Welcome to Old First Church!

Sharing God's love, justice, and welcome on our corner, in our city, and in the world for 175 years.

Join us for Worship every Sunday at 11:00 AM

1751 Sacramento St, San Francisco | Free Parking | Kid Friendly |  Get Directions  

        Join us in worship        

Click here for online streaming worship

Click here for the worship bulletin

Our pastor is away on sabbatical for a few months of rest and renewal, and we are privileged to have a variety of excellent preachers and worship leaders with us each week during this time. To find out who's preaching each week, scroll down to the bottom of this page and check the events coming up.  Our Parish Associate pastor,Erwin Barron, will preach roughly every other week. On the intervening weeks, we will hear from church leaders in our area, former interns and members of the church to hear a variety of excellent preaching and new ideas from these folks. 

See the "What's Happening at Old First" section below for the worship leaders coming up.

 


Click here to volunteer for the food pantry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We Choose Welcome

Old First Presbyterian Church enthuiastically invites all people into  our community!

This church was the first Protestant congregation established on the west coast of the U.S. during the gold rush.  And we are  proud now to continue sharing Christ's love, justice, and welcome to modern seekers who arrive in San Francisco now 175 years later. We have taken a leadership role both locally and nationally welcoming LGBTQIA+ Christians into full participation in the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church. We strive to bring hope, joy and justice reaching out to people of all ethnicities, incomes, races, and life situations, and like Jesus, we always try to offer a smile and welcome the outcasts.

We hope you will come visit and consider becoming part of our community. We want to know you and share your own particular gifts, experience, and insights with us on our corner, in our city, and in our world.

Old First Presbyterian Church is an Open and Affirming Church

Donate to Old First here 

Volunteer for Old First here

Worship & Music

We worship every Sunday at 11:00 am both in person in our beautiful sanctuary and on line via YouTube livestream. We celebrate communion on the third Sunday of the month. Worship is our joyful praise and thanks to God - our celebration of God's Love.

We have a wonderful choir singing a mixture of classical and modern music and singers are always welcome.  Our organ is one of the most renowned in the city.  We founded and support an amazing variety of new artists each week in our Old First Concerts programs.  

Service

Bringing God's love,  welcome,  justice, in our neighborhood, city and world and working to make the world a better place for all are important to us. We are a founding member of the weekly interfaith food pantry every Saturday and host a free community meal on the 4th Saturday of each month. We work with many local, national, and international groups to promote racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, and other human rights, to end gun violence, and to help immigrants.

We feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, and work for justice. We always need volunteers to help with all of these projects.

Learn More

Education

We believe that learning and growth are important for all ages. We offer regular book studies, Bible studies, theological discussions, and topical classes for adults on issues important in our culture.  Small groups meet on Zoom and in members' homes for study and support. We make time and space for children in worship and offer regular, broadly graded children's church school every 1st and 3nd Sundy. We also have excellent childrens' and adults' libraries.

We love to read and support the Little Free Library on Sacramento Street.  Bring you books to share with the community. 

We are on our way!  Our journey of a four-month period while our pastor is away on sabbatical has begun. We wish Maggi much-needed rest and reflection and renewal, but this is also a time of reflection and renewal for our congregation. During this period, I will be the worship leader roughly every other week. I hope to reflect on and explore broader meanings for some of our most familiar church words in these sermons.  And in addition the other Sundays, we will welcome an exciting group of excellent preachers who have relationship with us. They include leaders of faith groups and justice organizations with whom we work like the Interfaith Council and Faithful Fools and leaders of our Presbytery and Synod.  And we will get insights on our church and our faith from former interns and associates and members like Leslie Veen, Keenan Kelsey, and Jeannie Tate Choy.  I am really looking forward to this, and I hope to see you here. This summer is an excellent time to come to church in person and meet all these great people.  But if you cannot come, you’re always welcome on our online streaming.

~Shalom and Salaam, Erwin Barron, parish associate pastor

Click here for our website and online streaming

~~~~~~~~~~~~What's Happening at Old First~~~~~~~~~~~~

August 23

Sabbatical Worship this week

Carmen Barsody Leads Worship

from Faithful Fools in the Tenderloin

Carmen is the co-director and co-founder of the Faithful Fools organization working in the Tenderloin for 25 years. She will preach and lead worship for us on Sunday, August 23. She will stay after worship to share some of the work done by Faithful Fools and answer questions.  Carmen is a Franciscan sister and has worked in many justice and support groups in Chicago and Central America and here in San Francisco. In 1998 she co-founded Faithful Fools with Kay Jorgensen.Old First is proud to have been a supporter of this project for many years. Faithful Fools is committed to a life of presence that acknowledges each human's incredible worth. Aware of our judgments, Faithful Fools seeks to meet people where they are through the arts, education, advocacy, and accompaniment. They participate in shattering myths about those living in poverty, seeing the light, courage, intelligence, strength, and creativity of the people we all encounter. They discover on the streets our common humanity through which celebration, community, and healing occur. You can learn more about Faithful Fools by clicking below.

Click here for the Faithful Fools website

 

August 30

Sabbatical Worship next week

Laura Cheifitz leads worship

Presbytery of San Francisco

The Reverend Laura Mariko Cheifetz will lead us in worship next week. She serves as the transitional leader of our church's local regional body, the Presbytery of San Francisco.  She is helping to reorganize and revitalize our presbytery in her two to five year position.  Laura is a biracial Asian American queer ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  We know her as the daughter of our former interim minister Jeff Cheifitz and Diana, who now live in Seattle. She has served previously in racial and gender justice advocacy, religious publishing, reproductive justice, and theological education in the Midwest, East, and Southeast. She a born in San Francisco, raised in eastern Oregon and western Washington, and returns to us to bring new ideas and new life.  The Presbytery of San Francisco includes 67 active congregations and 10 new worshipping communities located from San Francisco out through Livermore. It is one of the most ethnically diverse presbyteries in the country with a large Korean and Hispanic membership.  Click below to learn more about our presbytery.

Click here for info on San Francisco Presbytery

September 26
World Premier

"Hope in the Streets"

a new documentary film

 about the empowering work of Glenda Hope

Josh Chuck, award-winning filmmaker and director of new film, “Hope in the Streets” invites us to the world premier of this remarkable film which we helped to fund and which includes scenes filmed in our sanctuary.  It will premier at the Marina Theater in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, September 26 from 1 PM - 2:30 PM.  Glenda is active in our congregation and has led an incredible life of service to the world.  Josh says, "This is a very personal project, as Glenda has been a role model of mine since the day we met around 20 years ago. It's been a blessing to grow our friendship through this project, which I've directed with the help of first-time producers Lori Yamauchi and Carol Wickersham. We called it a "grand experiment" from the start, so we're ecstatic to be sharing Glenda's life and ministry with audiences and future generations can be inspired by Glenda and the people she worked with." This event is sponsored by San Francisco SafeHouse, which Glenda founded and continues to help women in need. They will receive all net profits from the event.