The Reverend Elena Larssen (center) with church historian Kathy Young (R) and co-historian Barbara Smith (L). The origami cranes were displayed in honor of Worldwide Hiroshima Day (August 6) and will remain in place until after Labor Day weekend, when they’ll be sent to Hiroshima. Photo by Matt Cohn.
It’s easy, while standing in the shadow of the massive, 101-year-old First Congregational Church at Third and Cedar, to conjure up visions of church-goers past.
“You have to imagine people, stretching back over decades, who had the most important moments of their lives in this sacred building,” said The Reverend Elena Larssen, who serves as First Church’s Senior Minister.
The red brick church is actually the third iteration of the First Congregational Church to exist at that downtown corner; the first one was dedicated in 1888. First Church’s history “has been consistently intertwined with the City of Long Beach,” said Reverend Larssen. “If you want to learn about Long Beach, First Church is a great place to come. If you want to learn about First Church, just open the books on the history of Long Beach.”
Thanks to a spectacular effort by Church Historian Kathy Young, visitors to First Church’s Koinonia Room can study a 53-foot-long, four-level timeline that chronicles First Church’s entire history in the context of world affairs, arts and culture. Inspired by the “new” church’s 100th anniversary last year, Young put in over 1400 hours of timeline research, aided by co-historian Barbara Smith and other assistants, who also logged hundreds of research hours. The timeline reveals a consistently progressive, generous and open-minded spirit that has driven First Church since day one.
The third iteration of the First Congregational Church, soon after its completion. In 2004 a wing of classrooms and community gathering space was added. Photo courtesy of the First Congregational Church.
Congregationalism dates back to the Mayflower. When the Pilgrims arrived in the New World, they began to use the moniker “Congregationalist” to describe themselves. Reverend Larssen describes Congregationalists as being “bound together by our covenant, our willingness to come together in the community. We are not bound together by agreeing to a specific dogma.”
The original First Congregational Church of Long Beach was the creation of city patriarch Jotham Bixby and his wife Margaret. Margaret was the daughter of a prominent Congregational minister in Maine.
“Margaret Bixby gave us our imprimatur and our mission,” said Reverend Larssen. In 1888, at the corner of Third Street and Cedar Avenue, the Bixbys built Cerritos Hall, the first public building in Long Beach, and donated it to the Congregationalists, who immediately ran into opposition from the Los Angeles Association of Churches.
Stained glass detail, main sanctuary. Photo by Matt Cohn.
By the Association’s standards, the new First Congregational Church of Long Beach was “too liberal.” According to Reverend Larssen, the objection came because “we did not go by a ‘creed.’ Christianity is a spirit of our life. Therefore, it cannot be expressed philosophically as a ‘creed.'” Eventually, though, First Church was welcomed into the greater community of churches.
In 1902, $7,000 was earmarked for the construction of a new, somewhat larger church. By 1914, First Church was ready to go big. The Church enlisted the services of midwestern architect H.M. Patterson to construct a huge church in the Italian Romanesque Revival style (Patterson went on to build the neo-Gothic Hollywood Presbyterian Church in the early ’20s). Jotham Bixby laid the cornerstone for the new church on January 20, 1914, his 83rd birthday.
Dedicated on December 27, 1914, the brick church trimmed with white terra cotta was the largest house of worship in Southern California. The Los Angeles Times, describing the church as “magnificent,” went on to say that First Church’s “architecture and appointments are without peer in southern California,” and that its stained glass windows from Germany are “among the finest to be seen in the West.”
The “Mighty Moller” pipe organ, dedicated in 1956. Photo by Matt Cohn.
Dr. Henry Kendall Booth, First Church Pastor since 1909, offered this dedication: “‘Come to me, little children,’ the building seems to say. ‘I am an international soul. I was built to house the wandering minds of men who have not found themselves. Come to me, and let us reason together.'”
101 years later, Reverend Larssen re-affirmed the thoughts of Dr. Booth.
“Our emphasis is on intellectual rigor and honesty,” said Reverend Larssen. “We’re going to talk about what’s really happening in the world, and how we can respond to it as Christians and as human beings.”
Again and again, on the First Church timeline, one can see evidence of this ethos: Lecture topics in 1920 included “The Evolution of the Gospels,” “Opinions About Christ,” “The Ministry of Womanhood,” and “The Teachings of Islam.”
Among the topics offered for discussion by First Church in 1941 were “How Can We Harmonize Science and Genesis?” and “Must We Believe in the Virgin Birth?”
“The questions are what it’s about,” said timeline creator Kathy Young.
Music provides a major thread in First Church’s history. The timeline is dotted with musical events; a concert by the Pomona College Glee Club in 1928, a Welsh choir giving a guest performance in 1931, a service on V-E Day in 1945 that included Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”, and dozens of other musical happenings, religious and secular.
In 1956 the church dedicated the “Mighty” Moller organ, an astounding musical instrument. The organist has five keyboards at his/her disposal, along with 68 “ranks” (tonal settings of great variety), and 4226 pipes, many of them not visible to the congregation. It can whisper or it can roar, like an orchestra.
Since 1979, CSULB has presented its “Winterfest” concert in First Church. Last November, during the 100th anniversary celebrations, First Church’s own Board of Cultural Arts put on a two-night show, “Postcards from Paradise,” in which song, dance, slides, and stories were employed to tell the tales of Long Beach and the Church.
Currently, First Church is mounting a production featuring its music director, Curtis Heard. Heard, who’s also on the music faculty at Long Beach’s Wilson High School, has composed a song cycle based on poet Leslea Newman’s book “October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard.” “October Mourning” was first performed last year, but will be considerably more elaborate and theatrical this year, according to Reverend Larssen.
“October Mourning” will be performed on the weekend of October 17-18 at First Church, and will also play at the Art Theater on Sunday, October 25 at 2:00PM. The Art’s neighbor the LGBTQ Center will be hosting a reception after the show.
First Church has been a place to volunteer since its inception (“This church was designed for worship, but built for service,” said Margaret Bixby). There’s a meal program for the homeless on Sundays. On Christmas, Temple Israel, which has held its High Holy Day services at First Church since 1956, comes in with volunteers and provides hot meals for those in need, so church members can celebrate at home with their families. The Vedanta Society also volunteers at the Church several times a year.
With seating for almost 1000, a 55-foot ceiling, three rose windows and a square shape, First Church feels majestic yet warm. The hundreds of origami cranes now hanging from wires in the sanctuary are temporary but they look right at home. It’s an uplifting and inviting place.
A key First Church motto, shared by Reverend Larssen, is befitting of the generous house of worship: “No matter who you are and where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”
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Gallery photos by Matt Cohn, unless otherwise noted.
- Close-up of the Moller pipe organ.
- Stained glass window in the main sanctuary.
- Stained glass detail.
- Local newspaper coverage of the third church’s dedication in late 1914.
- Origami cranes and one of the three rose windows in the main sanctuary.
- The First Congregational Church of Long Beach, recognized nationally for its remarkable history.
- Church construction crew, 1914. Photo courtesy of the First Congregational Church.