Meet-and-Greet Week starts next Monday, when the three candidates for 8th bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles will be welcomed at a dinner before they start four days of tours around the diocese and question-and-answer sessions.
The schedule of Meet-and-Greets is here. Please join in person (register here) or watch via Zoom (Zoom link will emailed to those registered the day before the session.)
The Transitions Committee invited the candidates to tell us more about themselves, and posed three questions:
— Tell us three things about yourself that we don’t already know from the information published about you.
— Tell us two questions that you hope you’ll be asked at the Meet-and-Greets.
— Share with us two questions you have for the diocese.
Here are their answers, in alphabetical order.
The Rev. Dr. Antonio Gallardo
Three things you don’t already know about me:
1. I was in marching band in high school, and we performed at the Pan American Games.
2. I am the youngest of seven children, and the first one who left (Venezuela) to live in another country.
3. My spirit grows when I experience new cultures and languages.
Two questions I hope I’ll be asked at the Meet-and-Greets:
1. Why do you think the Eucharist is important in our spiritual journey ?
2. How have you promoted unity in Christ in multicultural, multilingual congregations?
Two questions I have for you, the diocese:
1. What is the one thing the Bishop can do to make you feel God’s infinite love and compassion?
2. What can we do to get closer as one diocese?
The Rev. Monica Burns Mainwaring
Three things you don’t already know about me:
1. I have always loved to get under the surface of things and try to discover what is really going on. When I was 21, that desire led me to spend six months living in East Jerusalem. Because I was tasked with helping feed the group I lived with, my daily duties included shopping at the markets within the Old City. I was young and missed many of the nuances of geopolitics, but I did learn the power of proximity, how simply sharing life together, day after day, helps us see one another a little more clearly.
2. Celtic Christianity offers this wonderful concept of thin spaces — places where the distance between heaven and earth collapses. For me, Yosemite Valley is a thin place. A few years ago, during a particularly stressful time, I asked my oldest and dearest friend to accompany me to Yosemite. I told her, “I need to hug a tree,” and we did. It worked. I felt utterly restored by the holiness of God. We need to know those places in our lives. EDLA is full of thin places. Sometimes all we need to do is give ourselves permission to ask God to show them to us.
3. Hoping that you will not tease me, I will share that as a child, I was a synchronized swimmer. I could hold my breath under water for an unreasonable length of time. I’ll admit, on the surface we looked full of grace, yet under the water it was frantic and powerful and all about a shared, stubborn refusal to give up. I loved it all. I’d like to be able to say that our lowly beginning at the Glendale YWCA led us all the way to the Olympics — it didn’t — but it did teach me to love the water and believe in the power of exceeding our own expectations.
Two questions I hope I’ll be asked at the Meet and Greets:
1. Gregory Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, says that God is too busy delighting in us to have time to be disappointed. How have you come to know that sort of God in your own life?
2. When you think about the future of the Church universal, what do you most long for?
Two questions I have for you, the diocese:
1. Given the year you’ve had — from fires to ICE and all that you’ve experienced in the diocese — if you were to rewrite the diocesan profile today for the bishop search, what would you change, prioritize, or highlight?
2. If Jesus were at table with you, breaking bread and inviting you to name your dreams, what would you tell him you want for your community, for your diocese, for your own life?
The Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy
Three things you don’t already know about me:
1. During my years as a dancer, I once was hired to dance in a music video (it’s still out there somewhere!).
2. After I was injured and had to quit dancing, I grieved the loss of that expressive art form until 11 years later, when I picked up the guitar for the first time. I am not a very good guitarist, but I love playing all kinds of music including classical, flamenco, bluegrass, and just plain strumming.
3. I love to read fiction and enjoy many different genres. One of my favorite genres is magical realism and one of my favorite authors is Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Two questions I hope I’ll be asked at the Meet and Greets:
1. I hope I will be asked how my love of God and faith in Jesus informs my life, my work, and my leadership.
2. I also hope I will be asked the questions on your hearts that may feel too scary to ask. I find that people are often afraid to ask the big questions of their clergy and I hope I am someone you can trust with that.
Two questions I have for you, the diocese:
1. What is unique about your own congregation and what does your congregation need from their next bishop?
2. What issues does your congregation face that you have been unable (as of yet) to solve?