Diocesan Council meets via Zoom on Jan. 11. (Not all those in attendance are pictured.) Photo: Screenshot
[The Episcopal News] – The reconstitution of Sacred Resistance, the diocesan task force to support immigrants and undocumented workers; empowerment of local and youth ministry; and a diocesan “rest of convention” recap figured prominently at the Dec. 12 meeting of Diocesan Council, via Zoom.
The diocese, along with CLUE, or Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, co-hosted a Dec. 8 gathering of some 105 interfaith and ecumenical leaders at St. Paul’s Commons, “and we heard about the immigrant worker experience,” given current rhetoric about mass deportations, Bishop John Harvey Taylor reported.
“I think we’re especially mindful in our diocese that 40% of our state’s hospitality workers are undocumented,” he said. “An estimated 45% of U.S. agricultural workers, those who basically provide the bounty for our holiday tables, are undocumented.” Taylor said that with immigrant workers and their families again under threat, the church has a responsibility to stand with and advocate for its neighbors.
Finance
Financially, the diocese continued to operate at break-even through October 2024, with Mission Share Fund receipts averaging only 3.5% under plan, “so we are optimistic heading into year-end when most churches catch up,” diocesan Treasurer Canon Andy Tomat reported.
“The grant-funded ministries of IRIS and Seeds of Hope continue to operate on a break-even basis, while a Center for Lay Chaplaincy deficit continues to grow as anticipated, since its funding has ended. The only fiscal issue of concern is that our available unrestricted free cash dipped below under $400,000 for a variety of reasons. The Corporation of the Diocese is addressing the causes,” he said.
Other Business
Representatives of the Corporation of the Diocese and the Standing Committee reported approval of a property transfer for St. Mary’s, Mariposa (Los Angeles), to receive land back that had been deeded elsewhere. License agreements were also approved for church property rentals for: the Church of the Epiphany, Oak Park; St. George’s, Laguna Hills; and St. John’s, Costa Mesa.
Additionally, a solar installation agreement was approved for St. Andrew’s, Irvine, and the church’s status change from mission to parish, approved by the Nov. 8-9 diocesan convention was addressed. “We officially approved their property transfer back to them out of the diocesan name,” the Rev. Rachel Nyback reported.
The Standing Committee also approved the Jan. 11, 2025, ordinations to the priesthood of: Karen Dawn James; Hart Thomas Roussel; Margaret Garrison Stivers and Michael John Mischler, according to the Rev. Lester Mackenzie, president.
Christine Budzowski, president of the diocesan Daughters of the King, reported 2025 will be “the follow-up” year as efforts to boost United Thank Offering participation and membership in DOK and the Episcopal Church Women among local congregations continues. The groups are reaching out to Spanish-speaking congregations and the ECW-Los Angeles website is being updated to include both Spanish and English.
The Rev. Tim Hartley reported that the Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change has established a special liaison subcommittee to connect the commission and local congregations. Efforts are also underway to secure an Environmental Protection Agency grant for “Resilience in Riverside”, designed to create resiliency hubs at St. Michael’s Ministry Center, and St. George’s and All Saints churches in Riverside. The hubs would improve local food security, help educate the workforce, and offer cooling centers, among other things.
Diocesan Convention: Secretary of Convention Canon Steve Nishibayashi reported that the Nov. 7-8, 2025, 130th annual meeting of convention will be held in Riverside and will include election of the next diocesan bishop, plus deputies to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, to be held July 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Convention coordinator Samantha Wylie reported about “the rest of convention” 2024, noting such unaddressed agenda items as video about local chaplaincies and ministries, as well as Canon to the Ordinary Melissa McCarthy’s address, which McCarthy said she opted to eliminate, in the interest of time, from the agenda in Riverside. In her address, she noted that post-election, the convention theme, “Inside Out Church: Episcopal Identity in our Neighborhoods” … “became much more urgent. It now feels like an act of resistance.
“Because being a church “inside out” might mean providing sanctuary for individuals threatened with deportation,” McCarthy said. “It might mean actively seeking out LGBTQ+ families so that they know they are loved and valued, that there is a place for them. It might look like standing up for the basic human rights of our trans siblings who have been the object of so much hate. There are many possible scenarios – many ways the next four years could go – and we need to be ready.”
McCarthy’s address may be read here.
Wylie also highlighted convention’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination, including keynote speaker the Rev. Carter Heyward, one of the Philadelphia Eleven. The videos, detailing such local ministries as Seeds of Hope, the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, Camp Stevens, Seeds of Hope and the Neighborhood Youth Association, may be viewed on the Diocesan Youtube channel, here.
Bishop Taylor: ‘All ministry is local’
Taylor, who attended a Dec. 4 House of Bishops meeting in Minneapolis, said Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe hinted about a restructured focus, including that “the purpose of The Episcopal Churches, staff and officers and bodies is to support dioceses, both with moral support and advice.”
There may also be opportunities for additional revenues to dioceses from church-wide coffers, “because he acknowledges and believes that our ministry all starts locally, and the best ideas come locally,” Taylor said. “He’d like to make sure that everybody knows more about the good work that’s being done at other dioceses and that the dioceses all feel they’re being supported.
“Since leadership is a matter of example, it’s probably an implicit message to diocesan bishops’ staffs, diocesan councils, standing committees, corporations to the diocese, that actually our work is to empower the work of missions, congregation and other diocesan organization,” he said.
“So what I’m learning from Bishop Rowe is that I’m actually here to empower you and the people you represent as council members, because, once again, all ministry is local.”
In other updates, Taylor underscored the reprise of Sacred Resistance, “an organization that sprang into action in the wake of the 2016 election … providing support and encouragement for immigrant workers and their families, those who might be at risk.” Diocesan Sacred Resistance leaders include: The Rev. Greg Kimura, rector of St. James, South Pasadena; the Rev. Susan Russell, diocesan canon for engagement across difference; the Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton, rector of St. Stephen’s, Hollywood and vicar of St. Barnabas, Eagle Rock.
He invited the diocesan community to attend and to support the annual Martin Luther King Jr., celebration, planned for 3 p.m., Sunday, January 19, at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Los Angeles, hosted by the H. Bel Hannibal chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians and the diocesan Program Group on Black Ministries.
Canon for Common Life Bob Williams, who also serves as president of the board of trustees of Neighborhood Youth Association, reported that the youth empowerment outreach agency, will relocate from its current Venice site to St. Bede’s Church in Mar Vista on L.A.’s Westside. The move, set for January, represents significant cost savings to the organization, a diocesan institution established in 1906 and specializing in 100% college placement for under-resourced, often first-generation students.
Council next meets via Zoom at 4 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025.