Extracted from the 50th Anniversary Brochure printed in November
1979:
Although Christ United Methodist Church had its official beginning 50 (now 77) years ago on September 16, 1929, the
day Rev. Yasuo Oshita was appointed as the first pastor of the fledging church, the beginnings of the church actually go back
a few years earlier. The Santa Maria Valley over the years had become a center
of farming with many Japanese immigrants providing much of the labor. Naturally,
there were a few Christians among the approximately 1000 Japanese in the valley, and so in January, 1927, a Christian fellowship
called “The Friends of Jesus” was formed under the leadership of the Saika and Kuramoto families. With the help of Rev. Otoe So and Rev. Niisato, who were able to occasionally come to Santa Maria to help,
the fellowship grew. In August 1928, a Sunday School was started, and after a
few months, it began meeting in an old school house on Guadalupe Road secured through the efforts of Dr. Waterhouse. This, then, became the center for Christian activity among the Japanese in Santa Maria
for the next 9 years.
With this groundwork already laid, the boards of home missions of the Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, and
Christian churches joined ranks in supporting the formation of a Japanese Christian mission in Santa Maria, and Mrs. Kane
Yajima was sent here as a visitation evangelist to help things get started. She
remained here for 6 months until a permanent pastor was found in Rev. Yasuo Oshita.
Upon his arrival, “The Japanese Union Church of Santa Maria” was founded with the following as charter
members: Shichizo Saika, Hanaye Saika, Totaro Utsunomiya, Toyo Utsunomiya, Tamegoro Mori, Iso Mori, and Nobuko Ito (the Kuramotos
had moved to the Imperial Valley).
In the early years, the church grew rapidly and by 1934, plans were made for the building of a permanent church building. The building was completed in September, 1937, and on October 3, a beautiful dedication
ceremony was held with as many as 500 people in attendance.
On December 7, 1941, the U.S.-Japan War started and all Japanese were ordered to be evacuated from the West Coast. On April 24, 1942, the final pre-evacuation service was held in our sanctuary with
Dr. Gillette presiding. On the 30th of April, we were sent to the
Tulare Assembly Center, and then on to the Gila Relocation Camp in arizona where the members attended the Rivers Christian
Church. On august 28, 1946, Rev. Oshita returned to the city and opened the church
on September 9 as a hostel for the returning residents. On October 3, 1949, the
church became self-supporting, and marked the 20th year of both the church and of Rev. Oshita’s service. At about this same time, the English speaking nisei young adults began to take more
and more responsibility, and in 1954, the Rev. Paul Hagiya, a native of Santa Maria and who had interned as a youth pastor
in the church a few years previous, was appointed as the first nisei pastor. He
co-pastored with Rev. Oshita until Rev. Oshita’s retirement in 1957, and then as solo pastor until 1959.
Following the war years, the church continued to grow. On May 15, 1955,
the church was incorporated into the Pacific Japanese Provisional Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, and was renamed
“Christ Methodist Church.” With the absorption of the old Pacific
Japanese Provisional Conference into the respective regional annual conferences
of the Methodist Church at large in 1964, the church became part of the Santa Barbara District of the Southern California-Arizona
Annual Conference (now called the California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.)
The peak years of the church were in the 1950’s to mid 1960’s when church membership reached up into the
130-140 range and Sunday School enrollment was well over 100. In the late 1960’s
and 1970’s, our church faced the same problems as many of the other Japanese churches, as there were few younger sansei
children around to replace the large numbers of sansei children born in the post war years.
Thus, Sunday School enrollment dropped considerably, and combined with the general decline in spiritual values characteristic
of that time, the fact that numerous people moved elsewhere, and other factors, church membership and activities declined.
As we enter the 1980’s and our second half century, however, the tide is changing as more and more people are
waking up to the need for spiritual values in life and the church is catching a new vision of its mission in a changing and
unstable world. May god grant us the wisdom to follow his leading into this new
age, and may he also grant us: A Renewed Spirit for the 2nd Half Century.
Clergy that have served at Christ United Methodist Church, Santa
Maria, California
Yasuo Oshita
1929 – 1958 (29)
Paul Hagiya
1954 – 1959 (5)
Alpha Takagi
1959 – 1963 (4)
Michael Morizono
1963 – 1968 (5)
Ronald Kurtz
9/1968 – 1969 (9m)
Nobu Imaizumi
1969 – 1972 (3)
Norio Yasaki
1972 – 1978 (6)
Timothy Boyle
1978 – 1982 (4)
Jean Edick
1982 – 1983 (1)
Koichi Hirano
1983 – 1984 (1)
Nobuko Miyake-Stoner 1984 –
1992 (8)
(Bill Kobayashi – retired assistant)
1988 – 1993
Gordan Imai
1992 – 1995 (3)
Frances Wiebenga
1995 – 2000 (5)
(Mark Moon – retired, Nichigo – 1996 – present)
Samuel Hong
2000 – 2005 (5)
Seung-Eun Grace Lee 2005 - 2009 (4)
Anna Camphouse 2009 - present
