Staff

Rev. Oswald Bwechwa was born in Tanzania, Africa, in a small town called Muleba. He spent most of his early childhood in the Muleba area. He grew up in a relatively small household with his mother, father, and one younger sibling. He was also raised in a Roman Catholic Church.

Rev. Bwechwa joined a preparatory seminary at age 12 hoping to one day become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He loved school, and through schools he found himself in far away places such as Zambia, Kenya, Ireland, France, and the USA.

In 1988 Rev. Bwechwa came to Wisconsin to attend Marquette University for Business Administration studies. He returned to Africa after graduation, and returned to the USA in 1993 to go to Barkley, California, for graduate studies in Theology. He was ordained to priesthood in 1999 at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Racine Wisconsin. He was called to become rector of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church.

Rev. Bwechwa came to St. Martin's in 2001. He worked full time in Social Services. Currently he works full time at Milwaukee County's Behavioral Health Division. In January of 2008, Rev. Bwechwa accepted a call to be the priest-in-charge of St. Martin's after Rev. Raasch (who was the interim priest) accepted to become Dean of the Cathedral.

Rev. Bwechwa is married to Rosemarie and they have a son by the name of Mugisha. His vision is to facilitate and be part of a thriving church community that is warm, committed to ministry, and strong in worship. St. Martin's is a church community of people from diverse backgrounds. This is unique for the Episcopal diocese of Milwaukee. As St. Martin's celebrates 50 years, we look forward to 50 more years of growth, and service to the community of Brown Deer and beyond.

Julie Gaulke

Julie Gaulke serves the parish as music director, which includes being the organist as well as directing the choir, and choosing music for worship each week. Presently, she and her family (husband Todd, and sons Nick and Andy) make up our Eucharistic Band, which plays contemporary music for one special service each month. Outside of church, Julie works as a music editor and project manager for Plank Road Publishing, Inc. Prior to that she taught private piano lessons in the North Shore area for 15 years.