[The Episcopal News – Nov. 8, 2025] Congratulations and praise began pouring in almost immediately after the Rev. Antonio Gallardo was elected the first Latino bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles on the eighth ballot Nov. 8, 2025, at the 130th annual meeting of the diocese in Riverside.
Gallardo, 58, who was born in Venezuela, was elected on the second day of a convention infused throughout with impassioned themes of resilience, renewal and continued sacred resistance, during which presenters invoked a “Si Se Puede” (“yes, it is possible”) spirit, echoing the rallying cry of the historic Chicano United Farm Workers labor rights movement.
Amid a standing ovation and sustained applause, Gallardo addressed several hundred convention delegates, visitors and exhibitors, expressing gratitude in Spanish and English to all who made his election possible. He said he intends to “hit the ground running” in May 2026 after completing responsibilities at St. Luke’s/San Lucas Church in Long Beach, a parish well-known for its outreach to migrants and its unhoused neighbors. where he has served as rector since 2022.
He received 134 votes in the clergy order and 187 votes in the lay order in an election requiring a two-thirds majority vote from both orders on the same ballot, in accordance with the constitution of the diocese.
Gallardo said he is “excited to be united with a common purpose, to share the good news of Christ with many more people,” and pledged “to be an element of resistance and source of hope in a country and world” in desperate need of both. Gallardo’s full remarks can be read here in English and here in Spanish.
He also offered thanks and bid applause for his fellow nominees, the Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, diocesan canon to the ordinary, and the Rev. Monica Burns Mainwaring, rector of St. Luke in the Fields, Atlanta. McCarthy withdrew from the election after the fourth ballot, the last one taken before the convention recessed on Friday.
“At this time I respectfully withdraw my candidacy for the 8th bishop of Los Angeles,” McCarthy wrote in a message sent to convention leaders Friday evening after the fourth ballot and read to assembled delegates by Bishop John Harvey Taylor at the outset of Saturday mornings agenda before the fifth ballot.
McCarthy offered “my gratitude and prayers for the Rev. Antonio Gallardo and the Rev. Monica Mainwaring for their faithfulness, friendship, and for offering themselves in service to our diocese. My prayers are with all of you.”
Taylor said The Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry had called to prayers and support during the election process.
Gallardo will succeed the Rt. Rev. John Harvey Taylor, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 72 in October 2026. Taylor told The Episcopal News that he served as a pastoral presence while Gallardo, a former Roman Catholic, was discerning a call to the priesthood. Gallardo was ordained a priest in January 2019 and served as vicar of St. Luke’s of the Mountains, La Crescenta (2019-2022) and pastor for Latino Ministries at All Saints Church, Pasadena (2015-2019).
“At that time, Antonio was closely affiliated with All Saints, Pasadena, and I became quickly aware of his business acumen, his fascinating personal story, as well as his vision for a new kind of multicultural ministry, not just in the diocese but in Christendom,” Taylor said.
Pledging to be Gallardo’s “wing man,” Taylor added that the election represents progressive Christianity and the egalitarian values of Jesus. “The Diocese of Los Angeles is, for the first time, electing a nonwhite, immigrant American as bishop of Los Angeles,” Taylor said. “It is a 21st-century choice, for which I give thanks and look forward to working with the bishop-elect.”
Delegates to the San Diego diocesan convention, meeting at St. Dunstan’s Church, Nov. 8, sent a video greeting and congratulations to Gallardo and the L.A. diocese. “We have been following your election and want to offer our congratulations and our blessings to your new bishop … and thanks to all of those who were willing to discern this ministry with you,” Bishop Susan Snook said as convention delegates cheered. During Convention, Bishop Taylor also received calls from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry offering prayers and support for the election process.
Sacred Resistance 2.0 and ‘Si Se Puede’
Chanting “si se puede,” Sandra Martinez Moore and other members of the diocese’s Sacred Resistance Task Force called upon convention delegates to engage, support and to join Sacred Resistance efforts across the diocese. The task force, begun during the first Trump administration, has now intensified its efforts as “Sacred Resistance 2.0,” she said.
The diocese’s 2016 convention’s declaration as a sanctuary diocese “was more than words on paper. It was a public commitment to protect and stand with those most vulnerable in our communities … to work alongside our friends, families and neighbors to ensure the dignity and human rights of all people by sacred resistance,” said Moore, a lay leader at St. Paul’s, Pomona, a hub for ICE Out of Pomona, a network of local resistance organizations.
“We continue to organize and fight against ICE raids, which now happen almost every day,” she said. “Our community in Pomona is under attack, and not just Pomona, but everywhere, especially at Home Depots and labor centers.” Efforts include direct action, serving as a rapid response network to document ICE kidnappings and raids, offering “know your rights” educational opportunities and support to immigrants.
“But we cannot do it alone,” she said. “We need more privileged people to stand with us, beside us. This is what Jesus calls us to do, to walk with the oppressed, to act in love and to resist evil.”
Similarly, the Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards Acton, rector of St. Stephen’s, Hollywood, introduced several parishioners who suffered from the trauma of being kidnapped by ICE and held in detention centers. “We are dealing with family trauma, children’s trauma, concerns about how to pay the rent, how to pay utility bills, how to feed the kids, how to get diapers,” Edwards Acton said. “How will the kids get to school? To doctor’s appointments?
“We’re not talking about others,” he declared. “We’re talking about us.”
A St. Stephen’s parishioner who was held in a detention center for nearly a month told convention delegates he suffers from recurring fears. “When I go out on the street, I feel fear and anxiety. My wife is always worried when I leave the house. We always imagine that the worst could happen. I’m very scared for my wife.
“I tell my children when they go out to work to be very careful, to look around in all directions, because people are being detained just for the color of their skin. My message for those who have the power to change things is that we only want to work to give our families a better life. I would ask that they create fair conditions.”
He thanked the convention for community support: “Even though we still can’t work right now, we receive support from our community.”
Sacred Resistance has received about $67,000, along with donations of food, diapers and other supplies, but ongoing assistance is needed. Donations may be made through the task force website, Edwards Action said. “This is our collective work. Resistance belongs to all of us, and we need you. We need you to continue to engage in this work. It is more than protest. It is deep, relational work of organizing, of building God’s beloved community in the here and now, in the liberating spirit of Jesus.”
Outgoing vice-chancellor Jeff Baker, a University of Alabama law professor and associate dean who served as guest speaker for the biennial Margaret Parker Lecture series, delivered an impassioned talk addressing the church’s work and voice for justice in the law and public policy, and its relationship to secular and political power. (See related story here.)
The lecture series honors the life and ministry of the late Canon Margaret Parker by addressing topics of peace and justice through the empowerment of women. The series was launched in 2008, a year after Parker died at the age of 93. She was a lay leader and ministry partner with her husband, the Rev. Canon Richard I. S. Parker, who served for 42 years as rector of St. Cross Episcopal Church in Hermosa Beach.
Resilience and renewal: ‘little miracles’
Convention delegates also heard about ongoing renewal and resilience efforts, including responses to the devastating January 2025 wildfires, which caused a combined total of about $53 billion in damage and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, including homes and businesses.
Grace Wakelee-Lynch recently has been appointed diocesan missioner for disaster recovery and resilience, a position funded through Episcopal Relief and Development. Her work will be both community-focused through ERD and congregation-focused through the diocese. She also will be working with Dr. Lucy Jones’ climate connection program.
Sarah Nolan, director of giving and development, said All Saints, Pasadena, continues to provide material and spiritual resources, both to its members, some 84 of whom lost homes, with many more displaced, and to the wider community.
The church will host a choral Evensong in observance of the one-year anniversary of the fires, a service created and inspired by scientist, climate activist and musician Lucy Jones of St. James’ Church, South Pasadena, she said.
Convention greeted the Rev. Stephen Smith, associate rector of St. Matthew’s in Pacific Palisades with applause when he announced that, despite more than half of the church’s parishioners and all of its clergy losing their homes, “I’m happy to say, as of three weeks ago, we were able to get back into our sanctuary to begin worship. It’s almost like camp church – there’s no running water; we have no access to the sacristy – but it is an important and meaningful step toward returning to St. Matthew’s full time.”
The Rev. Stefanie Wilson, chaplain, said the school will return to the campus in the fall of 2026. “We ask you to please keep praying. The road is long, but it is good and it is good because of you, People of God. We thank you. You are our blessing, and you keep us going.”
Additionally, the diocese will form a new program group focused on congregational vitality, according to Missy Morain, diocesan missioner for Christian formation, children and youth. She added that among other resources the diocese will offer a congregational vitality self-assessment tool to any congregation that would like to participate.
“We want to support you, as you serve as the hands and feet and heart of God in your communities,” she said. “We want to do this because we know the gospel is true, and that our world right now is in desperate need of the ways we can share the gospel, like this work.”
The 131st annual meeting of the diocese will be held Nov. 13-14, 2026 at the Riverside Convention Center.