Though he is admittedly young enough to be some of his flock’s son — or even grandson — the Rev. Kyle Logan was welcomed with open arms by the congregation at Grace by the Sea Anglican Church.

Logan has been lead priest for the Oak Harbor church since September.

“The people at this church are so humble. I’m old enough to be their kid, or older grandchild, but they’re really receptive to my teaching and my pastoral presence,” Logan said.

For those unfamiliar with Anglican churches, Logan described it as a mix of Catholicism and Baptist traditions. Its theology is rooted in the Reformation, he added, a key difference from Catholicism.

Logan comes to Whidbey from a church in Santa Cruz, Calif., where he was an associate priest.

Grace by the Sea is the first church he’s led, he said.

He was ordained in 2016.

“Me and my wife kind of realized that we were kind of wanting to get out of California and felt like the Lord was leading us to lead a church,” he said.

It was important to Logan and his wife, Chelsea, to stay on the West Coast and Whidbey Island checked a lot of the boxes for things they wanted in a long term home.

The couple lives in Langley and Logan said he didn’t even mind the 45-minute commute to Oak Harbor.

“It gives me a time to decompress,” he said.

Although the congregations of his previous and current churches are different, both are similar in the liturgy, or practice of worship.

Logan said he’s focused on leading his congregation through the pandemic by trying to assuage anxiety.

Logan said the liturgy can be a comforting tradition for people struggling this year.

“The words that were praying are centuries and centuries old,” he said.

“And it’s similar prayers that have been said during other pandemics, and that’s another thing that unites us.”

Grace by the Sea is doing in-person services by following public health guidelines of limiting capacity and certain worship elements like singing.

It also offers sermons online through Facebook Live. Services occur at 10 a.m. Sundays.