The former Calvary Christian Fellowship, 2009

The Calvary Christian Fellowship (formerly Calvary Mennonite Church)(Mennonite Church USA) was located in Inglewood, California. Although a few Mennonites were living in the Los Angeles area as early as 1912, no definite meeting place was established until 1916, when a Sunday school was organized at Pasadena. The Sunday school was moved to Los Angeles in 1917, the location changing four times, 1917-1920. On 7 November 1920 (or 1921), the congregation was organized as the Los Angeles Mennonite Church at 151 West 73rd St., with about 60 members. In May 1942 the name was changed to Calvary Mennonite Church. The 1952 membership was 74. Until September 1948 the congregation was an affiliate of the Mennonite Conference of the Pacific Coast District, and then became a member of the newly organized South Pacific Mennonite Conference.   The pastor in the mid-1950s was John Zehr. In 2009 the membership was 150; the pastor was Alvin Isaacs.

By 2009 the congregation had run into financial difficulties, and the lenders holding the mortgage on the church building foreclosed, putting the building up for sale. The congregation held it’s final service in the building at the end of December 2009. The property was sold to another African American congregation. The Calvary congregation dispersed; some followed Alvin Isaacs to worship with another congregation in Inglewood, a few attended Royal Dominion Family Chapel where Pastor Femi Fatunmbi was pastor. 

Bibliography

Additional Information

Former Address: 2400 West 85th Street, Inglewood, California

Denominational Affiliations:

Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference

Mennonite Church USA

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 494. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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