The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is preparing for “a multi-year period of rebuilding and recovery,” and possible climate migration after wildfires destroyed some 15,000 churches, schools, businesses and homes, and killed at least 27, Canon to the Ordinary Melissa McCarthy told a Jan. 30 online gathering of supporters from across The Episcopal Church.
L.A. Bishop John Harvey Taylor opened the meeting with prayer, a pledge for improved disaster preparedness and concerns about rebuilding with “global dynamics in mind. What do we learn from this? How do we rebuild? How do we make the right kind of choices about the houses we build, about the landscaping” to mitigate the danger of climate change-fueled catastrophes and future disasters. A disaster like the recent wildfires was predicted at a Dec. 4, 2024 climate change summit with climate scientist Katharin Hayhoe, hosted by the Diocesan Commission on Climate change and chaired by McCarthy.
“She (Hayhoe) said sooner rather than later there would be a confluence of climate change-enhanced wind gusts and drought conditions and fire, which would cause wildfire to come into the heart of neighborhoods that before has seemed immune from such catastrophe,” Taylor recalled. In the aftermath of the fires, there is a responsibility, “to gather around the embers and … with one another’s fellowship, find out what we can learn and how we can make our earth safer. This is the work we’re being asked to do.”
Both Taylor and McCarthy expressed appreciation for prayers and support from across The Episcopal Church, and for the Rev. Melanie Mullen, The Episcopal Church director of reconciliation, justice and creation care, who facilitated the Jan. 30 online gathering of about 90. They also thanked the church’s disaster relief agency, Episcopal Relief and Development, whose representatives were also on the call, for the organization’s ongoing support.
More than $400,000 has been raised in donations to the diocesan One Body One Spirit Fire Relief Fund from across the church. “We’ve been able to process grant requests and get money into people’s hands as soon as possible,” McCarthy said. “Just the kindness and prayers make all the difference.”
“I’m very grateful for the church, where I fully believe that we can do anything that God has called us to do, as long as we are in good relationship with one another,” said McCarthy. She added: “It’s hard to see communities that you love and care for burn. It’s painful to hear stories about colleagues who evacuated on foot with their two children because it was faster than driving out in their cars. It’s terrifying to hear that the fire department was telling people to run for their lives. The footage that we’ve seen from the Altadena fire is like a blowtorch of massive proportion.”
Taylor noted the disaster’s complexities, including the geographic size and diversity of the diocese, as well as its socioeconomic disparities. “We have an obligation to be present, over the long haul, …. to the populations and the institutions that have been hardest hit” while also maintaining a sense of unity and common purpose in a diocese that spans nearly six Southern and Central California counties, he said.
“The hardest thing sometimes to talk about is socioeconomic difference. And so we’re making sure people understand that their generosity, … is going to help us rectify some of that socioeconomic imbalance. We have determined to get funds to newly unemployed domestic and restaurant workers, as well as to undocumented people who don’t have access or are afraid to access government resources.”
McCarthy agreed. “Los Angeles is going to be our first experience of climate migration, or people who had lived here for decades, who will not be able to continue to live here. They either will not be able to afford to rebuild their homes or will not be able to find a place that they can rent and will move out of the area,” she said.
The Rev. Canon Susan Russell, diocesan canon for engagement, reported that at All Saints Church in Pasadena, where she also serves as a pastoral associate, 72 families lost everything, and a significant number of people are still displaced and unable to return to their homes. When ordered to evacuate, she and her wife “were trying to figure out how to offload three dogs and a barely mobile housemate.”
Russell, along with some 180 community members, congregated at the church, which was not a designated evacuation center, but which quickly became a “loaves and fishes” moment. “We didn’t have cots. We didn’t have water. We didn’t have beds … but we had space, and we had hospitality.” Local cooks and others arrived with food, water, blankets, she said. The church response has since shifted to supporting the displaced in finding more official accommodations, either at an official evacuation center, a relative’s home, or other available options.
The church has leveraged “our privilege of being right across from City Hall, with internet, with meeting space, with the parking to convene meetings to welcome ERD, to welcome our county supervisor,” Russell added. “We did a pro bono legal clinic last week with our chancellor to help people have legal advice. So, it’s been figuring out what we can bring to this moment, to continue to resource the community, while we continue to stay in touch with members of our congregation who still need hope, still need healing. I’ve never been prouder to be an Episcopalian over these last couple weeks. I’ve never been more grateful to be part of All Saints.”
The fire afforded an opportunity to consider churches as “climate resilience centers … being a place where we could acquire resources to share with folks and really start to build community partnerships” and become part of the rebuilding process, said All Saints’ Director of Giving Sarah Nolan, who has served as a member of The Episcopal Church’s Task Force on Creation Care and Environmental Racism.
Rebuilding must have a view to socioeconomic disparities, “to envision a future where people are not just refugees. Climate refugees is something we are seeing, not just across global places, but now it’s across our country,” said Nolan. According to a UCLA study, 61% of Altadena’s Black households were located in the fire perimeter, compared to 50% of nonblack households. About 48% of Black households were destroyed or sustained major damage, compared to 37% of nonblack households.
Payton Hoegh, Spiritual Communities Director for the Center for Spirituality in Nature, said that a confluence of record low precipitation and above-average heat from May to December of 2024 extended the dry winter season to coincide with the arrival of Santa Ana- and hurricane force winds, complicating fire containment and response.
“This is not just a scientific, environmental, social or even political concern,” said Hoegh. “How is God calling us to respond when the world seems broken?”
The compassionate response from across The Episcopal Church is an answer, he said. God’s love is also present in nature, he said, as “an astonishing healing and renewal is already taking place in that charred soil.” Seeds of native plants are adding nutrients to the barren soil, nurturing biodiversity, “the first in what is a divinely ordered ecological succession of healing and resurrection. It’s already beginning to repair what seems lost. It’s setting into motion this restoration, maybe not of what was, but perhaps creatively moving towards what will be.”
In response to a question about how to help, McCarthy noted donations of cash to the diocesan One Body, One Spirit fund are most helpful. All donations are earmarked for fire relief. “Anything you give is helpful,” said McCarthy. Another way is to, “Become a climate activist,” she said. “Figure out how you can get involved in your local area. Figure out how you can advocate for our planet and for humanity, where you are and also with our government. Figure out how you can resist what’s the latest round of executive orders that is going to have a direct impact on the warming of our planet. So that is a big thing you can do, and I hope you will.”