Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples

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The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples [1] is unique in the nation. It is recognized as the first intercultural, interracial, interfaith and interdenominational church organized in the United States.

History

From its formal inauguration on October 8, 1944, Fellowship Church brought together, for the first time, races and cultures pledged to each other in a common commitment. World War II was raging in Europe, with no end in sight. There was much talk in the United States about the Four Freedoms, religion being one of them, and a celebrated poster by Norman Rockwell portrayed several people of different races and ages and in various attitudes of worship – with rosaries, breviaries, Bibles, Torahs, veils, and so forth – indicating the various faiths worshipping together in an idealized world.

Fellowship Church’s origins lie in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, where an ordained Presbyterian clergyman and Professor of Philosophy at S. F. State College (now University), Dr. Alfred Fisk (a white man), started a "Neighborhood Church" as a bi-racial institution. A group of about 40 persons, under the ministry of Dr. Fisk and the Rev. Manly Johnson, an African American (then "Negro") student at the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, began meeting in 1943, first in private homes. Later the Presbyterian Board of National Missions provided, rent-free, the use of a former Japanese Presbyterian Church, at 1500 Post.

At that time, the Fillmore district of San Francisco had been largely emptied of its majority – Japanese-American citizens – by the infamous Relocation Order of 1942, which sent some 100,000 Japanese-American residents to holding centers. The vacuum left by these residents was being filled by large numbers of African Americans, drawn from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, by promises of wartime employment in the Bay Area shipyards.

In 1944, Dr. Howard Thurman (an African American), Professor of Theology and the Dean of Rankin Chapel of Howard University, was invited to serve as pastor of the Church. Dr. and Mrs. Thurman had studied nonviolent resistance to institutionalized race discrimination with Mahatma Gandhi in India in the late ‘30s.

Dr. Thurman and his wife moved from Washington, D.C. to take the pastorate. For a time the church held services in a former theater on Sutter Street. Dr. Thurman and Dr. Fisk wrote a formal set of guidelines and goals for the church, and the formal inaugural ceremonies were held in the First Unitarian Church, the only white church in the City that would lend its endorsement and its sanctuary for the event.

From 1944 to 1949, Fellowship Church met variously on Sutter, Pierce, and then Washington Street. Its membership included an active congregation locally, but it drew support from national "associates" such as Eleanor Roosevelt, author Alan Paton, actor-singer Todd Duncan, and persons in Japan, South Africa, India, Iran, Formosa, and the British Isles.

Time magazine [2] published an article about the Church in 1948, calling attention to its uniqueness. The article mentions Thurman's white co-pastor at the time, Robert Meyners.

In 1949, the congregation paid $35,000 to St. John’s Reformed and Evangelical Church at 2401 Larkin Street (its present site), located in the San Francisco neighborhood known as "Russian Hill," for its structure with church tower, sanctuary, meeting rooms, and offices.

Dr. Thurman was most active as pastor in the early 50’s. In 1953, he was pictured in Life magazine as one of the outstanding clerics in the United States. He wrote over 130 works during his lifetime, primarily books on theology, including The Renewing of the Spirit and The Negro Spiritual. He spoke worldwide, and received formal tributes and commendation from many national and international religious, social, educational, and civil rights groups. Dr. Thurman contributed a considerable portion of his earnings from his U.S. lecture tours to the Fellowship Church building fund.

Dr. Thurman left in 1954 for a tenured position as Dean of Theology at Boston University, but returned to serve as Minister Emeritus until his death in 1981.

The widow of Dr. Thurman, Sue Bailey Thurman, herself an outstanding figure in African-American activities nationally, died at the age of 93 in December, 1996. Her funeral services were held at Fellowship Church, and the music came from the historic, German-made organ still in use for services.

The Church Today

The current presiding minster is the Rev. Dorsey Blake. The congregation presently consists of a small number of active supporters, many of whom are longtime members. The rather austere, off-white stucco façade is embellished three street-level arched inset doors, and crowned with a bell tower. Below the sanctuary at street level is Thurman Hall, named after Dr. Thurman, where meetings, plays, lectures and music are performed.

Neighbors are familiar with its use as a polling place for local, state, and national elections. Neighbors have held meetings at the church, as have other groups. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was an active theater group who performed here. Performances included "I’m Not Rappaport," "LUV", "Member of the Wedding," and "An Evening with Martin and Langston" with Danny Glover appearing as Langston Hughes and Felix Justice as Martin Luther King, Jr. More recently, local jazz singer Kim Nalley performed a tribute to the legendary Billie Holliday on the Thurman Hall stage.

Beginning in the Summer of 2007, the Church is hosting the Howard Thurman Forum Series [3] of free lectures in its building.

References:

Bibliographical Essay: Howard Thurman and Rufus M. Jones, Two Mystics [4]

The Negro Church and the Adult Education Phases of Its Program [5]

Material Pacifism (lists churches with pacifist commitments) [6]

People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States [7]

With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman, Howard Thurman, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1979.

Footprints of A Dream: The Story of The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, NY: Harper & Brothers. 1959

The First Footprints: The Dawn of the Idea of The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. Letters between Alfred Fisk & Howard Thurman 1943 - 1944. San Francisco: Lawton and Alfred Kennedy, 1975

Mysticism and Social Change: The Social Witness of Howard Thurman, Pollard AB. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1992.

Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet.Smith LE., Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1991.