Steve Winter was fascinated.

He was 8 years old when it first started going up.

It was in the middle of nowhere.

He’d make almost daily treks from his home through the orchard to see it go up.

It was located on the edge of a dusty country road that ran along an open drainage ditch.

To the south, Powers Avenue was a dead-end, just over a block north of Yosemite Avenue.

It should have been a big deal in itself, since it would be a new home for the congregation of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church that included his family.

“I didn’t think much about that then,” Winter said on Monday.

As an 8 year-old boy, it was spell binding to see crews construct the cathedral-style building with its stone floors, stained glass windows, steep roofline, and stunning orange steeple.

Now, 70 years later, Winter realizes what he saw rise beyond the edge of town in 1956 was more than a building.

It was a place that for the past 70 years helped people grow their faith, helped those struggling with earthly needs running the gamut from food to dealing with grief, and helped Manteca grow as a community.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the completion of the original church all month long.

There have been special events tied with Sunday worship the past three weeks. This Sunday, it’s an all-member birthday celebration.

The main event is Sunday, May 31.

The special worship service will celebrate 70 years of service.

Bishop Sandra Olewine will attend. There will be the singing of heritage songs, and a luncheon catered by Chef Kat.

Also expected to be on hand is Evelyn Drury.

The 97 year-old is the oldest living member of the congregation having attended first as a Manteca High freshman 83 years ago.

St. Paul’s — and Manteca — have come a long way since a land gift by an anonymous donor at the time, the late Antoine Raymus, who would eventually gift land or provide it at extreme discounts to a dozen churches of various faiths.

Raymus had a desire to build nor just homes, but a community.

And his anonymous donations over the years, that people figured over time who made them, did just that.

St. Paul’s took the gift and gave back to the community countless times — and continue to do so — since moving from their longtime place of worship at Yosemite and Sequoia avenues that became home to the Manteca Historical Society Museum in 1992 after serving as a place of worship for other denominations.

Today, that country road outside the edge of town with the open irrigation canal is North Street and is considered part of Central Manteca.

And for the past seven decades the congregation has been central to weaving the social-cultural fabric of Manteca.

St. Paul’s offers a wide array of ministry outreaches from a food pantry to occasional special meals to providing space for 12-step programs that help people deal with addiction.

For 43 years, St. Paul’s Pre-School provided pre-kindergarten education to all faiths until universal state-funded transitional kindergarten sidelined such programs.

It is where Manteca Kindred Arts — a community-based non-profit — found a home for decades to arrange professional artists for concerts in the acoustically stunning sanctuary where Anne Talcott’s traditional organ music and 43-member adult choir joined by the congregation makes Sunday worship a joyful occasion.

The building is

simply a vessel

But as Pastor Allison Byerley will tell you — and if you haven’t figured it out — St. Paul’s this month isn’t celebrating a building’s anniversary, but the people who have gathered in it for the past seven decades and then have gone out into the community and served.

There’s Leoma Negley, who in 1972 suggested there might be a better way to raise funds for the church ministries than providing a “for hire” crew of volunteers to prepare dinners for non-profits.

She suggested the congregation start a secondhand store. The push back was immediate. No one, it was said, would pay to buy clothes that others wore. Negley convinced doubters to give it a try for three weeks.

Nearly Nice ended up enjoying a 52-year run using 100 percent volunteer manpower not just to help fund St. Paul’s ministries but to write generous checks of support each year for various communities non-profits such as the Boys & Girls Club.

There was Jon Patzer who loved antiques and was an ardent collector of hand cranked ice cream freezers.

Once a year when Manteca’s heat was relentless, Pazter would being 20 of the hand cranked ice cream makers to Sunday School.

For more than 50 years, church youth would be assigned two to an ice cream maker — one to turn the crank and the other to sit on the freeze to try to keep it level.

When an arm got tired, or a bottom got too cold from sitting on the freezer packed with ice, eager replacements took over.

Clair and Elsie Weast — the husband wife team of scientists credited with devising low-calorie intake frozen food for Tillie Foods and were members of St. Paul’s — would open their walnut orchard on Cottage Avenue so the congregation could harvest and shell the bounty to share with the community.

Then there were the Golden Girls — Betty Bergthold of Bergthold Mortuary, Katheryn Lauriston of the Manteca Variety store , Evelyn Allen of Allen’s Jewelry, and Selma Wrigglesworth of Wrigglesworth Man’s Shop for clothing.

The four businesswomen not only were always teaming up to involve St. Paul’s with new challenges and ways to serve, but played a similar role in the broader Manteca community through the Soroptimists service club.

St. Paul’s continues to serve by following its motto for the ages, “Open hearts, open doors, open minds.”

It is reflected in new members, with 11 recently joining the congregation.

And before you start thinking it’s “old school” people joining as in older and set in their viewpoints, guess again.

Pastor Byerley notes St. Paul’s is a mixture of people.

Those recently joining include those from another church seeking more traditional services, a blended family, a young college student, empty nesters, and those that are part of the LGBQT community.

That 8 year-old boy

may seat you in a pew

“We don’t allow our diversity to affect our community,” parishioner Jay Holmes remarked.

Holmes said politics don’t matter when it comes to St. Paul’s sharing and living “the love of God.”

Newcomers are welcome before they even cross over the threshold of the large cathedral doors that dominate the church facade facing Powers Avenue.

They may be ushered to a pew by that 8 year-old boy, Steve Winter and now retired Manteca High principal, who will greet — and treat — you like an old friend.

What awaits is a traditional service that typically averages 100 worshippers with a healthy dose of contemporary touches, but not to the point where you feel like you are a member of an audience rather than a part of a congregation.

And don’t let the strong traditional worship feel mislead you.

St. Paul’s also has a strong online presence with as many as 400 viewers of its weekly services.

As for the future, Byerley sees the 70-year church building continue to serve as the trunk, if you will, for St. Paul’s to continue to branch out to share the word of God in the community through words of positive encouragement, emotional engagement, and physical works of good will whether it is helping feed the needy or helping those struggling.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com