TheParish - The Episcopal Church of Saint John

The Episcopal Church of Saint John

TULARE, California

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Saint John Episcopal Church
Organized in 1887
a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin since 1989
1701 East Prosperity Ave
Tulare, California 93274
(a community of 53,000, as of 2007)
559 686-8048 phone and fax stjohnstulare@yahoo.com

www.forministry.com/USCAECUSASJE2

The Rev. Robert G. Eaton, Rector (since 1989)

go to this yahoomaps image for map and directions

As an Episcopal congregation
WE ARE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER THAN OURSELVES

The Church of Tulare is the unofficial association of Christian congregations within the city of Tulare, California. For quite a few years, a number of pastors and congregations have been committed to looking for opportunities to work together for the benefit of the community. There is a weekly prayer gathering of pastors, and recently we have seen some of our combined prayers for unity and mission answered in the establishment of the Tulare "Healing Rooms" (our Rector is one of the 5 overseeing pastors, and there are 80 volunteers from 30 congregations), and of a volunteer corps of pastors and lay ministers assisting the part-time Hospital Chaplain with initial visits of new patients.

Of course, the local Church of Tulare would not be possible if we did not believe in the existence of and know ourselves to be connected through baptism to the "Body of Christ", as Saint Paul calls it, and that all believers in Jesus Christ are Spirit-gifted members thereof (see First Corinthians 12 as an example). St. John Episcopal Church is a part of the Body of Christ.

St. John's is a parish of the Diocese of San Joaquin and has been since 1989. Our organization as a mission of the older - and at that time statewide - Diocese of California is from 1887, with a few worship services in town even before. In 1911, the Missionary District of the San Joaquin was "cut out" from the Diocese of California to stand on their own, with financial assistance from the Episcopal Church's national General Convention budget. St. John's Mission, located at that time at the corner of G Street and King, was incorporated into San Joaquin at that time. The Diocese ended it's "Missionary Jurisdiction" status in the 1970's. St. John's had moved by that time to its present location at the corner of Prosperity and Laspina (an Italian word meaning "thorn"). The contrast in words adequately reflects the ups and downs of our long history. There are about 7 or 8 regular congregations in San Joaquin, and 10 more that are unorganized missions.

St. John's, with 145 baptized members, is a small parish, just below the median size in The Episcopal Church.

Sequoia Deanery

This is the old map, from December, 2007, and exists on the existing server from Bill Smith, R.I.P. Bill served with Fr. Eaton on the Communication Dept. The map still has value in that it does show the location of Tulare, and of the parish in Hanford. By clicking on the parish symbol for Tulare, you can access a webpage of historical background. The Hanford page at least contains a map of the location of the church.

Province VIII (8)

The Episcopal Church in the USA

The Worldwide Anglican Communion

About our patron saint name, SAINT JOHN . . . .

We don't know why the name "St. John" was chosen for this congregation in Tulare back in the 1880's. Or why the folks in Porterville decided to use the same name twenty years later. There are two other congregations in the Diocese of San Joaquin named "St. John's", as well, although the parish in Stockton, named as such in the 1850's has the fuller name, "St John the Evangelist", and the Episcopal parish in Lodi is named for a different John, St. John the Baptist.

Our St. John is the disciple and the apostle, also known as one of the authors of a Gospel, and thus also known as St. John the Evangelist. But he is also known, and congregations around the world can be found named in these ways, as St. John the Divine, St. John the Beloved Disciple, St. John the Revelator, and St. John the Theologian.

We also recognize St. John as one who was convinced and taught about the power of intercessory prayer, since he points out the nature of the intercessory work of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit in his Gospel, letters, and the last book of the bible, Revelation.

The symbols and depictions of this saint in Christian art include the eagle, the saint with gospel book in hand, a chalice with a snake coming out of it (from a story of his miraculous healing), depicted as the youngest of the apostles, the saint leaning on Jesus during the Last Supper, the saint with Jesus' mother Mary beneath the crucified Jesus, the saint with the apostles James and Peter on the mountaintop with Jesus, Moses and Elijah during Jesus' transfiguration, as an elder apostle receiving Jesus' revelations via an angel on the island of Patmos.

Our logo for St. John shows the eagle with nimbus - a depiction of the "lofty" nature of the writing and theology in the Gospel of St. John (the nimbus is found throughout the history of Christian art to identify the Saints, and, so, on the eagle meaning St. John, and not just an eagle for eagle's sake) - with the Episcopal Church denomination shield in the eagles's talons - a depiction meaning that the Church is dependent upon the Truth of the Gospel - and a grape cluster hanging from the arm of the cross in the shield - a depiction of one of the themes in John's Gospel ("I am vine, you are the branches") especially being given life in our parish in the gathering of small groups. This logo was created by the Rev. Robert Eaton.