Gates Chapel

Gates Chapel is used extensively week-in and week-out. It is open daily for prayer and draws people from the community, the Preschool and the congregation. The “Chapel Open for Prayer” sign is for many a visible reminder of faith and hope as they drive by each day. Our Preschool holds its weekly worship in the Chapel as does the FUMC youth group. There are frequent Weddings and Memorial services in Gates Chapel, as well as the New Year’s Eve and Good Friday Prayer Vigils. With its new, flexible furnishings, Gates Chapel will be used regularly by our Intercessory Prayer Group, Companions in Christ groups and other small groups.

The Chapel’s new serigraph of “The Loaves and Fishes” by renowned LA artist John August Swanson will add to its beauty and role in telling the story of Christ’s love to believers of all ages and to those coming to the Chapel in search of God’s love and grace. We invite you to use the images of God's generosity and abundant love as entry into prayer...

The History

A major gift for the building of Gates Chapel to honor the Rev. Eugene Franklin Gates and Mrs. Fannie Miller Gates was announced in April 1956 from their sons and daughters-in-law, Mr. Sam and Mrs. Philomene Gates and Mr. Mark and Mrs. Margaret Gates. Ground-breaking was held September 20, 1956, and Gates Chapel, originally known as the Gates Chapel of Memories, was dedicated on March 24, 1957, just a month after the death of Rev. Gates, Senior Minister of FUMC from 1922-1927.
Its purpose, he had said, was to “further enhance the Kingdom of God in Santa Monica” and so it has done from the day of its dedication until now. On this, the 133rd Anniversary of FUMC, we rejoice to re-dedicate Gates Chapel upon the completion of refurbishment funded by a generous gift from the Barbarita and Beatriz Baca Fund. Memorial gifts from the families and friends of Mary Burnett, Elizabeth Jennings, Esther Johnson, Russell Lewis, Roy Naylor, and John Trever have provided for many of the interior furnishings.

This recent refurbishment, the first since the Church Beautiful campaign of the 1970s, designed by architect and church member Todd Erlandson and his team at (M)Arch., has resulted in new paint and carpeting, reupholstered pews, and new lighting in the narthex. The new color scheme of the furnishings enhances the color and design of the Chapel’s original stained glass windows, designed and made by the Judson Studios in Los Angeles. The Gates family portraits and memorial plaque have been re-framed and placed at the entrance to the Chapel. The Chapel’s unique Rieger tracker organ in the balcony, a gift from Bill and Marilyn Childress, was built in Austria and installed in 1972 and has been cleaned and tuned.

In a new design feature, the first three rows of pews have been replaced with upholstered, interlocking wooden chairs, which can be aligned in rows or configured into a circle or semi-circles to allow for more flexibility in space use. The final step of the refurbishment will consist of building storage facilities in the Chapel sacristy for paraments and other worship furnishings.