These priests were at Church of the Redeemer.

The Rev. John P. (Jack) Zimmerman

• The Rev. John P. (Jack) Zimmerman was an unpaid associate priest at Church of the Redeemer who had retired from full-time parish ministry.

Fr. Jack Zimmerman was born in Rochester, New York, in 1946. Upon completion of his bachelor’s degree in philosophy, he entered St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Seminary. There he received a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees. In 1972, he was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1990, Fr. Zimmerman was received as priest in the Episcopal Church for the Diocese of Rochester, New York. He was active in his home parish and did supply work throughout the Diocese. During this time, he worked full time for the American Red Cross as Coordinator of Services for Seneca County.

In 1994, Fr. Zimmerman became the Rector of St. Boniface Episcopal Parish in the Diocese of Albany, New York. He served there until his retirement in 2008.

In December 2010, Fr. Zimmerman and his wife, Kitty, moved to Kenmore, Washington, to be closer to children and grandchildren.  Jack and Kitty found Redeemer to be a great place to grow spiritually.  However, in January 2020, they moved to a retirement residence Portland, Oregon, near other relatives.

The Rev. Stephen Garratt

• The Rev. Dr. Stephen Garratt’s last service was Christmas Eve, 2014.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Garratt was Interim Priest at Church of the Redeemer after Canon John Fergueson retired.

Fr. Stephen Garratt has lived in the Lake City area of Seattle area since the early 1960s after his family moved here from the Midwest.  He is a graduate from the University of Washington.

In 1977, he entered Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and graduated in 1980.  Seabury-Western is now part of Bexley-Seabury in Bexley, Ohio. In 2005, Fr. Garratt graduated from Seabury-Western with a Doctor of Ministry degree.

His ordination to the diaconate was in 1980. Then, his ordination as a priest was in 1981 while serving as the curate at St. Barnabas Parish on Bainbridge Island.  Later, Fr. Garratt was the Assistant to the Rector at St. Stephen’s Parish in Seattle and part-time assistant at Christ Church in the University District and the Canterbury Chaplain to the University of Washington.  In 1995, he became the rector of Christ Church and worked in that capacity his 2012 retirement.  Since retirement, he served as the interim at Trinity Parish in downtown Seattle while they completed their search process before coming to Redeemer.

Fr. Garratt’s employment outside the church includes four years as a probation counselor for the Municipal Courts of Seattle. Then, after earning a degree in counseling from Seattle University in the 1980s.  he worked at Mental Health North, a community mental health center near Northgate, as an intern and later as a therapist on their out-patient team.

He married his wife Margaret in 1987. They have three adult sons, Niles, Andrew, and Daniel. His interests include spending time with his family, traveling, reading, exercising, opera, and attending University of Washington home football games.

The Rev. Canon John Fergueson

• The Rev. Canon John Fergueson retired as rector on June 1, 2014.

The Rev. Canon John Fergueson was born in Jackson, Michigan, in 1944. He graduated from Albion College in 1966 with a Bachelor’s degree in biology. Later that year he entered the United States Marine Corps.

From 1967 to 1968, Fr. John served with the 15th Marine Counterintelligence Team in northern Quang Tri province in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, he received his call to become a priest.

Upon returning home, Fr. John entered Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He graduated in 1972 with a Master’s of Divinity degree in theology.

After ordination as a priest, Fr. John served at a mission church in the Ada-Cascade region of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Later, Fr. John was Dean of the Cathedral Church of Christ the King. Following four years at Emmanuel Parish in Hastings, Michigan, Fr. John came to Church of the Redeemer in 1983. He retired in 2014.

His vision of Redeemer was to be a safe place to explore what George Herbert once called “the deep down depths of things.” His personal spiritual journey is shaped by the following:

• His own experiences of the dark side of life
• The Paschal mystery
• A deep, profound belief in the power of liturgy and living into the church year to transform people’s lives

For the last 15 years of his ministry at Church of the Redeemer, Fr. John’s non-parochial energies have been devoted to the subject of spirituality and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He has participated in national psychiatric workshops on the topic. Fr. John works with veterans and others who are experiencing trauma issues on an ongoing basis. With Landy F. Sparr, he wrote the chapter “Moral and Spiritual Issues Following Traumatization” for the book Psychiatry and Religion: The Convergence of Mind and Spirit.

Fr. John and his wife Ginny live in Bothell, Washington. They have two adult children, Susan and Dan.

Fr. John has a passion for adult education. He enjoys jogging and lifting weights, and reads theology, history, and murder mysteries. His 30-year relationship with his spiritual father, a Trappist monk at Our Lady of the Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri, is a continual source of inspiration and strength to him.

The Reverend John Forman

• Fr. John Forman is now the priest-in-charge of St. Elizabeth’s in Burien, Washington.

The Rev. John Forman was ordained to the diaconate on December 21, 2013, and as a priest on July 22, 2014. When a seminarian at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University, John was the graduate assistant to the Ecumenical Liturgical Director. He graduated in July 2014 with a Master of Divinity degree.

Currently, John Forman is a trainer at the College for Congregational Development of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.

For the past 13 years, he has run a small consulting business, Integral Development Associates. This company works with organizations of all kinds, primarily in the areas of organization and leadership development. This company bases its work on a body of evidence-based developmental schemas under the umbrella philosophy of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory and methodology.

With Laurel A Ross, John released his first book, Integral Leadership: The Next Half-Step, in May 2013 through SUNY Press. As a founding member of Wilber’s Integral Institute and Integral Spiritual Center, he has had the opportunity to meet and befriend a number of intellectual and spiritual heroes, many of whom provided guidance and insights for the book.

John Forman has presented papers at the New England Complex Systems Institute and the International Society of Systems Sciences. He has had a set of papers included in a collection presented by a colleague to the United Nations.

John is a regular contributor to Nectar of NonDual Truth, an Adviatic-based magazine interested in universal teachings from multiple traditions.  A student of Zen for many years, John has worked with Genpo Roshi, Diane Musho Hamilton, and his spiritual director, Vidyuddeva.

He is a Benedictine oblate at Mt. Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Oregon. John has served on the board of advisors for St. Placid Priory, Transfiguration Monastery, and several other boards and organizational governing bodies.

John was the Episcopal student liaison for the Ecumenical Outreach Teams of the School of Theology. He has completed a ten-month chaplaincy internship at Swedish-Edmonds, as part of being a postulant for Holy Orders (priesthood) in the Diocese of Olympia.

John has been married to his wife Jennifer for over 25 years. They are the parents of two daughters, Emily and Elizabeth.

The late Reverend Geoffrey Ethelston, Associate Director for Outreach

• Fr. Geoff Ethelston was a retired, unpaid assistant at Church of the Redeemer.

Fr. Geoffrey Ethelston died on December 14, 2015. He immigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States in 1967 with his wife, Jean, and four children. He worked in the manufacturing industry as engineer and plant manager for twenty years.

A lifelong Anglican, Geoff was ordained a priest in 1980. He has worked at several Eastside churches. In 1991, Fr. Geoff formed a new mission congregation in Duvall, Grace Church. He retired in 1996, when he and Jean joined Redeemer.

As Associate Rector for Outreach, Geoff worked with human service providers and educators to build a stronger community identity for those who live in the cities of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, and Woodinville. He saw this as a way that the church can do outreach beyond the hands-on work already going on at Redeemer.

Geoff enjoyed the arts, especially painting, cross-country skiing in season, and singing in the choir.

Here is the obituary for Fr. Geoff.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6210 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.