HELP CELEBRATE OUR 125TH!!!

Sept. 27th Outdoor Birthday Bash [note new date]

12:00 noon - 4:00 p.m.
(St. Paul's festivities start 2:00 p.m.)


Sunday, Sept. 27th, we're throwing a do-not-miss party on our block, the 1000 block of Greenwood Street.  Along with our neighboring church - Emmanuel Methodist - at the other end of our block, we'll be celebrating two big birthdays:  St. Paul's 125th and Emmanuel's 135th.

It'll be a blast - all the usual block party fun:  music, games, fire truck, bouncy house, etc.  Plus ...a chance to look around our historic, architecturally significant sanctuaries, and see St. Paul's organic/sustainable/pollinator-welcoming garden.  And of course, outdoor feasting at both churches -- Emmanuel starting 12 noon, St. Paul's at 2 pm.  

I'M NEW

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Events

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Pr. Julie Boleyn

Pastoral Fellow


Pastor Julie Boleyn



Starting Sunday, November 15, we are delighted to welcome back to St. Paul’s Rev. Julie Boleyn, who will lead us in worship for Advent - Christmas Eve.  Pr. Julie is well known and loved by our congregation. For those who know her less well, here is a bit more background:


A long-time member and now alum of St. Paul’s, Rev. Julie Boleyn was both married and ordained at our church. She is the Executive Director of the Kaleidoscope Institute, a non-profit that works with churches across the country as they seek to welcome diversity and creatively imagine new ways of being the church. Projects this year have included supporting pastors serving in cross-cultural settings, strategic planning, and mission developer training. 


From 2011 to 2021, she served as pastor at Unity Lutheran of Berwyn. During that time, Pr. Julie led the founding of Awake, activating community members across cultures to work for leadership, justice, and relationship. She also led the founding of Project 88 Music Academy, offering children in the community a way to engage classical music at a high level. Additionally, she accompanied the development of Unidad, a Spanish Language mission development that serves the LGBTQ community.

Pr. Julie and her family of St. Paul’s alums – spouse Rev. Jeanine Reardon and 17-year-old son Max – have big developments in their lives this year.  In October, Jeanie accepted a wonderful call from St. Francis Lutheran in San Francisco, CA, and has already picked up stakes and moved to the Bay Area to serve her new congregation.  Through year-end, Julie and Max will continue living in Berwyn, while they pack up and prepare to leave their longtime Berwyn home before heading out to San Francisco to join Jeanie. We are extraordinarily grateful that Julie and her family have made it possible for her to spend one more Advent season with us before relocating to the West Coast.




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.