Two months since the wildfires began

Two months after the Los Angeles wildfires, they were fresh on everyone’s minds this morning as interfaith and ecumenical leaders met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park. Co-sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders, the hour-long, off-the-record conversation, which I moderated, also included exchanges between the mayor and topic speakers about homelessness and affordable housing, media misinformation about Israel and Palestine, and immigration justice. Mayor Bass took nearly a dozen questions from the audience as well.

In the early afternoon, it was on to the MonteCedro, an Episcopal Communities & Services residence, where the chaplain, the Rev. Liz Gagnon Piraino, presided and I preached at a house blessing service for residents returning home this week for the first time since being evacuated before dawn on Jan. 8. Our congregation included ECS officials James Rothrock and Sharon K Pewtress as well as board chair Cathy May and her fellow trustees.

The MonteCedro’s survival was seemingly miraculous. The whole block to the east, along Lake Ave., was destroyed. Across the street to the north, wandering in the remains of Altadena Baptist Church, notwithstanding the light drizzle, was Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, taking photos and pausing to meditate.

We stood and chatted. Fuller Seminary- and Oxford-trained, Jamal is a professor of New Testament at Baylor University and directs its Black Church Studies Program. Altadena is his hometown. A former ABC pastor was one of his mentors. He’d heard of the destruction of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church – Altadena CA’s buildings and asked me to extend his condolences to its members. He’s using his spring break to check in on family and see how his old neighborhoods fared. Two months later, the fires are indeed fresh on everyone’s minds — and will be for months and years to come.