Five years is a long time when you’re waiting to return home, so the members of Independent Community Church in Richmond are planning to
celebrate in a big way as they return to their South 16th Street location this weekend. The three-day Rededication Celebration marks the congregation’s return to a new church building at 605 So. 16th St., near Potrero Avenue, where the original building was destroyed in a 2004 electrical fire. Events start at 7 p.m. Friday with a Youth and Music Night featuring gospel recording artist Derrick Hall and friends and spoken word by Pastor Shane Scott of Saints Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Fresno. A civic service at 4 p.m. Saturday will feature Pastor Phillip Howard of Valley Bible Church in Hercules as speaker. A second service at 7 p.m. that day will have gospel music by Scott Purdue and guest speaker Doris Limbrick of Full Acts Gospel Church. Sunday is Founders Day, with Pastor Bradford leading a 4 p.m. service and a 7 p.m. service featuring Bishop Albert Galbraith of the Church of God in Christ Northern California First Jurisdiction. Independent Community Church was formed out of a bible study group that formed in the late 1960s and met first at a private home and then at other central Richmond sites before getting its own building on South 16th Street in 1976. The Bradfords and church members, including Fred Jackson and Paul Foster, were instrumental in the recent construction of the Trinity Center senior housing on Macdonald Avenue, including donating land. After the 2004 fire, the displaced congregation continued to meet at interim sites &mdash first on Marina Way and then at Macdonald Avenue and Eighth Street &mdash while carrying on community outreach and raising funds to rebuild. The homecoming has finally arrived. “It’s good to get back in that church. We’re used to doing outreach in that community,” said Fred Jackson, a longtime member of the congregation.
The celebration is open to all. For details, call the church at 510-235-8688.