Episcopal priest Richard Estrada, accompanied by actor Edward James Olmos, speaks at the April launch of the Lydia Lopez Center for Community Empowerment. Photo: Janet Kawamoto
Longtime priest and refugee advocate Richard Estrada will be among leaders honored by the Echo Park Immigration Center (EPIC) at its 3rd annual gala set for Saturday, Aug. 24, 3-6pm, at L.A.’s historic Pico House, 424 N. Main St. All are invited; tickets are $175 each and may be purchased here.
Under the theme “Sanctuary of Support,” EPIC has set a $25,000 fundraising goal for the event benefitting the agency’s work with immigrants arriving in Los Angeles, notes co-founder and executive director Josh Lopez-Reyes. Sponsorship opportunities also are available.
Among other gala highlights, several EPIC clients will recount their experiences of resilience and achievement, and the agency will present its annual Canon Lydia Lopez Awards recognizing exemplary service to immigrants and refugees. Lopez, who died in 2023, championed support for immigrants throughout her 50-year ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
Estrada, a longtime friend of Lopez, is the founder of Jovenes Inc., L.A.’s first shelter for unhoused immigrant youth. He and Lopez worked in the sanctuary movement led by the late Father Luis Olivares at La Placita Roman Catholic Church, the pueblo’s original house of worship. A successor to Olivares as a Claretian pastor of La Placita, Estrada in 2014 was received as an Episcopal priest and now is assisting at Epiphany Church in Lincoln Heights. A well-known hub of the Chicano and farmworkers movements, Epiphany is home to the new Lydia Lopez Center for Community Empowerment launched earlier this year.
Epiphany, together with the Diocese of Los Angeles and Echo Park’s St. Athanasius Episcopal Church, is among the sponsors of this year’s EPIC gala.