Its sun-drenched campus beautifully maintained, its cheerful nave thoughtfully appointed, the parish hall, kitchen, and parking lot gleaming with coats of TLC, St. Joseph of Arimathea Episcopal Church in Yucca Valley is a jewel of the high desert communities of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Equally wonderful St. Martin in the Fields, in Twentynine Palms, secures the other end of a string of towns laced together by state Route 62.
These are hearty communities of retirees, United States Marines and their families, commuters, local workers, and artistic and musical folk. Most have moved here from somewhere else and love the cool, clean air and sense of freedom, calm, and vast spaciousness. Keeping the Anglican way open along the sometimes dark desert highway takes determination. Both congregations are small but fiercely devoted, to one another and our church’s inclusive values.
Eight or nine years ago, soon after I became bishop, the St. Joseph’s bishop’s warden, Joanne Sayers, gave me her two-minute warning. She needed my support in grooming a successor. A towering irony is that I’m on the brink of retirement, while Joanne is in her 13th year of senior leadership. A great-great-grandmother and for these 60 years a piano and organ teacher, she still has 15 students, all preparing for their spring recital at the church in April. Her son Charles, 65, died last year. When I was along Sunday to preside and preach, I kept my promise to urge her resourceful congregants to hear her when she says she needs more help and, soon, a successor.
Most of our wardens pass the baton every year so. But every community is different. Some need extra lay backbone. If you look in the catechism in the “Book of Common Prayer,” you will see that the laity is mentioned first, before bishops, deacons, and priests. The ordained orders come and go. It is upon the labors and longevity of lay leaders that our expression of the Christian story depends. In Yucca Valley, because of particular circumstances, Joanne has been the sine qua non. Almost everyone remembers the death, ten years ago this month, of the Rev. Jane Crase, a paralegal and a longtime congregant who was called to the priesthood and locally formed. Jane died in a horseback riding accident, out on the trails she loved, embraced by Joshua trees. It’s possible that some at St. Joseph’s wondered if they could carry on. Joanne filled the breach.
In the Rev. Canon David Caffrey and the Revs. David Bergdorf, Kathleen Kelly, and Adam McCoy, the mission has a think tank of brilliant visiting priests that should make them the envy of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Mastermind of the Desert Journeys Retreat Center in Twentynine Palms, Canon Caffrey, informally known as the vicar of the high desert, has devoted himself to the formation of lay and ordained leaders for our missions, including Jane.
He, Fr. Bergdorf (chaplain to retired clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego), and Adam were aboard on Sunday. A monk and my former spiritual director, Adam graciously served as my chaplain, assisting in a half–dozen or more impromptu blessings, including a 93-year-old who has been battling leukemia for nearly 20 years and is fully committed to making it to 100. We shared more stories during a delicious potluck lunch, for which Chris had deep fried a turkey he had soaked in a salt and garlic brine. As with the Cratchit family’s Christmas goose in London, there was never such a turkey in all of Yucca Valley.
Our readings for Holy Eucharist offered plenty of opportunities for scriptural exegesis, including by admiring Jesus’s own recourse to three verses from Deuteronomy as he rebuffed Satan’s temptations. In my sermon, I reassured St. Joseph’s about their diocese’s love and devotion while explaining that all the lay and clerical excellence centered in Yucca Valley was not only for their sake but also that of those who will inherit their church. For now, they are a high desert outpost of a new multi-faith movement, rooted in Episcopal values, the baptismal covenant, and the universality of the golden rule (Matt. 7:12), that will save our country and achieve world peace. Just two more things for Joanne to check off before she retires.
