Annual diocesan Juneteenth celebration!

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Andrus, Bishop, Celebrant

The Rt. Rev. Austin Keith Rios, Bishop Co-Adjutor, Preaching 

A reception will follow.

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Juneteenth Celebration!

[Press Release – AAC/UBE] This year on Saturday, June 15th at 11:00 am, the Episcopal Diocese of California will celebrate its third Juneteenth Feast Day, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland. In a rare occurrence, two bishops will be present: The Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Andrus, Bishop, will be the Celebrant and The Rt. Rev. Austin Rios, Bishop Co-adjutor, will be the Preacher.

Everyone is welcome to join in this time of Celebration, Reflection, and Repentance. A reception will follow.

Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, became a federal holiday in 2021. It is celebrated annually on June 19, to commemorate the day in 1865, when, almost two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to free the more than 250,000 people then still enslaved in Texas. The Civil War had ended two months earlier, in April 1865.

“It’s an important holiday,” says the Rev. Dr. Mauricio Wilson, rector of St. Paul’s in Oakland and chair of the Diocese of California’s Afro-Anglican Commission. “Things didn’t just magically change on June 19 of that year when the news got to the then-enslaved people in Texas, but when you look back in history, it marks an important date for all of us.”

Juneteenth celebrations are a time when people of all races, nationalities and religions join inacknowledging this important part of our shared history.

The service is sponsored by the Afro-Anglican Commission of the Diocese and the Northern California Vivian Traylor Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians.

With St. Paul’s Choir. Benjamin Bachmann, MMusic, FAGO, Director of Music.

Metered street parking is available and also paid parking is available at Children’s Fairyland at Grand and Bellevue Avenues.

Live stream will also be available at the following: t.ly/DioCalLivestream