Ministries
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is committed to offering innovative and effective ministries to serve and support our communities. Here are just a few of the outstanding ministries of our diocese:
Gathering LGBT Episcopalian in Advancing Ministry
The Bishop’s Commission on LGBTQ Ministries has a three-fold mission:
- To share faith, hope, fellowship and the Good News of God in Christ Jesus with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in the Diocese of Los Angeles;
- To advocate for LGBT issues in the local, national, and international spheres; and
- To provide a theological foundation for wholeness in human relationships, abolishing prejudice and oppression, and healing the rift between sexuality and spirituality in the Church.
Working groups of the Commission include:
GLEAM: Gathering LGBT Episcopalians in Advancing Ministry: Providing opportunities for fellowship, evangelism, education and spiritual growth, this task force organizes events, programs and projects including diocesan presence at Southland gay pride events.
Marriage Equality Task Force: Convened in 2008 during the Proposition 8 campaign, the task force brings together pastors, activists and scholars to resource the Bishops and Diocese to advocate for marriage equality.
Interfaith, Refugee & Immigration Services
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service (IRIS) provides a gracious welcome as well as tangible tools and connections to help new arrivals achieve self-sufficiency in the United States.
IRIS is a non-profit, non-sectarian agency offering several programs including: refugee resettlement, immigration legal services, cultural orientation and food assistance programs. IRIS is a program of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and operates in conjunction with Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM).
Laundry Love
The Laundry Love initiative consists of regular opportunities to come alongside people who are struggling financially by assisting them with their laundry. Laundry Love partners with local laundromats in cleaning clothes and linens of low-income or no-income families and individuals. We see the laundromat as a place where strangers become friends, kids are known by name, hope is being hustled, and the worth of every human being is acknowledged and celebrated.
Prism – Prison Ministry
Prism is an outreach ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles engaged in spiritual care with the incarcerated community in the L.A. County jails.
Prism advocates for positive change in the system of mass incarceration and we are committed to bringing a voice to the struggle of the marginalized in our society. Guided by our baptismal vows to seek and serve Christ in all persons, we strive for justice and peace among all people and promote the respect and dignity of every human being.We pray for an end of all violence and advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States and throughout the world.
Sacred Resistance
One of the core promises of our baptismal covenant is to “persevere in resisting evil.” We understand that as a call to stand in resistance to the systemic evils that oppress and marginalize any member of our human family – including but not limited to racism, sexism, nativism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Grounded in our baptismal promises, our resistance to public policies that perpetuate those evils is how we put our faith into action in the world.
Sacred Resistance is the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles’ task force on organization, activism and living into the call to persevere and resist evil.
Seeds of Hope
Seeds of Hope is a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles which seeks to cultivate wellness in our communities. We provide garden-based nutrition education and practical cooking instruction to help our friends and neighbors live healthier. We also work with congregations, communities, and schools, to transform unused land into productive gardens and orchards to provide healthy and fresh food in areas of need across the county.
In our work, we look to create, promote, and sustain urban farms, food recovery, gardens, and garden-based programs throughout the Diocese of Los Angeles to nurture the physical as well as spiritual wellness of individuals and communities. We focus on a diocese-wide approach to food production, distribution, and preparation, in so doing, we are able to benefit the hungry and undernourished in our churches and within our broader communities.
