Excitement filled the air Sunday morning as people from the First United Methodist Church of Upland came to celebrate and worship with the congregation at the First United Methodist Church of Ontario. 

About 400 people of all ages assembled to celebrate an event that occurred 100 years ago: dedication of the Upland church's first chapel through the mission efforts of the Ontario church. 

Sunday's morning's celebration concluded with a symbolic walk up Euclid Avenue and began with the combined worship service. 

As the prelude music swelled, leaders and combined choirs of the two congregations entered the church. 

Outreach dominated the service, beginning with the Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah 6:8, "Here am I; send me." 

"You started it all," said the Rev. J. Stewart Kreiss, senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Upland in an introductory call. "We come back to celebrate our faith and our memories of these 100 years." 

The Rev. Jim Hickman, senior pastor of the host Ontario church, briefly recalled the historic bond between the two churches. 

As a mission outreach in the late 1800's, the Ontario church, then called the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Ontario, gave life to a new church in Upland, then called North Ontario. In June 1898 the church's chapel was dedicated at Euclid and C Street at a cost of $1,300. The church was officially chartered with 81 members in October 1899, and the Upland church will celebrate its centennial throughout 1999. 

"We are a connectional church," Hickman said, "And this (Sunday) is a celebration of our connectionalism." 

Members of both churches participated in the vocal and bell choir music. The Rev. Pierce Johnson, founder of Claremont United Methodist Church, gave the call for prayer. He currently serves as associate pastor of visitation at the Upland church. 

The Rev. Robert W. Edgar, president of the Claremont School of Theology, set the mood for his sermon by first asking parishioners to stand and sing with hand motions "Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me." 

A United Methodist minister and six-term Congressman from Pennsylvania, Edgar titled his sermon "Faith for the Next 100 Years." Stating that leadership for the future comes from average, common people, he urges his listeners to focus on what needs to be done, to stand up and speak out. 

"God is not calling others to bring about the Kingdom," he said. "God is calling each of us…to accept our call, our Faith." 

After the final hymn, "Here I am, Lord," and benediction, children and adults adjourned to Fellowship Hall for a luncheon where people reminisced. 

Active member Don Johnson, 74, said he and his wife, Marge, joined the church in Upland more than 30 years ago because it was a youth-oriented church which appealed to their daughters. The youth program remains strong, sponsoring a work trip this summer with an Indian tribe in Utah. 

"Ontario (FUMCO) in outreach formed a church in Upland," Johnson said. "We in outreach feed the hungry and continue the mission." 

Evelyn Campbell, one of the organizers of the hunger program, said that since the early 1980s the church has helped people close to home, including both a shut-ins program and a preschool. The church's overseas missions also continue, said Campbell, who with her husband, George, has been an active member since 1952. 

More than 30 church members and friends braved Sunday's 90-degree heat to make the symbolic walk up Euclid from the Ontario church to the Upland church. 

"Symbols help to clarify who we are as God's people," Kreiss said. "I look at the symbolism of our walk…as a means of restating our past, that of the giving of life and ministry by one congregation to another." 

When the walkers arrived at the Upland church, people who drove the route lined up along the sidewalk and cheered. 

Inside the sanctuary, Kreiss led the group singing "This is a Day of New Beginnings." Lynn Euzenas, associate pastor of education, gave the benediction and everyone was instructed to hug three others.