Santa Clara UMC is the single oldest Protestant congregation in California. In 2026 we shall commemorate the Methodists' landing in our Valley as dated October 16th, 1846 by Margaret Hecox's in her journal. The Rev. Sanders called it, "The first Protestant Church West of the Mississippi".
As a Methodist mission station we've built great institutions like the University of the Pacific & Liberty Towers. Our charitable impact includes local parks, orchards, roads, bayside warfs, government legislation, fraternal lodges, mineral mines, street names, neighborhoods and homes. More information and sources about our beginnings as the first Protestant congregation in Alta California are here.
Contact us for Archival, Plaque, or Commemoration information, collected by SCUMC's Anniversary & Community Committee.
One-Hundred Eighty Years & Beyond!
Methodism as a Whole
Methodism began with John and Charles Wesley who had roots in the High Church Religious Societies in early-18th century England. These clubs regulated a high sacramentalism, endearing their members to the established Church. While employed by the SPCK/SPG in colonial Georgia, Wesley met German Moravians and was highly impressed by their discipline of piety. Infusing their pietism into High Church circles, first at Oxford. And, Wesley says in Sermon 63:
"It then spread into North Britain and Ireland; and, a few years after into New-York, Pennsylvania, and many other provinces in America, even as high as Newfoundland and Nova-Scotia. So that, although at first this "grain of mustard- seed" was "the least of all the seeds;" yet, in a few years, it grew into a "large tree, and put forth great branches." "
After the War of Independence, Methodism spread rapidly from the eastern seaboard across the American frontier. In 1834 a Methodist mission was started in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. By 1846 it arrived in California: first, in San Jose by dint of J. Aram's wagon train, and then in San Francisco by W. Roberts' arrival by schooner.
Between 1847-1850 the Oregon conference supplied northern California with pastoral oversight. Our first missionary superintendents were the Revs. Roberts, Owen, and Taylor. The Rev. William Taylor is remembered as one of the greatest missionary bishops who traversed the globe, yet began his work with the methodist people in Monterey, San Jose, and San Francisco California.
Both Alta California and the Oregon Country initially belonged to the foreign missions field before they established their own individual, statewide Annual Conferences. After Methodism's organization on westcoast, California further advanced missionary work as a natural gateway to Hawaii, much of Oceania, and the wider Orient. Overseas work as helped by the Methodist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS).
In 1851 the California Conference was fully instituted. Largely due the inconvenience of California's distance from New York, yet benefiting from the gush of wealth by Gold Discovery, this Annual Conference quickly became self-sufficient and influential, establishing colleges like University of the Pacific, MacClay College, Pacific Methodist, and even University of Southern California.
Among the numbers of families that arrived with Captain Aram's wagon company, were several Presbyterians from the Cumberland church. These people joined the methodists, making the first meetings in Santa Clara and San Jose about 1846-47. Later, during the Great Depression, Presbyterian and Methodist congregations reunited as an ecumenical Federated Church, separating again after WWII.
In 1965 our church moved from Santa Clara's old downtown (the Old Quad) to our present location, next to Lincoln St./ Warburton Aves. On April 23, 1968 we became the United Methodist Church. Yet, as a '46er church, we've played a unique role in the history of municipal Santa Clara, its surrounding Valley, as well as the rest of California's golden state!
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