Our History

 

St. Mary of the Angels Anglican Church was founded in 1918 as an Anglo-Catholic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Fr. Neal Dodd, founding Rector, was moved by the Lord to address the spiritual needs of the fledgling Hollywood motion-picture community.  His mission work met with much success, and in 1930 the present building was erected. Early Hollywood film actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. were among the parishioners then.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the second Rector, Fr. James Jordan, established a national reputation for St. Mary’s as one of the country’s leading centers of Anglo-Catholicism.  Fr. Jordan was succeeded by Fr. John Barker, who was then succeeded by Fr. Gregory Wilcox.

In the early 2010s an effort to move the Parish into the Roman Catholic Church, led by its fifth Rector, Fr. Christopher Kelley, caused a division.  After protracted civil litigation between the factions, the party that wished to remain Anglican ultimately retained possession of Church properties.

During the period of the litigation, Canon Frederick Rivers, Archdeacon, and Bishop Owen Williams successively held the Office as the sixth and seventh Rectors of St. Mary's. Bishop Williams continued as Rector until All Saints’ Day, 2023, when Fr. Michael Erickson was instituted eighth Rector of St. Mary’s.

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[A more comprehensive history of St. Mary’s with past clergy including Priests-in-charge and Assisting Priests Priests will be updated in the future.]

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