Reports of ongoing resilience and recovery in the aftermath of the January 2025 wildfires were a central focus of Diocesan Council’s March 12, 2026 online meeting, which also included updates on planning for the July 11 consecration of Bishop-elect Antonio. J. Gallardo L.
Bishop John Harvey Taylor opened the meeting by celebrating the call of Canon to the Ordinary Melissa McCarthy as priest-in-charge of St. Matthew’s, Pacific Palisades, along with other staff transitions amid emojis of thumbs-up and hearts and applause from members.
Members learned St. Paul’s Commons will host council’s June 11 meeting, its first in-person meeting in six years, since April 19, 2020, during the pandemic. Online participation also will be available.
Celebrating staff transitions
Taylor said McCarthy, who concluded her ministry as canon to the ordinary on March 15, is profoundly missed around St. Paul’s Commons, where she served as chief of staff. “She has been part of these meetings now for nine years and has been, for many of us, among our most trusted friends and advisors,” Taylor said. “She is always someone who knows how to find a way forward where everyone is included, finding both-and solutions so that no one feels left out.”
The Rev. John Watson will serve as interim diocesan canon until Gallardo L.’s July 11 consecration. At that time, the Rev. Jon Feuss, currently associate rector at St. James’ in the City, Los Angeles, will assume the role. Watson also will fill in for the Rev. Norma Guerra, former diocesan formation and transitions associate, who began serving March 1, as priest associate and emergent rector at St. Paul’s, Tustin. Watson will continue as coordinator of the diocesan “Requiem or Renaissance” program, and is scheduled to return in July to his ministries as priest-in-charge of St. Athanasius, Echo Park, and Church of the Epiphany, Lincoln Heights.
The July 11 consecration: a two-day event
The Very Rev. Canon Kay Sylvester, co-chair of the consecration committee, said planning for the consecration July 11 at All Saints, Pasadena, and subsequent seating of Gallardo L. July 12 at St. John’s Cathedral, is underway.
A consecration website with FAQs and detailed information about ticket availability is under construction. Tickets will be required for in-person attendance as All Saints seats a maximum of about 1,200, she said. Watch parties throughout the diocese’s 10 deaneries are encouraged. “We’re going to provide whatever resources we can to each deanery to have a party, … a specific celebratory gathering,” Sylvester said.
Disaster recovery and resilience
Grace Wakelee-Lynch, diocesan missioner for disaster recovery and resilience, told Council she will communicate a wish list for basic necessities for the Eaton Fire Collaborative, which offers a free store for impacted community members. “There continues to be a lot of basic needs support, most folks are still in unstable, insecure situations.”
Additionally, her team is exploring ways to increase the lending capacity of an ethical loan recovery fund in conjunction with the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union, as well as to respond to the long-term spiritual and materials needs of those impacted by the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires.
The team has also “set up three monthly distributions in Altadena with an organization called Home of Kings and Queens. Seeds of Hope, the diocesan food justice agency, is providing fresh produce in addition to other offerings that other organizations are bringing out to those events.”
Other partnerships include collaborations with a community land trust, starting a preparedness cohort in Deanery 5, working with Episcopal Relief and Development to provide emotional and spiritual wellness resources, she said. A February gathering with clergy and lay leadership in impacted congregations was convened at St Paul’s Commons, with a follow-up grief and trauma workshop for the congregation of St. Mark’s, Altadena.
One Body & One Spirit Appeal discretionary grants have been dispersed to four of the churches with the greatest number of households who were displaced or lost their homes,” she added.
Taylor noted that “at both St. Mark’s and St. Matthew’s, plans are well underway to restore the campuses. A site plan has been approved at St Mark’s, Altadena. The building loss at St. Matthew’s, Pacific Palisades, was mainly confined to the school, but still catastrophic for the buildings. They plan to have students back on campus by the end of the summer. Their priest in charge, Canon McCarthy, will work with school officials to help achieve that milestone, Taylor said.
“The capital fundraising that will be necessary at both of those institutions, above and beyond insurance settlements, which will be substantial, is going to be immense,” Taylor added. “Whether you all as diocesan leaders take on a sense of diocesan wide responsibility for that is something as yet to be determined. But I know leadership in both places is conscious of the possibility. So please please don’t forget this conversation when you hear about that in six months or a year.”
Financial report
Mission share fund assessments were about $86,000 under budget at the end of January, but interim treasurer Canon Dan Valdez said he is certain that number will improve in coming months. “In January, customarily, our Mission Share receipts are substantially below budget because many of our parishes are still in the process of finalizing budgets and holding annual meetings before they will make the full commitment to the diocese,” he said.
Corporation of the Diocese income was $8,572 ahead of budget and contribution income, primarily from administrative reimbursements fees to the diocese from such ministries as Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, and Seeds of Hope, the diocesan food justice ministry, was about $3,000 ahead of budget. Other income, however, was below budget by about $8,000.
The Church in the World ministry area was under budget by about $76,000, primarily “because of efficiencies or funds not yet committed in the Bishop’s Office, of almost $69,000,” he said. About $12,500 in capital development funds have not yet been expended, while St. Paul’s Commons facilities and grounds was under budget by about $25,000.
Valdez also noted that MSF arrears totaled about $163,410, an increase of about $124,000 over December 2025. In January, the diocese received $2,000 in annual appeal contributions and another $200 in capital campaign funds.
Reports of Mission:
Program Group on Mission Congregations, the Very Rev. Gary Hall: The PGMC continues to seek representatives from Deaneries 3, 9 and 10, according to Hall, who said he plans to step down from the group after this year’s granting cycle.
Corporation of the Diocese, the Rev. Kate Cress: The Corporation met Feb. 25 and approved as candidates for ordination to the transitional diaconate: Julia Warren, Kelly Lauer, J.D. Neal, Drew Darby and Caitlin Ference Saunders. Also approved was a bylaws revision for All Saints, Pasadena; an unrestricted cash gift of $1 million for Camp Stevens; a for-profit housing development agreement at St. Michael and All Angels, Corona del Mar. The corporation also consented to the elections of Alabama Bishop-elect Richard Lawson and Southwest Virginia Bishop-elect Karen McPhail.
Requiem or Renaissance, the Rev. John Watson: Five congregations in the diocese currently are discerning their futures through Requiem or Renaissance, Watson said. Another cohort of seven or eight will be launched soon.
Taylor shared highlights from a recent “Multi-faith Response to our Current Constitutional Crisis conference”, held March 11 at St. Paul’s Commons, during which he proposed an All-Faith Democratic Union “to find a common denominator to organize the faith community’s political clout behind the proposition that it is no longer tolerable for those in power to commit acts of cruelty for cruelty’s sake nor to do acts of violence that are not required by imminent crises involving our national interest. The golden rule has been the law of the universe ever since God wrote it on our hearts. We are long overdue requiring those in power to obey it.”
Returning to the theme that all faiths and those without faith adhere to the golden rule, he added: “There needs to be a way to unify people of faith in such a way as to make those who violate the golden rule in public life, particularly in matters of life and death, to make them pay a price at the polls, to crush them peacefully at the polls, and send them home to learn some manners.”
Council meets next at 4 p.m., April 9, 2026, via Zoom.