History
Constancy and change - somehow the human spirit seeks both. Saint Paul's Episcopal Church has been a constant presence in one of Brooklyn's ever-changing neighborhoods. But the struggle to remain faithful to the Gospel of Christ through changing times has brought a special transformation to the parish and her members.
St. Paul's was founded on Christmas Day of 1849, in what was then the quickly developing southward expansion of old Brooklyn Heights. New homes and businesses were covering old countryside, farmland, and shoreline; the Industrial Revolution was still bringing a new way of life to the City, waves of new immigrants from the nations of the world were continuing to arrive; the American Civil War was looming, and Charles Darwin was ten years away from publishing On Origin of Species. This was also the era when the Anglican Communion of Churches (of which the Episcopal Church in the United States is a part) was experiencing a renewed vision of her catholic faith and order often called the "Anglo-Catholic Revival." Saint Paul's was formed in heady days of philosophical, social, economic, and religious change. And each successive generation of parishioners have been greeted with still newer challenges, changes, and opportunities.
Change has been constant in the life of St. Paul's, but so too has constancy been a hallmark of this parish which has been a presence in the neighborhood from the beginning. All who would seek God, or a deeper knowledge of the Eternal in this often-tumultuous world are welcome to step across the threshold, and step into the future with us.