Huntington Beach congregation evicted from sanctuary where it has held services for nearly 60 years

The Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church on Saturday evicted a Huntington Beach congregation from the property where members had been serving the community for almost six decades.

Surf City Church started out as a tent revival on the sand in 1904. It has been hosting worship, daycare and other programs from its current location at 2721 Delaware Street since 1967.

Church officials saw a decline in attendance during the pandemic, but it has bounced back since then, according to Marge Mitchell, a Surf City Church board member. They currently see an average of about 60 members attending Sunday services and more than 100 on special occasions like Christmas or Easter, she said.

However, attendance numbers were deemed “unviable” by officials at the congregation’s parent organization, the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. In February 2022, the denomination’s leadership instructed the Huntington Beach congregation to close.

“We had no choice,” Mitchell said while helping about two dozen hastily assembled church members pack belongings into a moving truck Monday.

Church members collect items from the Surf City Church on Monday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The United Methodist Church plans to sell the property on Delaware Street and use the proceeds to “foster mission and ministry in the region and throughout the area of the California-Pacific Annual Conference,” the organization’s director of communications, Alyssa Fisher said in a statement Monday. That includes support for a neighborhood center and two other churches in the Huntington Beach area, as well as the creation of a Surf City Ministry Fund for outreach and service in the local community.

Conference officials said their decision was made after years of effort to revitalize the local church and that members of the Orange County congregation voted to accept the plan. Mitchell said members were only given two options at a meeting in May 2022: shut down immediately or continue operating temporarily as a “mission church” at a different location.

Instead, Surf City Church kept hosting services and programs in its chapel and meeting rooms. The conference sued the house of worship in November 2022, citing a trust clause giving the United Methodist Church claim to take possession of the local church’s property.

A judge sided with the conference in June 2023. The California Supreme Court declined to hear Surf City Church’s appeal of that decision in January.

That leaves few avenues remaining for the Orange County parish. But members of its leadership were still working with attorneys to find a way to stay in the sanctuary they’ve built a community around for the past 58 years, Mitchell said.

“Our faith is in God, who keeps his promises,” she said, citing a message paraphrasing a verse from the Hebrews chapter of the Bible displayed on the marquee in front of Surf City Church. “God is all with us. He knows what he wants to do. This is his property ... He will find a way to make us whole.”

Church members collect items and remove special lighting from the Surf City Church on Monday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

An eviction notice posted Saturday instructed Surf City Church to vacate the premises by Wednesday. Members spread the word and were in the process of moving out while a temporary space for them to hold services is sought.

Virginia Terry, who has been a member of the congregation since 1966, was among the volunteers packing this week. She used to teach Sunday school and has seen generations grow up around Surf City Church. She and Mitchell said it has been the site of quinceñeras, weddings, baptisms, food drives, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, safety training seminars and countless other support groups and community events over the decades.

“I feel like the church is disrespected by the conference because they don’t understand what this particular church means to the immediate community around it,” Terry said. “The neighbors want the church to stay ... It does what a church is supposed to do.”

The Huntington Beach property is also the home of the Well, a separate congregation boasting about 50 members that rents space from Surf City Church, the tenant flock’s associate pastor, Tamara Durica, said. That congregation was not specifically listed in the eviction notice, and it was not immediately clear whether the conference would honor its existing lease.

Regardless of what happens at the property, members of Surf City Church and the Well have faith that they will continue to be a hub for the community in some form, and they plan on sticking together. Durica and Mitchell noted that both churches adhere to a strict interpretation of the Bible, unlike the more progressive leaning stance the modern United Methodist Church has adopted.

“We had a new person come on Sunday as we’re trying to prepare the congregation for eviction,” Mitchell said. “The conference was holding us back.”

The Huntington Beach parish’s legal battle with the United Methodist Church unfolded as the latter grappled with internal division regarding its declaration of “safe harbor” for clergy who identify as LGBTQ+. Mitchell said that policy has been a turn-off to many potential members in Huntington Beach, a city led by a council made up entirely of conservative-leaning members. It’s also large part of the reason Surf City Church began to distance itself from its parent organization and dropped the denomination from its name about 10 years ago.

The sanctuary at Surf City Church in Huntington Beach.

(File Photo)