You meet the most amazing people around the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, including the people of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Altadena, now worshiping of a Sunday at St. Barnabas Eagle Rock as they discern the way forward after the destruction of their church and school buildings in the Eaton fire; I dropped in this morning to hear the rector, the Rev. Carri Grindon, preach a moving sermon while children played behind the choir; for coffee hour, Marianne and Matt Wright brought subs; join the most joyful congregation in exile each Sunday at 10:30 a.m….at a recent diocesan staff meeting at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park, Else Duff and Hilda Sarkisians, describing the dire effects of Trump policies on the good work of IRIS, Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Service, Los Angeles, which nevertheless will persist…Composer and filmmaker John-Paul Jones during a taping in my office for the video he’s doing for the centennial of All Saints’ Beverly Hills, where he’s a chorister…the Rev. Drs. Bob Honeychurch and Sylvia Sweeney, who dropped by for a pizza lunch with the Rev. Canon Thomas Quijada-Discavage and me; Sylvia and Bob lost their Altadena home in the Eaton fire…with Canons Kathy Hannigan O’Connor and Iyad Qumri as Iyad prepared to leave for an event in the Diocese of Colorado, then back to Jerusalem to await the birth of his first grandchild…and with Kathy and Canon Andy Tomat during a St. Patrick’s night on the town at the Elks Club in Pasadena.
