 FIRST
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF SAN FRANCISCO United Church of Christ |
| FIRST
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF SAN FRANCISCO United Church of Christ |
Who are we?
Our congregation reflects the diversity of San Francisco; we are
bound by our Christian love.
 Welcome |
 Who
are we? |
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are we? |
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do we gather? |
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happening? |
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| What
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We are a community of Christian Faith responsive to the Holy Spirit. We are joyful, compassionate, inclusive, trusting and inviting. You are invited to join us in this community of Christ; to attend to God’s unfolding and reconciling word; to be living stones in God’s building, responding together to God’s call. We are an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ. Since 1849,our community has embraced the pilgrim and the searcher here in San Francisco. We are committed to making a difference in this world through ministries of justice and reconciliation in Christ’s name. We offer you an extravagant welcome! Everyone is welcome: believers and agnostics, conventional Christians and questioning skeptics, people of all sexual orientations, the despairing and the hopeful, those of all races and cultures, and those of all classes and abilities. Jesus didn’t turn anyone away – neither do we. The First Congregational Church of San Francisco is a member congregation of the United Church of Christ, a denomination that has always valued education and embraced diversity. It was responsible for the founding of the Yale, University of California, the Pacific School of Religion and many other colleges and universities. It also ordained the first woman in the United State to the Christian Ministry, the Rev. Anoinette Brown, in 1853. Our American Missionary Association was one of the earliest proponents of freedom and civil rights for African-Americans in the 1860s. In 1972, the United Church of Christ ordained the Rev. Bill Johnson, the first openly gay man to be made a Christian minister by a mainline church, here in Northern California. The United Church of Christ is considered a "mainline Protestant" church, sharing theological and liturgical belief and practice with the Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Episcopalian denominations. We not only respect but welcome diversity in race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, physical ability, income and profession. We believe that all are equal before God, and that all people are entitled to God's grace and abundance. Our church is a member of the Northern California/Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ as well as the Golden Gate Association. You will find us participating at events such as the Annual Conference at Asilomar.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Our church is blessed with a membership which represents the diversity of San Francisco. With approximately 60 unique persons classified as active members and another 20 to 30 friends, we boast a range of men and women who are young and elderly, married and single, straight and lesbian/gay/bisexual, multi-cultural and multi-racial, including Mayflower descendants and foreign-born immigrants. Together, we share a love for following Christ's path, and expressing love for each other. Located in the heart of the city, church members routinely volunteer for worship, fellowship and mission. Active church members serve as lay readers, Chancel Choir members, greeters, ushers and Fellowship servers. Church members also assist in providing Senior Services to nearby retirement homes. We are Christians who deeply believe that our church must be self-governing. We church members are the church government, and collectively we determine how our church shall be organized, always conscious of our covenant with Christ. Our participation in councils or associations is always voluntary. The word "congregational" refers to the type of self-government within the church. As Congregationalists, we believe that our relationship with God is one that is deeply personal and private. We come from a myriad of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds. We are free to pray and commune with God as we each see fit. No one authority tells us how to pray, or how to worship; our belief system is deeply rooted and built upon Biblical tradition and the teachings of Jesus Christ. As spiritual descendants from the Pilgrims and Puritans, we operate our church with a spirit of teamwork. No larger body dictates our decisions, and no one person in the church has final authority. Instead, our steering committee (seven positions) and the Pastor meet monthly to regularly discuss and decide our church life. Our church has at least three congregational meetings each year to decide items of major importance, and all members are welcome to participate. We routinely sponsor hands-on workshops, discussion groups and seminars which are designed for input and participation by all. This teamwork management model is poised to carry us forth into the 21st Century. First Congregational supports the The San Francisco Night Ministry, which provides telephone crisis counseling during nighttime hours, as well as on-street ministry in San Francisco.First Congregational provides support to this effort to minister to homeless in San Francisco through the work of "Welcome: A Communal Response to Poverty" . The ministry is based at Old First Presbyterian Church. (with additional thanks to The Rev. Megan Rohrer there). Members and visitors of First Congregational Church collect cancelled stamps that we send on a regular basis to Bethel, a church-sponsored program in Germany where they generate income by being prepared for stamp collectors. We also collect clothing for Reentry Center -- a half-way house for prisoners re-entering society. Our mission volunteers also participate in or support the AIDS Walk, the Hunger Walk, and the Breast Cancer Walk. |
STAFF Our most recent pastor, the Rev. Dr. Wilfried Glabach, has recently taken an exciting new position with a pastoral team in his homeland of Germany. We wish him the very best on his new professional path and next step in his life adventure! We have formed a Pastoral Search Committee and have commenced the process of seeking out our next pastoral partner in our wonderful new church location and building.  The new minister will have pastoral duties such as conducting our worship services, performing weddings, unions, funerals, and baptisms. They will also be responsible for religious education, pastoral care, and outreach into the neighborhood of Polk Street and the wider community. She/He will be working together with the San Francisco Night ministry, LGBT organizations, and other social agencies in the city.In our church we also have Weddings, unions and other pastoral ceremonies. We are very excited about having finished the building of our new church at Polk and Bush Streets. We see in the new church building a statement of faith of the second oldest congregation in San Francisco, We believe that our new church is an “Embassy of God’s Love.” We regularly have messages or sermons from other UCC ministers, including Reverends
Nancy McKay, Dora Ford, Don Fox and Conference Minister
Mary Susan Gast. We also have visiting "guest ministers" from a variety of other denominations and spiritual beliefs from time to time, to keep our perspectives open and alive! This "rotating pulpit" concept allows our congregation to understand the Bible and its lessons from a number of fresh perspectives, as well as keeping our connections to the world's social and spiritual communities outside of the UCC fellowship alive!. We Welcome Dionne Shin Cradock as our Music Director. She has extensive experience in church music, including both piano and organ. She was trained at Kyung Won University in Korea and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she shares her celebration of many diverse genres of music with us, and involves a wide variety influence incorporating both our new organ and our lovely donated Steinway piano into our service. She serves as an instructor at several colleges around the Bay Area and also teaches private students.
WEDDINGS, UNIONS, AND COMMITMENT SERVICES We believe that all relationships of loving, intentional commitments of one person to another are blessed by God. This blessing is inherent in the relationship itself as a part of creation. First Congregational Church, as an “Open and Affirming Church” believes that God’s blessing is given not only to heterosexual unions, but also to unions of two women or two men who pledge their love and commitment to each other. Even though California law concerning marriage does not currently apply to same-sex unions, we honor them just as we honor the marriage of a man and a woman. We consider the commitment of same-sex couples to be as serious and permanent a commitment as marriage. It is our conviction that the laws of the state and the customs of other churches will some day be changed. We do not require that you be a member of First Congregational Church of San Francisco for your ceremony to be here. We are part of the United Church of Christ and therefore part of the free-church tradition. There is no particular form for a wedding, union, or commitment ceremony that we are obliged to use. The UCC Book of Worship has forms for weddings with traditional or contemporary options. Our Pastors welcome a couple participating creatively in the developing and shaping of the ceremony. We welcome your wedding or union celebration in our lovely new facilities and invite you to contact our church office for further information and to reserver space on our calendar. at (415) 441-8901 or via e-mail. |
First
Congregational Church of San Francisco
Last update: August 29, 2010 -rlh
First
Congregational is an