On Alameda de las Pulgas in Belmont, Congregational Church of the Peninsula is a United Church of Christ congregation created by the 2023 merger of First Congregational Church of Redwood City and Congregational Church of Belmont. The merged church occupies the former Belle Monti Country Club ballroom on the Belmont hills and is known by its congregation as the little church on the hill. Its worship is marked by energetic congregational singing with guitar, piano and a member-built pipe organ, while its wider ministry pairs theological openness with interfaith action and direct care for families in crisis.
Two Congregational Threads on the Peninsula
First Congregational Church of Redwood City was founded in 1862 as the first Protestant church in San Mateo County. Its first building, known as the little church on the island, stood on a peninsula nearly surrounded by Redwood Creek at Jefferson and Middlefield Roads. Congregants crossed a bridge to worship there. The congregation remained in that building for nearly 60 years, then used a larger building on the same downtown site for another 30 years.
In 1893, some parishioners had to travel more than five miles by horse-drawn wagon along a dirt road from Woodside. First Church bought property there and sponsored Woodside Village Church through the early 1900s. The 1906 earthquake then knocked its Redwood City building from its foundation and broke the crockery prepared for a church dinner. While repairs were made, the congregation met in a Baptist church for six months and assisted people affected in San Francisco.
Growth continued through the 1920s under Rev. Dr. Robert J. Currie. Redwood City largely owes the idea of the Easter Cross to Currie. In 1925, church member Wilbur H. Doxsee coined the city's motto, “Climate Best by Government Test,” and won $10 for the phrase. In 1954, First Church moved to Euclid and McGarvey in Redwood City's rapidly developing west side. The congregation called that building the Church of the Rock and remained there for another 50 years.
First Church also carried a strong social justice tradition. It co-founded Casa de Redwood in 1971, a low-income senior housing community in downtown Redwood City with which it maintains a connection. In 1979, after a hate crime fire severely damaged Temple Beth Jacob, First Church shared its building with that congregation during its recovery. By 2007, declining membership and the cost of maintaining the large property led the congregation to sell it, move into leased space and renew its worship and community relationships. When COVID-19 forced a closure in March 2020, staff shifted to working from home and the congregation learned to meet for worship, study and other meetings through Zoom.
The Belmont story began inside the former Belle Monti Country Club, built in 1925 as a sales promotion for nearby Country Club Estates lots. It included a nine-hole golf course and an Olympic-size pool where the back parking lot now sits. The country club went bankrupt during the Depression, stood vacant, later served as a military training facility during World War II, and then housed medical research, including work by the Kaiser Corporation. Mrs. Kaiser sold the building and more than four acres of land to the Northern California Conference of the United Church of Christ in 1953 for $45,000. In 1954, members from Congregational Church of San Mateo began a Belmont mission, with longtime church member Sam Owens among those going door to door. The new congregation began holding services in the country club building that same year.
From Two Congregations to One Peninsula Church
The two Congregational traditions merged in June 2023 and came together for worship on July 30. Rev. Dr. Davena Jones, the Northern California and Nevada Conference minister, received the new church into membership of the United Church of Christ and its conference, while Yolanda Austin welcomed it into the Golden Gate Conference. Afterward, the congregation gathered in the dining room for cake bearing the name Congregational Church of the Peninsula and for fellowship with one another.
The merger gave the Belmont sanctuary a much longer institutional memory. It also joined a Redwood City history of social action and a Belmont congregation already rooted in the hilltop clubhouse. The resulting church continues to describe itself simply as the little church on the hill, with Rev. Jim Mitulski as pastor, Rev. Warren Dale as associate pastor, and Rev. Sheryl Johnson as associate minister for religious education.
Sunday at the Little Church on the Hill
Sunday worship begins at 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary, led by Rev. Jim Mitulski and also broadcast on Zoom. A second service begins at 5 p.m. through Zoom and is led by Rev. Warren Dale, who frequently shares the morning pulpit with Pastor Jim. The weekly worship and fellowship schedule places the two services alongside the church's Tuesday book group and its Wednesday and Thursday prayer gatherings.
Those who attend in person encounter a service built around Scripture, congregational song and the freedom to think. The congregation is invited to reach into the history and mystery of the Bible, and Pastor Jim has described worship as a place where people do not need all the answers but can consider the ones that work for them. The message of welcome extends to people at different points in their lives and spiritual journeys.
Music is central to the Sunday experience. The worshiping church may be accompanied by guitar and piano or by a 20-rank pipe organ built by church member Gary Brandenburg and maintained by a member of the congregation. The result is a blend of traditional sanctuary music and direct participation in the singing.
From Belle Monti Ballroom to Working Sanctuary
The sanctuary retains the proportions of its country-club origins while serving a very different purpose. Its dark ceiling beams, stained-glass windows and vaulted ceiling give the room a formal character. A restored Chickering concert grand piano and the church's 20-rank pipe organ anchor the musical program. French doors open toward the veranda, and a retractable projection screen allows the sanctuary to serve presentations as well as worship.
Antique wall sconces preserve a small record of the building's first life. Each fixture incorporates bronze crossed golf clubs, a reminder of the Belle Monti's ballroom years. Professional musicians also use the sanctuary for recitals when it is not reserved for worship or weddings. Its maximum seating is 200.
Around the sanctuary are rooms suited to the congregation's present life. The dining room has French doors, high ceilings, skylights and an oak floor that reflects the light. It opens onto a broad veranda overlooking the Belmont Hills and includes a commercial kitchen with a range, oven and warming oven. The Fireplace Room has its own kitchen and wide doors opening to a lawn and playground. Together, these spaces support worship, shared meals, meetings and community gatherings.
Music, Learning and Compassionate Leadership
Music Ministry Director Elizabeth Mye directs both the Sanctuary and Youth Choirs. Mye began piano at five, voice at twelve and oboe at fourteen, later studying vocal performance and oboe at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on scholarship. Her church experience includes solo work with the Folger Consort and the New England Conservatory Camerata, as well as directing adult and children's choirs at a Methodist church in Malden, Massachusetts. She describes music as “a voice through which we can speak” and understands choir participation as a way for people to experience one voice together.
Pastor Jim Mitulski was ordained in 1983 and began his ministry in Metropolitan Community Church congregations in New York and San Francisco before attending the United Church of Christ seminary at Pacific School of Religion. He also studied at Harvard Divinity through a Merrill Fellowship and received an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry. During a 15-year pastorate at MCC San Francisco, he grew the congregation from about 100 to 500 members and provided pastoral leadership through the HIV/AIDS crisis. His commitments include church growth and transformation, liberation, art, music, anti-racism, anti-oppression and pre-reconciliation.
Associate Pastor Warren Dale came to ministry through campus ministry at San Francisco State University after studying at the California Maritime Academy and serving at sea. He was ordained in the United Methodist Church and earned advanced degrees in counseling and divinity. He co-founded the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center and applied mediation and trauma-recovery work with Bosnian and Kosovo refugees, survivors of the Indonesian tsunami, people in postwar Angola, and Hurricane Katrina survivors. His work at Peninsula included helping guide the merger that created Congregational Church of the Peninsula.
Associate Minister for Religious Education Sheryl Johnson was born and raised in Winnipeg and studied at the University of Toronto and the progressive, interfaith Emmanuel College. She was ordained in the United Church of Canada, worked with the National Council of Churches of the Philippines and with KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, and completed a PhD in Christian economic ethics at Graduate Theological Union. Her book, Serving Money Serving God: Aligning Radical Justice, Christian Practice, and Church Life, was published in 2023. She also serves as a faculty lecturer in ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.
Jeffrey Jones serves as organist, pianist and accompanist, bringing a broad classical and contemporary performing background to the congregation's music. Kayvon Abbaszadeh handles live audio and video, supporting the church's in-person and Zoom worship. Together, the music and technical teams help make the congregation's singing and spoken word central to every Sunday gathering.
Books, Prayer and a Shared Table
The congregation's week includes several regular ways to meet. Chat 'n Chew, a book group shared with Island United Church, meets on Zoom at 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays. Rev. Warren Dale leads a Wednesday prayer meeting at 11 a.m., also through Zoom. Rev. Michael Cronin and Pastor Jim host a midweek prayer and check-in at 6 p.m. Thursdays.
Once each month, the Good Hope Luncheon brings people together at noon on the first Tuesday. Its location changes, making it a recurring gathering rather than a permanent meal site. Shared meals have also become a meaningful expression of the church's identity, appearing in picnics with other United Church of Christ congregations, interfaith gatherings and conversations around the dining-room table.
Many Names of God, One Covenant
Congregational Church of the Peninsula describes its faith through a covenant adapted from the 1629 Salem Church Covenant: the church binds itself with the Lord and with one another to walk together in the ways God reveals through the Word. Pastor Jim has emphasized that unity is not the same as conformity. The congregation's strength is found in its diversity of spiritual paths and convictions, and its worship welcomes many Names for God.
That openness is paired with a firm belief that faith has public consequences. Pastor Jim names anti-racism, anti-oppression and pre-reconciliation as central to his ministry. The church's public life also aligns with the United Church of Christ's rejection of future nuclear-weapons use and with the denomination's Immigrant Supporting Church position. Its theological conversation includes healing of mind, body and spirit, and its prayer life extends from personal concerns to peace, labor, gun violence and immigration.
The result is a church that can affirm Jesus, welcome many spiritual paths and still speak publicly about justice. Its beliefs are expressed through worship, pastoral care, interfaith cooperation, direct assistance and the way people share meals and fellowship with one another.
A Community of Communities
Congregational Church of the Peninsula is a founding member of the Peninsula Multifaith Coalition. Each year it joins faith communities across the Peninsula for the coalition's Martin Luther King Day of Service. The congregation also takes part in prayer vigils, shared meals and public witness, using prayer, song and solidarity to address immigration, peace and other moral concerns.
Its most concrete expression of care is the Circle of Care, also called El Círculo de Atención. Created in response to mass deportations and other emergencies affecting vulnerable people, the fund assists immigrants and low-income community members facing medical emergencies, housing instability, loss of income or other crises that threaten basic well-being or safety. Assistance may be one-time or ongoing and is delivered directly to landlords, childcare providers, utility companies, medical providers or legal representatives.
Trusted local organizations nominate people for help. Members of San Mateo County faith organizations, government agencies and charities may submit a nominee's situation and needs, with supporting documents when available. Self-nominations and nominations of family members are excluded. A committee reviews each case, confirms details, weighs urgency and potential impact and makes a decision by majority vote based on available funds. Personal information is kept confidential. More information about the Circle of Care is available from the church.
The church's history of helping neighbors continues through its continuing relationship with Casa de Redwood and its earlier welcome to Temple Beth Jacob after the 1979 fire. Giving also supports the church's ministries, members in need and the Barbara Todd and Ray Gotthold Fund. Donations may be designated for a particular purpose, including the Circle of Care.
The Belmont property also brings several community organizations into regular contact with the congregation. These include Carlmont Parents Nursery School, OT 4 Kids, Bay Area Art Therapy, Cub Scouts Pack 27, Scouts Troop 27, Venture Crew 27, Peninsula Area of Narcotics Anonymous and the San Mateo County Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous. Together with the church's own worship, music, meals and mutual-care ministries, these relationships support its self-description as a community of communities.
Rites, Membership and Spiritual Care
Pastors Jim Mitulski, Warren Dale and Sheryl Johnson work with the Board of Deacons to provide rites, blessings, ceremonies, counseling and spiritual conversation. New members join throughout the year after membership classes. Baptisms for children and adults, as well as child dedications, are offered during Sunday services throughout the year.
Memorial services can be arranged, and pastors provide home or hospital visitation upon request. Weddings, renewal of vows and relationship blessings may be scheduled at any time, with receptions arranged separately for indoor or outdoor space. Pastor Jim is also available for spiritual counseling or conversation on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays by appointment, with other times possible by appointment. House blessings, new-home blessings, pet blessings and other ceremonies are part of the pastoral ministry.
Space for Weddings, Meetings and Community Events
The church's rooms can be rented by the hour for parties, weddings, meetings, training sessions, day camps and summer camps. The sanctuary seats up to 200, while the dining room can accommodate up to 100 depending on the table arrangement. The Fireplace Room is suited to larger meetings and children's parties because its double doors open to a playground and lawn large enough for a bounce house or other children's entertainment. The parlor serves as a private bride's room with two bathrooms, one of which is wheelchair accessible, and also accommodates intimate gatherings of ten or fewer.
The entire building has wireless internet access. Its main floor is wheelchair accessible, with an elevator from the north parking lot, a ramp to the front entrance and an accessible restroom near the parlor. The church also works to reduce waste by composting wet paper and food products, recycling plastic, paper and cans, encouraging the use of its china and silverware, and prohibiting Styrofoam and single-use plastic utensils. Biodegradable dinnerware is available. Rental information is provided for parties, weddings and meetings at the church's building rentals.
Two long Congregational histories now meet in one Belmont congregation. First Church's social justice tradition and Belmont's musical, multigenerational life continue inside a former country club ballroom that now holds Sunday worship, Zoom prayer, shared tables, choirs, rites of passage and direct care for neighbors in hardship. Congregational Church of the Peninsula remains the little church on the hill, grounded in the UCC while giving its diverse congregation room to sing, think, pray and serve together.