Pictured with Bishop John Harvey Taylor and other clergy are new ordinands (front row, from left) Michael Michler (sponsored by St. James, South Pasadena, and serving at St. Mark’s, Altadena), Karen James (presented by and serving at Epiphany, Agoura Hills) Margaret Stivers (presented by St. Richard’s, Lake Arrowhead, and serving at St. Stephen’s, Beaumont), and Hart Roussel (presented by St. Andrew’s, Fullerton, and serving there and at Emmanuel, Fullerton). Episcopal News photo.
At a time “when we need a lot of priests,” Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor ordained four new ones Jan. 11 at St. John’s Cathedral before a cheering congregation, including many who had lost homes and their church in recent Southern California fires.
“We, each of us, are in the midst of an Isaiah experience, with our houses filled with smoke,” said Taylor, preaching about the prophet’s vision of God’s temple (Isaiah 6:1-8). The Rev. Michael Mischler, among those ordained, serves as Christian education director at St. Mark’s Altadena, which was destroyed along with a school building in the Eaton Fire. At least 37 homes of church members have also been lost, Taylor told the gathering.
Also ordained among the “amazing Gospel Quartet” were the Rev. Karen James (Epiphany, Oak Park); Hart Roussel (St. Andrew’s, Fullerton, and Emmanuel, Fullerton); and Margaret Stivers (St. Richard of Chichester, Lake Arrowhead).
The Washington Post reported at least 24 have died with dozens more missing after multiple blazes began Jan. 7, scorching over 40,000 acres and forcing more than 150,000 to evacuate, and causing widespread power outages. High winds forecasted for this week are expected to complicate efforts to contain the fires.
In addition to St. Mark’s losses in Altadena, a school building at St. Matthew’s Church in Pacific Palisades was also destroyed. Taylor estimated at least 200 individuals or families within the diocesan community have lost homes. “There is so much loss and suffering in this congregation this morning, so much agony in our community at large,” he said.
Yet, “We are conscious, nevertheless, of the presence of the majesty of God. Our shared faith is why we’re here this morning,” Taylor told the gathering.
The four new priests ordained Jan. 11, (from left to right): the Rev. Margaret Stivers, the Rev. Michael Mischler, the Rev. Karen James, and the Rev. Hart Roussel. Episcopal News photo.
He noted that the four are “devoted, deeply experienced ministers who share the precious gift of knowing how to reveal and restore the story of our faith to an unbelieving but spiritually famished generation,” whose gifts are greatly needed, especially now.
“Please remember that one of the reasons the church appoints this Isaiah reading for ordination services is to transmit the essentially subversive message that we won’t need to set priests apart anymore, once all the baptized embrace their particular prophetic and priestly ministry,” he said.
“It is the destiny of the baptized. Once we all feel the presence of God, lay our fears and doubts on the altar and say, ‘Here am I. Send me.’ Because this is a time in the life of our nation and world when we’re going to need a lot of Episcopal priests, both ordained and lay.”
He added: “The simple values we share, love and mercy, are the values at the heart of Christ’s church. And, if our church is shrinking, so too is shrinking our national heart. Our civic vocabulary once at least paid lip service to decency and the common good, but our politics isn’t rewarding compassion and love anymore.”
Taylor offered to postpone Mischler’s ordination because of the tragic destruction of St. Mark’s, but the community soundly rejected the offer in favor of celebration, Taylor said earlier in the week.
The Very Rev. Anne Sawyer, St. John’s interim dean and priest-in-charge, said she’d offered the cathedral’s banner to St. Mark’s for use during the church procession, since theirs was presumably destroyed. But Mischler said, “St. Mark’s has a banner,” which his daughter and son helped to create using poster board, markers, and plastic pipe.
Bishop John Harvey Taylor blesses the new banner of St. Mark’s, Altadena, surrounded by parishioners and clergy. Episcopal News photo.
As Taylor prepared to bless the new banner, he invited members of St. Mark’s to join him and the parish clergy by the banner. He received a resounding “Yes!” and some 40 parishioners of St. Mark’s made their way to the altar platform amid sustained applause and standing ovations.
“The liturgy that we participate in this morning promises that all things being cast down will be made new, but it is too early for people in grief to be reassured about the certainty of resurrection,” Taylor said. “Good Friday will be here for a while. At St. Mark’s, what’s important is that these people, by your grace and by virtue of their courage, are together at the foot of the cross. Together, with one another, of one mind and heart, caring for one another, loving one another, giving thanks for all who are safe and grieving all that is lost.
“But, as a gift to You, a sacred offering to You, the people of St. Mark’s have already fashioned this brand new banner, which in your name, in thanksgiving for them and in thanksgiving for all that you will do for them by Your mercy, we bless.”