Pictured at the June 15 EfM graduation are Bishop John Harvey Taylor and All Saints, Pasadena lay leader Gary Leonard, who coordinates the EfM program within the Diocese of Los Angeles.
Karen Woodward Ide, parishioner of All Saints’ in Beverly Hills, signs register of EfM graduates as EfM mentor Wayne Kempe looks on. Photo: John Taylor
[The Episcopal News] Twenty-one graduates from across the Diocese of Los Angeles celebrated completion of the Education for Ministry (EfM) program – a four-year, in-depth course in scripture, church history, and Christian ethics and doctrine – with June 15 commencement exercises at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park.
Presiding at the graduation Eucharist, Bishop John Harvey Taylor anointed each graduate’s forehead, making the sign of the cross with sacred oil. Representing 10 congregations and two online cohorts within the diocese, the graduates signed a register reflecting diocesan EfM enrollment through the years.
EfM’s Class of 2024 includes these graduates assembled for a celebratory reception after commencement Eucharist on June 15 at St. Paul’s Commons in Echo Park. Photo: John Taylor
EfM graduate Allen Stout, whose ministries include leadership as bishop’s warden at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in Long Beach, preached a homily underscoring the importance of scriptural grounding amid current spiritual and societal challenges. The Rev. Canon Andrea McMillan, priest-in-charge under special circumstances at All Saints’, Beverly Hills, read the gospel, and All Saints’ parishioner John Guide led the prayers of the people. Organist was Joyce Derry of Santa Ana’s Episcopal Church of the Messiah.
Gary Leonard, EfM supervisor within the diocese and a lay leader at All Saints Church in Pasadena, oversaw program arrangements, assisted by longtime EfM mentor Wayne Kempe also of Messiah, Santa Ana.
Enrollment is open for EfM courses set to resume this fall in some 12-15 local congregations. Leonard (email: gary.leonard63@gmail.com) and Kempe (email: wkemp4@msn.com) are available to field questions about EfM. Configured in local small groups, EfM’s highly acclaimed churchwide program is based at the University of the South (Episcopal) in Sewanee, Tenn. More about EfM is available here.
The Rev. Canon Andrea McMillan, priest-in-charge under special circumstances at All Saints’, Beverly Hills, reads the gospel during EfM’s Diocese of Los Angeles graduation June 15 at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park. Photo: Bob Williams