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First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, California, is on the corner of 27th and Broadway (2619 Broadway) in downtown Oakland, California (94612). If you phone us at (510) 444-3555 or visit our Web site you might not necessarily sense who we are right away. Our current membership of 280 is made up of 71% Caucasian and 29% racial ethnic folks. Those who comprise the 29% include first and second generation African immigrants, long-time African-Americans, Asians (Chinese, Japaneses and Philippino), East Indian, Brazilian, Jamaican, Lebanese and Hispanic. Altogether the congregation traces national roots to over 30 countries. The session has fifteen members, of whom four are racial ethnic persons and who this year are serving as chairs of Worship, Personnel, Evangelism and our endowment program.
When you arrive for worship, the Sunday Church Bulletin includes our Mission Statement, part of which says: We are a diverse people united by our service to God and the high spiritual values of worship, education, justice and kindness. We are racially, theologically, politically, socially and blessedly diverse — and we have been called into community by the grace of God in Jesus Christ to serve God in the City of Oakland, the East Bay and the wider world.
And that really does say something about who we are today in 2006. We are a 153 year old congregation that has in our time born the fruit of genuine racial-ethnic diversity and multiculturalism. The 2001 Mission Study Report included the following:
We participated in the building of the Chinese Home in San Francisco in 1877, a time of violent opposition to the Chinese in California. In 1878, the Chinese Presbyterian Church was born out of First Church School; Faith Presbyterian Church, which is a predominantly black congregation, was organized at First Church in 1946, before moving to its own location.
In those years our vision didn’t include what our reality is today. Beginning in the 1950s we slowly became a multicultural congregation. Incredibly diverse city — in terms of race (Oakland is 31% Caucasian, 35% Black, 22% Asian and 12% Hispanic), ethnicity and culture, we sadly are a very rare church. Our strength today is first of all our diversity. Part of our witness is our persistence in addressing needs of the wider community. We gave birth to Oakland Coalition of Congregations (OCC) in 1989. OCC brings together many diverse congregations working for justice in the public arena. Among its several goals, OCC seeks to improve Oakland public education. Our involvement in OCC has taught us the challenges of serving together as a diverse community. We learned that with insufficient honest dialogue and training we can fail miserably.
A community development task force was organized in 1990 in an effort to reach out to the immediate neighborhood which is about 31% Caucasian, 35% Black, 22% Asian and 12% Hispanic. The result of the task force was to address transportation needs for seniors. Our church took the leadership in partnering with several neighborhood churches including several racially diverse congregations and the local synagogue. The ministry called Faith in Motion existed for five years before transferring the project to a large social service agency.
Our reach in mission isn’t only to the city. In February 2005, seventeen people from First Church journeyed together to attend a 10-day seminar at the Latin-American Biblical University in San Jose, Costa Rica. The schedule included lectures by their professors on Christianity in that part of the world and visits to local congregations. One of the professors was invited by our church to preach and teach for three weeks last November. Currently one of our church members is representing the presbytery, traveling to the Middle East to attend a Peacemaking conference in Bethlehem and Palestine. First Church will be hosting interpretation events for the presbytery when the delegation returns from their trip.
Currently, one of the most effective cultural outreach and evangelistic efforts is the Sunday morning worship service. Our installed pastor the Rev. Chandler Stokes from the very beginning in 2003 intentionally included racial ethnic persons in his installation service. Subsequently racial ethnic persons serve as liturgist in Sunday worship. There is coherent worship planning so that sermons and music often include multicultural themes and authors. Racial ethnic persons are highly visible and recognized in leadership positions. This style of worship, which is strongly liturgically based, led by our pastors has been effective with racial ethnic persons. During the last three years, at least 60% of new members are ethnic folks. This Easter of the 10 new members who joined the church, seven are racial ethnic persons. Our church school is made up of 40% racial ethnic children.
Future strategies to increase racial and cultural representation include professional development for the seven ordained clergy members from our congregation including five parish associates (one African-American and one Asian-American) and the two called pastors. We are planning to become a cohort group to support one another in ministry and develop leadership skills for serving a multicultural church. Our pastors plan a series on Race and Racism in the fall which will be a first for First Church!
The current stage of our story is that we are growing in our understanding of what it means to be a multicultural church — by the grace of God we are learning how to (be) the church.
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland
2619 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-3555
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