From Bowling Alley to Bell-Vaulted Sanctuary
The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection sits on Gregory Lane in Pleasant Hill, at the edge of a quiet residential block, its sanctuary tucked behind a stand of redwoods and a half-acre of fruit trees. The building, designed by the architectural firm of Ratcliff, Slama & Cadwalader and noted for the bell-curved vault of its wood-paneled sanctuary formed of free-span laminated beams, is a familiar landmark to neighbors who walk their dogs through the orchard and stop by the outdoor labyrinth on a lunch break. The church's mission, repeated throughout its materials, is to nurture an inclusive church where people worship, heal, and laugh, so that together they can share God's love with the community.
The congregation gathered first on July 1, 1959 as a mission under the leadership of the Rev. Richard Shackell. Its earliest services were held in a local bowling alley on the second floor, with the banquet room serving as the worship space and the offices pressed into use as Sunday school rooms. A small reed organ, which founding member Betty Preston recalled looked as though it had come over the Oregon Trail, provided the music. After roughly three months the growing group moved into the Seventh Day Adventist Church just up the hill on Gregory Lane, where founding families taught Sunday school in any corner they could find, including the girls' bathroom on one memorable Sunday.
Parishioners themselves built the redwood sanctuary. They bent rebar, set purlins, and rolled the roof. One parishioner, Charlie Petrie, walked the full length of the top purlin at the highest point of the unfinished building. The first services in the new building were held on April 19, 1962, with communion celebrated on saw horses and a door standing in for an altar. The mission became a parish on March 16, 1967, and the parish marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2009 with a Reminiscing about Resurrection project that gathered stories from members, former members, and clergy across the decades. A second building, the Parish Hall, was completed in 2003, and an outdoor labyrinth was added in 2015 along the Kahrs Avenue side of the campus.
Three rectors have shaped the parish. The Rev. Richard Shackell, who served from 1959 until long after the mission became a parish, established the strong lay-driven culture that still defines Resurrection. The Rev. Bruce Smith served from 1987 to 2018. The current rector, the Rev. Liz Tichenor, was called to the parish in 2019 from All Souls, Berkeley, where she had served as associate rector since 2014.
Worship Rooted in the Book of Common Prayer
Worship at Resurrection draws on the Book of Common Prayer and other worship resources from around the Anglican Communion. The pattern is liturgical and follows the seasons of the church year, so a visitor who has been to a Roman Catholic or Lutheran service will find much that is familiar. A service leaflet carries everything needed; the parts spoken by the congregation are printed in bold, and ritual is treated as a way to enter into worship with the whole body rather than just the mind.
Two Sunday services are offered. At 8:00 AM, a spoken Eucharist includes sermon and communion without music and runs about 50 minutes, followed by coffee hour in the Parish Hall kitchen. At 10:15 AM, the principal service includes sermon, communion, and a full music program; it runs about an hour and fifteen minutes, with coffee hour afterward on the patio. The 10:15 service is also livestreamed on the parish's Facebook page, and recordings of recent sermons are available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the parish's own page.
On Wednesdays at 11:00 AM, an intimate Eucharist takes place in the sanctuary. Whoever comes that day shares in the readings, leads the prayers, and joins in conversation in place of a sermon. The 8:00 and 10:15 Sunday services include Holy Eucharist, with communion offered to all who seek God. Wheat bread and gluten-free bread are both available, and both wine and non-alcoholic grape juice are served.
Children in preschool through fifth grade attend Sunday school in the Plaza Room of the Parish Hall during the first half of the 10:15 service, then rejoin their families in the sanctuary during the Peace for the rest of the liturgy. The parish notes that children are absolutely welcome to stay in the sanctuary for the entirety of the service, and some families choose to spend the whole service together this way. Ushers are happy to rearrange the armless chairs in the sanctuary for anyone who needs more space, and the sanctuary is fitted with a hearing loop for those who use a T-coil-equipped hearing aid; headsets are available near the main glass doors for those who do not.
Music That Leads the 10:15
The choir, directed by music director Jamie Apgar, leads the singing at the 10:15 service and at special occasions from September through June. Rehearsals are held on Thursday evenings at 7:00 PM in the sanctuary, with a warm-up on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM. All voices are welcome to join; the only requirement is a love of singing and a willingness to learn.
The music program is enriched most Sundays by other musicians - guitar, saxophone, clarinet, trombone, violin, bass, percussion - and children and teenagers are an integral part of the music ministry week by week. Kids and teenagers who play instruments are invited to come and play. The music team has also included a banjo player for special occasions. Communion bread for the services is also baked by parishioners; a regular crew of bakers, working from recipes supplied by the parish, prepares the bread that is blessed at the altar. Both an original recipe and a honey recipe are used, and copies are shared so newcomers can join in.
Children, Tweens, and Teens
Children are a central part of parish life at Resurrection. Children's formation at the parish draws on the Godly Play curriculum and works to meet each child at their developmental level. During the school year, children in preschool through fifth grade attend Sunday school during the first half of the 10:15 service, with volunteer teaching assistants rotating weekly. A children's area at the front left of the sanctuary - called the Soft Space - offers scribble sheets, coloring supplies, and activities keyed to the liturgical seasons and the seasons of creation. The materials are cleaned weekly by a team of volunteers.
A nursery room is available during Sunday services, and parents are welcome to sit with their little ones in the sanctuary or use the nursery for a quieter space. The parish notes that there is no staff supervision in the nursery, so an adult must be present.
For older youth, the Tweens and Teens program gathers middle schoolers and high schoolers for ongoing activities that include social events, service projects with other Episcopal youth in the area, and, most years, a week-long summer immersion service trip. Shannon Eng, the parish's youth minister, leads the youth group, meeting on the first and third Sundays of each month. Sunday school teachers, youth ministry volunteers, and anyone who works with children at Resurrection are required to take the Diocese of California's Whole and Healthy Church online training, complete a background check, and abide by the parish's Safe Church policies. At least two adults are always present with any group of kids, with a 1:5 adult-to-youth ratio maintained.
Every fall, the parish celebrates the Blessing of the Backpacks, marking the new school year for students and educators, and pets are welcomed for the annual Blessing of the Animals in early October.
Adult Formation on Sunday Mornings
The Sunday Morning Education Hour meets most weeks from 9:00 to 10:00 AM in the Parish Hall, between the two Sunday services. Recent series have included The Book of Genesis, centering on the readings heard during worship, and a summer series on spiritual practices - Centering Prayer, walking the labyrinth, praying with Anglican beads, spiritual direction, healing ministry, and spiritual readings - led by laity and clergy alike.
Other adult formation offerings include the parish's Digital Spirituality page, which gathers links to the lectionary readings, daily meditation resources like Pray-As-You-Go, the Daily Office of the Episcopal Church, and a list of local seminaries where parishioners can take classes: the Graduate Theological Union, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and Pacific School of Religion.
Each fall, women from across the congregation gather at the Bishop's Ranch in Healdsburg for the annual Women's Retreat. The weekend begins with a Friday evening potluck and includes plenty of free time to rest, walk, read, or play. Sacred Ground, an 11-part film-and-readings-based small group discussion series on the intersection of race and faith, was developed by the wider Episcopal Church as part of its Becoming Beloved Community initiative; new groups form at the parish when there is enough interest.
An Outdoor Labyrinth, an Orchard, and a Vineyard
The parish's sacred space is as much outdoors as in. The outdoor labyrinth, completed in 2015 along the Kahrs Avenue side of the campus, is open to all who wish to walk it. The labyrinth is not a maze but a unicursal path - one winding but well-defined route leading to the center and back out again - and the parish describes it as a tool for meditation and prayer that has roots in nearly every spiritual tradition. The oldest surviving labyrinth dates to approximately 2500 to 2000 BC; the labyrinth entered Christian spirituality during the Middle Ages and is believed to have provided a pilgrimage experience for those unable to make the dangerous and expensive trip to Jerusalem.
Walkers at Resurrection are invited to follow the three-fold path of Releasing on the way in, Receiving at the center, and Returning on the way out, though the parish emphasizes that there is no right or wrong way to walk. The labyrinth's design, with its winding but purposeful pathway to the center, has served as a metaphor for the spiritual journey for centuries.
Just beyond the labyrinth, an orchard of forty-some fruit trees was planted by teenagers more than thirty years ago as an Eagle Scout project. Today the trees - Washington Navel, Satsuma and Valencia oranges, lemons, grapefruit, apples, and figs - are pruned and watered year-round by a volunteer team, and each year around the end of January the fruit is harvested and donated to the Contra Costa Food Bank. As much as one to two tons of fruit is produced in a season. The intergenerational harvest crew has been known to include children under five and elders in their nineties.
Next to the orchard, the parish tends a young vineyard whose grapes are crushed and made into wine for communion. In 2021, the vineyard yielded more than a thousand pounds of grapes, and the wine it produces is blessed and shared at the altar on Sundays.
Healing Prayer and Stephen Ministry
A trained Healing Prayer Team offers prayers at the Healing Station by the Tree of Life mosaic during Sunday services, with two team members available during communion at both the 8:00 and 10:15 services. The team was commissioned by the parish and is described as channels of God's healing love - for body, mind, and spirit. Prayers may be for physical healing, broken relationships, broken promises, broken systems, or a broken spirit, and the parish emphasizes that particulars are not necessary unless the visitor wishes to share them. All exchanges are confidential, and those who come for prayer may return as often as they wish.
Stephen Ministry, launched at Resurrection in 2024, is a lay caregiving program in which trained Stephen Ministers provide one-on-one spiritual companionship - an hour each week, typically - for people experiencing grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, or relocation. The program is not therapy but a kind of spiritual companionship through a difficult time, and matches are made through the parish's Stephen Leaders. The program has been running in more than 13,000 congregations since 1975.
Two Weeks of Winter Nights Each Year
The Service to Others Team coordinates much of the parish's outreach into the wider Contra Costa community. Winter Nights, a seasonal family shelter program, runs from October to mid-June each year at a rotating roster of congregations in Central and East Contra Costa. Church of the Resurrection hosts Winter Nights for two consecutive weeks each year, usually in late fall. Volunteers cook meals, offer tutoring and activities for the children, and provide comfort and support for the parents.
Just across Gregory Lane, the parish partners closely with the Hillcrest Food Room and Clothing Room, the neighborhood food pantry and clothing closet. Throughout the year the parish hosts food drives for Hillcrest, gathers Christmas presents for local families through the Angel Tree program, supplies school supplies for underserved children through Christmas in July, and grows and harvests fruit for the Contra Costa Food Bank from the orchard.
Each fall, the parish hosts Party with a Purpose - an evening of live music, good food, and a silent auction on the plaza that raises funds for organizations working to end homelessness in the community. Recent beneficiaries have included Hope Solutions, a local nonprofit that helps families move into stable housing, and the Hillcrest Food Pantry. The parish also supports the Contra Costa Interfaith Coalition through seasonal drives of household items and food.
The parish sponsors Scout Troop 405, a family scout troop that has met at the church since the 1960s. The troop gathers on Monday evenings at 7:30 PM. And the parish hosts 12 Step recovery groups in its buildings: Alcoholics Anonymous meets on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM in the Parish Hall, with a speaker meeting on the third Saturday of each month at 8:00 PM in the Sanctuary.
Center of Gravity, a local STEM-based school offering preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten, shares the campus. The parish's preschool building once housed Peter Pan Preschool, which was sponsored by Resurrection for many years.
An Explicitly Welcoming Parish
The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection is an explicitly welcoming congregation. The parish states its belief that God loves you - no exceptions - and the sacrament of marriage, along with all other sacraments, is offered to all couples of any genders. People of all genders serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in the Episcopal Church, and laypeople and clergy collaborate as leaders at every level of parish life. The parish belongs to the Diocese of California, which has helped to blaze the trail for women's and LGBTQ leadership in the wider church.
An LGBTQ Fellowship Group, for LGBTQ members, family, friends, and allies, meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, sometimes at the church and sometimes at a restaurant. The group provides fellowship, support, discussion, and spiritual growth. The parish also participates annually in the Clayton Pride Parade and other area Pride events.
Small Groups, Books, and an Annual Retreat
For the past three years, the parish has offered a new set of small groups each fall as a way for members to deepen their spiritual lives in community. Recent cohorts have explored Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, walking the labyrinth, and other practices.
The Spirited Book Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM at the church to discuss a shared book chosen in advance by the group. Books with a spiritual thread have ranged from Marcus Borg's Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time to Mariann Edgar Budde's How We Learn to Be Brave. The Night Lake, a memoir by the parish's own rector, the Rev. Liz Tichenor, was a recent selection, with the author present for the discussion. Books need not be finished to attend.
The Men's Group, restarted in 2024 after a pandemic hiatus, gathers on the second Tuesday of each month in the Parish Hall, with a light meal at 6:30 PM and discussion beginning at 7:00 PM. The group is open to all who are over sixteen years of age and includes men from across the parish and beyond. The group also organizes and serves the parish's annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper.
A Caregivers Support Group meets by Zoom every other Monday evening for people who are caring for family members or friends. Young Adults, for those ages eighteen to thirty, gather monthly at a local restaurant for fellowship and support. Round Robin Dinners, organized each spring, give parishioners a chance to get to know one another better by sharing a meal once a month for four months in rotating hosts' homes.
The Rector, the Vestry, and the Annual Pledge
The parish is led by the rector, the Rev. Liz Tichenor, with the Rev. Whitney Wilson serving as associate rector and supporting faith formation and pastoral care. The Rev. Martha Kuhlmann and the Rev. Kathy Trapani serve as assisting clergy. Jamie Apgar directs the music program, and Shannon Eng coordinates the youth program.
The Vestry, the parish's twelve-member elected board of directors, sets the vision and direction of the congregation, oversees finances, and supports ministry both inside and outside the parish. Members serve three-year terms, with one-third rotating off each year, and are elected by the congregation at the Annual Meeting each January. The Vestry meets on the second Wednesday evening of most months in the sanctuary, and meetings are open to all church members.
Nearly everything the parish does is made possible by the generous pledges of its members. Giving is offered online through PayPal, with the parish noting that PayPal charges a fee and inviting donors to consider adding three percent so that Resurrection receives the funds intended. A Legacy Fund manages planned giving to the parish, and an annual Stewardship campaign each fall - Belong, Engage, Hope for 2026 - funds the majority of the operating budget.
Resurrection belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of California, one of six deaneries that make up the diocese, and is part of the wider Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Members of Resurrection serve as delegates to the diocesan convention at Grace Cathedral each year and participate in deanery gatherings with neighboring Episcopal congregations across Contra Costa County.
The parish's stated values are inclusion, community, tradition, spiritual formation, transformation, community engagement, and stewardship. Worship is liturgical, drawn from the Book of Common Prayer and other Anglican sources; communion is celebrated at every Sunday service and at the Wednesday Eucharist; baptism is offered four times each year - on the Feast of Our Lord's Baptism in January, at Easter, on the Feast of Pentecost, and on the Feast of All Saints.
The parish's own words capture what newcomers tend to find: We try to take the Gospel's message of unconditional love seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. We're a pretty laid-back bunch - don't worry if your kiddo squirms during the quiet parts of the service, or about what you wear, or if you don't understand the flow of worship just yet. We're grateful that we can come here exactly as we are.