Our Church
Our History Skyline Community Church began its life as, and remains, a neighborhood church. In the late 1960s, its founders literally walked from door to door, inviting their neighbors to meet with them and found a church. All who wished to be part of an inclusive, diverse church community were, and are, actively welcome at Skyline CC. Our community spirit remains at the heart and soul of Skyline CC. Although many members live as far away as Alameda and Castro Valley, the warmth and vitality of our church embraces them and fulfills their need for a family church. “Family,” at Skyline, includes both traditional and non-traditional families, and we welcome single people as well. Family is a matter of attitude, not legal definition. We are a model for the way people from different backgrounds, ethnicity, sexual orientation and faith traditions can come together as a family which deals lovingly with difference through their sharing of a love for God and God’s creation. And Skyline Church is growing! In the last few years, we’ve been joined by new families and single members, as well.
Our Pastor
The Reverend Laurie J. Manning joined Skyline CC in 2006. Prior to serving Skyline CC, she served on the staffs of Hillcrest Congregational Church, the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, and the Riverside Church, in New York City. She also served on the University Religious Council of Churches within the University of California at Berkeley to foster greater support and understanding of religious differences within the student and faculty body, teaching courses about Christianity in dialogue with other faith traditions, such as Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and other faiths. Prior to her ordination, Laurie worked in various management capacities for Hewlett Packard’s Medical Products business, and then worked as a Management Consultant, with high technology and medical clients, and continues to do so on a limited basis. She holds a Masters Degree in Divinity from Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University in NYC, a Masters Degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Laurie received five years of spiritual direction at Weston Theological seminary in Cambridge Massachusetts. Laurie brings to us a solid understanding of the psychological and organizational complexities of living as a Christian in today’s pluralistic and scientific world. Through sermons, adult education programs, biblical and theological teachings, pastoral care, children, youth, and families programs, she helps Skyline family and friends develop their spirituality.We welcome visitors of all denominations to worship with us. Sunday service information is available elsewhere on this site, in addition to a map and driving directions to the church.
Our Denomination, The United Church of Christ Skyline Community Church is a member church of the United Church of Christ (the UCC, for short). From the beginning of our history, we were a church that affirmed the ideal that Christians did not always have to agree to live together in communion.The UCC is one of the most diverse Christian churches in the United States. The UCC was born in 1957, when two major denominations, the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical Reformed Church, came together as a united and uniting church. Our motto, “That they may all be one” - is Jesus’ prayer for the unity of the church.
The United Church of Christ embraces a theological heritage that affirms the Bible as the authoritative witness to the Word of God, the creeds of the ecumenical councils, and the confessions of the Reformation.We seek a balance between freedom of conscience and accountability to the apostolic faith. The UCC therefore receives the historic creeds and confessions of our ancestors as testimonies, but not tests of the faith.The principles of congregationalism live in the UCC: each local church governs itself without being subject to a hierarchy. Christ alone is Head of the church.At the same time, each local church lives in covenant with all others in the denomination, and with regional representative organizations called Associations and Conferences, which support the local churches and provide the means for national and worldwide action.The UCC and its predecessors have been strong and persistent advocates for social justice, including the abolition of slavery (the Amistad case was brought and argued by the Congregational Church, one of the UCC’s predecessors, and many abolitionists were members of Congregational churches) and equal treatment regardless of sexual orientation.