All Saints Anglican Cathedral (Long Beach)

All Saints Anglican Cathedral is an Anglican church in Long Beach, California. Founded in 1923 as All Saints Episcopal Church, it left the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in 2004 as part of the Anglican realignment and joined the nascent Anglican Church in North America. In 2017, it was designated as the cathedral of the ACNA Diocese of Western Anglicans.

As Long Beach experienced population growth, All Saints was founded in 1923 as a mission of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Long Beach. The first services of All Saints were held at Horace Mann Elementary School. In 1925, members of the parish purchased a site at Termino Avenue and East Colorado Street in Long Beach's Belmont Heights neighborhood, which is the church's current site. While funds were raised for construction, lay readers held services in a bungalow at the site. The first rector of the parish was the Rev. F. Augustus Martyr, who served from 1928 through 1952. Services in the newly constructed Tudor Revival church began on September 22, 1929. After the Long Beach earthquake of 1933, the building was renovated to make it more seismically sound. Martyr's rectorate also saw the addition of the main altar and reredos. After Martyr's long service, All Saints saw three rectors from 1952 to 1966. The Rev. Donald Behm was elected rector in 1966 and served until 1975. The mid-century period of the church saw the nave expanded to include north and south transepts and the altar placed at a central crossing. As All Saints grew, it became the church home for many of Long Beach's prominent citizens, such as future California Governor George Deukmejian, who was a member throughout his adult life and political career. In 1966, the vestry recommended a young All Saints member, Bill Thompson, as a postulant for ordained ministry. After seminary, Thompson returned to All Saints in 1973 to serve as curate; in 1975, at the age of 28, he was elected to succeed Behm as the church's sixth rector. Thompson served as rector until 2012, seeing the church grow to 400 in membership. During his years as rector, the church added a columbarium and a new preschool space. Under Thompson's leadership, All Saints became one of the most generous parishes in contributing to the Diocese of Los Angeles' Mission Share Fund.

All Saints was also known as a prominent evangelical and theologically conservative congregation in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The divide between the Episcopal Church and All Saints grew in 2003 with the election of Gene Robinson, a partnered gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire. In June 2004, Thompson led a conference of Anglican Communion Network members in southern California seeking alternative primatial oversight. In August 2004, All Saints voted to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and seek episcopal oversight in the Church of Uganda's Diocese of Luwero. Thompson said that the Anglican churches of Africa “have intense passion and a strong commitment to uphold the true message of the Bible.” Joining All Saints was St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach and eventually two other congregations in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno responded by inhibiting Thompson and the other clergy and objecting to Henry Orombi, the primate of the Church of Uganda, that boundary-crossing by bishops "flies in the face of our ethos as Anglicans." In departing the Episcopal Church. All Saints renamed itself All Saints Anglican Church. In September 2004, Bruno and the Diocese of Los Angeles sued the departing congregations to regain control of the property under the Episcopal Church's Dennis Canon. In November 2005, trial court judge David Velazquez ruled that the diocese had no claim on All Saints and another church property; he had already made a similar ruling in th

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