Ellen Baxter was living in Louisville, Ky. when a pastor in her church told her she should fly out to California to see the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo. “I was a brand-new single mom and thought it was crazy,” she said. “But I flew out here and it just felt like it was exactly what I was supposed to do.”
She went on to receive her Master of Divinity from the seminary in 2006, and then floated around the country preaching in churches from Maryland to New Jersey before finding herself back in California after spotting an opening in West Marin.
The Calvary Presbyterian Church in Bolinas and the Stinson Beach Community Presbyterian Church endured consecutive tragedies last year when they lost their beloved pastors: Rev. Sharon Latour, who died of cancer in April and Rev. Dr. David Pittle, who died after a sudden salmonella infection in December.
“I loved Sundays with David Pittle,” B.G. Bates, a longtime member of the Bolinas church, said. “He was more a professor than preacher. He gave lessons, like all the Biblical words for mother on Mother’s Day, or welcoming dogs in the service because they are supposed to be there… Adam was dyslexic, it turns out, he would always say.”
Both reverends had been serving for less than a year. “These poor churches have really been hit, and it’s been hard on them,” Ms. Baxter said, who began working in Bolinas last October. With the passing of Rev. Pittle, Ms. Baxter is now leading both congregations. She said she is interested in widening the churches’ reach.
“We’ve talked about doing some mixed-faith services and I would really like to do that; it’s a good thing to recognize that there’s more than one path,” she said. “I think the way the church is moving today is not be so stuck on calling ourselves a church and to get out of that box. To look at each other and understand what the real truth is.”
Ms. Baxter was born in Raleigh, N.C. and grew up in a large Presbyterian family with an ancestor who rode the Orphan Train in the early 20th century. She said women were just getting into the pulpit during her youth, but she wouldn’t pursue preaching until after a successful corporate career in fashion and finance.
She’s the mother of four—one birth child, two adopted children from Romania and another for whom she is a guardian—and while touring schools with her daughter, felt a pull back into education. During her first semester at the University of Louisville, she took a class called “Women in Hinduism and Buddhism” and another titled “Jewish Culture” that sparked her interest in religious studies.
As an ordained minister, she sees herself as a storyteller who provides a contemporary lens for tales long told. “It’s important to try and teach something every Sunday, but it’s important to remember that it’s been 2,000 years since those words have been written. I try to be conversational so that you can find a way to share in and understand what the culture looked like in Biblical times and how it might parallel today,” she said. “How do we take the words in the book and show how they look in our lives? I think the way we do that is through community, and through the stories we have to share.”
Rev. Ellen Baxter leads Sunday services at the Presbyterian Church in Stinson Beach at 9:30 a.m. and at the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Bolinas at 11:30 a.m.