My scrapbook from this morning’s consecration and ordination at St. John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles of the Revs. Karen James, Michael Mischler, Hart Roussel, and Margaret Stīvers, four experienced ministers with a particular heart for teaching, now a gospel quartet of priests who are well prepared to roll up their sleeves in the teeth of crisis and loss.
It was a tender day because of the presence of a large cohort from Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Altadena, whose historic church building was lost early Wednesday in the Eaton fire. The homes of 37 individuals and families also burned. Before the service, one member told me good-naturedly that I could tell who still had their home by their wardrobe choices. Another, sitting with his grandson, told me of a harrowing early-morning evacuation from his home in a convalescent facility, also now lost.
Michael and his family are longtime members of St. Mark’s, where he serves as director of Christian formation. It was moving to watch him serve communion to one of his children. All was lost in the fire, from parish registers to the banner used during ordination processions. So the parish’s young people fashioned a replacement. Censing and blessing the banner and the St. Mark’s cohort were among my privileges at the service, along with preaching and presiding as the Holy Spirit did her consecrating work with these four splendid new priests.
The hardest working diocesan treasurer in show business, Canon Andy Tomat, who now lives in the Pasadena, was back among his The Church of the Epiphany peeps, supporting Karen, a longtime TCOE member and educator. In the photos you’ll see Karen posing with Epiphany’s past and current vicars, the Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, who was our celebrant today, and the Rev. Jamie Barnett.