The Church That Grew in the Pea Patch
Covenant's founding pastor, Rev. Arthur C. Brown, Jr., and one of its first members, John Keith, who documented Art's prose with many early photographs, titled their retrospective, written for our 25th Anniversary Celebration, "From Pea Patch to Padded Pew." Although the "pea patch" label is sometimes the subject of good fun among us, it was a remarkable journey they documented in their words and photos of our early history, beginning after World War II, when the farmlands and orchards south of Oregon Expressway were snapped up by developers to provide housing for young families settling in the area.
In July, 1951, Rev. Brown, who was then an Assistant Pastor at downtown Palo Alto's First Presbyterian Church, was commissioned by the San Jose Presbytery to organize a new church in south Palo Alto's growing neighborhoods. In October, First Presbyterian commissioned 23 of its members to form the nucleus of the new church, which held its first worship service on October 21 in the South Palo Alto Library on Wellesley Street. In January, 1952, 63 charter members requested that the Presbytery of San Jose charter Covenant Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery's organizing service, held at First Presbyterian Church in February, 1952, affirmed the intent of those charter members to "walk together as disciples of Jesus Christ in a church relation . . . and seek in its fellowship to glorify the name and further the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ."
And the "Pea Patch"? After agreeing with a local farmer to buy two acres, and negotiating with the City of Palo Alto, which wanted to locate a park next to the new school being built, Covenant purchased its property for $8,500, with part of the loans from First Presbyterian Church, the Presbytery, and loan #1 from the national church's $12 million Building Fund Campaign for new church and seminary construction. Covenant members moved into their first building, what is now Fellowship Hall, in October, 1952, and had grown to 267 members by 1953. Members donated 1,500 hours of volunteer labor to build the classroom wing and then another 1,000 person hours to build the Fireside Room, which was ready for use on the third anniversary in October, 1954.
The rest is history. Rev. Brown and his wife Inez led Covenant through its first twenty-three years, including the dedication of the Sanctuary in 1966. Since then Covenant has been blessed by the leadership and spiritual talents of three succeeding pastors: Rev. Dr. Donald E. Mason, 1975-1991; Rev. Rebecca King, 1992-1997; and Rev. Dr. Isaiah Jones, Jr., 1999-2007. In addition, we have enjoyed the leadership of several Assistant and Associate Pastors, talented Interim Pastors, and numerous seminary interns who found Covenant a good place to learn to be a pastor. In late July, 2010, Covenant welcomed its fifth pastor in its nearly-sixty-year history. The Reverend Dr. Margaret Willis Boles' joy and enthusiasm for the Lord's service is contagious, and we look forward to sharing in ministry with her as we move into this new era in the faith journey of the Covenant Church Family.
As we look forward to our 60th Anniversary in 2011, we reflect in joy and awe on the loving labors of our founders and on the fact that Covenant Presbyterian Church remains faithful to the earliest discussions among those who named and brought a new church into existence: the biblical declaration that God has entered into a covenant with His people, saying "I will be your God, you shall be my people," and its founders' belief that "they were entering into a covenant together, in dependence upon God, to participate in establishing a church for the glory of God and a ministry to persons." Thanks be to God for growing in faith and serving in love!