We invite you to visit us and see whether this parish might become your spiritual home. We are a community that looks to the life and ministry of Jesus to better understand and enter into the heart of God. Jesus spoke out against injustice and poverty, he healed friend and foe, he broke bread with the rich and poor. Jesus points to the wideness of God’s compassion.

We celebrate the wonderful diversity of humankind and we seek to do that in faithfulness to our baptismal vow to respect the dignity of every human being. St. John's strives to include a place for everyone around God’s table and believes there should be no outcasts in the Episcopal Church. Our campus is completely accessible and barrier free.  

NEWS
An Easter Message from our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry.


​​The Diocese of El Camino Real is in the process of electing a new Bishop. Get the latest news on the process by clicking here.

Holy Week

At the end of Lent is the one week called Passion Tide, or Holy Week. It begins on Passion Sunday, also called Palm Sunday, and ends at the first Alleluia of Easter in the midst of the Great Vigil early on Sunday morning. Passion Sunday begins with the triumphal procession commemorating Jesus entering the Holy City on a donkey. Participants experience in the liturgy a stark change in the middle of things. What had been falsely understood as Jesus joining the crowd becomes the confrontation of Jesus with the failures of society and the crowd as well. The day turns decidedly dark and we read dramatically of Jesus being sought for arrest by the threatened authorities. The color for this Sunday is the red of martyrs, the color of blood.

The next major liturgy is Maundy Thursday (the name comes from the Latin for mandate in the liturgy for foot washing - a new mandate I give to you, that you might love one another.) This liturgy commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. At the close of this liturgy all kneel as the clergy and altar guild strip the altar area of all ornamentation and symbols of God's presence. No Eucharists may be celebrated from this time until Easter anywhere in the world.

On Good Friday our Lord was killed for the folly of humankind and the love and willingness of God to let the consequences play themselves out. We gather, often in the darkness and wearing black, for one of the most touching liturgies of the year. Here we share our pain with God, who knows all about pain, and tears, and death, and we begin the observance of the three days of death, when our Lord was in the tomb.  Lay members of the parish give testimonies connected to the Seven Last Words of Christ, sharing times of suffering and pain in their own lives and how God was present to them. We leave in silence.

Easter Sunday at St. John's begins at 5:00 a.m. with the Easter Vigil.  A new fire is kindled outside and from it the Great Paschal Candle and then individual candles are lit. “We await our Master’s return with our lamps full and burning” (Luke 12:35ff). We go into the church with our candles The great and ancient hymn The Exsultet is sung, the sweeping story of salvation history is recounted. The service (with incense) then follows with the year’s principal rites of Baptism and Eucharist. Then the Resurrection of Jesus is proclaimed (loudly!), with the ringing of bells, as the sun rises.  

The 9:00 service on Easter will be a family-friendly service, with a dramatic presentation of the Easter story, easy-to-sing hymns and praise songs, and a spoken Eucharist. It will be shorter than a normal Sunday service; around 45 minutes at the maximum An Easter egg hunt and coffee hour follows the service in the backyard of the church. (There will be no incense at this service.)

The 11:00 Easter service will be a traditional festive choral Holy Eucharist, with organ, choir, and sung liturgy. 

For details of services and events see our News & Events page.