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Events

Learn more about how we grow and serve our neighbor!   Hope you'll join us!


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Pastoral Fellow

Pr. PEG OTTE

We are thrilled to welcome back our good friend, Pr. Peg Otte, as our Pastoral Fellow for the Epiphany season (Jan. 4 – Feb. 15).  We’ve been blessed to have Pr. Peg’s leadership many times over the years – as our Pastoral Fellow in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025, and prior to that, as our interim pastor during 2019 after Pr. Tim McKenzie moved to North Carolina. Pr. Peg and her husband Randy are long-time Evanston residents who raised their three now-adult children here. Pr. Peg previously served at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Prospect Heights and St. John’s Lutheran Church in Wilmette, has served as an interim minister in this synod, and for many winters, served at Shepherd by the Sea, a joint Episcopal/Lutheran congregation in Gualala, California. She is delighted to return to St. Paul’s this year for the beloved season of Epiphany. 

 

   

 

Pastor of care & engagement

Pr. matt holmes

It is a great joy to have the Rev. Matthew Holmes as our longterm Pastor of Care & Engagement at St. Paul’s. In that role, Pr. Matt provides us pastoral care & counseling, clergy leadership for our ministries engaging with the St. Paul’s and larger Evanston-area communities, and weekly worship leadership in our Sunday morning services and Wednesday evening prayer. Pr. Matt is a 2010 graduate of The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and is ordained to Word & Sacrament in the ELCA.  After seminary, Pr. Matt worked as a chaplain, pastor and grief support specialist in several settings. He continues to serve (in addition to St. Paul’s) as an adjunct instructor of religious studies at Triton College and a paid-on-call firefighter/EMT with the village of LaGrange Park.


Matt is married to Rachel Wind, a former St. Paul's MIC student and another graduate of LSTC who works in development for the ELCA. They have two children, Hugh (12) and Louisa (9). In his free time, Matt is a prolific if rarely published writer and an avid amateur scholar of philosophy (his undergraduate major). Matt is the author of two published books Breath: 52 Reflections for those who Care for the Dying (Avenida Books, 2017), and coauthor with Rev. Thomas Gaulke of Everyday Armageddons: Stories and Reflections on Death, Dying, God and Waste (Cascade Books, 2023).

Formerly, Matt has worked as a commercial fisherman, nervous bouncer, short order cook, carny and plenty more.


Dr. Kurt westerberg, director of music

Kurt Westerberg has been privileged to serve as Director of Music at St. Paul’s since 1998, performing on piano and pipe organ, directing the St. Paul’s chancel choir, and arranging music for the choir as well as instrumental and vocal soloists.   He recently retired from the DePaul University School of Music, where he served as an Associate Professor of musicianship and composition and held several administrative posts.  He holds degrees from St. Olaf College and Northwestern University and has been active as a composer of modern classically-oriented music. 


Kurt, soloists, and choir aim for a blend of classical, gospel, and global music to meaningfully enhance the worship experience at St. Paul’s like

Come and Fill Our Hearts With Your Peace featuring soloists, choir, and cello.

Thank you for your generosity

Clicking the "offering plate" photo fuels St. Paul's and our ministries - learn more about them!


We believe our search for meaning in life falls hand in hand with a purposeful life.  At St. Paul's we believe that our work, worship, and prayers together allow the living Christ to meet us where we are and transform our lives.  Come join us as we discover ways to publicly share and live all of our gifts through God's Living Word.