Commission on Gospel Justice and Community Care
The mission of the Bishop’s Commission on Gospel Justice and Community Care is “to articulate a gospel vision for policing and community care; to assess people’s personal, local experiences of policing and community safety and to advocate for public policy reform that contributes to holistic community care.” The commission was formed following the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd which sparked worldwide protests and a national reckoning on police violence and systemic racism.
Please scroll down for Episcopal News coverage of the Commission and its work.
Commission Chair
Sister Patricia Sarah Terry | Contact: email
Commission Participants
In addition to Bishop John Harvey Taylor and Sister Patricia Sarah Terry, commission participants include:
- The Rev. Jamie Barnett, priest-in-charge at Epiphany, Oak Park;
- The Rev. Alene Campbell-Langdell, assisting priest at All Saints’/Todos Los Santos Church, Oxnard, and social worker;
- The Rev. Thomas Carey, retired;
- Ms. Virginia Classick, lay leader, All Saints, Pasadena
- The Very Rev. Bill Dunn, vicar of St. Stephen’s, Beaumont, and dean of diocesan Deanery 7;
- The Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton, rector of St. Stephen’s, Hollywood;
- Canon Suzanne Edwards-Acton, parishioner of St. Stephen’s, Hollywood, and co-chair, diocesan Program Group on Black Ministries;
- The Hon. Andrew Guilford, parishioner of St. John Chrysostom Church, Rancho Santa Margarita, and retired U.S. District Court judge;
- Dr. Tim Helton, founding member, Ventura County Interfaith Community, and lay leader, St. Columba’s, Camarillo
- Mr. Casey Jones, lay leader at St. Stephen’s, Hollywood, and Jubilee Year alumnus;
- The Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, diocesan canon to the ordinary;
- Pasadena Police Chief John Perez;
- The Rev. Sam Pillsbury, assisting, St. Athanasius, Los Angeles;
- The Rev. Mary Moreno Richardson, retired priest in Santa Barbara and active chaplain and county commissioner;
- Mr. Lloyd Wilkey, founder of Mindful Policing Institute;
- Canon Robert Williams, diocesan staff liaison and canon for common life; parishioner at St. James in the City, Los Angeles.
The commission meets virtually at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month
More Information:
Vigil laments sin of racism, pledges work for justice, reconciliation
See me walking on the vacant street What is your first thought? Black kid up to no good See me, surrounded by others, my brothers What is your second thought? Black kid in some gang … Allan Williams, a parishioner at St. George’s Church in Laguna...
New commission will guide diocese’s advocacy for ‘gospel-based’ policing, community care
Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor on Tuesday, April 20 announced Sister Patricia Sarah Terry as the chairperson of the Bishop’s Commission on Gospel Justice and Community Care, a diocesan taskforce whose mission is “to articulate a gospel...
Sister Patricia Sarah Terry – attorney, police widow, monastic – will chair new Commission on Gospel Justice and Community Care
Sister Patricia Sarah Terry, the new chair of the Bishop’s Commission on Gospel Justice and Community Care, grew up in the Catholic church in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood but says she has always been an Episcopalian at heart. “I claim to be a...