Episcopal Diocese of California


The Episcopal Diocese of California is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in Northern California, encompassing a majority of counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2024, the diocese reported average Sunday attendance of 4,494 persons.
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History

The founding Episcopal diocese in the state, once encompassing all of California, today the diocese comprises Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties, and the cities of Los Altos and part of Palo Alto in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The see city is San Francisco, California, and the diocesan cathedral is Grace Cathedral on top of [Nob Hill, San Francisco, California|San Francisco, California|Nob Hill]. The primary convention of the Missionary District of California met at Trinity Church in San Francisco on June 24, 1850. The diocese was then established on February 5, 1857, when the first diocesan bishop was elected.
Fran Toy was the first female cleric to be elected as a deputy to General Convention from the Episcopal Diocese of California in 1988 and was also the first Asian American woman to be ordained in the Episcopal church.
The eighth bishop of California was Marc Andrus, formerly suffragan bishop of Alabama, who was invested with the office on July 22, 2006, succeeding William E. Swing.
The Diocesan Convention elected Austin K. Rios as the ninth bishop of California on December 2, 2023. Rios was consecrated at Grace Cathedral on May 4, 2024, and currently serves as diocesan bishop in having canonically succeeded Andrus on July, 2024 after Bishop Andrus' retirement that month and being formally installed at Grace Cathedral on August 11, 2024.

2006 bishop election controversy

In October 2004, Swing announced his retirement at the diocesan convention. By early 2006, after a search process, a slate of seven finalists were presented to the diocese as candidates to succeed him. Among the seven finalists were a lesbian and two gay men in long-term relationships with their partners. None of the seven candidates on the ballot had made an affirmation to the Church that their relationship was celibate. Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, a consultative body of the wider Anglican Communion without jurisdictional authority for any national Church, had declared abstinence to be "right" for those not called to heterosexual marriage.
This election became widely watched by many in the Anglican Communion. Some feared that the elevation of a second gay bishop would cause a schism between the ECUSA and the rest of the Anglican Communion.
Marc Andrus, Suffragan Bishop of Alabama, was elected on the third ballot with the openly homosexual candidates receiving only a few votes. His election was confirmed at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in June 2006. He was installed as the eighth Bishop of California on July 22, 2006, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.

Congregations

The congregations in the Diocese of California are organized into deaneries—a designated geographical section within a diocese—as listed: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Peninsula, San Francisco, and Southern Alameda.

Alameda Deanery

  • All Souls, Berkeley
  • Church of Our Savior, Oakland
  • Good Shepherd, Berkeley
  • Holy Trinity / La Santisima Trinidad, Richmond
  • St. Alban’s, Albany
  • St. Augustine’s, Oakland
  • St. Clement’s, Berkeley
  • St. James’ / Iglesia de Santiago, Oakland
  • St. John’s, Oakland
  • St. Mark’s, Berkeley
  • St. Paul’s, Oakland

Contra Costa Deanery

  • Church of the Resurrection, Pleasant Hill
  • Grace Church, Martinez
  • Holy Spirit Church, Concord
  • St. Anna’s, Antioch
  • St. Anselm’s, Lafayette
  • St. Mark’s, Crockett
  • St. Paul’s, Walnut Creek
  • St. Stephen’s, Orinda
  • St. Timothy’s, Danville

Marin Deanery

  • Christ Church, Sausalito
  • Church of Our Savior, Mill Valley
  • Church of the Nativity, San Rafael
  • Church of the Redeemer, San Rafael
  • New Skellig Celtic Christian Community, Inverness
  • St. Aidan’s, Bolinas
  • St. Columba’s, Inverness
  • St. Francis of Assisi, Novato
  • St. John’s Episcopal Church, Ross
  • St. Paul’s, San Rafael
  • St. Stephen’s, Belvedere

Peninsula Deanery

  • Christ Church, Los Altos
  • Christ Church, Portola Valley
  • Church of St. Matthew, San Mateo
  • Church of the Epiphany, San Carlos
  • Good Shepherd, Belmont
  • Holy Child and St. Martin’s, Daly City
  • Holy Family, Half Moon Bay
  • Iglesia El Buen Pastor, Redwood City
  • SEA Episcopal, San Bruno and South San Francisco
  • St. Ambrose, Foster City
  • St. Bede’s, Menlo Park
  • St. Edmund’s, Pacifica
  • St. Mark’s, Palo Alto
  • St. Paul’s, Burlingame
  • St. Peter’s, Redwood City
  • Transfiguration, San Mateo
  • Trinity, Menlo Park

San Francisco Deanery

Southern Alameda Deanery

  • All Saints’, San Leandro
  • Holy Cross, Castro Valley
  • St. Anne’s, Fremont
  • St. Bartholomew’s, Livermore
  • St. Clare’s, Pleasanton
  • St. James’, Fremont

Institutions, organizations, and communities

Campus chaplaincies

Diocesan-affiliated chaplaincies are present on the following college and university campuses:
Ecumenical House comprises Episcopal, Methodist (UMC), Presbyterian (PCUSA), and United Church of Christ (UCC) congregations, while Stanford Canterbury partners with Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregations through Progressive Christians at Stanford: Episcopal Lutheran Campus Ministry.

Educational institutions and schools

The diocese operates The Episcopal School for Deacons as a college for training vocational deacons. It previously met in retreat centers and the campuses of local congregations, and eventually moved on the grounds of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California in 1998, two blocks to the north of the University of California, Berkeley.
The following schools, encompassing preschools and primary schools, are located within the Diocese of California and affiliated both with congregations in its jurisdiction and the Episcopal Church:
  • St. Andrew's Preschool, San Bruno
  • Cathedral School for Boys, San Francisco
  • St. Clare's Christian Preschool, Pleasanton
  • Episcopal Day School, San Mateo
  • St. Paul's Episcopal School, Oakland
  • Sea Breeze School, Foster City
  • St. Stephen's Preschool, Orinda
  • Trinity School, Menlo Park

Retreat centers

Within the diocese are three retreat centers, two of which are diocesan institutions and one being directly tied to a congregation :
  • The Bishop’s Ranch, Healdsburg
  • St. Dorothy’s Rest, Camp Meeker
  • St. Columba’s Retreat House, Inverness
These retreat centers are used both by religious and secular groups, ranging from summer camps and spiritual retreats to writing workshops and environmental forums. Diocesan gatherings such as the annual Clergy Conference and Vocations Conference are held at these retreat centers.

Religious communities and societies

Numerous religious communities are resident in the diocese, either through individual members or established spaces in which their members reside and minister from:

Bishops of California

The following individuals have served as diocesan bishops, provisional bishops, bishops coadjutor, bishops suffragan, or assistant bishops in the Diocese of California: