A Parish Built, Lost, and Rebuilt on Avenue L
St. Paul's Episcopal Church has stood on Avenue L NW in Winter Haven for more than a century, shaping the spiritual life of a congregation that gathers each Sunday for traditional Episcopal worship. The parish's identity is tied to its building: a sanctuary whose stained glass, bronze doors, and pipe organ together form a kind of visual record of the church's resilience. After a fire destroyed the church in 1985, the building was reconstructed and the artistic treasures that had defined it were reproduced or replaced, so that the worship space members and visitors enter today is both new and continuous with the parish's older story.
From St. Matthew's Mission to St. Paul's Parish
The congregation in Winter Haven was first organized as a regular Episcopal mission under the name St. Matthew's in November 1915. On Thanksgiving Day 1924 the members voted to change the name to St. Paul's, and the church received its parish charter in 1925. A wooden church was erected on the site of the present sanctuary. Through the 1950s and 1960s the parish added concrete buildings to provide classrooms, a library, and a larger, fully equipped Parish Hall.
In Christmas 1953, Mrs. Arabella McKee gave the church additional land directly to the west. That land is now the Garden of the Cross, a contemplative outdoor space holding a Della Robbia of the Holy Family given by Dr. Joseph D. Nagel, an altar given in memory of John W. "Jack" McKay, and a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. The garden remains open to anyone who wishes to visit and meditate.
On the night of June 1985, the church burned completely to the ground. The cause was determined to be accidental, set by a transient. Services moved outdoors into the Garden of the Cross and into Stirrup Hall while the new sanctuary was designed and built. The rebuilt church was consecrated in October 1988, with Father William Lahey serving as priest during the transition.
Worship in the Anglican Tradition
St. Paul's is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, of The Episcopal Church (USA), and a member of the Anglican Communion. Its beliefs are drawn from the Nicene Creed and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion as found in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, and its life is ordered by the two Great Commandments and the Great Commission.
On Sunday the parish offers two principal services. At 8:00 a.m. a Rite I service is celebrated in the more formal language of the Prayer Book. At 10:30 a.m. the Rite II Family Service brings together choir, organist, and congregation. Solemn High services held on Holy Days fill the senses with the colors of altar vestments, incense, choir, organ, and spoken liturgy. Music and liturgy remain central to both services: singing, vestments, and incense mark worship throughout the year, and the altar is dressed in white, red, violet, and green according to the liturgical season.
A Wednesday Praise and Worship service is held at 5:35 p.m. for those who wish to gather midweek. Every service is livestreamed on Facebook so that members who cannot attend in person can still follow the parish's worship.
Mayer Stained Glass, the Bronze Doors, and the Flags
The sanctuary's most striking features are its stained glass windows and main entrance doors. The beautiful stained glass on the north and south walls was designed for St. Paul's by Franz Mayer and Company in Munich between 1953 and 1960. After the 1985 fire, the same firm reproduced every window between 1987 and 1989 using the original cartoons. There are twenty-seven windows in nine scenes depicting the life of Christ, along with three round stained glass windows in the main church and a series in St. Mary's Chapel. Visitors can trace the Nativity, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension as they move through the building.
The idea for cast bronze doors commemorating events in the life of the church's patron saint was first suggested to Carl Strang in 1983 or 1984. After the fire, the project continued, with Steven Dickey designing eight sets of relief panels and Bronzart Foundry in Sarasota casting the reliefs. The Elison Bronze Company of Falconer, New York, fabricated the bodies of the doors, and Robert D. Waters and Shorter Strang Sr. handled the nineteen-piece cast bronze frame and the installation. Each panel pairs two mirror-image reliefs separated by quarter-inch safety glass. The doors, each weighing more than four hundred pounds, were completed in September 1992. Their scenes follow Paul from his study under Gamaliel, through his stoning of Stephen, his escape from Damascus in a basket, his ministry in Athens, his conversion on the road to Damascus, his imprisonment with Barnabas, his baptism by Ananias, and his journey to Rome.
Hanging in the sanctuary is a series of flags that have flown over Florida, beginning with the Castle and Lion flag carried to Florida by Juan Ponce de León in 1513 and continuing through French, British, Burgundian Saltire, Confederate, United States, Florida state, and Episcopal Church flags. The display gives the sanctuary a quiet sense of place within the longer history of the state.
The Organ and the Harpsichord
The organ at St. Paul's was built in 1990 by the distinguished firm Harrison & Harrison of Durham, England. It has four divisions of pipes played from three manuals and a pedalboard, with electro-pneumatic action and slider chests. Thirty-two stops control 1,800 pipes ranging in size from one inch to sixteen feet, with three digital stops providing the deepest tones of the pedal division. Two divisions sit under expression, allowing the organist to swell and shade the sound.
Two features draw particular attention. The Herald Trumpet, mounted horizontally at the top of the case, was hand-made for St. Paul's by a ninety-year-old craftsman at the Trivio Company in Hagerstown, Maryland, who completes only one set a year. Design and installation were handled by Guzowski and Steppe, Organbuilders Inc. of Fort Lauderdale. The trumpet projects the full-throated sound used for processionals, fanfares, and the famous trumpet tunes played at weddings. The Cymbelstern, a turning star with little bells, adds a touch of joy when engaged.
Alongside the organ, St. Paul's is home to a John Challis Concert Harpsichord made in the 1950s in Detroit. The two-manual instrument has five octaves, four sets of strings, seven pedals, and a steel frame. It came to the parish in 1997 as a gift from the estate of Alice Lungershausen, the official harpsichordist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and it provides the shimmering tone color appropriate to the keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Children, Youth, and Sunday School
Faith formation for the parish's younger members runs through the school year on Sunday mornings. Adult Sunday School meets from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. and ranges widely across topics, from Bible study to current issues. Children's Sunday School, using the David C. Cook Anglican Curriculum, meets at the same hour in two classes: one for elementary children and one for junior and senior high students.
During the 10:30 service, Children's Chapel gathers the children for the opening song. After a blessing from the Rector they move to their own room for a liturgy designed for their age level, returning to the main sanctuary before communion. The nursery is available from 9:00 a.m. to noon each Sunday.
For older students, the Journey Youth Group gathers 6th through 12th graders around the call to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.
Prayer and Study for Adults
Beyond Sunday morning, the parish offers a steady rhythm of small groups for adults. A Women's Prayer Group meets Tuesday evenings at 6:00 for prayer, Bible study, and fellowship. A Men's Prayer Group meets Tuesday nights at 7:00 for prayer and Bible study, with snacks and beverages provided. On Wednesday mornings, Fr. Paul leads a Bible study in the church library from 10:30 a.m. to noon, working through books of Scripture such as Revelation. On Tuesday mornings at 9:30, Prayer Walkers circle the church property proclaiming scripture and praying for the parish and the surrounding community.
Other groups add to the texture of parish life. Daughters of the King meets on the second Sunday of the month after the 8:00 service in the Harding Room for study and prayer. The Order of Saint Luke's prays in St. Mary's Chapel during Sunday and Wednesday services, offering intercessory prayer to anyone who comes forward during communion. The parish's choirs, acolytes, lectors, chalice bearers, ushers, greeters, and guilds form the quiet backbone of every liturgy.
The Sacraments and Pastoral Care
St. Paul's celebrates the full range of Episcopal sacraments. Holy Baptism is described in the language of the 1979 Prayer Book as full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church, and arrangements are made through Fr. Paul in the church office. All baptized Christians are welcomed to receive communion. The Reconciliation of a Penant, Christian Marriage with at least one baptized Christian among the parties, Holy Unction for the sick, and the burial liturgy are all offered, with appointments handled through the Rector. Ashes may be interred in the Garden of the Cross.
A team of Eucharistic Visitors takes communion each Sunday after the service to homebound members, extending the parish's worship to those who cannot easily come to the building.
Visiting St. Paul's
Office hours run Tuesday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; the office is closed on Friday. Visitors who arrive for Sunday worship will find Rite I at 8:00 a.m. and the fuller Rite II Family Service at 10:30 a.m., with the nursery open from 9:00 a.m. to noon and Children's Chapel during the later service. The church's address is 656 Avenue L NW, Winter Haven, Florida. Those who wish to explore the Mayer windows, the bronze doors, the flags, the organ, the harpsichord, and the Garden of the Cross will find a parish whose rebuilt sanctuary holds a century of gathered memory and whose ongoing life is shaped by Word, Sacrament, and the everyday rhythms of prayer and study.