March 25, 2007

In 1957 the Protestant Episcopal Church USA used the 1928 Book of Common Prayer which was considered a radical revision of the 1893. This was the second revision of the 1789 American Prayer Book, the first revision coming in 1861 just before Trinity Parish, San Jose was founded (1863). The first Book of Common Prayer was written by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII and Edward II in 1549 and revised in the reign of Edward VI in 1552. Cranmer was burned at the stake the following year by Mary when she came to power attempting to reverse the Church to Roman Catholicism. The Church in Scotland, being of a separate kingdom, succeeded in resisting this change. This move impacted our branch of the Anglican Communion two hundred and thirty years later (see below).

The Church among the Celts and Anglo-Saxons goes back to the Second Century and at the Council of Arles in 314 C.E. it was noted that the British were ruled by bishops. Not until the Middle Ages did the Bishop of Rome attempt to standardize all the liturgies under the "Latin Rite." (Rite = order of worship). However, regional usages continued to be observed throughout the various Churches.

After the Revolutionary War, the American Anglicans needed to organize their own national Church. There had been no bishops or dioceses in the colonies because the Presbyterian dominated House of Parliament had refused to allow overseas bishops. All churches were under the Bishop and Diocese of London with support being given by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Samuel Seabury was elected the first bishop in what came to be the Diocese of Connecticut in 1783. When he went to England to be consecrated, he was turned down because of the requirement to swear loyalty to the King, the head of the Church of England. The bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, who were independent from the British Crown, received him where he was consecrated under two stipulations: the Church in the USA would be called "Episcopal" not Anglican and that the Scottish Book of Common Prayer would be the model for the American prayer book. We remained apart of the Anglican Communion but not under the titular rule of the British Crown.

Founding of the "Alum Rock Mission." On March 25, 1957 Bishop Karl Morgan Block gathered members of Trinity Parish, San Jose at the Montgomery Hotel to invite them to form the "Alum Rock Mission." The Diocese of California was celebrating the centennial founding of the diocese and a special fund had been raised to found new missions throughout the diocese. What came to be known as "St. Philip's" was one of eleven congregations that date to the episcopate of Block. A legend has it that he flew over areas that he thought would be good locations and dropped bags of flour to mark the spot. The location on Hyland was one of those missed drops because it was not what might be called "a prominent main street location." The only commercial area of any note on the Eastside was the White Road/Alum Rock area with the rest of the Eastside being farms and orchards. The San Jose Country Club has been founded in 1890's and the bishop hoped to attract the "hill people" to be the core of this new congregation. The Methodist, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Baptist, and Covenant churches had similar intentions at the same time. The first service of worship was held on Easter Sunday at the Alum Rock Methodist Church on Kirk 1957.

See photos of the service!