Saint John's is a church who's clergy, teaching, and governance are overseen by a bishop. If that language sounds Roman Catholic or unfamiliar to you, the word bishop simply means overseer. In the earliest days of the church, the apostles acted as overseers of the churches, guaranteeing that they were properly passing on the traditions and teachings about Jesus and engaging in orderly worship and community life. This is what you see Paul, Peter, James, and John doing in their epistles in the New Testament. And when 

Since those days, the role of the bishop has changed somewhat (for one, their letters aren't considered infallible Scripture!), but the core of their role is essentially the same. They pastor churches and oversee the pastors of a number of churches in a given geographical area, called a diocese. 

St. John's is part of the diocese, Churches For the Sake of Others (C4SO), and our bishop is Todd Hunter. You can read some of Bishop Todd's story here, excerpted from the C4SO website and Wikipedia. Like many ministers and laypeople in our diocese, Bishop Todd came from outside of Anglicanism.

About Bishop Todd

"The Rt. Rev. Dr. Todd Hunter is the founding bishop of The Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others and founding pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Costa Mesa, CA. He is past President of Alpha USA, former National Director for the Association of Vineyard Churches and author of Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others, Giving Church Another Chance, The Outsider Interviews, The Accidental Anglican and Our Favorite Sins."

"Prior to being received into Anglicanism in 2009, [Bishop Todd] was a leader in the charismatic Vineyard movement. He has also been affiliated with a number of evangelical movements and organizations during his career, including the Jesus Movement, Calvary Chapel, and Alpha. [He] was hired by John Wimber in 1987 as a pastor at Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship and to help start the Association of Vineyard Churches. [He worked for many years overseeing churches in the Vineyard], and after Wimber's death in 1997, served for four years as president of the Vineyard. From 2004 to 2008, he was executive director of Alpha USA, the U.S.-based affiliate of the Alpha course, developed by Anglican vicar Nicky Gumbel in London. 

"During his years with Alpha, [Bishop Todd] was influenced by John R. W. Stott, J. I. Packer, and Sandy Millar to consider Anglicanism, and he launched C4SO as the West Coast church-planting initiative of the Anglican Mission in the Americas. In 2009, in recognition of his role as an overseer of churches in the West, [he] was consecrated as a bishop. [He now leads] Churches for the Sake of Others, a Diocese of the Anglican Church in North America, [which] seeks to announce, embody and demonstrate the Kingdom of God."