Gracious and loving God, for 75 years of HFS Adoption & Foster Care, for the 75 adoptee stories we’re collecting this anniversary year, and for 75×75 lives transformed in ways we’ll never fully know —
For Bob and Dolores Hope’s founding vision, for Bishop Jon Bruno’s transformational welcome home, and for the devoted leadership of Marianne, Julie, and all our volunteers and staff —
For 7000 children placed in forever homes, for HFS’s now-prevailing vision of families that resemble the glorious diversity of the face of God, and for the gift of trust reposed in HFS by all who come through our doors in the most vulnerable moments of their lives —
For all our benefactors past, present and future, for all gathered tonight in joyful celebration, for the meal you lay before us, for the holy eucharist of our tenderest relationships, and for the feast of love you have prepared for us all at the foot of the holy mountain —
Gracious and loving God, for all these things and for all our other blessings, we pour ourselves out to you in thanksgiving. In the name of the risen Christ, who has adopted and placed us every one. Amen.
— My invocation at last night’s 75th anniversary gala for HFS, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles since 2007. We honored Bishop Bruno, who gave Holy Family a new home so that it could work with adoptive parents without regard to their sexual orientation; longtime supporters The California Endowment and Dr. Robert Ross of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church – Altadena, CA, who told a moving story about his adoptive daughter, Savannah; and the Mozilo Family Foundation.
