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A Brief History of St. Bartholomew's |
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St. Bartholomew's was formed as a Parish in the Anglican Province of Christ the King
(APCK) in 1978. Our very first service of Holy
Communion was conducted, appropriately, on the Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, August 24,
1978, (in St. Luke's Lutheran Church).
The Rev. Jack Bates and the Rev. Sydney Croft served as our first priests. The Rev. Gary Mayhood served for much of the following year, until he assumed teaching duties at our national seminary, Saint Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Theological College in Berkeley, CA. From late 1979 until August 1982 the Rev. Daniel McAughey served as Rector, followed by the Rev. Daniel Leen. For a number of years St. Bartholomew's, as many new parishes do, met where we could. Sunday services were held in the hall of the small Redmond Chamber of Commerce building, with the main office doing double duty as sacristy and Sunday school. Mid-week meetings were often held in parishioners' homes and in the meeting room of the First National Bank in Redmond. We were truly a "church-in-a-box," with a special (and heavy) folding altar which, along with everything else but chairs, was hauled in and set up for services, and folded up and hauled away after. For special services we even hauled in an late-1800s Sears & Roebuck parlor (pump) organ for more traditional accompaniment than we could get with the hall's piano. But St. Bartholomew's did not intend to remain "church-in-a-box." Through many garage sales, bake sales and craft sales at every fair held in spring and summer, we raised the money to purchase land in a rural area a few miles north, and there a sign in a clearing beside the road soon proclaimed our hope: "The Future Home of St. Bartholomew's: A Traditional Episcopal Church." And as our little parish grew, we started praying, planning and raising money to make that hope become reality. Construction started in 1986, by which time housing developments were starting to go up in the area. Our first service in the new building was held on Christmas Eve, 1986... but at 3 PM because we didn't have electricity and we weren't allowed to use candles; we were bundled up in our coats because we had no heat, we were sittiing on cold, hard folding chairs amidst the plasterboard dust, and our music music provided by a wheezy, rickety WWI Army field organ that almost collapsed to the floor during the service... but never mind... for us this service marked the end of "church in a box"; we were home. (To this day we still use that folding altar; it has not been moved since 1987.) 
One of our members was an excellent scrounger and was able to find all sorts of materials inexpensively. Even pews: a Baptist church was remodeling and getting rid of their 30 year old pews. We had quite a project disassembling them, sanding and staining, and covering the light green naugahyde with the fabric they have now. One surprise was our discovery of just how hard 30-year-old bubble gum can get! 
Our parish continued to grow, and soon the parish hall downstairs started becoming inadequate for the Sunday school. It had long been Fr. Leen's wish to have a Sunday school building, so in the 1990s the planning and the fund-raising began, and then the construction, and soon we had our Sunday school building. In the meantime more housing developments were going up, changing our setting from rural to one that was almost (and somewhat upscale) suburban. During 2001, Fr. Leen was not feeling well and determined he needed to retire. He continued serving as best he could, until Fr. David Hoare accepted the Vestry's call in the spring of 2002. It fell to Fr. David to preside over Fr. Leen's funeral that August, just as Fr. Leen had done so many times over the years as parishioners passed away. (Obituary: "He had a devoted group of parishioners" -- indeed he did!) Subsequently the Sunday school building Fr. Leen had long pressed for was named for him. 
In the spring of 2004, special gifts paid off St. Bartholomew's mortgage. On July 4th of that year one of our lay readers, Dr. Ed Miller, was ordained a Deacon; Fr. David was grateful for the help with the chalice during Mass thereafter. (News story: A new deacon for St. Barts.) 
In March, 2005, situations at home in Gibraltar necessitated Fr. David's resignation. Six months later St. Bartholomew's celebrated the arrival of the Rev. Dr. Daniel McGrath and his family, coming from Santa Barbara, CA. On October 16th Bishop James Provence formally installed Fr. McGrath as our Rector and consecrated the church -- and we also enjoyed our first-ever performance by a choir, our newly-formed girls' choir. 
Today: Currently St. Bartholomew's parish ranges over a very wide area; some come from as far as 70 miles away. Our membership ranges from about 1 year in age up to 96. Some of us have come to St. Bartholomew's seeking traditional Anglican teaching, and the use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, but we also provide a common ground for Catholic-Protestant marriages. 
Last but certainly not least, we have an award-winning Sunday school program that periodically provides delightfully imaginative skits in lieu of a sermon, not only demonstrating our childrens' ongoing Christian education, but also reminding us of elements of the biblical stories we may have forgotten. 
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With many thanks to Mary Ellen Feagin for information on early parish history!