About OAPC
Our Faith
Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church is a community of faith devoted to Jesus Christ and drawn together from every corner of the earth. We are God’s family, formed in the image of God, feeding on the Word of God, and finding the Kingdom of God breaking into our midst! Sunday by Sunday, we joyfully join together to worship God the Father, made known in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Please join us!
Our Christian faith is best summarized in the historic creeds of the early Church. Our congregation’s governance is guided by the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church, USA, which reflects our Reformed Protestant heritage.
Our Story
Uniting Hearts & Joining Hands
Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood, was established in 1920 when two nearby churches decided to join together into one united congregation. Bethany Presbyterian Church, located on Excelsior Street, and Glenside Presbyterian in Glen Park, were both being served by the same pastor, Rev. Arthur Willis. With Rev. Willis’s encouragement, the two congregations embraced the idea of joining forces, and purchased three lots for the new united church on Ocean Avenue near Mission Street.
To make good use of resources, church leaders relocated their two existing church buildings and rebuilt them into one large building facing San Juan Avenue, for use as a community education and recreation center. Desiring to create a new space for worship, church leaders commissioned a sanctuary, designed and built by architect Julia Morgan and dedicated on Easter Sunday in April 1922.
The congregation of Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church looks back in gratitude for God’s faithfulness over the past 100 years, and looks forward to many more years of uniting hearts in Jesus Christ, and joining hands in service to our community.
Our Calling
We at Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church continually strive:
To introduce Jesus Christ to those who know him not;
To deepen the faith of those who know and love him;
And to share the mission of Christ in the world.
Faith, Hope, Love sign in the entrance at OAPC