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Photograph by George Sakkestad

He grew up in Saratoga, and now the Rev. Eric Swanson is returning home to West Hope Presbyterian Church.

Pastor finds a new home in his old hometown

Swanson returns to lead West Hope Presbyterian

By Jennifer McBride

It just seems as if Saratoga was where he was meant to be. Eric Swanson grew up on Woodmont Drive in Saratoga. He attended Argonaut Elementary, Redwood Middle School and Saratoga High School.

The church called to him; after high school he attended the San Francisco Theological Seminary and received a master's degree in divinity.

He traveled the world trying to find a place that felt like home, but eventually realized that nowhere fit quite like Saratoga did. Today, he is the Rev. Erik Swanson of the West Hope Presbyterian Church on Cox and Saratoga avenues, and he is ushering the church into a new era of spirituality and openness in the community.

Eric Swanson is home.

After leaving the seminary in 1988, Swanson found himself in Connecticut.

"My first parish was there, where I spent 4 1Ž2 years. I went in as an associate pastor working with the youth program and adults in intergenerational programs. We had 550 parishioners, so it was a much bigger church. Then I needed to leave there," Swanson explains. "One of my core beliefs is that God holds us to wholeness, and I couldn't stay whole there, because of the position. It's hard for me to see things I wish I could change, and not be able to change them."

After leaving the Connecticut parish, Swanson went to Minnesota, where he spent a year and a half working on founding a Spiritual Formation and Health Center with a friend.

Still, Swanson didn't quite feel he was where he was meant to be. "I really missed the mountains, the rivers, the sun. Minnesota is so flat!" he says, joking. But the Western landscape wasn't all he missed--Swanson missed the people as well. "I really felt how God was calling me to be a pastor, and I missed being in a parish."

So, Swanson returned to the West Coast. He spent a year searching for a church he connected with. "I interviewed in Spokane, Sacramento, Davis, Denver ... " he recalls.

Then Saratoga called--literally.

"[West Hope Presbyterian] called, and since it was in my hometown, it interested me," Swanson says. "And then when I interviewed here, it had an openness that the other churches really lacked. There's such a warmth in this community. They get along and have fun, so it was wonderful. But they also recognized that they needed to change, which can be hard for a church."

Swanson officially joined West Hope Presbyterian as the pastor in January. Looking back on his first four months, Swanson can only smile.

"It's been full and very wonderful," he says. "I've never felt this much peace in a parish."

Swanson says he is overjoyed to have found a parish that not only walks down the same spiritual path he has always followed in his own life, but is also open to his ideas and goals.

"I told them I was planning on doing things differently, and they were very open to that. That tells me this is a good fit," he says.

Swanson says his goals speak to each parishioner and what they are looking for, as well as to the church as a whole.

"We're trying to make the church inclusive of everyone--an open and welcome environment," he says. "We want people to seek an intimate relationship with God, rather than just study doctrine. That will help each one of us improve our relationships with ourselves and with others."

Swanson's style is different from the church's previous pastors, but so far he says the parishioners have responded to it positively.

"I like to interact with people during worship, rather than just have me be up there leading everything and doing all the talking," he explains. Swanson says he feels this has helped contribute to the church's numbers growing. Before he came to West Hope, he says membership had gone down from 130 to 40 in just three years.

"Now, I see new families joining," he says.

Swanson says his goals for the future of West Hope are "to create a sacred space and hold it for folks so they can have their own encounters with God."

Overall, Swanson says he couldn't be happier with the positive changes he is seeing in his new home, West Hope Presbyterian.

"It's growing into something quite beautiful," he says. "It's amazing."

West Hope Presbyterian is located at 12850 Saratoga Ave. at Cox Avenue. Morning prayer begins at 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday. Sunday worship begins at 10 a.m.