Resilience Through 120 Years!

Resilience Through 120 Years!

By Reverend Karen Yokota Love
NAP Contributor

Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church (Blaine) on Beacon Hill in Seattle, Washington, is well known as a community space as well as a church. While many churches are closing or finding other ways to use its buildings and property, Blaine has robust and growing programs of its own. It also makes its facilities available for everything from political candidate forums to community basketball teams to local crafts fairs.

The church was first known as Seattle Japanese Methodist Episcopal Church when it was founded on January 28, 1904. Blaine’s history is tied to the larger history of Seattle and the role of pioneering missionary Reverend David Blaine, his wife Catherine, and nephew, Edward Linn Blaine. Catherine led English language classes for immigrant Japanese women. E. L. Blaine, was integral to the church’s place in Seattle throughout his life.

He continued to support the church until his death in 1954. In 1956, the church was renamed in honor of the late E. L. Blaine. He was a prominent Seattle civic leader and First United Methodist Church lay leader. Because Japanese were not allowed to own real estate, E. L. Blaine held the title to Blaine’s first church located on Washington Street in central Seattle. When the congregation was forcibly removed to American concentration camps during WWII in 1942, he looked after the property, where members stored their belongings.

Blaine was first an English-language ministry for the immigrant Issei (first generation Japanese American). It developed and nurtured a Japanese-language division for the American-born generations that followed. Today, while Blaine is still rooted in its Japanese American heritage, it is a multiethnic, multigenerational and reconciling congregation that supports LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer or Questioning) rights. One of the meeting rooms at Blaine is named in honor of the late Bob Webb, a former Tuskegee Airman (first group of Black U.S. military pilots and airmen who served in World War II), who lived in Seattle for more than 40 years.

The church has grown and thrived through periods of good and bad times. Despite facing anti-Japanese and anti-immigrant, and discriminatory sentiment throughout much of its earliest decades, the church built a strong faith community. Blaine supports its members and serves the larger communities through local, national, and global missions; including advocacy for social justice and equity. The church also participated in the Seattle’s first open housing march as allies of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME). In more recent years, Blaine has been active in advocating for immigrant rights. The Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) started mental health counseling in a borrowed Blaine Sunday School room and Blaine continues to raise thousands of dollars for its Walk for Rice.

Other current community partners include Tsuru for Solidarity, Atlantic Street Center, Kimball Elementary School, and Mission Guatemala. In 2012, Blaine was honored by the International Examiner’s Community Voice Award for its long history of community service. Blaine will commemorate its 120 years of faith and mission on January 26, 2025 with an anniversary Sunday service. Special guests will help celebrate and reflect on its long history. The church looks forward to further growth and development in the next 120 years of service in love.