What is now the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration began as a diocesan mission in January 1963 with 13 members meeting under the leadership of The Rev. John Atwell. The church began meeting at the Superstition Inn and at Apache Junction Elementary School. In December 1963, the first annual dinner was held, with 42 people in attendance. Soon after, five acres were purchased on South Mountain Road, and a new chapel took shape in July 1965. We are a young church by Episcopalian standards, even in Arizona, becoming an official parish of the Diocese of Arizona in 1979.
The Parish House (at that time the vicarage) was built in 1966 by the rector and members of the congregation. In 1988, the Parish Hall was completed with office space, a kitchen, and a large room for gatherings and meetings. In 2001, the rectory was blessed for use as our sanctuary during the construction of our present-day sanctuary. The ground dedication for our current sanctuary was on December 9, 2001.
A Brief History of The Episcopal Church
The Episcopal Church was founded in 1785 following the American Revolution having previously been the Church of England in the American Colonies. Being a denominational descendent of the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, our roots in the Anglican tradition connect us to the ancient, catholic, and apostolic Church. The Church of England has its first roots in Roman-Britain with the Church in Roman-Britain being established and present by circa. 300 AD as evidenced by Christian places of worship. British bishops were present at the Council of Arles in 314 AD and the Western Church Council of Ariminum in 359 AD where the majority of bishops affirmed the Nicene Creed. After the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain, Roman Christianity diminished, but surviving communities persisted by the arrival of St. Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle to the English, in 597 AD. The first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine was appointed by Pope Gregory the Great to lead the mission among the Anglo-Saxons or English. Following the conversion of King Æthelberht, the majority of the English became Christians. Since 597 AD, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been the Primatial Bishop and spiritual leader of the Church of England.
In 1534, King Henry VIII separated the Church of England from communion with the Pope of Rome, and, in 1549, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, published the first Book of Common Prayer. This aligned the Church of England with the Protestant Reformation. In 1559, Queen Elizabeth I established the foundation of modern Anglicanism, known as the Elizabethan Settlement, or the via media, a “middle way” theologically between Lutheranism and Calvinism. Later, this same term was applied to Anglicanism as a “middle way” between the worship and rituals of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Today, the Church of England and wider Anglican Communion describes itself as both “Catholic and Reformed.” Among Anglicans or Episcopalians, one will find theological Lutherans and Calvinists, Anglo-Catholics and low-church Protestants. What unites Anglicans or Episcopalians in each of their churches is the local variation of the Book of Common Prayer. In The Episcopal Church, we express our faith in the words of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
The Anglican Communion was founded in 1867 as more Anglican and Episcopal churches received autocephaly from the Church of England. Today, the Anglican Communion, all sharing communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England, the “mother church” of the Anglican Communion, is the third-largest body of Christians in the world after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The Anglican Communion is now made up of 42 autocephalous and autonomous churches. Many English-speaking member churches refer to themselves as ‘Anglican,’ emphasizing their ties to the ancient English Church, while Spanish, Portuguese, French, Gaelic, and Scots-speaking churches refer to themselves as “Episcopalian,” emphasizing our governance by bishops in apostolic succession with the early Church.
History of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona
The Episcopal Church was founded in the United States in the wake of the American Revolution. The Diocese of Arizona came along a bit later. It was established as part of a missionary jurisdiction in 1865 and became a diocese in 1959. Bishop Jennifer Reddall is our sixth bishop, and the first woman chosen for that role. She was elected in October 2018 and ordained a bishop on March 9, 2019.
The Episcopal Church is comprised of dioceses in the United States, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Venezuela, and the Virgin Islands. It also includes a convocation of churches, mission congregations, and specialized ministries spread geographically over seven countries in continental Europe.
The Episcopal Church is a member of the Anglican Communion, a community of churches with 110 million members in more than 165 countries. The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona is a church community of 31,104 baptized Episcopalians, of whom 17,000 are active members, and the Church of the Transfiguration is the church home for more than 765 baptized Episcopalians and about 300 active baptized members.
