November 3, 2005

FOCUS ON FAITH

Almaden Hills United Methodist Church celebrates 45th anniversary

Founded in 1960, church has grown to more than 400 members

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Almaden Hills United Methodist Church historian Bonnie Home proudly shows visitors a bulletin board where she has compiled photos and other historical documents depicting the last 45 years of the congregation she loves.

The Rev. Carole Vincent, who has been appointed to lead the Almaden Hills United Methodist Church last July, has served for more than 12 years in United Methodist churches in Marina, Seaside and Marysville, Calif. Congregational worship is her passion. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Last month, she used it during the sapphire anniversary (the 45th) celebration of the church in the sanctuary and fellowship hall and remembered its first Sunday worship service at the Matthew Susanj Youth Center.

With the theme, “We love this place,” church members, under the leadership of the Rev. Carole Vincent, decorated the building with blue tones and blue hearts and observed the church’s founding in 1960, when about 30 members met in a prune orchard to begin a faith community.

The congregation’s first meeting, however, occurred in a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Gatos under the topic, “Rebel with a cause.”

Nearly 200 church members attended the anniversary celebration Oct. 16. The observance included two worship services, a special program in the church’s fellowship hall, a potluck dinner, two choir performances and a special solo performance by a former member now living in Arizona.

Several of the church’s former pastors, who are now retired, returned to their old spiritual ground to join in the festivities. They included the Revs. Chuck Cordes, Glenda Thomas, Bob Hawthorne and Glenn Fuller.

Today the church has 440 members on its rosters. On Sundays, more than 200 people fill its pews. Church members meet in a spacious church campus located near the intersection of Blossom Hill Road and Almaden Expressway. The facility includes a 400-person-capacity sanctuary, an office/education wing, a preschool and choir room, surrounded by a park-like atmosphere adorned with trees, sidewalks, benches and neatly manicured gardens.

“People are coming and finding they can experience God and find joy and friendship and be included and welcomed and that they have a place to belong here,” said the Rev. Carole Vincent, of the church. She joined the congregation last July.

Goals and challenges
Pastor Carole, as she is known, said the church’s council, a policy-making and administrative body made up of 20 church volunteers, is focusing on community outreach, hoping to attract families with children and increasing participation among its members.

Lisa Jacobs, the church’s full-time youth director, coordinates youth programs for Almaden Hills, the Cambrian Park United Methodist Church and the Willow Glen United Methodist Church. The program has more than 100 youths who meet several times a week for Bible study, community service projects and other activities.

The church also has a “caring callers” group who helps watch over congregation members who are ill or new.

One of the challenges facing the church is the busy-ness of Silicon Valley. Pastor Carole said many are overworked and overscheduled making it hard for them to slow down and find time for church. “We try to adapt for that. We don’t want anything from them. We just want to help them,” Home said.

Reconciliation
Despite the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church, the highest court of the denomination, recently stripping clergy privileges from an openly lesbian minister in Pennsylvania, Pastor Carole explains Almaden Hills is a “reconciling congregation,” meaning the faith group works hard to welcome homosexuals into the fold.

She said the congregation also strives to welcome members of any race, ethnicity, gender, or disability. “We celebrate God’s welcome to us and to all people,” Pastor Carole said. “We are open to everybody.”

In June of 1999 the church voted to become one of a network of 164 other United Methodist congregations across the nation, which have made such a statement. The vote came after several years of study and discernment, specifically looking at the relationship of Christian faith to the homosexual population.

The church, like its 50 United Methodist sister congregations in the South Bay, belongs to the San Jose district of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church. Pastor Carole answers to the district superintendent, the Rev. Nymphas Edwards. On Nov. 28, the Rev. Edwards will preside over the church’s annual meeting to celebrate its ministry and present nominations for 2006. The church has been working for four months on nominations for its various committees and commissions.

Community outreach
Councilwoman Nancy Pyle, who represents the city’s District 10, will be giving the church a commendation at a City Council meeting on Nov. 15 for its work with the community.

Judy Demko, the church’s council chairwoman, will receive the recognition. Pastor Carole will give the invocation during the City Council’s afternoon meeting.

Pyle said she decided to recognize the church after attending its annual children’s fair last August. More than 400 hot dogs with chips and drinks were served free of charge to community members and more than 200 backpacks were stuffed with school supplies and given away to neighborhood low-income children. The fair also included crafts, a cakewalk and snacks; a parrot show, two jump houses and Christian rock music.

Pyle said she was amazed by the church’s commitment to care for the neighborhood. “It is my pleasure to acknowledge the dedication of the individuals whose hard work makes the kids’ fair a reality which so many underprivileged children and their families in District 10 are able to enjoy,” Pyle said.

In the summer, the church also welcomes guests from the InnVision men’s rotating shelter who sleep on cushion mats in the fellowship hall and are served a meal every evening. The church also hosts the local Neighborhood Action Committee and sends volunteers to the Second Harvest Food Bank to sort items.

The congregation sponsors Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops, allows its facility to be used for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, rents space to the Learning Company and the Head Start program, serves the San Jose Family Shelter, is a polling place, participates in the FISH Food project, contributes heavily to the United Methodist Committee on Relief—the congregation raised more than $12,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. In addition, members adopt the family of an inmate for Christmas through the Friends Outside program, participates in the Heifer Project buying an animal for a third world country family, supports Habitat for Humanity and the Blanket Sunday project buying $5 blankets used as tents, tablecloths and knapsacks through the Church World Service organization.

“We want to be available for whatever the community needs,” said Pastor Carole. “We want to have our doors open and whatever we see is needed that’s what we want to be for.”

Pastor Carole
Pastor Carole has served for more than 12 years in United Methodist churches in Marina, Seaside and Marysville, Calif. Congregational worship is her passion.

Pastor Carole is married to Jim Vincent. He’s a retired aeronautical engineer. She has two grown children and one grandchild who is 2. She lives in Cupertino and is happy to return to the Bay Area.

She received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Colorado in 1963 and a master’s of divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena in 1991.

She was born in Rochester, N.Y., and grew up in an American Baptist church. When she was an adult she said she experienced much grace and love in the United Methodist Church in Los Altos, where she received her call to ministry. She plans on staying with the congregation for several years.

California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church’s Bishop Beverly Shamana will reappoint Pastor Carole next June if everything is going well with the congregation.

Pastor Carole works more than 60 hours a week serving her congregation.

“I’m thrilled to be here,” said Pastor Carole. “I’m delighted. I’ve arrived in heaven and these are the saints. The church has been so welcoming and positive in everything that it has done.”

Pastor Carole praised the church’s lay leadership for its openness and can-do and helpful attitude. “I’m so happy to be here. I’m pinching myself. I hope to stay here as long as body and soul will stay together. I’m home.
Everyday I come to work I say, ‘I love this place and I love the people.’”

For more information on Almaden Hills United Methodist Church, 1200 Blossom Hill Rd., San Jose, Calif., 95118, (408) 269-2345, visit the church’s Web site, www.almadenhillsumc.org. The church offers two Sunday worship services at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.