Travels around the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Thursday offered me the opportunity for Eastertide thanksgiving for the work of colleagues who are changing lives all over our region and even the world.
At St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, I met up with the Rev. Dr. Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, convener of our Chinese language ministry, task force, and Missy Morain, diocesan missioner for Christian formation and youth and young adults. They’re leading a mission trip to Taiwan starting in June for folks 18 to 30. It’s part of our exchange program with the Taiwan Episcopal Church 台灣聖公會/Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan. With the help of Canon Bob Williams, we taped a promotional video that we’ll distribute early next week.
Thanks to the hospitality of the Very Rev. Keith Yamamoto, St. Mark’s rector and dean of the missions and parishes in the heart of our diocese known as deanery six, I joined lay and ordained leaders for lunch and Missy’s bracing presentation about youth ministry in a changing church. She said young people are experiencing record levels of loneliness and isolation. The church has so much to offer them and their families. The trick is making them feel welcome. Among many other tips, Missy stressed how important it is to put children up front in worship spaces and liturgies.
I ended my day at the quarterly board meeting of Episcopal Communities & Services in Pasadena, where staff and volunteers and I did some mutual back-patting for our work on affordable housing on our mission and parish campuses. The diocese has three projects open and hopes to break ground on the fourth this summer. Several more are on the drawing board.
For nine years, I looked forward eagerly to each meeting with ECS president and CEO James Rothrock, senior vice president Sharon Pewtress, the Rev. Michael S. Bell, and their board colleagues, including the Rev. Tim Hartley. Their vision, professionalism, and dedication to giving people a place to lay their heads are constant inspirations. It always felt, year after year, that they were doing the core work of the gospel: glorifying God, and caring for God’s people.
