Members of St. Andrew’s Church, Irvine, celebrate as convention votes to affirm their move from mission to parish status. Photo: Mostyn Trudinger-Smith
[The Episcopal News] Bishop John Harvey Taylor called upon the 129th annual meeting of the Diocese of Los Angeles to exercise “EI,” Episcopal identity, “to do our chaplaincy of love in a secularizing world” and a post-election culture in crisis Nov. 9 at the Riverside Convention Center.
Amid applause, cheers, shouts of “yeah” and “Amen”, Taylor welcomed hundreds of lay and clergy delegates, exhibitors, guests and visitors to “Inside Out Church: Episcopal Identity in Our Neighborhood.” He noted that communities and neighbors outside need “the Episcopal values of love and justice in action” experienced inside churches. “We’ve cornered the market on the balm in Gilead our neighbors need – they just don’t know it yet,” he said.
The Rev. Carter Heyward, one of the Philadelphia Eleven, the first women ordained in The Episcopal Church July 29, 1974, joined convention’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of that day, which included a Nov. 8 screening of the documentary film about their ground-breaking efforts.
Heyward, as keynote speaker, recalled “those energizing and stressful times of 50 years ago. Times that were so very hard in ways and so exhilarating in other ways. [It] makes me feel both deeply grateful and very angry, terribly sad, but also quite accepting of what was sometimes just plain bone weary and other times, like now, firing me up and making me ready to go.”
A sea of women clergy, wearing red to mark the occasion, processed into the convention hall at the start of the all-female-led opening Eucharist. In her sermon, the Rev. Norma Guerra issued a spirited charge to convention to stand with those facing uncertain futures in the wake of the recent contentious national election. (See related story.)
Delegates also unanimously supported St. Andrew’s Church, Irvine, in its move from mission to parish status; approved a $5.1 million Mission Share Fund (MSF) budget; renewed a three-year companion relationship with the Diocese of Jerusalem; and honored Canon Janet Kawamoto, editor of The Episcopal News, who will retire at the end of the month after 22 years on the diocesan staff.
At a Friday, Nov. 8 celebratory dinner. Taylor also named three honorary Canons of the diocese: Marge Cooley, head of the diocesan Altar Guild; the Rev. Richard Estrada, founder of Boyle Heights-based Jovenes Inc., which aids homeless youth; and the Very Rev. Kay Sylvester, dean of Deanery 9 and rector of St. Paul’s Church in Tustin.
The livestreamed Nov. 9 business meeting of convention, along with several convention videos, Heyward’s keynote address and the Rev. Norma Guerra’s sermon will be posted soon on the diocese’s YouTube channel.
Bishop’s Address
In the spirit of “Inside Out Church,” delegates, responding to Taylor’s address, approved a resolution “claiming the evangelical authority of Episcopal identity and our baptismal promise to respect the dignity of every human being” and establishing working groups to focus on the “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” of incarcerated people and those living in residential care facilities.
Invoking a traditional bible study, Taylor recalled Jesus’ stilling of stormy waves (Mark 4:35-41) and charted a course for a similar non-anxious, faith-filled presence amid the challenges the Nov. 5 election poses for LGBTQ+, immigrant and refugee, people of color and housing-, economically- and food-insecure communities.
“This week, baptized by ballots, pummeled by pundits, yet soaked in the love of our God in Christ, we’ve come together to signify our ordination and consecration – every one of us,” Taylor said. “We’ve come back down to the riverside to claim the transformative power of our Anglican and Episcopal ethos – the values of love, peace and justice at the core of our faith and practice,” he said.
“However the world wearies us, however politics pique us, amazing Episcopalians keep doing what we do – glorifying God and caring for God’s people,” he said.
“Our politics right now – our divisions – the temptation to reckon the neighbors we are commanded to love as strangers – these are harbingers of the spiraling culture that we could become, perhaps even that has come to be,” Taylor said. “If we people of active faith are to make a difference in these settings, if we are to be peace-sowing, imperturbable chaplains in these times, we have to quiet our fear of the gathering storm and believe in the saving power of God’s love. We’re all in the boat together.”
Episcopalians are empowered to “tell our stories about God’s deathless love … and put on our chaplain vestments – our kindness, our courage, our curiosity, maybe even a little touch of our righteous anger, and go forth in the world and care for our fellow passengers, wherever we are, wherever they are. So that the storms that rage all around us will die down just a little, the seas will be calmer, and we will have been miracle workers, just like Jesus.”
Taylor also shared lessons learned from a visit earlier this year to the Diocese of Taiwan, with which the 2023 convention affirmed a companion relationship. “The occasion was the 70th anniversary of the diocese’s founding, which occurred nine years after the Japanese Anglican Church vacated its premises at the end of World War II, and five years after Taiwan became a haven for China’s anti-communists,” Taylor said.
Taylor, accompanied by the Diocese of L.A. priests Hsin-Fen “Fennie” Chang, Katherine Feng and Thomas Ni, who exercise Chinese language ministry, visited 11 of the Taiwan diocese’s 15 churches and two mission congregations, he said. Among the lessons learned was that Taiwanese churches feel about 70 members is an ideal congregational size.
“When people come to church, they want to know everyone, and they want everyone to know them. They want it to feel like family,” Taylor said.
Visits to churches with large schools and others with active ministries to older people in their neighborhoods, almost none of whom were Christian, yielded another lesson: “The churches understand that they are chaplains to their communities, without regard to faith, with regard only to their shared humanity,” Taylor said. Extending the stormy sea metaphor, he added, “The largest cohorts they serve are Gentiles, outside the walls of their churches – on the other side of the lake.”
Such ministries are reminiscent of Diocese of Los Angeles outreach: the millions of meals served yearly at churches; the work carried out by Seeds of Hope, the diocesan food justice ministry; and three congregations so far – St. Michael’s, Riverside, Blessed Sacrament, Placentia, and St. Joseph’s, Buena Park – that have built affordable housing for their neighbors, he said.
Another parish, St. Ambrose in Claremont, “we pray, is on the verge of completing its ground lease for a housing project. Three more have approved memoranda of understanding from the Corporation of the Diocese. And 12 more are actively working with the Rev. Michael Bell to try to get housing projects underway.” If all bear fruit, “we’d be nearly two-thirds of the way to our goal of building housing on 25% of our campuses and giving four- to five thousand of our neighbors places to lay their heads,” he said amid hearty applause.
The third lesson from Taiwan, “is that there is always work to do in the public square, in the shadow of great events, with the parish as a base camp,” he said.
St. Andrew’s, Irvine, moves to parish status
Some 40 members of St. Andrew’s Church in Irvine processed into the convention hall singing a stylized version of “I sing a song of the saints of God’ and waving streamers to cheers, applause and a standing ovation after convention delegates unanimously approved the mission church’s move to parish status.
The Rev. Peter Browning, St. Andrew’s rector, thanked Taylor and diocesan staff for their support, adding that some founding members of the church were present. “It’s been a long time,” he said. “We have loved; we have sought to do God’s will, and we will continue. We thank all of you for supporting us.”
Bishop’s warden – now Senior Warden Kathy Cartelli also thanked diocesan staff and recalled how the church began in a classroom in 1974. “We didn’t think it would actually take this long to become a parish. We’ve had our ups and downs, and due to the hard work of past and present bishop’s committees, members, past and present clergy, past and present bishops and diocesan staff, we’re here today.”
The Very Rev. Gary Hall, chair of the diocesan Program Group on Mission Congregations, spoke in “wholehearted” support of the move. “This is the second year in a row in which we have approved a mission to parish status,” he said.
“This past year was St. James, Newport Beach. This doesn’t happen every year. We rejoice in this process and in this moment … (but) we no longer think of parish status as the end [goal] of all mission congregations. Missions continue to bring wonderful, prophetic, pastoral, local ministry in all kinds of institutional platforms.”
2025 budget highlights: uncertainty for refugees; a boost for children’s and youth formation
Delegates unanimously approved a 2025 MSF budget, presented by Canon Andy Tomat, diocesan volunteer treasurer, which assumes $5.1 million in assessment income from churches, and about $300,000 of expenses in connection with the anticipated 2025 election of the next bishop. Taylor has announced his intention to retire in 2026 and has called for the election of a coadjutor at the 2025 diocesan convention.
Tomat also highlighted “a significantly increased focus on children and youth formation for 2025, including the addition of Missy Morain as diocesan missioner for Christian Formation of Children and Youth, funded by a $1.2 million Lilly Foundation grant for children’s and youth ministries.
The budget also provides for a $70,000 commitment to aid Camp Stevens’ development of a strategic plan for future sustainability. Allocations for campus ministries increased by roughly 33%, from $76,000 in 2024 to $101,000 in 2025. Grants were increased for Native American and Hispanic ministries but reduced for other culturally based ministries. A narrative explanation of the budget distributed at convention is available here.
Tomat cited the uncertain impact of the recent election on such federally grant-funded diocesan programs as IRIS, the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service. Initiatives in 2024 included creation of the Joint Budget Committee, the 12% Assessment Review Committee, and the One Body & One Spirit fund for church emergencies. Eleven parishes were granted assessment relief in 2024, Tomat said.
Other budget highlights included:
- Creation of task forces on endowment and real estate;
- New affordable housing projects
- The 2024 addition of the Rev. Michael Bell as director of Affordable Housing and Business Development for Episcopal Communities and Services
- The need for a development office and for a staff position to assess best use of church properties.
Other convention business
In other convention business, delegates also heard reports from the Los Angeles deputation to the 81st General Convention held June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky; approved a resolution to continue a three-year companion relationship with the Diocese of Jerusalem; elected lay and clergy representatives to diocesan offices; honored retiring clergy; and contributed via the “Parkers” funds for those impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton through donations to Episcopal Relief and Development.