St. John’s United Church of Christ was founded in January of 1900 as St. John’s Evangelical Church. In 1934, we became St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed Church, and finally in 1957 became St. John’s UCC when the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches merged to become the United Church of Christ.

The original church members, about 45 families and numerous individuals, were German, as the neighborhood had many German immigrants, and all services were in that language until 1921. At least some services were still held in German until 1932.

Our original church building on West Boulevard was built and occupied by us for 115 years- from 1902 until May of this year when this building, the former St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, was purchased.

By comparison, this building is new- it was built just 48 years ago, in 1969.

It’s modeled on the church and meeting halls in Williamsburg and Yorktown, both in Pennsylvania. The congregation here wanted the architecture to look colonial rather than the medieval or European styles popular for churches at the time.

The spectacular wooden ceiling was designed to resemble the inside of a ship. This seems very appropriate for Marine City!

Inside the sanctuary, you will see two notable pieces of art.

The stained-glass window behind the altar is of St. Mark, which reflects the first occupants of the building. There are no current plans to change this window.

The second is the painting of Jesus over the sanctuary entrance. This painting is actually a photograph of the original artwork in our former church building. As that is a mural painted directly on to the wall, we couldn’t remove it to bring it with us. However, modern technology made it possible to bring it with us anyway!

We thank you for visiting St. John’s! If you have any questions, please let us know.