GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH had a humble beginning. After a mission canvass of the Albany territory on February 4, 1931 a Sunday School opened on February 8, 1931, in a store building on Solano Avenue. March 1, 1931 the first service for adults was held in the evening, with Rev. Martin Engel, Pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Berkeley, as the preacher.
On October 18, 1931, the first Sunday morning service was held, with the District Mission Board in charge. On August 12, 1932 the group held their first worship service in the newly completed Veterans Memorial Building in Albany, where they held their services for several years.
In May of 1934 Rev. O. R. Janke began his work as the first resident missionary and on April 15, 1935 Grace Congregation was organized with seven charter voting members and forty-four communicant members and Rev. O. R. Janke was installed as their pastor on May 12, 1935. Grace Congregation became incorporated March 12, 1937 and on March 17, 1938 they dedicated the newly built parish hall-Chapel on the ground where the church now stands. (The hall is now known as Janke Hall).
January, 1944 the congregation became self-supporting and on February 13, 1944 they had a service of Praise and Thanksgiving and had a mortgage burning ceremony.
Grace Church continued to grow and flourish under God’s loving care and protection. On October 16, 1949 a ground breaking service was held in preparation for the building of the church edifice. The building was supervised by one of our own members, Ed Hjellum, who was a building contractor. Much of the work was done by members and friends of the congregation, who volunteered to do what ever work the could. Week ends and days off were spent at the church site. On June 11, 1050 we held two services dedicating the new building to the glory of God.
We needed more room for our Sunday School so on March 11, 1955 a ground breaking ceremony was held for an addition to the parish hall, which was completed in short order and was dedicated on September 25, 1955.On June 30, 1973, our first Pastor, Rev. O. R. Janke, retired after 39+ years of serving the Lord and Grace Church. Since then we have had three more pastor, Ronald Rentner, Robert Krieger, and Ralph Moellering, who have served the congregation. In September of 1990 our present spiritual leader, the Rev. N. Verner Olson, came to us and is serving us faithfully and is very friendly, a good listener and is a joy to talk to. We also had two Directors of Christian Education, Thomas Mueller and William Battermann and one long time office secretary, Gertrude Hedley, who retired in February of 1998.
Since Pastor Janke’s retirement, under the leadership of the succeeding pastors, Grace Church has continued to be a beacon of hope and comfort to the community. We regularly support local charity groups, including the Bay Area Rescue Mission, having an on-going food drive for them each month, and donating other much needed items for their use. We support the Mission program of our District and Synod, as well as giving to local and foreign disaster emergency relief programs. Grace is as progressive body, providing something for everyone—a variety of music, orders of worship, and opportunities to use our individual talents. Grace Church is always upgrading the facilities to meet the needs of our people. In the year 2002 the restrooms at Janke Hall were remodeled to make them available to handicapped people, especially those in wheel chairs. Hearing head sets have been made available for those who have difficulty hearing and participating in the worship service. These were donated by a friend of one of our members.
Grace Church is a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the California-Nevada Hawaii District. Our doors are always open to all who wish to enter. We are one big family and welcome everyone. We have a number of ethnic backgrounds represented in our church family and we all enjoy very much our fellowship and variety of gifts and talents we have to offer and share. We also share our facilities with the Evangelical Formosan Church, a delightful group of Chinese people.Gertrude Hedley, Church Archivist
(Year 2003)