The history of Grace United Methodist
Church begins with the Tale of Two Churches, namely: Parkside Methodist Church
and Filipino Wesley Methodist Church. The
merging of these two churches gave birth to Grace United Methodist Church on
June 25, 1969.
Parkside Methodist Church, one of the two
parent churches of Grace UMC, opened its doors on November 30, 1941, about a
week before World War II, at 1729 Taraval Street, San Francisco. It was a Caucasian congregation.
On January 23, 1944, after the war, the
church moved to 2540 Taraval Street, the present location.
In 1948, membership increased to 276,
while Sunday School enrolment was 400 with a full complement of administrative
and teaching staff.
From 1948 to 1958, a span of ten years,
the church changed its ministers five times.
Its membership declined rapidly.
The decline was caused by social changes, which led members to move out
of the community.
The other parent church, Filipino Wesley
Methodist Church, was organized in 1918 by a small group of Filipino
immigrants, who with a sense of belonging felt a dire need for Christian
Fellowship. They were in a new and
strange land. They met regularly for
worship as they grew in numbers in spite of the fact that they had no clergy
leadership for two years.
Then in 1920, one Dr. Stanley was
appointed to provide pastoral leadership.
Inspired by the presence of their pastor, the congregation began to
think of a name for their church.
Eventually, they decided on the name Filipino Fellowship Church.
Rev. Palmejar, who was in turn replaced by
Rev. Armie Obien, succeeded Dr. Stanley.
Worship services were held in different
places until an apartment building at 2012-14 Pine Street was purchased.
Having a permanent location, the
congregation voted to change the name of their church from Filipino Fellowship
Church to Filipino Community Church.
In 1952, Rev. Amado Fayloga was appointed
pastor of the Filipino Community Church.
He led the congregation in remodeling the newly acquired property. About this time, the congregation decided to
change again the church’s name to Filipino Wesley Methodist Church.
The remodeling project was never completed
due to the sudden death of Rev. Fayloga.
In 1967, Rev. Leonard Autajay was
appointed pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church.
Parkside had a church building at 2540
Taraval but only had a handful of remaining members. Wesley on the other hand had a building that was not good enough
for a growing congregation. So on June
25, 1969, the two churches merged to give birth to Grace United Methodist
Church at 2540 Taraval Street. Rev.
Leonard Autajay became the first pastor.
He served for the next ten consecutive years. In 1979, Rev. Juan Ancheta who served for two years replaced him.
In 1981, Rev. Arturo D. Capuli was
appointed pastor of Grace United Methodist Church. He was reappointed yearly thereafter until his retirement in July
2003. He served Grace UMC for 22
consecutive years. Rev. Florentino
Caole Jr. who is assigned as Interim Pastor for one year succeeds him.
By local arrangement, assistants to the pastor
served one after the other namely: Rev. Benjamin Soriano (deceased), Rev.
Nathaniel Cortez (deceased), Rev. Odon Agustin, and Rev. Florentino Caole.
Grace employed full-time deaconesses to
serve as Education and Nurture Directors.
We had Ellen Dizon and at present Miriam Baluyot.
Professional musicians have served as
Choir/Music Directors, with Grace S. Mallare as the most recent. She still is Grace’s Choir Director and
Pianist.
On June 4, 1999 Grace UMC and St. Francis
UMC at 3601 Noriega merged, combining their membership, leadership, assets and
liabilities, with Grace UMC as the surviving congregation. St. Francis UMC became St. Francis
Chapel. With the merger, members and
constituents of the two congregation now have the opportunity to worship on
Sunday mornings at Grace UMC at 11:00 a.m. and Vesper service at St. Francis
Chapel at 5:00 p.m.
In the year 2001, long delayed maintenance
and repair work begun on the buildings at Taraval and Noriega Streets. New windows and doors, new fences and repainting
of interior and exterior parts of the building are in progress. A new handicap elevator was also installed.
At the start of the new millennium, Grace
UMC adopted for its theme “Making Disciples for the New Millennium”. The theme itself poses a challenge to
everyone. In accepting the challenge,
we, by the grace of God, have made a commitment to express our faith in the
ways we care for one another and serve others not only within our Bay area
community by reaching out and bringing out the Good News of Christ’s love in
words and in deeds, and inviting people to become Christ’s disciples and
members of Christ’s church at Grace.
Through prayer, visitation, church school
for all ages, confirmation class, Sunday morning worship and afternoon Vesper
service, Mid-week Bible Study, Adults’ Refresher Class, Cell Group Meetings,
UMMen and UMWomen Fellowship, Youth Ministry and Music Ministry, we continue to
grow in a closer relationship with God and caring relationship with one
another.