First Congregational Church of Palo Alto sits on Louis Road, just off Embarcadero near the 101 and a short walk from the Bay marshes. The congregation organized in 1900 and today carries an unusual combination of identities for a single church body: it is one of the early Open and Affirming congregations of the United Church of Christ on the San Francisco Peninsula, an active host of an indigenous-justice initiative called the Bay Area Native Allies Project, and the home of a music program large enough to sustain a three-concert annual season with full orchestra. Add a winter shelter for unhoused women, a children's ministry built around a story-telling puppet camel, and a 3,000-pipe Letourneau organ, and the picture of what happens on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. comes into focus.
Our Palo Alto Roots
The story begins in 1897, when a small circle of Christians in the newly incorporated town of Palo Alto began meeting for prayer and fellowship. The town itself was only three years old, and many of those early gatherers were Stanford professors, businessmen, merchants, and their families who missed the Congregational churches of the eastern seaboard. They wanted the same kind of local autonomy they had known there. On October 29, 1900, with a charter membership of 52 and a Sunday school of 50, the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto officially organized. Membership doubled within the first year.
A brown-shingled church was built at the corner of Hamilton and Waverly and dedicated in 1905, with a capacity nearly twice that of any other church or hall in town. When the 1906 earthquake struck, the building survived and became the central relief center for the San Francisco Peninsula. That early experience set the tone for the next century: a congregation quick to mobilize around the needs of its neighbors.
Both world wars drained the church of leaders and members, but in the decades following each, growth surged again. By the early 1960s, membership and church-school enrollment together exceeded 900. The current campus at Embarcadero and Louis Road was built between 1953 and 1961, with the congregation worshipping in its new space in stages while construction continued. The buildings came to host a weekday nursery school, a college-student ministry, youth programs, adult education, and a thriving music program, with the campus occupied seven days a week.
In 2007, the Sanctuary was renovated to comply with ADA codes, and a new Letourneau pipe organ was installed. A fall 2014 campaign then funded seismic retrofitting of the sanctuary, kitchen and Social Hall renovation, roof replacement with solar panels, an education wing refurbishment, and a landscape redesign. Today the church is a 501(c)(3) public charity and a member congregation of the Santa Clara Association within the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ.
An Extravagant Welcome, Open and Affirming
In 2007, First Congregational Church of Palo Alto declared itself an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ, intentionally extending the welcome of the church to LGBTQ+ persons and their families. That welcome has continued to broaden, the congregation says, to the whole spectrum of gender expression, including genderqueer, gender nonconforming, and gender nonidentifying folks. The formal Statement of Welcome, posted at the entrance to the Sanctuary, reads: "we declare ourselves to be an open and affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ, welcoming into the full life and ministry of our church all who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender."
The church is a self-described "congregational church" in two senses. In polity, decision-making power rests with the entire congregation, rooted in the conviction that no single person has all the answers but that consensus, voting, and mutual encouragement are the way forward. In denomination, FCCPA is locally governed and freely affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The wider UCC describes itself with the slogan "God is still speaking," and its members work in covenant with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Canada, and the Evangelical Church of Germany in full communion. Locally, the church is part of the Northern California Nevada Conference of the UCC, which covers about 120 churches and more than 300 authorized ministers from Fresno north to the California-Oregon border.
A Statement of Political Conscience, approved by the congregation on April 12, 2026, captures the public posture of the church today. "We, the people of First Congregational Church of Palo Alto (United Church of Christ), will not remain silent when we witness harm being done to our neighbors who are immigrants, LGBTQ+, people of color, US citizens, and those who stand with them in solidarity, because our faith calls us first to love." The statement goes on to ground that witness in the life and teachings of Jesus, to call out cruelty, deception, and the abuse of power, and to commit the congregation to accountability, creation-care, and solidarity "with people of every faith and no faith, seeking to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8)."
Music at the Center of Worship
Music is built into the bones of FCCPA. The Chancel Choir sings every Sunday at the 10:00 a.m. service, with rehearsal on Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. Under the direction of Music Director Joe Guthrie, the choir prepares small-ensemble repertoire, leads congregational singing, and offers vocal-technique and sight-singing work for singers. The Sunday bulletin typically lists the music from the Chancel Choir and the vocal ensemble "The Ins."
The Congregational Concert Chorale, directed by Jenny Matteucci, is a community-based choral group that performs three concerts each year, often with orchestra. The Congregational Concert Series adds three more guest-artist concerts, rounding out a season of free Sunday-afternoon performances supported by Friends of Music. Rehearsals for the Chorale begin in early September on Thursday evenings; there is no audition and no fee to join.
The 3,000-pipe Letourneau organ anchors the Sanctuary. Daniel Lockert serves as Assistant Organist, and the church's 1985 Louis Road address also offers concert grand pianos in the Social Hall and baby grand pianos in the Fellowship Room for smaller performances.
For younger singers, three choirs meet during the school year. The Cherub Choir is for kindergarten through second grade and rehearses in the Backyard at 11:15 a.m. on Sundays; the Children's Choir, for grades 3 to 5, meets at 11:15 a.m. in Room 8; and the Youth Choir, for grades 6 to 12, rehearses weekly at 11:35 a.m. in Room 8. The Children's and Youth Choirs sing in worship once a month and have a role in the spring musical. Emily Bender serves as Children and Youth Choir Director, with Joe Guthrie providing overall music leadership.
Each spring, FCCPA stages a musical based on a spiritual theme in the Social Hall. Past productions have included Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and several original musicals. The Christmas Pageant on the second Sunday of Advent and the Evening in Bethlehem experience, when the Social Hall is transformed into a market town with live animals, authentic food, and crafts, are the two most popular productions of the year. Annual family events also include the Animal Blessing Sunday, the Advent Wreath-Making afternoon, the Christmas Eve family services at 3:30 and 5:30 p.m., the Family Movie Night, the Easter Egg Hunt, the Vacation Bible School, and the Dog Days Church Picnic.
Children, Youth, and Growing in Faith
Children are invited into the first part of the worship service with their families. After the Children's Story, a moment featuring Director of Children's Ministries Todd Erickson and a puppet named Clarence the Camel, Backyard Sunday School begins at about 10:15 a.m. and continues through the sermon. The program, led by Erickson with the help of a rotating team of volunteers, introduces children to the Bible and the spiritual traditions of the Christian faith while encouraging them to love God and their neighbors. Middle and high school students are welcome in the Backyard as both learners and helpers.
Confirmation is a year-long journey of study, fellowship, and decision-making for youth typically in eighth grade and above, supported by its own curriculum.
Middle School Youth Group meets bi-monthly on Friday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., and the High School Youth Group gathers on Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Palo Alto High School youth also meet for occasional lunch-hour gatherings at Howie's Pizza. The Director of Youth Ministries, Sam Putney, oversees both groups.
Each summer, the youth program runs a week-long service-learning trip in partnership with SSP. Youth entering sixth grade through recent high school graduates are invited to participate, with the trip fee of $1,200 covering meals, lodging, and transportation. The daily rhythm includes morning work sites, midday reflection, evening programming, and an optional devotional before lights out. Separate sleeping areas by gender are provided, and the program honors the identities of transgender and gender non-conforming volunteers.
Vacation Bible School fills a week of summer with music, art, and storytelling. Family Movie Nights, the Christmas Pageant, the Easter Egg Hunt, and a pumpkin-patch outing in October round out the calendar for children and families.
The Bay Area Native Allies Project
Few things distinguish FCCPA more sharply than its long-running Bay Area Native Allies Project, known inside the church as BANAP. Founded in 2022, BANAP is a lay-led initiative to build relationships with the Ramaytush Ohlone people, the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula, and to translate those relationships into education, advocacy, and concrete action. The project began in early 2022 when Dr. Jonathan Cordero, the Metush (or Chairperson) of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, met with a small group of FCCPA members in what would become the church's native-species garden. The meeting was the first in a continuing series of Indigenous and non-Indigenous conversations on the campus.
A formal FCCPA Land Acknowledgement, posted at the top of the church's BANAP pages and offered at the start of meetings and worship, reads: "As a community dedicated in covenant to welcome and include all, we respectfully acknowledge the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples, original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula where we, in faith, now gratefully gather and worship. We lament the centuries of injustices committed against and endured by Indigenous peoples and recognize that injustices continue in the present." A shorter version is used at smaller gatherings.
BANAP maintains an extensive set of resource pages on the church website covering Bay Area tribes (Amah Mutsun Ohlone, Lisjan Ohlone, Muwekma Ohlone, Ramaytush Ohlone, Tamien Nation, and Graton Rancheria); California Indian history from the Mission era forward; the history of Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims' relationship with the Wampanoag; Indigenous environmental stewardship; and a long reading list of books for adults and children. A curated curriculum section points parents and educators toward Ohlone-centered curricula developed by Beverly R. Ortiz and the Redbud Resource Group, including the "Acorns all Around Us" series and the "Healthy Ecosystems Feed Healthy Communities" curriculum.
Action is a big part of BANAP. In December 2024, FCCPA joined Green Foothills, the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, the Sierra Club, the Greenbelt Alliance, and others in submitting a joint letter and a 93-signature petition to the Palo Alto City Council in support of a resolution protecting the sacred Juristac landscape in southern Santa Clara County from a proposed sand and gravel quarry. The council passed the resolution unanimously, and several church members attended the meeting and met with Amah Mutsun Chairman Valentin Lopez.
BANAP members have also organized fundraisers to support a Summer Internship Research Program at UC Law SF, where law students research legal issues of importance to non-federally recognized California tribes, and they have partnered with the church's Mental Health Allies group on educational forums. A native-plant garden on the FCCPA campus, begun with the inspiration and hard work of church members, has become a biodiversity hotspot where bees and butterflies thrive and where many of the plants, including yarrow, California fescue, soap plant, yerba buena, sage, and blue-eyed grass, are species of significance to Indigenous people of this region.
Heart and Home and a Wider Service
From the first Sunday in January through the first Sunday in February each year, the Social Hall of First Congregational Church becomes home to up to 15 self-identifying women experiencing homelessness in Palo Alto. The shelter is run by Heart and Home Collaborative, a non-profit organization that has rotated its winter shelter through different Palo Alto congregations since 2012. FCCPA members prepare and serve evening meals, volunteer as site hosts from 5:45 to 8:30 p.m., and serve as the church's H+H coordinator. The work is done in close partnership with a Stanford University student team and other Palo Alto faith communities.
FCCPA also houses the local work of Hotel de Zink, supports a Fair Trade ministry in partnership with the worker-owned Equal Exchange cooperative (the congregation is one of the largest church supporters of Equal Exchange in the country), and runs a Community Grants Committee that typically issues one-time grants in the $2,500 to $10,000 range to religious, charitable, and educational organizations in the greater Palo Alto area. The committee accepts applications on a rolling basis and gives preference to seed-money or capital-funds requests rather than ongoing operations.
Other outreach ministries on the campus include the FCCPA Giving Tree, a winter program serving unhoused neighbors through "Dignity on Wheels," hygiene-kit assembly for LifeMoves, and the annual CROP Hunger Walk, a five-kilometer route from St. Raymond's Catholic Church in Menlo Park that benefits Church World Service and the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto. Each fall, the church's Outreach Board organizes FCCPA Serves, a half-day of volunteer service in which members prepare school supplies for Family Giving Tree, assemble grief packets for the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy, bundle food for the Ecumenical Hunger Program, and care for the church's own buildings and grounds.
The church is also active in immigrant accompaniment and ecumenical and interfaith work. The Rev. Dr. Eileen Altman, Associate Pastor, serves as convener of the Palo Alto Faith Community Leaders Network, which connects faith leaders from every religious tradition in the immediate Palo Alto vicinity. Through the UCC, FCCPA is in covenant and full communion with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Canada, and the Evangelical Church of Germany.
Mental Health Allies
FCCPA's Mental Health Allies ministry, MHA, is grounded in a written covenant that names the church as a W.I.S.E. congregation: Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, and Engaged with all of God's people, including those living with mental health challenges. The covenant commits the congregation to four practices: offering educational opportunities about mental health, including people with mental health challenges in the work of the church, providing confidential monthly support meetings, and partnering with community organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Bay Area Clinical Associates, Mental Health America, and the UCC Mental Health Network.
The group meets every fourth Sunday (no meetings in July or August) after worship in the Casaday Library, with members of NAMI and other professionals invited to lead educational forums. The church observes Mental Health Month in May and maintains a community mental-health resource list in its Casaday Library.
Weddings, Concerts, and a Campus that Serves
The campus at 1985 Louis Road includes three principal event spaces. The Sanctuary seats up to 300, with excellent acoustics, a baby grand piano, and the 3,000-pipe Letourneau organ. The Social Hall, at 3,700 square feet, seats up to 230 for dining or 350 standing and includes a stage with lighting, two baby grand pianos, a built-in sound system, and a ceiling-mounted projector and screen, with easy access to the catering kitchen, restrooms, patio, and Courtyard. The Fellowship Room seats 70 for dining or 145 standing and includes a baby grand piano, sound system, and projector. A fully certified catering kitchen serves outside vendors, and the renovated Courtyard with its fountain, gazebo, and lush plantings provides an outdoor setting for ceremonies, receptions, and photography.
Weddings at FCCPA are explicitly Open and Affirming: same-sex couples, couples of any faith tradition or none, and couples of any gender identity or expression are welcomed. Wedding packages range from a Courtyard Ceremony and Reception for up to 100 guests at $2,500 (six hours of access) to a Sanctuary Ceremony and Social Hall Reception for up to 230 guests at $5,000 (eight hours of access). Sanctuary ceremonies for up to 300 guests are priced at $1,600 for three hours. The Senior Pastor, the Associate Pastor, and the church's organists work directly with couples to shape each ceremony.
The campus is also a working concert venue. In addition to the Sunday-morning Chancel Choir, the Congregational Concert Series brings three guest-artist concerts each year to the Sanctuary, supported by Friends of Music and free-will donations. Outside groups and individuals can rent the spaces for concerts, recitals, meetings, and private gatherings through the church's rentals office.
Joining Us on Sunday Morning
Worship is held every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary and is also livestreamed on Zoom. The link to the live service, the order of worship, and a service archive of past Sundays are available on the church website. "Some folks are in their Sunday best, while others dress casually. Either way, you are always welcome."
A typical Sunday includes choral music from the Chancel Choir, a Children's Story from Teacher Todd and Clarence the Camel, prayers and pastoral leadership, and a sermon from the Rev. David Howell, who has been on the FCCPA staff since 1997. Children are invited to remain for the first part of worship and then move to Backyard Sunday School at about 10:15 a.m.
After the service, the church's coffee house "Sacred Grounds" serves drinks in the Social Hall with conversation, community, and rotating art on the walls. Adult faith formation often continues with after-worship forums, short-term classes, the Faith and Film series, Bible and theological study from a progressive Christian perspective, and women's and men's retreats.
Other regular gatherings include the Memoirs Writing Group, which meets on the second Tuesday of each month from September through June in the Casaday Library; the Peace and Justice Task Force, which meets monthly on the third Tuesday; and the Mental Health Allies group on the fourth Sunday. The church office is open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. weekdays, closed for lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Gifts can be made online through the church's giving page, by mail to 1985 Louis Road, by text message to 650-459-0688, by stock transfer, by donor-advised fund, or by Qualified Charitable Distribution for those 70½ or older. Legacy gifts are received through the Senior Pastor or the church's planned-giving coordinator. Designated funds include chancel flowers, the youth program, the immigrant-ministry fund, Friends of Music, the church's participation in UCC special offerings (One Great Hour of Sharing, Neighbors in Need, Strengthen the Church, the Christmas Fund, Disaster Relief), and the Community Grants Fund.
First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, UCC, continues to describe itself with the same line it has long used: "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."