Music and the Anglo-Catholic Tradition

Jim Dawson, Director of Music and Choir Director

Music has always been an important part of liturgies of the Anglican Communion.  Rooted in the great tradition of the English Church, All Saints' Church has a long tradition of providing great church music in San Francisco.  The Church is blessed to have a superb mechanical action baroque organ built expressly for the warm environment of All Saints' Episcopal Church.   In the Anglo-Catholic tradition music takes on a even greater role than in other Anglican Traditions with its more extensive use of chant and other music to bring alive the traditions that go to beginnings of the Christian Church.

Jim Dawson has a distinguished career in both music and education. Currently, he works at Stanford University in the Office of Development as Associate Director of The Stanford Fund. As a musician he comes to All Saints from Westminster Presbyterian Church in San Jose where he served as interim organist and choir director.

Jim lived in Japan from 1995-2001, during which time he was associate Professor and Director of Chapel Music at St. Paul’s (Rikkyo University) Tokyo, where he revived the university’s moribund music program dramatically raised the standards of music performance and education. He also founded that university’s the Institute of Church Music and was Lecturer on organ music at the Ferris Women’s University in Yokohama.

Jim has also served as acting university organist at Stanford and as a musician at at Trinity Cathedral in San Jose, Church of the Advent in Boston, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Lakewood, Ohio and Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio.

His background is expected to enhance the depth and range of musical styles that are an integral part of All Saints’ Anglo-Catholic traditions.

The Organ at All Saints' Episcopal Church 

 In 1989, All Saints Church completed a revitalization of its unique redwood sanctuary, that one architect called the "place with dancing beams."  The capstone of that restoration was the installation of a baroque style organ that fits All Saints' Episcopal Church's unique liturgical setting.  Built by M.L. Bigelow & Co., Inc., All Saints' organ is considered one of the best mechanical-action organs in the Bay Area.  It's acclaim in the San Francisco Bay Area, has brought the finest musicians in concert.  The organ is dedicated to the memory of Rev. Leon P. Harris, Rector of All Saints' from 1949 to 1971.  Rev. Harris is one of San Francisco's most colorful historic figures, and it was he that enshrined the Anglo-Catholic tradition for the Church.  

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