Saint Giles Episcopal Church
church in Moraga, California
Saint Giles Episcopal Church was an Episcopal parish located in Moraga, California, United States, and part of the Episcopal Diocese of California. The community worshiped in the chapel at Saint Mary's College of California. Saint Giles closed permanently in 2017.
History
In June 1961, the Right Reverend G. Richard Millard, then suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, met with a group of Episcopalians to form a in Orinda, California. Bishop James Pike, the fifth bishop of Episcopal Diocese of California, recommended the name St. Giles for the community because "it was more Anglican and sufficiently distinctive so that no one would think the mission was anything but an Episcopal church". On June 8, 1961, the papers were signed and St. Giles' Mission was born. A vicarage was then built on the newly purchased land.
A church building, however, was never built on that property, giving rise to St.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Saint Giles Episcopal Church” is church in Moraga, California. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Saint, Giles and Episcopal, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “church in Moraga, California” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7401322. Authority coordinates are 37.841, -122.109. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017 and 1961.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Saint Giles Episcopal Church” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.