Diocesan Council, meeting April 9 online, heard updates on planning “the best consecration ever” for Bishop-elect Antonio José Gallardo Lucena on July 11; the availability of grants ranging from $250 to $5,000 for innovative intergenerational worship; and an invitation for youth to join a June 25-July 8 companion-diocese trip to Taiwan.
Interim treasurer Canon Dan Valdez told Council members he had “nothing but good news to share” about February 2026 financials, and Diocesan Missioner for Disaster Relief and Resilience Grace Wakelee-Lynch reported progress in long-term fire relief efforts to those impacted by the January 2025 wildfires.
The Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change is hosting two events: an April 15, “Faith in Tomorrow: Speaking Out for our Climate Future”, part of L.A. Climate Week in Koreatown, in partnership with Interfaith Power & Light. Register here, and a 5 p.m., April 22 Climate Kitchen meeting via Zoom, Register here.
Canon Christine Budzowski, president of the diocesan Episcopal Church Women, extended an invitation to members of the Order of the Daughters of the King throughout the diocese and Province VIII for a May 2, 2026, online Spring Assembly, “Leaning on God: Benedictine Practices for Troubled Times.” Guest speaker will be the Rev. Dr. Jane Tomaine, an oblate of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph’s, Minnesota. Tomaine is a retreat leader and author of St. Benedict’s Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Everyday Benedictine Living. Registration is available here.
Eastertide is a time to recall that “everything about our Lord is an invitation to reconciliation and to unity,” said Bishop John Harvey Taylor, who chaired the Council meeting. “We’re being invited, particularly in these times, to think of ways to manifest that, remembering that there is indeed one faith, one baptism, one God and Lord of all.”
Earlier in the week, Taylor had worshipped with members of St. Theodore of Canterbury Episcopal Church, who joined with Redeemer Lutheran Church in Seal Beach several years ago. It has now become one congregation. “It has grown in a spirit of welcome and continuing relationship with people who have gotten to know one another,” Taylor said. “The liturgical and denominational differences fade away because people know one another’s stories, and that’s the way, ultimately, these unity opportunities occur.”
July 11 consecration updates; watch parties; deanery celebrations
The Very Rev. Canon Kay Sylvester, rector of St. Paul’s, Tustin, and co-chair of the Consecration Committee, reported that planners are working closely with the office of Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe to shape the July 11 liturgy set for 10 a.m. at All Saints Church in Pasadena.
Livestream watch parties in local congregations are encouraged and will be coordinated by the Rev. Canon Dr. Mary Crist, widening the reach of the Pasadena service, for which a set number of tickets will be allocated to each of the diocese’s 132 churches for in-person attendance, Sylvester said.
The celebratory spirit will continue the next day with a 4 p.m. Evensong service of installation at St. John’s Cathedral, and extend into the following weeks with a series of Saturday gatherings in the diocese’s 10 geographic deaneries. The Rev. Canon Greg Larkin, priest-in-charge at St. Paul’s, Tustin, and co-chair of the Transitions Committee, reported that sites will be selected in collaboration with the respective deanery deans creating a series of opportunities for celebration and community building across the diocese.
A detailed report is planned for The Episcopal News later this month, and a website designed by Diocesan Program Coordinator and Council Secretary Samantha Wylie to feature consecration logistics is under construction. Expected to go live next month, the website will include information for ticketing and opportunities for gifts honoring the new bishop.
Planners are working to provide “the best darn consecration ever,” Transitions Committee Co-Chair Sheira Smith declared in a team meeting earlier this month, Sylvester said.
Apply now for innovative ministry grants; join Taiwan youth trip
Applications for a second round of Diocesan Innovation Grants for Christian Formation and innovative intergenerational worship, ranging from $250 to $5,000, are being accepted through mid-July, Missy Morain, diocesan missioner for Christian formation, children and youth ministries (CYM), reported to Council.
“There has been a resurgence of Godly Play (a curricular program) in some really fun and interesting ways,” among congregations and worshipping communities who have already received grants, including intergenerational and immersive worship, she said.
The Los Angeles diocese received a $1.2 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in October 2024 to launch “Immersed in Worship: Welcoming Children into Intergenerational Worship,” a four-year initiative begun in 2025. The effort focuses on enhancing children’s engagement in worship through grant-funded projects like children’s choirs and music programs. Local congregations awarded first-round grants included: St. Ambrose, Claremont; St. George’s, Hawthorne; St. John Chrysostom, Rancho Santa Margarita; St. Paul’s, Tustin; St. Timothy’s, Apple Valley; St. Wilfrid of York, Huntington Beach; and Trinity, Orange.
Morain also offered a “plug for the Taiwan mission experience for young adults, June 25-July 8.” The application period for the Taiwan trip has been extended into this month, she said. The trip to bring youth from the Diocese of Los Angeles to Taiwan follows L.A. Bishop John Harvey Taylor’s Sept. 21-Oct. 4, 2024, visit to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Taiwan diocese, and Taiwan Bishop Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang’s 2025 visit to L.A.
“We encourage folks to consider going along on this once-in-a-lifetime visit to an absolutely amazing place,” Taylor told Council members. Although news of Taiwan is often disseminated through the lens of conflict and geopolitical complexities, it is “a thriving democracy, a spiritually rich and diverse place where The Episcopal Church is doing remarkable ministries in every neighborhood in which it serves all over the country,” he said.
Throughout Eastertide, CYM’s Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/edla_myp/) will offer intergenerational, reflections focused around “What will you do to honor new life?” she added. Also, planning for grant writing workshops is underway.
Finances: “Nothing but good news to share”
Valdez offered a positive February 2026 consolidated financial report, showing Corp Sole income, at $34,000 ahead of budget; the Mission Share Fund as $12,000 ahead of budget, or “essentially a $100,000 swing from where we found ourselves last month,” prior to congregation’s annual meetings and decisions about paying assessments.
“There is good news to report in the financial highlights for February,” Valdez said “We’ve experienced an almost $100,000 positive swing in receipt of Mission Share Fund assessments. This has resulted in a recovery from a shortfall exceeding $86,000 in January to a surplus of slightly more than $12,000 in February. We’re grateful to all the parish and mission congregations who have stepped up to meet their MSF commitments.
“One area of concern on the income side is a $21,000 shortfall to date in donations to the One Body & One Spirit Annual Appeal. We’re hopeful that giving to this vital ministry will recover in the coming months.
“Operating expenses are running under budget in almost all areas of mission and ministry resulting in a year-to-date surplus of $249,000. This is due to lower than expected or deferred spending.”
Other reports of interest
Standing Committee, the Rev. Dr. Kate Cress, president. At its March meeting, the Standing Committee approved: changes to the bylaws of Christ the Good Shepherd, L.A.; a 5-year license agreement with the Montessori Association of Covina for St Thomas, Hacienda Heights; a one-year extension of a ground lease agreement at St. Anselm’s, Garden Grove with Domus Development LLC, an affordable housing developer; and sale of a house used as a transitional shelter for St. James in-the-City, L.A.
Also approved were: “the expectations of the proceeds of a gift of $1 million to Camp Stevens, a gift that was accepted.” The sale of property owned by St. Cross, Hermosa Beach, in Redondo Beach and the purchase of a property contiguous to the church also were also approved.
The Rev. John Watson, interim diocesan canon, reported there are clergy vacancies in 57 congregations. There are 10 candidates for the Next Steps Conference in May, who “are people who have gone through our diocesan discernment year and are moving into discernment potential for postulancy.” Eight parishes and missions have been invited to an upcoming second Requiem or Renaissance cohort, he said. Requiem or Renaissance is an 18-month, $100,000 grant-funded program, to help congregations discern between a “holy ending” (requiem) or re-planting (renaissance) amid decline.
Taylor said agreements like the Episcopal-Lutheran “Called to Common Mission,” also known as the Concordat, with the sharing of clergy, worship and resources, may be an answer to current clergy shortages. One such agreement, with the United Methodist Church, will be considered at the July 3-8, 2027, General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Phoenix, Arizona, he said.
Such grassroots unity is “an intriguing invitation to us as a diocese to think a little bit more about work we can do ecumenically,” Taylor added. “It might even be one way to address the issue of the clergy shortage, to perhaps find a way to be a little bit intentional, and seeing if we can develop some of these relationships at places which are, for the time being, short of leadership, because our Lutheran and Methodist colleagues and denominational leadership will say exactly the same thing. They’re having trouble finding enough pastors to fill the jobs that they have.”
Canon for Common Life Bob Williams, who is Diocesan Convention’s appointed historiographer and archivist, reported that journals of the annual meeting of the diocese, dating to 1895, are now available, by request, in a searchable PDF format, and the files will be posted to the diocesan website later this year.
Council meets next at 4 p.m., Thursday, May 14, via Zoom The June 11 meeting—the last at which Taylor will serve as presider—will meet in person at St. Paul’s Commons to celebrate his ministry.