California Churches to Celebrate 150 Years
Episcopal News Service. June 30, 1999 [99-099L]
(ENS) More than 30,000 Episcopalians -- 86 churches in six counties -- will celebrate the church's first 150 years in California with a series of events starting in July that will culminate 15 months later in a colorful festival to be held in Golden Gate Park.
"With a variety of worship services, concerts, publications, lectures, workshops, parties and tours, the sesquicentennial will appeal to many interests," said William E. Swing, bishop of California.
According to a report, the events will feature some of the most prominent clergy and lay people in the 70-million member worldwide Anglican Communion, including the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank T. Griswold.
Also participating will be Bay Area writers, painters, musicians, athletes, business people and government officials whose work has been shaped by their practice of the Anglican faith.
The anniversary will recall the tumultuous days of 1849, when the Bay Area swarmed with new settlers. Along with prospectors, speculators and con men, the region acquired a tenacious group of men and women intent on building a genuine community amidst the boom-town atmosphere. They asked church leaders in New York to send them a member of the clergy to start a congregation.