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St. Anne's, Oceanside
The Church on West Street
Prepared by Jarvis Nolan, Historiographer
It all begins at 7:00 am. Julie Miller, the sexton, arrives to unlock the doors; Joan Jacobs and Kaye McKinnon arrive to make the coffee; a tent is set up for the youth and parents barbeque. Bob, her real name is Roberta, an orange tabby that lives in the neighborhood, arrives to be part of the excitement. Her picture and address are in the parish directory – honest. And so another Sunday begins at St. Anne’s, Oceanside.
The first service held in Oceanside was in March, 1888 led by the Rev. William Edmond Jacob in a bank building. In 1891 an old paint shop was purchased to be used as a church near the corner of what is now Mission Ave on Coast Hwy, then an unpaved road. The church was known as Grace Mission. When a church was built in 1905 the paint shop became the parish hall. The church remained here until 1949 when it was moved to West Street the current location and became St. Anne’s.
St. Anne’s has been sliced in half not once but twice. When moved to West St., she was extended double her size by adding to the middle of the structure. She was sliced again in 1980 and a new chancel and nave running north and south were added making the church cruciform in design. A skylight was added, a free standing altar replaced the old altar dating back to 1905 and a choir area was installed behind the new altar. The current east and west transepts are the original church dating back to 1905.
The church has had its share of disappointments over the years. On the evening of June 8, 1996, The Rev. Quintin Morrow, then rector, received a phone call from the fire department that his church was on fire. The building did not burn down and the 60 year old wood furninshings were saved. Morrow used the incident to teach forgiviness by telling a reporter the next morning “Today we will be praying for the person who set the fire”. Five months later the first Sunday back in the restored sanctuary Morrow preached to a full congregation including the firemen who battled the fire, the FBI agent who investigated it and the newsperson who reported it. A group of four choristers from St. Anne’s were invited to sing at the Democratic Convention that summer and the Clinton inauguration festivities in January 1997. St. Anne’s was one of ten churches invited as a good will gesture towards those churches who had suffered arsons fires.
The church moved into the millenium always caring for the community first. In March of 2003 a Wall of Prayer was dedicated in remembering our Troops. A Walk of Honor is being established where plaques with the names of those who have fallen in Iraq from Camp Pendleton will be placed in the front of the church. A building on the corner of West and Coast Hwy was purchased and dedicated as a Christian Healing Center in April of 2003. The center continues to offer intensive healing prayer, spiritual direction and pastoral counseling. The center has been witness to many life changing experiences.
“Even the animals know that He is here” says Bob Knoble when talking about the cat Bob, “she is a Holy cat.” The last of the coffee is drained, the youth barbeque is over, the lights are out, the doors are locked. Bob returns to her home across the street and waits patiently for the excitement to start up again the next Sunday.