The Episcopal Church is a member of the world-wide Anglican Communion, with 70 million members in 163 countries. We are a community of Christians bound together by: our belief that Holy Scripture contains the very core of all Christian faith and thought, the many ancient and modern stories that connect us to Jesus and his teachings, discovering daily God's hope and call to us through our life together.

Some of the things that define our beliefs and actions in the Episcopal Church are the following:

• Inclusive - we welcome everyone to hear and take action on God's message
• Social Justice - helping get rid of the barriers of social inequality so everyone may participate fully
• Community - living, sharing and helping together
• Scripture, Tradition and Reason - we believe we should make a decision based on reconciling what the Bible says about it, what the Church has said over the years about it, and what our reason says about it. Without taking all of these into account, we're dissin' what God has given us. It's not always the easiest path, but we think it's the best way.

Anglicans (including the Episcopalians in America) are united by a shared form of worship, based upon the Book of Common Prayer. Each of our worship services at Transfiguration, whether formal and traditional or contemporary and child-centered, is based on this same format.

There's an enormous amount of information about what is the Episcopal Church available on the web, far more than we could discuss in our website. If you're looking for more information, we'd suggest looking at:

The website for the Bay Area part of the national Episcopal Church. The national Episcopal Church is divided into 12 dioceses, one of which is the Bay Area.
• a welcome to the Episcopal Church
• a discussion of the beliefs of the Episcopal Church (this happens to be a link to the diocese in Texas)

At Transfiguration, we also have an occasional Episcopal 101 class that gives you a chance to sit down and ask those questions about the church that have been running around your mind. Our next one will be held July 29.

Here's a quick overview of how Transfiguration fits into the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion:

• Transfiguration is the church of our parish community. Most of this website is devoted to supporting our on-going parish life.
• Occasionally we work together with some nearby Episcopal churches on the Pennisula to achieve some common goals (we call this a deanery).
• Transfiguration (along with the nearby churches) is part of the Episcopal Diocese of California (which is really just the Bay Area, minus the South Bay). There are about 110 dioceses in the US; each diocese is led by an elected bishop. In the Anglican tradition, each diocese's bishop holds the authority in the church.
• The Episcopal Church in the US is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, a collection of like-minded churches that share the same general beliefs.