[The Episcopal News] The Diocese of Los Angeles will be well-represented on influential committees at the 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, meeting next summer (July 5 – 14, 2022) in Baltimore, Maryland.
Seven of Los Angeles’ eight deputies, who were elected at the 2019 meeting of Diocesan Convention, have been assigned to the committees that will receive, refine, and present resolutions submitted by bishops, dioceses and deputies; a unusually high level of representation for a single diocese. The eighth L.A. deputy is on the worship committee for the 2022 convention.
House of Deputies President Gay C. Jennings, who is responsible for assigning deputies to committees, announced the new rosters on July 6. A list of committees and brief descriptions of their responsibilities is here.
In addition, three EDLA representatives will serve on the nominating committee for the election of the next presiding bishop, who will be chosen at the 2024 meeting.
Committee assignments
Lay Deputy Kathryn Nishibayashi of St. Mary’s Church (Mariposa), Los Angeles, chair of the deputation, will serve on the Prayer Book, Liturgy & Music Committee.
Lay Deputy Canon Julie Dean Larsen, member of St. Clement’s, San Clemente, will be on the Agencies & Boards Committee.
Lay Deputy Dan Valdez of All Saints’ Church, Highland Park (Los Angeles) is vice chair of the Social Justice & U.S. Policy Committee.
Lay Deputy Canon Jim White of All Saints Church, Pasadena, and Holy Spirit Fellowship, Los Angeles, will serve on the Committees & Commissions Committee.
The Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, clergy deputy and canon to the ordinary for the diocese, is assigned to the Churchwide Leadership Committee.
The Rev. Nancy Frausto, clergy deputy and assistant rector of St. Luke’s Church, Long Beach, is assistant secretary of the Social Justice & U.S. Policy Committee.
The Rev. Rachel Nyback, clergy deputy and rector of St. Cross Church, Hermosa Beach, will be on the Title IV Disciplinary Canons Committee.
The Rev. Yein Kim, clergy deputy and rector of St. Alban’s Church, Los Angeles, is a member of the worship planning team for the convention, helping to bring together liturgies for daily services, including the opening and closing celebrations of Eucharist.
The two bishops of the Diocese of Los Angeles also have important roles.
Bishop John Harvey Taylor is vice-chair of the House of Bishops’ Social Justice & International Policy Committee, which “receives and proposes resolutions on social justice issues in The Episcopal Church’s dioceses beyond the United States, and the international peace and justice work of the Church, including engagement with the Anglican Communion,” according to an official listing of committees.
Bishop Suffragan Diane M. Jardine Bruce is secretary of the House of Bishops, elected to the post in 2015 and reelected in 2018 after serving as assistant secretary from 2012 to 2015. She is also an elected trustee of the Church Pension Group (CPG).
Three Southland Episcopalians have been elected as members of the nominating committee for the election of the next presiding bishop: Canon Steven Nishibayashi, member of St. Mary’s Church (Mariposa) and secretary of convention for the Diocese of Los Angeles; the Rev. Antonio Gallardo, alternate clergy deputy and priest-in-charge of St. Luke’s Church, La Crescenta; and Thomas Diaz, first-time alternate deputy and a staff member at All Saints Church, Pasadena. Nishibayashi, a member of the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council, was one of two lay candidates elected on the first ballot, cast electronically on June 8. Gallardo was elected on the fourth clergy ballot. Diaz was elected on the sixth and final ballot. (Full roster of this committee is here.)
General Convention’s 80th triennial meeting was originally scheduled for this summer, but church leaders, concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic, postponed it to 2022. The 81st General Convention will be held in 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky, as originally scheduled.
Each General Convention draws some 10,000 people – deputies, bishops, exhibitors, volunteers and visitors, plus delegates to the concurrent Women’s Triennial meeting – to its host city for about three days of pre-convention committee work and eight days of hearings and legislative sessions.
Committees will be expected to do considerable work through online means in the six months before the convention meetings in Baltimore, according to President Jennings.
Additional lay alternate deputies from the Diocese of Los Angeles are: Ivan Gutierrez (first alternate); Canon Andy Tomat, treasurer of the diocese; and Alan Herendich.
Other alternate clergy deputies are: the Rev. Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang, vicar of St. Thomas’ Church, Hacienda Heights (first alternate); the Rev. Canon Kelli-Grace Kurtz, rector of All Saints’ Church, Riverside; and the Rev. Guy Leemhuis, deacon at Holy Faith Church, Inglewood.