History & Archives

Beginning in the 1850s, the story of the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles and greater Southern California is enlivened by people and places of faith and action.

Archival Collections

As part of the Digital Diocese initiative, work continues to scan and post numerous historically significant texts, including the journals of Diocesan Convention and back issues of diocesan publications. Links will be posted here as they become available. Meanwhile, requests for baptismal and marriage records, as well as other historical research requests, may be directed to Canon Robert Williams, diocesan historiographer and archivist as appointed by Diocesan Convention. Email: rwilliams@ladiocese.org; 213.482.2040, ext. 240. For resources from wider history across the denomination, visit the Archives of the Episcopal Church, https://www.episcopalarchives.org/.

Diocese reaches 125-year milestone; first bishop called Southland Episcopalians to ‘Fear not!’

When – 125 years ago today – Bishop Joseph Horsfall Johnson addressed the first convention meeting of his new Southern California diocese named for the angels, he invoked the heavenly hosts’ familiar greeting, “Fear not!”

Seeking to inspire courage among pioneering delegates, Johnson suggested for the fledgling Diocese of Los Angeles a “watchword… which I trust we may often have in our thoughts during this and every convention that may meet hereafter.”

Then & Now: Southland Episcopalians weather 1918, 2020 pandemic crises

The 1918 global influenza pandemic hit Los Angeles at a time when the Sunday school of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church was growing so rapidly that the young vicar, the Rev. Dr. John Misao Yamazaki, had replaced a borrowed horse and wagon with a Dodge bus to transport the young students to the church buildings on South Mariposa Avenue near Tenth Street (now Olympic Boulevard).

Pasadena’s Church of the Angels

Its cornerstone laid on Easter Eve, April 20, 1889, The Church of All Angels is one of the oldest continuously-operating churches in Southern California. The South Pasadena church documents its rich history in detail here. A brief video history can be viewed here.

L.A.’s Church of the Epiphany

Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights played a key role in advocacy with the Chicano movement, regularly hosting civil rights leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in early years of their activism, as recently highlighted by KCET television.

More historical highlights

• “From Civil War to Civil Rights: Episcopal Church Ministry in Los Angeles 1864-2014,” marking 150 years of parochial

http://episcopalnews.ladiocese.org/dfc/newsdetail_2/3168366

• View video: St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Anaheim, Orange County’s oldest sanctuary in continuous use

https://www.postyourmusic.com/video/255/st-michael-s-espiscopal-church/