BRUNSWICK — The Rev. Carolyn H. Eklund has been selected as the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. She will be the first woman to serve as the church’s permanent rector in its nearly 170-year history.

The Rev. Eklund comes to Brunswick having served the last 12 years as the rector of the beautiful historic inner city Grace Episcopal Church in Plainfield, N.J. She connected with the neighborhood where the parish invites their Spanish speaking neighbors to worship and share a meal. She collaborated with parents and grandparents of the parish to develop and sustain a Children & Family Eucharist and a children’s choir. She served as vice president of the Board of Plainfield Community Outreach for more than 12 years, which sponsors ministries that include Grace’s Kitchen that feeds the hungry of Plainfield, a State of New Jersey 21st Century After-School program, and English as a Second Language classes.

She was a key community leader in the effort to restore the Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center and served in several special capacities for the bishop of New Jersey.

She graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York City with a master’s of divinity degree and was ordained to the priesthood in 1999 in the Diocese of North Carolina.

Eklund served as assistant rector at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rocky Mount, N.C., where she led the youth group and Journey to Adulthood (J2A) curriculums in addition to coordinating all Christian education programs.

A Kansas native, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in microbiology and a bachelor of science in medical technology from the University of Kansas. She worked for a pharmaceutical company as a product manager, sales representative and training manager for 14 years.

Eklund follows a long lineage of St. Paul’s rectors dating to the Rev. Thomas F. Fales, who in January 1844 organized the parish. Under renowned architect Richard Upjohn, plans were prepared and a wooden Gothic cruciform building built and consecrated at its present location by the Right Rev. Henshaw, Bishop of Maine in 1845.

The Rev. Eklund is a classically trained harpist. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, traveling, practicing Spanish, writing and attending art museums, concerts and theater. She enjoys walking around the neighborhood with her Border collie-mix rescue dog named Sophie who loves to play ball and catch the Frisbee.

Eklund is looking forward to living in Brunswick, and she and parish members are excited to experience the beginning of her journey with St. Paul’s. Along with five delegates from the parish, she will represent St. Paul’s at the annual Maine Episcopal Diocese Convention being held Oct. 25-26 at Point Lookout.

Visitors are welcome to attend services on Oct. 27 at 8 and 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary or the family service at 9:30 a.m. on the second floor of the Great Hall.