History

Hanna Jacob Doumette, the founder of the Christian Institute, first organized the church in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1933. Fifteen years later, the church's headquarters moved to Santa Monica, California, where they remain to this day. But there is more to the Christian Institute's story than cities and dates. Its history stretches back more than one hundred years and across continents before ending up in Southern California.

Mr. Doumette was born at the Mission of St. Paul in Syria on Easter Sunday in 1883. The child of French Protestant missionaries, he showed signs of deep spiritual understanding and charisma as a child preacher in the streets of Antioch. As a young man, he traveled the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asia. He visited the pyramids in Egypt and ruins in Greece, taking in ancient and modern cultures, and meeting with local spiritual teachers and scholars, as well as archaeologists and fellow travelers.

During World War I, unwilling to engage in combat but unable to stand by while people suffered, Mr. Doumette volunteered for the Red Cross. After the conflict in Europe, he traveled to the United States, ending up in Kansas City by way of Ellis Island. There, he met Elizabeth Hockley, who became his wife, a woman who was instrumental in the ultimate founding of the Christian Institute. The Doumettes officially organized the Christian Institute in Kansas City in 1933, and in 1935, the church was publishing Truth Review, a nondenominational monthly magazine.

In the summer of 1941, the Doumettes moved to Southern California, and in 1943, there was a church in Santa Monica on the corner of Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue. By 1948, they were overseeing the construction of the building at 1308 Second Street, which was to become the church's permanent headquarters.

There, Mr. Doumette assumed his position as an established minister, counselor and writer. By the time of his death in 1975, he had written multiple books, hundreds of booklets and countless articles about world religion, spirituality, human unfoldment and esoteric Christianity.

From its vantage point in the Los Angeles area, the Christian Institute survived the rise and fall of new religious movements in California in the sixties and seventies. More recently, it banded together with other local churches to make a sacred space available for psychological healing in the aftermath of the Santa Monica Farmers' Market crash in 2003.

Today, the church continues to serve the community through educational programs like Mind Over Movies, a free film screening and discussion series, providing charitable opportunities, like its annual toy drive, and by hosting various recovery programs throughout the week. The church also keeps up Mr. Doumette's vision of an organization that provides an esoteric Christian education through regular services and lectures, as well as offers spiritual counseling.