Saint Paul's Carroll Street

Every Sunday morning, our congregation gathers to celebrate The Holy Eucharist, commonly called "The Mass." Some of our visitors come to St. Paul's having heard of its beautiful, historic building. Others come having heard of the parish family's love of the Church's traditional worship which is maintained here in great affection. Others come just because they saw an open door.  The Psalmist suggests that "our souls are thirsty" for God.  For whatever reason visitors are drawn to visit St. Paul's, it is our hope and prayer that they will find here something that the world cannot give.

St. Paul's congregation reflects our Brooklyn home. When you visit, you will meet a wide diversity of people. The Church is the living Body of Christ which spans all time and space, and gathers into one all sorts and conditions of humanity. The voices of the poor are heard as well as the voices of the great saints and doctors of the past two thousand years. Above all, it is the voice of God in Christ, proclaimed in Word and Sacrament that we pray will be preached and heard here.

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 is a part) was experiencing a renewed vision of her catholic faith and order, a renewal 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 since has 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 cross the threshold, and step into the future with us.