St.
Clement's celebrates its 75th
The oldest church in San Clemente is still an anchor in the community after 75
years.
October 8, 2004
A park. A
school. And a church. Try for a moment to envision the corner of Avenida Aragon and Calle Puente 75
years ago. Three fixtures situated next to each other -- the oval-shaped Spanish
plaza, San Clemente Grammar School and St. Clement's By the Sea
Episcopal Church -- commanded the landscape.
Oh, there was a sprinkling of white Spanish houses with red-tile roofs across
town. Downtown was 11 blocks away. Most of the land in between was vacant.
The park, the school and the church that San Clemente founder Ole Hanson had
ordained for this part of town served as the anchor here, four years after
Hanson had created his "Spanish Village by the Sea" from scratch.
And so it is today -- Max Berg Plaza Park, Las Palmas Elementary School and St.
Clement's, anchoring their community long since the rest of the landscape
filled in with more modern architecture.
This week, the Rev. Canon Diane Jardine Bruce and her flock at St. Clement's
are celebrating the 75-year history of San Clemente's first church, an elegant
Spanish Colonial Revival structure that holds the distinction of having been
declared Landmark No. 1 in San Clemente.
"Not just a pretty historical building," longtime churchgoer Betty
Comer was quick to point out. "We're small but mighty."
"We've always tended to be a place where if people have needs, they find
us," Bruce said. "St. Clement's has always had a heart
for the poor, and I think that's a big part of who we are. Doing what we do is
kind of natural. Being the first church in San Clemente, where the land was
donated by the founder Ole Hanson, our roots are deep here."
The congregation, with more than 300 families, conducts ongoing outreaches
into the surrounding community. It supports Family Assistance Ministries'
charities and shelter services run through the Institute for Urban Research and
Development. It hosts a federally funded lunch program for needy neighborhood
kids, holds Ballet Folklorico classes, provides a site for Saddleback College
emeritus classes, is a place people can go for 12-step self-improvement programs
and is a meeting site for groups like Toastmasters, the San Clemente Garden Club
and Take Off Pounds Sensibly.
There's also fun to be had. To kick off the 75th-anniversary celebration St.
Clement's hosted a dance, charging $19.29 admission, reflecting the year
of the congregation's birth.
There was an anniversary mass, with confirmations, and a party afterward. Don
Divel, San Clemente's patriarch, was there. He was confirmed at St. Clement's
70 years ago, when he was 12.
Richard (Rod) Rodriguez was there, a man who settled in town out of the
Marine Corps in 1956, built a tree service and became one of the most energetic
community volunteers in San Clemente in recent decades.
"The people here are so friendly," Rodriguez said. "They're
one for all, and all for one. That's what I really like about this church."
Rodriguez was attracted to St. Clement's in the 1980s when
Father Robert Boyer was rector. "Father Bob, oh, was he a character!"
Rodriguez mused. That was the era when St. Clement's left its
doors open 24 hours as a sanctuary for the homeless. Although incidents later
prompted the church to discontinue the practice, St. Clement's
still ministers to the down-and-out.
"We help when we can," Bruce said, "and we know where to turn
people if we can't."
Comer, who moved to San Clemente in 1956 when the state needed her former
home for a freeway off-ramp, was introduced to St. Clement's by a friend.
She was hooked. "It's their desire to reach out to people in the
neighborhood," she explained.
Jack and Evelyn Dunn Prohaska are among the longest-standing members of the
congregation, dating back to the 1950s.
"We moved to a house on the same street as the church," Evelyn
said.
Their daughter Dotti, 9, was exploring the neighborhood and discovered St.
Clement's.
"She heard that they had a singing group for children, and she had not
been baptized and she wanted to be baptized," her mom said.
"I sang in the choir for many years," said Dotti, now a San
Clemente High School teacher and a member of San Clemente's Planning Commission.
Fifty-eight years ago this week, Don and Lois Divel were married at St.
Clement's. "(I) used to play in the school house over there when
they were building this," Don said.
"Jane (our daughter) was married in the church," Lois said.
"The kids were all baptized here."
"Now they go to all different kinds of churches," said Mary Walsh,
Lois' sister.
At Sunday's festivities, Lois and Mary studied historical black-and-white St.
Clement's pictures from the 1930s, faces that in some cases have long
since passed. The church remains.
"We view our grounds as an asset where the community can come,"
Bruce said. The church is fostering a Latino ministry, is preparing to launch an
after-school tae kwon do program and is introducing more musical programs.
At 4 p.m. Dec. 19, St. Clement's will host Intimate Opera, a
small opera company that will stage an English opera, "Amahl and the Night
Visitors."
As always, the church is open for prayer to anyone wishing to enter 6 a.m.
until about 10 at night.
"I'll get notes in the box, 'Thank-you for being open," Bruce said.
"Or somebody will be in there, and they'll say, 'Can I talk to you for a
moment?' "
To learn more about St. Clement's, stop by at 202 Avenida
Aragon or call 492-3401.
"We're going to be putting out a little history booklet commemorating
our 75th," Comer said.