<p>Today, we celebrate. . . This year, as we observe the Church of Epiphany's 50th anniversary, the present and future of the parish are being celebrated as well as its history. This is a busy time for Epiphany, not only because of the anniversary, but because the church is going through a stage of vibrant growth. In ways that seem almost as difficult to explain as the three-in-one of the Trinity, Epiphany is at the same time one and many — one church with a number of evolving ministries, circles of friends, foyer groups, families, prayer circles, congregations and committees. One group of Epiphany women has been meeting for more than 40 years to play bridge. Others, such as the new Ministry-at-Work program and a support group for people affected by cancer, are just forming and some older ministries are being revitalized. Part of the celebration is the renovation of the physical church. The stained glass windows have been refurbished as the start of a series of improvements that will make the church, the Parish Hall and the grounds safer, more attractive and easier to use by the entire San Carlos community. These new programs and the renovation of the church property are the legacy of the present to the future. This history celebrates the gifts of the past to the parish of 1997. The congregation today stands on the shoulders of all the past congregations, priests, bishops and others who have contributed so much to the parish. During the past 50 years, there have been periods of growth and excitement similar to what Epiphany is experiencing now. There have been times of challenge, and times when the congregation put a premium on stability. The last five decades also have been a time of tremendous change both in the Episcopal Church as a whole and in the world. In 1947, polio had yet to be conquered and things people take for granted today like microwave ovens, women in the workplace and computers, were in the realm of science fiction. The period also saw two major wars in Asia (Korea and Vietnam), the impeachment of a President of the United States, a man walking on the moon, the enactment of Civil Rights laws and the dawn of the Information Age. In the Episcopal Church of America, customs and attitudes developed over the previous 2000 years changed within the space of a few decades. Whether passing the peace or ordaining women, replacing wafers with bread or replacing Morning Prayer with the Eucharist, all were controversial at first and some still are. Epiphany has not been immune from any of the controversies. Epiphany is no different from many other churches and non-profit organizations in respect to struggling with money issues. But meanwhile, the church property was bought, the Parish Hall, classrooms and church built (current value is somewhere around $2 million) and a rectory provided. Groceries were and still are collected for the poor; children go to Sunday School; adults join various forms of social and spiritual small groups; Eucharist is celebrated; work parties plant flowers and the day-to-day life of the church continues. Dale Madden, who attended Epiphany from 1951 to 1973, and her husband, the Rev. Deacon Wil Madden, have visited many many churches since then. "They all seem to go through stages," she said recently. But one thing has remained constant at Epiphany. In fact, over and over again, former clergy and parishioners say that what brought them to Epiphany, or made them stay, wasn't a particular priest, the architecture, the music or even the form of worship. The prevailing factor was "the people." Wansley Adam, who has been active in the church since the mid-1970s, pointed out that God has certainly demonstrated over and over his love for Epiphany through its parishioners. “Over the years, we’ve lost many people we thought were integral parts of the church, people we thought we couldn’t possibly do without,” she said recently. “But someone else has always come along. We always say it’s the people who make the church, but there’s something else, a web that holds all these people together. It’s really been exciting and a privilege to be part of what God has done at Epiphany.” Epiphany has a solid foundation for continuing the warmth and love the congregation experiences today. The future, of course, is in the children. When they come pouring joyfully into the church every Sunday before Eucharist, raising the energy (and noise) levels beyond belief, it’s impossible to imagine that Epiphany will not always be a part of their spiritual home.</p><p>The Peninsula, 1947 Today, when we think of the Peninsula, we visualize a string of “mature” towns clustered mostly along the western edge of San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and San Jose. But 50 years ago, much of the area was open land where lush, green cultivated fields furnished fruit and vegetables to local residents. The Peninsula also was home to wealthy families who had built their estates away from San Francisco’s fog, and to a growing number of middle-class professional people who lived in newly established towns along the Southern Pacific railway line. By the end of World War II, the suburban growth that had begun in the late 19th century accelerated. The men who returned from themilitary used GI benefits to go to college and start careers. They were ready to start new lives and families after the great interruption their generation had experienced. They used veterans benefits to buy or build homes in the suburbs in places far from their old home towns, happy to drive to the new technology firms or to take the Southern Pacific commuter train into San Francisco. San Carlos in 1947 was a hamlet of 6,000 just starting up the slope of the great post-war prosperity and population boom. Between 1940 and 1950, the population skyrocketed from 3,520 to 14,371. The war also had turned the Peninsula into a Petrie dish for electronics firms. By 1955, San Carlos was the home of eight of these firms, more than any other town in San Mateo County, and second only to Palo Alto in Santa Clara County. By 1962, San Carlos had slipped behind Redwood City in the county, but when "Silicon Valley" was coined by a journal editor in the 1970s, San Carlos was still considered its northern boundary. The Rt. Rev. Karl Morgan Block, Bishop of California from 1938 to 1958, surely understood some of the consequences of this great post-War boom. He knew that these young families would need churches. They would need places where they could seek spiritual guidance and raise their children with the values and beliefs they’d been given. They would need churches where they could meet other families, make friends and rekindle the kind of support they’d had in their home towns before the War.</p><p>In the beginning . . .</p><p>At the start of World War, II San Carlos had only two churches — Community Church, organized by the </p><p>Congregationalists in 1927, and St. Charles Catholic Church, started in 1928. First Baptist was organized in 1945, followed by Holy Trinity Lutheran </p><p>Church and Church of the Epiphany, both in 1947. Five other churches have followed. But before all that occurred, a group of women called “The San Carlos Circle,” who attended St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Redwood City, were lobbying for a church of their own, according to a history of Epiphany written in 1957. Doris (Corbett) Anderson, who joined Epiphany shortly after it was organized, said during a recent interview that she had the impression the women wanted a church close to home in their own community. The Rev. Fordyce Eastburn: The roots are planted In the fall of 1946, Bishop Block and the Rev. Egbert B. Clark, rector of St. Peter’s, agreed to call a new associate rector who would live in San Carlos and begin preparations to establish a mission church there. Subsequently, St. Peter’s invited the Rev. Fordyce E. Eastburn, then on the staff of a cathedral in Texas, to come to California for an exploratory visit. Eastburn, by most accounts, “was such a dynamic person, people just gravitated toward him,” recalled Hazel Maltby, who joined Epiphany soon after Eastburn arrived. “Fordyce had a way of getting you involved. You agreed before you knew what was happening.” Eastburn had a somewhat unusual background for a churchman of that time. Potential priests usually went to seminary soon after finishing high school or college and before they started families. Born in 1905 in Iowa, and a graduate of the University of Iowa, Eastburn had been a businessman before becoming a priest. Lelia Eastburn, his second wife, said that he'd already married Katharine, a Methodist whose family included many clergymen, and was a father when he applied to seminary. That was why his application was turned down, although he was permitted to become a postulant. He studied on his own while raising a family and working as an accountant at a construction company. He was finally ordained into the diaconate in Des Moines in 1934 and into the priesthood in 1936. Lelia said he always felt handicapped by his lack of seminary training, even though he eventually taught pastoral theology for 15 years at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley. By the time he was called to St. Peter's, he was 41 years old and had already served in churches in Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa before Texas. Lelia said he told her one reason the family decided to move was the availability of a good community college system in California. Both of his older children eventually attended the College of San Mateo. A parish member later recalled that he was one of a number of particularly warm and personable priests of his generation who “planted churches” and became almost surrogate “grandfathers” for the new families in their parishes. The exploratory visit must have gone well, because Bishop Block immediately hired Eastburn as associate rector at St. Peter’s, and bought a home for the family at 1308 Rosewood Ave. in San Carlos. The home eventually became the property of Epiphany. Fordyce, Katharine, and their children, William, Jane and John, arrived in Redwood City on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, 1947, and moved into the Rosewood house less than a week later. On June 18, the Bishop and Eastburn started shopping for a church site and recommended that the Diocesan Council buy property in the 1800 block of Arroyo Avenue. According to a recent interview with Pastor Emmett Beilstein, founder of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the Lutherans also had their eye on the property, but couldn’t afford it after experiencing a difficulty with one of their funding sources. They also were concerned about riling the neighbors, who didn’t want a church on the corner. The Lutherans eventually settled on another site on Cedar Avenue. Ironically, it’s just down the street from Epiphany’s current rectory. A few days later, on June 22, St. Peter’s vestry members who lived in San Carlos met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert H. Pauling to discuss starting a mission. The group included the Eastburns, Mr. and Mrs. Ormond O. Britton, Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Pauling, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Surber and Mrs. William P. Grover. Acting as an ad hoc executive committee, Britton, Pauling, Nicholas de Stefano, Thomas, Mrs. Grover and Mrs. H.A. Nuding met with architect Francis Constable July 14 to get preliminary drawings for a proposed parish hall. The drawing was later presented to the San Carlos Planning Commission.</p><p>‘Pain and hard labor’ While there was a lot of enthusiasm for going ahead with the project, the early history’s author says that “The Church of the Epiphany was born in pain and hard labor.” The neighbors, who had indicated to the Lutherans that they didn’t want a church on the corner, also weren’t happy about the plans for Epiphany. At a tense meeting of the City Council Aug. 13, some 70 neighbors showed up to protest the new church. But Mayor Patrick Kearns announced that as long as the building conformed to the California Building Code, they couldn’t stop it. Bishop Block bought the Arroyo property on Aug. 15, 1947. The Rev. Clark at St. Peter’s also thought it unwise to start a San Carlos mission so soon and “continued to resist such action until it had been accomplished,” according to the history. It adds that “the tension between Mr. Clark and Mr. Eastburn increased so that finally (during a meeting that lasted from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sept. 25) the vestry of St. Peter’s adopted a resolution allowing the attempt to be made” to start the mission. The next day, one Harry Porte promised the proposed mission $1,000. According to the history, Epiphany never got the money, “but the psychological effect upon the executive committee and Mr. Eastburn was of a value equal to money at that time.” A temporary office was set up in the rumpus room of the Herbert Paulings’ home and work began Oct. 1 with Eastburn visiting 12 families. The next night, 20 people met in Cherington Hall at the Community Church. On Oct. 3, the Bishop and Council of the Diocese gave formal approval to establish a mission church. </p><p>Rolling out the barrel. . . On Sunday, Oct. 5, Eastburn celebrated Holy Communion in the Community Church with 40 people attending – 20 from the Community Church and 20 Episcopalians. Nine young people attended the first youth meeting that night. That week, the new mission congregation moved to Laurel Hall, at the time the only public meeting hall in San Carlos. It was located over a bar across from the firehouse on Laurel Street between Holly Street and San Carlos Avenue. The new Holy Trinity Lutheran Congregation, which shares its anniversary year with Epiphany, was using Laurel Hall Sundays from 10 a.m. until noon. Pastor Beilstein recalls that he was approached by Katharine Eastburn and another woman about sharing Laurel Hall. He welcomed the Episcopalians, who used the hall from 7 to 10 Sunday mornings, as well as Sunday afternoons and evenings. Services were conducted with an Army-Navy Chaplain’s Communion Kit, 100 donated Prayer Books and 50 newly- purchased hymnals. According to Hazel Maltby, Laurel Hall wasn’t just over a bar, but also served as one itself. “A lot of mornings, the men had to go down early and clean up the beer cans before services,” she recalled. Pastor Beilstein remembered that his services were interrupted not only when the bar downstairs threw out its empties, but that it seemed like every time he started to preach, the alarm went off at the fire station summoning the volunteer firemen. The altar (borrowed from the diocesan summer conference) was set up with the Lutherans’ cross and candlesticks and the Episcopalians’ linens. A pulpit, prayer desk and altar rail were borrowed from St. Peter’s. The second service was held at Laurel Hall at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 12 when 37 persons attended Morning Prayer. The Sunday School began with seven teachers and 32 children. Eleven young people attended the youth group. That night, 35 adults participated in the formal organizational meeting at 8 p.m. Five men and five women were elected to the Bishop’s Committee, which performs the functions of a vestry for a mission church. The first warden was Ormond O. Britton. The Bishop approved the selection of “Epiphany” as the new mission’s name, and the name was subsequently endorsed by the Bishop’s Committee. Several reasons have been suggested for the name. One is that it is the day the Eastburns arrived on the Peninsula. A second reason, provided by Lelia Eastburn, is that it was the date her husband was ordained a deacon. Or it may have been that there wasn’t another Epiphany in the diocese at the time. The Bishop’s Committee (vestry) held their first official meeting Oct. 28, after the beginning of the Women’s Auxiliary, which had held their first celebration on Oct. 19. The Altar Guild held its first meeting Oct. 30. During this time, Eastburn resigned as associate at St. Peter’s and was appointed vicar to Epiphany by the Bishop. By New Year’s Day, 1948, the congregation had much to celebrate when they joined the Eastburns for a holiday “at home” on Rosewood.</p><p>A time of 'firsts' The first Annual Meeting of the new parish was the evening of Jan. 11, 1948. The history doesn’t mention it, but for many years the Annual Meeting was to include a rendition of “Roll Out the Barrel” performed by a pick-up band of churchmen, according to Lelia Eastburn. Lenten mid-week services and weekday Christian education classes were held at the Community Church that year. Socially, 1948 saw the beginning of the "Mr. and Mrs. Club" and the "Co-Weds" club. The first parish picnic was June 20 at Sears Lake and the parish sponsored a snack bar at the July 4 observance in San Carlos. The first laymen's meeting, the predecessor of the Men’s Group and Men’s Night Out activities, was held at the E. G. Rosenhauer home and attended by 18 men. A pump organ was brought to Laurel Hall for the first confirmations, which were performed by Bishop Block on March 18. By Good Friday, 81 people attended the first three-hour service in Laurel Hall with Katharine Eastburn playing the organ. Easter Day (March 28), there were three services at Laurel Hall with a total attendance of 135. A few weeks later, the congregation was saddened to learn Katharine Eastburn had been diagnosed with cancer and a breast tumor removed April 12 followed by a radical mastectomy April 19. She recovered from surgery but survived only four more years. In September of 1948, the church moved into newly constructed rented quarters at Arroyo Hall, 1150 Arroyo Ave. (near the interesection with Laurel Avenue), which is still the San Carlos Masonic Lodge. The second Annual Meeting in January, 1949, was attended by 69 people and preceded a confirmation service at which Bishop Block officiated. The first parish bulletin began in May and a parish blood bank also was established. The women of the parish sponsored an open house in honor of the Eastburns' 22nd wedding anniversary. The year also saw the first Friendship Tea, commemorating the parish's second anniversary. Women from other parishes and congregations were invited. The Tea became a well-known event throughout San Carlos with women saving their best recipes and best outfits for the afternoon. For several years, it featured contests for table settings. Doris Anderson remembers that she and Lois Schlocker designed a table with a Japanese theme that won a blue ribbon. At the suggestion of Katharine Eastburn, the Council of Churchwomen, which eventually became the Episcopal Church Women (ECW), was formed. Scattering the seeds Over the next few years, Epiphany would continue with all the normal activities of an established congregation : births, weddings, church school, funerals, pastoral care, social activities and the like. A group called “The Young Marrieds” met at each others homes to play canasta, although it would diversify through the years to add an occasional square dance or car rally. In 1951, the church would move into a newly-built parish hall and would give up its mission status to become a parish. A parish is generally a self-supporting entity which also supports the Diocese through an annual assessment. A mission generally receives support from the Diocese, but otherwise operates the same although some of the titles are different. A mission has a “vicar” who serves “vicariously” for the Bishop, the official rector of the mission, and forms a Bishop’s Committee instead of a vestry. The vestry asked the Rev. Eastburn for suggestions of clergymen who might be good choices to become their first rector. With his typical humore, he suggested two: the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop. But the vestry selected Eastburn instead. The history proudly notes that the parish was entirely self-supporting except for debt retirement. Eastburn was a believer in lay leadership. In 1952, study groups with lay leadership began meeting at 10 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesdays and 8 p.m. Wednesdays. Some 50 people were involved. That year also saw the first Church School Training Institute with 41 persons attending. Wil (Wilbur) Madden, who later was ordained as a deacon at Epiphany, joined the church after he and wife Dale were married there in the early 1950s. Prior to that, Wil had been unchurched since attending a Christian Science church as a teen-ager. “Within six months, Fordyce had me leading Bible class for adults,” he recalled recently. “Once I got involved at Epiphany, I got involved in everything.” By 1953, the church was well established. The Easter congregations totaled some 500 people with 265 taking communion. The next year, the Easter attendance was 560 with 285 taking communion. The rector led a number of "Parish Life Conferences" in the diocese, including one at Epiphany. Ginny Hurley, who joined the church in 1953 said she recalls being struck in later years when one of Eastburns’ successors asked parishioners to let him know about anyone going into the hospital. “Rev. Eastburn always seemed to know,” she said. “He must have checked with the hospital every day.” Church School was held in two sessions at 9 and 11 a.m. that year. Seventy nine adults and 60 children were recognized at a commencement ceremony at the 9 a.m. service and 74 adults and 60 children at the second service. Changes also were occurring in the Eastburn family. Katharine Eastburn died of cancer in 1952 and Fordyce married Lelia, the daughter of an Episcopal priest, in 1953. In 1955, the rector and 23 other priests, a deacon and Bishop Block must have filled the Parish Hall for the ordination of his son, the Rev. William Eastburn, who became curate of All Saints Church in Carmel. Building the Parish Hall By mid-summer of 1948, moving ahead with plans for building a church became a priority. A congregational meeting was held at San Carlos City Hall attended by 52 people, who adopted Francis Constable's drawings as the overall plan. Building and Finance committees were appointed. Costs were estimated at $50,000 for the Parish Hall, $60,000 for the church and $20,000 for the rectory. To give some idea of what that meant, consider that the entire budget for 1948 was $5,000. For the next two years, building the parish hall would be the backdrop for Epiphany activities. When the parish moved to Arroyo Fraternal Hall in September, 1948, 87 people attended a pot-luck luncheon after the first service on behalf of the Every Member Canvass stewardship campaign and the Building Fund. However, it wasn't until March 22, 1950, that a dinner was held at Arroyo Hall to officially "kick off" the building campaign. The Rev. John E. Daley of Belmont was the speaker at the event, which was attended by more than 100 people. A ditty titled, "It's Later than You Think" also was part of the program, perhaps because the congregation thought getting started on construction was somewhat overdue. In April, the Bishop's Committee directed that a 20- by 40-foot room in the proposed parish hall be set aside for teen-agers. By May 22, 1950, the Building Fund had reached $12,000. On Whitsunday (now called Pentecost), May 28, ground was broken with the Rev. Francis P. Foote, rector of St. Paul's in Burlingame and Dean of the San Mateo Convocation attending. Phillip Adams of St. Luke's Church in San Francisco, made the address at the event, which was attended by some 150 people. Volunteer work on the building site started June 24 under the leadership of Arnold M. Teza, a professional building contractor and a member of the congregation. According to the early church history, the kitchen windows were installed upside down, which the author related to the fact that beer was provided to keep the volunteers happy. "At least 1,000 empty beer cans are thought to be in the walls of the Parish Hall," he wrote. Jack Maltby, one of the volunteers, admits he never counted the cans, but it was true that the men got rid of them in the walls. By March 7, the average number of workers was listed as 13 on Saturdays and four on Sundays, but sometimes as many as 24 men were on the job. A newspaper clipping at the time stated that 44 men had pledged to work at least an hour per week on the project. The women also contributed by bringing lunches out to the men. Doris Anderson remembers that she always seemed to be either preparing food for the workers or caring for her four little girls. Frances Hart, who joined Epiphany when she was pregnant with the first of her four children 45 years ago, speculates that many of the people her age grew up during the Depression when families couldn’t afford more than two children. “We turned around and we were going to have large families,” she said recently. “My children now all have two.” Dale Madden, Wil’s wife, recalled that construction of the Parish Hall became a family affair. “We were a growing congregation and like most parishes starting up, it wasn’t very large at first and people were like a family,” she said. “Working on the building helped to develop the fellowship between the people who worked together.” And it wasn’t unusual for the families of that first congregation to have four or five children. Dale also remembers that even the fundraising was fun when it was done in the same spirit as the parish hall construction. “We had some wonderful dinner dances,” she recalled. “We seemed to have terrific parties.” The previous October, Epiphany had applied for a $26,000 loan from the Diocese to complete the Parish Hall and build a rectory but it was rejected. The alternative plan was to continue raising money from within. Subroofing was completed Jan. 27, 1951. On Washington's Birthday, 40 men from Epiphany and Good Shepherd Church in Belmont attended a corporate communion with 30 staying after to work on the Parish Hall. By Sunday, May 20, 15 people were confirmed by Bishop Block in a windowless Parish Hall in the face of a chilly breeze. A copper tubing heating system to be installed in the floor had been abandoned. Chairs were purchased June 15 and the next day, Epiphany's equipment was moved from Arroyo Hall to the now-windowed parish hall. The first regular services were held there upstairs on June 17, 1952. Ten days later, the glass had been installed downstairs too. Probably the saddest but most well-attended service at the new hall that year was the funeral of Katharine Eastburn, who succumbed to cancer July 23. Two days later, Fordyce Eastburn celebrated the Eucharist with 90 friends and parishioners in attendance. The following Friday, Bishop Block read the burial office for Katharine with 250 people in attendace. This was the first funeral in the new hall. A number of items, including a paten and chalice, the baptismal font hand-crafted by Arnold Teza, cruets, a ewer and a ciborium, were given in Katharine's memory. By the beginning of 1953, volunteers were still working on the parish hall although services were held there regularly. Walls were plastered in May. Dorothy Deeth, who joined Epiphany in 1953, recalls that it didn't look like much then. "The first weekend we were there, we were up on the second floor for the service and we had to step over lumber," she said. Lelia Eastburn had a similar impression. "I remember the chicken wire on the walls because they hadn't put the plaster on yet," she said, "but they seemed like a pretty active group." Doris Anderson says because the parish hall was built with volunteer labor, it took a long time to finish. When her oldest daughter was married, the wedding was at St. Peter’s in Redwood City but the reception was held upstairs in Epiphany’s work-in-progress hall. “The caterer had a fit because he had to prepare everything in an unfinished kitchen and carry everything up a flight of stairs,” she recalled. “It didn’t help that it was very hot that April.” The history last mentions Phase I of the building project in 1953, although the Vestry minutes in 1954 state that a blueprint for landscaping around the Parish Hall was discussed in February. In May, the vestry held a special meeting and resolved that Epiphany engage in a campaign to retire indebtedness by Dec. 31, 1958. It wasn't until July 3 of 1955 that Charles Farrow was appointed to look into adding classrooms and offices to the Parish Hall. In October, a special vestry meeting was held to initiate the addition. In December, the church submitted a loan application to the American Trust Co. to start the building program. By the Annual Meeting in January of 1956, the Finance Committee reported that the Bank of California would loan $50,000 to build the addition and retire the balance of the debt to the American Trust Co. Ground was broken for Phase II, the classroom wing, Feb. 5, 1956. A contract for $29,500 with Arnold Teza was signed in April and construction with a professional crew began in May. An open house was held Nov. 8 to show off the new classrooms. But Doris Anderson is probably correct, even today, when she says that “you never could really call the Parish Hall finished because people kept trying to make improvements.” Only this last June, (1997) a vestry member mentioned the “Winchester Mystery House” nature of the hall as various congregations have made their mark on it, changing doorways, walls and furnishings to fit various needs. The current congregation is no exception. In 1974, the parish hall was named Fordyce Eastburn Hall in honor of the first rector. In 1956, Fordyce had begun talking to the diocese about the chaplaincy of St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco. Lelia said that he'd been interested in chaplaincy work for some time, perhaps starting with his attendance in 1953 of the summer school for alcohol studies at Yale. Eastburn also told people at the time that he felt his work at Epiphany was finished. In January, 1957, the Bishop appointed him to the chaplaincy at St. Luke's and he submitted his resignation to the vestry in February. During a parish party on March 1, the Eastburns received a Motorola HiFi and a set of luggage from the congregation. Eastburn left Epiphany officially in 1957, but he continued his personal relationships with many of the parishioners and the parish. He died Aug. 24, 1980, of prostate cancer after a fruitful life and long career. Many people from Epiphany attended his funeral. Grace Cathedral in San Francisco was packed with his many friends and colleagues. He left behind a foundation of well-planted "roots" for the future of Epiphany and its people.</p><p>###</p>