The parish has ministered in Manhattan ever since the Rev. Lot Jones founded a church on January 6, 1833, on Stanton Street when that part of the city was "densely populated and badly under-served," according to the parish's website. The parish is not far from the historic Five Points area recently featured in Martin Scorsese's 2002 film "The Gangs of New York."

Epiphany is believed to have been the first Episcopal Church in the city to have no pew rental: all seats were free to all comers. "This is normal today, but was quite progressive in the 1830s," the parish website says. "Renting choice pews to those who could afford them provided needed funds for a church, but also separated haves from have-nots on Sunday mornings; an effect Fr. Jones found unacceptable."

Epiphany moved uptown over the years, following its congregation, as has been typical of many New York churches. Since 1938 it has been located in what the parish's website calls "the heart of the medical and scientific community of the Upper East Side."

Epiphany's celebration began on January 6 and has been a "prayerful pilgrimage through our history, climaxing in the prayers for our present and future ministries," according to its website. The celebration has featured Sunday services from the 1789, 1892, and 1928 Books of Common Prayer, and guest preachers, in addition Jefferts Schori, including the Very Rev. Ernest E. Hunt, III, rector emeritus, and the Rev. Canon Constance Coles, the first woman ordained a priest at The Church of the Epiphany.