Founded in 1973, St. Bartholomew’s began as a group of worshippers under the guidance of the Rev. Harold Hopkins. For the first two years, St. Bart’s borrowed space in other local churches and schools. 1976, it had its first permanent home in a converted building on Route 1 in Yarmouth. From the beginning, St. Bart’s cultivated a hands-on, everyone-involved parish family. After the Rev. Hopkins left to become bishop of North Dakota, the congregation was ready for a full-time vicar and called the Rev. Gil Birney in 1983.
Under the Rev. Birney’s leadership, St. Bart’s flourished, eventually gaining parish status. In 1988, members built the timber-framed building — complete with a vaulted sanctuary ceiling — in a wooded setting along Gilman Road that remains their home.
In 2007, St. Bart’s welcomed its current rector, the Rev. Nina Pooley, previously associate chaplain of St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Md.