St. John’s Episcopal Church is the first Episcopal church on the eastside of Lake Washington. An Episcopalian mission was started in Kirkland on the 8th of January, 1922, with the meeting in a private home with a pastor from St. Luke’s (then St. Mark’s) in Ballard. The home was that of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Caldwell, and the priest was the Reverend D. C. Lees of St. Mark’s.

 

From its humble beginnings, this parish strove to minister to the spiritual needs of the swiftly growing Anglican community of early 20th century Kirkland. St. John’s became a mission of the diocese on February 1, 1923, when Rt. Reverend F. W. Keator, the first bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, granted formal consent to families that were then meeting to organize a mission.

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Given the informal beginning in 1922 and the formal beginning in 1923, St. John's decided to celebrate its centennial with numerous events and special occasions throughout 2022. Learn more about these events by clicking here.

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St. John's has always had a presence in Kirkland and grew throughout the 1930s and 1940s. It moved into its current location in the 1940s. A fire in 1953 destroyed the original building, but the congregation pulled together and completed construction on a new building in 1954. In the 1960s a pipe organ was donated to the parish, shipped, and installed in the choir loft. In the year 2000, another fire partially burned the parish's school buildings, but thankfully the flames did not totally destroy the sanctuary or pipe organ. Construction on the building you see today was completed in 2002.

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Today, St. John's sees its role as a place of spiritual formation, soulful respite, deep relationship, and the heartfelt worship of God. In this era of social action and long needed cultural transformation, St. John's continues to work to fill its role as a spiritual center of gravity for those attentive to their souls and seeking to walk the way of Jesus.

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