On Sutterville Road in south Sacramento, across the street from Sacramento City College, All Saints Episcopal Church has gathered for worship since the early days of the Second World War. The parish traces its roots to a Depression-era mission organized in 1940, and today it is known across the region for its Episcopal and Anglican liturgy, its 3,000-pipe organ (the second-largest in Sacramento), and a warm welcome that extends to people of every background, identity, and stage of life.
A Parish Born in the Depression
All Saints began in 1939, when the Episcopal bishop proposed merging Sacramento's oldest parish, St. Paul's, with Trinity Pro-Cathedral into a single organization. The plan unsettled longtime members who treasured the close ties of pastor and parish. Instead, a group advanced a different idea: build a brand-new church outside the city limits on Sutterville Road, where the lots were empty and a two-year-old junior college stood across the street.
The All Saints Memorial Episcopal Mission was organized by letter to the bishop on March 12, 1940. Two days later, a Mission Committee (the equivalent of today's vestry) came together. Under the leadership of Father Hermitage, members secured pledges from city residents that covered the full cost of construction. Three lots were purchased, and on September 22, 1940, the cornerstone was laid with an appropriate service. The building was finished on January 1, 1941, at a cost of $11,640. By March 1942, the mission had grown enough to be accepted by the bishop as a full parish, all in less than two years.
The 1950s brought a parish hall that was soon expanded, and the building became a social center for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, men's clubs, and a hardworking women's group that raised money for the church. Through the decades that followed, the parish has stayed true to what it calls its slightly mischievous spirit, responding to the needs of the community around it.
Sundays at Eight and Ten
Sunday is at the center of life at All Saints, and the parish keeps two Eucharistic services on Sunday morning.
The 8:00 a.m. service is the quiet option. Lasting about 45 to 55 minutes, it centers the Holy Eucharist without music and is suited to those who prefer a more contemplative hour. The 10:00 a.m. service adds congregational and choral singing, accompanied by the church's pipe organ, and runs between one hour and an hour and a half. Both services use the Book of Common Prayer, and both are followed by coffee hour in the parish hall.
The 10:00 a.m. liturgy typically features five traditional hymns, sung by the choir and congregation. On major feasts such as Christmas, Easter, and All Saints Day, the choir is expanded and incense may be used. Music is drawn primarily from The Hymnal 1982, the standard Episcopal hymnal, and the program leans into what Organist-Choirmaster Scott Nelson calls the traditional English Cathedral repertoire style.
The congregation at All Saints is intentionally intergenerational. Members describe themselves as children and parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, married and single, gay and straight, coming from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and finding common purpose in following Christ together.
The Organ in the Smallest Space in Town
The pipe organ at All Saints is the parish's pride. It was assembled by Scott Nelson, who has served as the church's organist-choirmaster, using pre-owned and refurbished components. The console, chests, and reservoirs came from the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas, from an Aeolian-Skinner organ of the 1960s, then considered the Cadillac of American organ builders. The solid-state relay was built by Peterson Electro-Musical Products. The aluminum speaking facade pipes were built by the Matters Company, with casework from a local Sacramento firm. Pipework was drawn from distinguished builders including Aeolian, Moller, Reuter, Schantz, Whalley, and Welte in the United States and Stinkens, Gieseke, Laukoff, and Bosch in Europe.
The instrument has three manuals and 58 ranks, with a little over 3,000 pipes, making it the second-largest pipe organ in Sacramento. Its tonal design leans on the French and English Romantic schools. To accommodate the music program, the church was renovated in the early 1990s with hard surfaces and ceramic tile throughout the nave and chancel, and the organ and choir were placed front and center for the best sound and sight lines. The congregation likes to say they have the largest organ in the smallest space in town.
In addition to leading worship, Nelson oversees a Concert Series that brings Evensong, vocal and instrumental concerts, and other events to the church each year.
Beliefs in the Episcopal Tradition
All Saints holds to the beliefs found in the universal Church's ancient creeds, as well as the doctrine put forth in the Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer.
The parish confesses belief in one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in eternity and united in love. It affirms the goodness of God's creation, including humanity, and the way sin and death entered the world through human self-elevation. It believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified for our sake, resurrected in bodily form, ascended into heaven, and waiting to return on the last day.
The Holy Spirit, poured out at Pentecost, dwells within Christians and empowers the preaching of the Gospel and the practice of good works, guiding and sanctifying the Church. All Saints believes in the catholic or universal Church, expressed in visible form throughout the world but including all who are united to Christ, and in the life everlasting, opened by God's grace to all the saved.
The two great sacraments are Baptism and Holy Communion, also called the Eucharist. In Baptism, the believer is cleansed of sin and buried with Christ to rise with him, becoming a formal member of the Church. In the Eucharist, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the faithful receive the Body and Blood of Christ and are united with his sacrifice by faith.
The parish teaches that Christ's Church is for everyone, and that alongside Baptism and Eucharist, the other sacramental rites, including Anointing, Confirmation, Confession, Marriage, and Ordination, are open to all people, regardless of race, gender, orientation, or ability. All Saints is explicitly LGBTQ-affirming and welcomes gay, straight, trans, and cis people into the full life of the Church, including marriage and ordination. The parish is opposed to racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression that denigrate the image of God.
Clergy and Staff
The Rev. Jana Branson serves as Rector of All Saints. A lifelong Episcopalian, she was ordained to the priesthood in 2018 after many years in mental health as a counselor, case manager, group therapy facilitator, and crisis worker. She earned a Master of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley and served two years as associate rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Auburn, California, before spending four years as rector of Saint David's Episcopal Church in Gales Ferry, Connecticut. She is a member of the Society of Mary and the Daughters of the King, and lives in Sacramento with her husband Eric.
The Rev. Portia Hopkins is Associate Priest. Originally from the Bay Area, she became an Episcopalian about ten years before her 2020 ordination, drawn by the Episcopal Church's liturgy and its commitment to social justice. She spent thirty years as a college professor before answering a call to ordained ministry and holds degrees from San Jose State University, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Scott Nelson, a native of Spokane, Washington, holds a bachelor's degree in music from Whitworth College, where he studied organ with Wayne Kalstrom, and the Master of Music from Kent State University, where he studied organ and improvisation with John Ferguson. He has served as Tenor Lay Clerk in the choir of Men and Boys at Norwich Cathedral in England and has directed music programs at churches in Washington, Ohio, and Texas. He also owns Nelson Pipe Organ Service.
Lachlan Brooks is Parish Administrator, having joined the All Saints staff after a winding journey from an evangelical upbringing in Rhode Island. Norma Boge has managed All Saints' financial records as bookkeeper since 2001.
Fellowship Around the Table
Coffee hour is a deeply important Sunday tradition at All Saints. Both the 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. services are followed by a gathering in the parish hall where parishioners have signed up to be the day's host, bringing snacks and getting the coffee and tea brewing before the service ends. The parish considers these moments of socializing to be vital to its common life.
Group outings to see the Sacramento River Cats, the local triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, are a long-standing tradition. The stadium is only about ten minutes by car or thirty minutes by bus from All Saints, and the group rate on tickets helps.
Special meals punctuate the church year. Thanksgiving potlucks, Shrove Sunday pancake cook-offs, and other brunches and dinners bring the community together. The Annual Spring Event is the parish's main fundraising endeavor, with raffles, a silent auction, and sometimes live music from community talent.
The Belfry, the Food Bags, and the Little Free Library
All Saints looks across Sutterville Road at Sacramento City College and sees its immediate neighborhood. Several ministries reach outward from there.
For many years, All Saints has assembled to-go food bags for unhoused neighbors and anyone else who comes to the doors in need. Parishioners bring non-perishable, individually packaged items up to the altar during the offertory, where they are blessed alongside monetary offerings, and volunteers assemble them into bags that anyone in the building can hand out when someone arrives hungry. Current needs include fruit cups, individually packed crackers and cookies, granola bars, and other snack food, plus cans of ravioli or spaghetti, all non-perishable, separately packaged, and openable without a can opener.
A Little Free Library stands at the corner of Sutterville and 21st, dedicated in memory of the late Greg Seery. It is used by neighborhood residents and by Sacramento City College students across the street, and is replenished and repaired by volunteers.
The Belfry at SCC is a campus ministry program organized by the Rev. Portia Hopkins and Parish Administrator Lachlan Brooks to provide free meals to Sacramento City College students. With All Saints' building directly across from campus, the parish has opened its facilities to host weekly Wednesday lunches from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. during the fall and spring semesters, with occasional larger barbecues. The Belfry is also the local expression of the joint Lutheran-Episcopal campus ministry for UC Davis.
Formation for All Ages
Sunday School is offered during the first half of the 10:00 a.m. service. The parish also provides a bag of activities for young children to use during worship, and noisy children are welcome; the parish sums up its stance with the line Let the little children come to me.
The All Saints Intermittent Book Club meets every few weeks after the 10:00 a.m. service to discuss a chosen book. All members of the congregation are welcome to attend.
Adult education centers on a weekly Bible study. Every Thursday at 10:00 a.m., the parish gathers for a morning prayer service, followed by an open discussion of the upcoming Sunday's Bible readings led by the rector. The group works together to unpack the scripture and consider how to apply it in daily life.
Baptism, Weddings, and Funerals
Baptism is celebrated as the entrance to the Church and the promise of new life, offered to old and young alike. The parish prefers to perform baptisms during regular Sunday worship when possible, though it is flexible about timing. Those interested contact the rector to arrange a date.
Weddings at All Saints are treated as a sacred lifelong vow between two partners of any gender before God and the Church. The parish uses the traditional English-language marriage rites from the Book of Common Prayer but welcomes personal expression. Couples contact the rector to begin planning.
For funerals and memorial services, the parish offers the Burial of the Dead from the Book of Common Prayer, a centuries-old rite of prayer and intercession reflecting on the life of the one who has passed and the promise of new and unending life. The rector works with families through the process of grief and planning.
Practical Details for Visitors
There is no dress code at All Saints. Members come in everything from suits and ties to t-shirts and sweatpants.
The church has a parking lot across 21st Street from the building, right next to Starbucks. Street parking is also available if the lot fills up.
For those coming by transit, the parish is about a half-mile walk from the Sacramento City College light rail stations on the Blue Line. Bus routes 11 and 62 also stop within a block or two of the church on Sundays. The Blue Line runs every half hour early Sunday mornings and every fifteen minutes thereafter; the 62 runs hourly; the 11 runs every 45 minutes.
Children are welcome in worship. Sunday School is offered during the first half of the 10:00 a.m. service, and activity bags are available for younger children. Communion includes bread and wine, with gluten-free wafers available on request. Visitors who prefer not to receive may remain seated or come forward with arms crossed for a blessing. Ushers can also bring communion to those who cannot come to the altar rail.
Services are livestreamed on Facebook, and past services are available on the Sermons page. Giving is accepted in the plate during services and online around the clock.
The parish office is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and can be reached at info@allsaintssacramento.org or (916) 455-0643.