As wide as California, with all the diversity of a great nation, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles also feels like family. On Sunday, our parishes in Thousand Oaks and Pacific Palisades were closely linked in a web of relationship and a spirit of baptismal celebration and wistful au revoir.
I was along at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Thousand Oaks to preside and preach as well as help mediate the Holy Spirit’s work as young Konrad and Carter were baptized. The energetic rector, the Rev. George Daisa, contributes mightily to the youthful spirit, as did eight-year-old Rafferty, who lent his strong, joyous voice to the psalm and epistle.
St. Patrick’s people are co-leaders, not customers. We began at 8:30 a.m. in the parish hall, as folks do each Sunday, analyzing the scripture readings rather than waiting for the preacher to unpack them. They’ve also been engaged for two years in a strategic discernment process that, as it continues, will form the foundation of George’s upcoming PhD studies. My guess is that the whole church will have a lot to learn from St. Patrick’s about parish sustainability and vitality.
An entrepreneur who serves as chaplain to the parish vestry, Linda Ruskin was also my gracious volunteer chaplain for the morning. Her duties included carrying Bishop Bloy’s crozier in procession. The Rev. Laurel Johnston, assisting priest and a a fundraising executive at a local hospital, read out the gospel. After George did the honors baptizing Konrad and Carter, I followed up with the chrism, marking them as Christ’s own forever. A priest or bishop can do no more moving thing. I could smell the oil for the rest of the day.
The same process was underway at about the same time at The Parish of St. Matthew – The Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades. Its rector, the Rev. Bruce A. Freeman, on the brink of retirement, baptized eight, including his and Dana’s three grandchildren. The links between the parishes are strong. George was an associate rector at St. Matthews for three years. One of the current associates, the Rev. KC Robertson, was raised up at St. Patrick’s, where members still help her look after her parents, both nearby in assisted living.
Episcopal symbiosis being what it is, by the time of coffee hour, St. Patrick’s folks had figured out that I would be in Pacific Palisades for an evening reception in the rector’s honor. “Give Bruce and KC our love,” they said. And so Kathy and I did, to the hundreds at the Bel-Air Bay Club invited by St. Matthew’s denizon Jamie Montgomery, who spoke of the extraordinary institution-building work in which Bruce, he, and other congregational leaders have been engaged.
Bruce and his two sisters, both present Sunday, were raised in Boston by an Episcopal priest and his spouse, who encouraged them to appreciate the justice inherent in the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially as struggles for civil rights raged on the streets of a city grappling with the sins of segregation. Bruce told me once that his father was the kind of priest bishops loved and who always stood up for those most in need.
In his three great rectorships — San Carlos, Cincinnati, and Pacific Palisades — Bruce has led in the style of his father. Overseeing a complex system that includes a renowned school, his collaborative style brings out everyone’s best, including members’ prodigious generosity to a wide range of local nonprofits. He and Dana losing their home in the Palisades fire made him all the more devoted to recovery and renewal at a parish where hundreds shared their devastating experience.
Bruce is retiring early than he first planned so he can deal with health challenges. Even with that, he waited until St. Matthew’s was back in its church building after a major remediation and the school had announced plans to welcome students home to their fire-scarred campus next fall. These achievements have preoccupied Bruce for hundreds of hours since January. Well done, good and faithful servant.
