The area which makes up the Diocese stretches from Sun City to the Mexican border, from the Pacific Ocean to Yuma, Arizona.

[6] After Episcopal bishop William Ingraham Kip, a New Englander, was shipwrecked with his wife off the coast of Point Loma, he celebrated his first Eucharist in California at the courthouse in Old Town on Sunday, January 22, 1854.

Robert Wolterstorff, formerly rector of St. James by-the-Sea in La Jolla, was consecrated as the first bishop of the Diocese of San Diego in 1974, ending his tenure in 1982.

[8] The Episcopal Church provides "wide pastoral latitude" to individual bishops on the subject of blessing same sex couples.

[9] In 2010, Mathes approved a policy by which individual parishes could, after a self study period, choose to recognize LGBT couples in a blessing service.