In June of last year, the Rev. Edd Breeden came to serve as a
visiting pastor to the congregation of the San Martin Presbyterian
Church, the quaint, century-old country church featuring a steeple
and circular picture window fronting a huge oak tree located at the
corner of Lincoln and Spring streets.
In June of last year, the Rev. Edd Breeden came to serve as a visiting pastor to the congregation of the San Martin Presbyterian Church, the quaint, century-old country church featuring a steeple and circular picture window fronting a huge oak tree located at the corner of Lincoln and Spring streets.
But the match was such a good one that by the end of the summer regional Presbyterian officials allowed the congregation to call him as their designated pastor, an unusual move in the denomination.
Breeden was born in South Carolina and grew up in a family which moved frequently because his father was serving in the U.S. Air Force. In 1970 he graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of California-Santa Barbara and was working in the restaurant design field in Santa Barbara when he experienced a sudden, unexpected call to the ministry while attending worship at a local Presbyterian Church.
After graduating from Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary in 1974, Breeden was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and served congregations in St. Cloud, Minn., and Woodlake and Santa Cruz.
In 1997 he decided it was time to step back from the pressures of pastoring fairly large congregations and spent a few years as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. Although he enjoyed helping people plan for their financial security, Breeden discovered “the sales orientation of that career is really not for me.”
More recently, Breeden has been offering workshops in areas he has specialized in over the years, like grant-writing, personality temperaments, time management and leadership training, as well as co-authoring a book about peer counseling to be published in July, “Unmasked and Loved.”
Married since 1968 to Linda, a teacher at San Lorenzo Valley Junior High School, they have four grown children and three young grandchildren.
One reason Breeden accepted the call to San Martin was because the part-time position will allow him time to continue writing. The church is working toward hiring a seminary intern to help minister to the growing congregation in its many activities and ministries:
• Worship and Sunday School at 10:30 a.m., with nursery care available
• A youth group for grades three through 12 on Tuesday afternoons
• A Wednesday evening adult Bible study with potluck
• Assistance in serving meals to the needy at Gilroy’s Lord’s Table
• Help for residents at the San Martin Family Living Center homeless program
• Planning for a different kind of youth program which would meet needs of neighborhood youngsters.
Pastor Breeden characterizes his congregation as “a friendly group of people who want to seek together to know more about Jesus and his teachings.” It is an “intergenerational congregation which is welcoming of visitors.” A unique tradition of this friendliness involves sharing a potluck luncheon after worship on Sundays: He invites visitors to “come to church and stay awhile.” For more information call
