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Second Samoan Congregational Church
started in the mid 1970’s by
immigrants that settled in the Long Beach area seeking employment opportunities.
The group started with weekly prayer meetings in member homes and they purchased
their first worship space in 1976. It maintained ties with the
Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa until 1995 when it became a
founding member of the EFKSA- a denomination of Samoan Congregational Churches
in the U.S.. It still maintains ties with other Samoan Congregational
Churches as well as the Congregational Churches in Samoa, but she has now taken
on a more ecumenical stance in response to the current religious landscape.
In 1994 Second
Samoan under went a major re-organization to better reflect its mission and to
better witness the gospel it espouses. Responding to the need of the
immigrant community in diaspora and to surrounding neighborhoods, the
conversation grew to include social, economic and governance components.
Care was taken to map out the whereabouts of Pacific Islander communities, and to
become sensitive to their needs, while staying faithful to the Christian gospel.
Second Samoan was organized into several closely related conversations, which
sought to interpret living in the U.S. for immigrant and ethnic Americans.
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