanted to grow.

While the parish’s relationship with Olympic Property Group has been nothing but pleasant, the congregation has been limited in the number and type of its Sunday activities because of the size of the church.

In the past, the parish rented the building for two hours for the 8:30 a.m. service.

Members love St. Paul’s, Clark said, but it was agreed that certain issues, like not being able to hold Sunday school and other Sunday functions, needed to be addressed.

Now, under one roof in Poulsbo, there will still be the two services, plus the opportunity to host other activities.

“We’ll be able to do adult education between services, have adult Bible studies,” Clark explained. “Some of the families had children but there was no Sunday school space at St. Paul.”

OPG already has a new lessee, New Covenant Fellowship, a congregation of about 50-75 people that has been meeting at Captain Wilkes Elementary School on Bainbridge Island for the past several years.

The church is expected to hold its first service Oct. 2.

Comment on this story.

COMMENTING RULES: We encourage an open exchange of ideas in our online community, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. In a nutshell, don't say anything you wouldn't want your mother to read.