Community Church of Atascadero celebrates centennial

Posted: 9:32 am, October 22, 2015 by Heather Young

Community Church of Atascadero United Church of Christ at 5890 Rosario Ave.

–The Community Church of Atascadero United Church of Christ has been celebrating its centennial all year with the festivities culminating next month.

Last weekend, the church participated in Atascadero’s Colony Days celebration with a float in the parade, a booth in Sunken Gardens and a tent in Tent City. The church’s float took first place in the theme division. It’s float showed the church’s involvement in the community for the last 100 years. The day after Colony Days, a special church service was held with friends, family, past members and the community.

The small church perched on top of the hill overlooking downtown Atascadero, was the first church in Atascadero, started by Atascadero’s founder E.G. Lewis in 1915. The church, called the Federated Church of Atascadero, included all Christian faiths. According to Atascadero historian Lon Allan, Lewis brought together two dozen different denominations.

The first minister of the Federated Church was Dr. E.A. Berry. When the Federated Church began on July 18, 1915, there were only five people in attendance, according to the Community Church’s website. However, Allan said, there were 250 members within a year. The church met in Stadium Park in the bowl below Pine Mountain in good weather. Later, in 1921, Lewis build a building where Atascadero Bible Church is today to be used as a community center during the week and the home of the Federated Church on Sunday.

“I am very impressed with how much the congregation continued with that focus throughout the first century of its history,” Community Church of Atascadero Pastor Heather Branton said.

Over several decades, the original church changes names and locations, but kept its concept to be an “active, community-orientated church.” The name, the Community Church of Atascadero, came about in 1929. The Community Church’s fellowship hall was its first sanctuary on its current location. It moved there in 1950 and the current sanctuary was constructed in 1957. The church was brought from a military base and rebuilt in Atascadero.

The Community Church of Atascadero won the theme division in the 2015 Colony Days parade.

The church will host its annual holiday boutique, this year called the Centennial Celebration Holiday Boutique, which will be held on Friday, Nov. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of proceeds will support developing countries and local charities.

“As we turn to the next hundred years, we are a congregation which in many ways embraces progressive theology,” Branton said. “In the United Church of Christ we believe that God is still speaking, that we are still discovering who the Holy One is. So we try to live with the questions rather than requiring answers. We leave room for differing expressions of faith. And we continue trying to be a place of welcome and of healing, to work for more inclusion and justice in our wider community.”

The church’s motto is “whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome to worship with us.” The church, which is part of the United Church of Christ denomination, is an Open and Affirming, Peace with Justice and LGBTQ-friendly church. It’s mission is to “join with God and each other, to work together providing an environment open for all to serve God through worship, prayer, education, music and fellowship; to develop Christian values and support one another as we share life’s experiences; to respond with compassion to the needs of others; to strive for truth, justice and peace; and to do this in the love of Jesus Christ while striving to do the will of God, as we understand it, in all things.”

For more information, call (805) 466-9108, email [email protected] or go to www.atascaderoucc.org. The church office is open Wednesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m.