Home was the theme of Monday’s gala dedication ceremonies at St. Michael’s Riverside Episcopal Ministry Center for St. Michael’s Apartments, 50 units of permanent supportive housing, the first such project of many in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, which is pledged to build affordable housing on 25% of our 133 church campuses.
The home it used to be for indigenous people, as the Rev. Canon Kelli Grace Kurtz, a strenuous advocate for the project, told us in her land acknowledgement. St. Michael’s stalwart Singing Bird, famed plains dancer Johnny Chacon, and other indigenous neighbors framed the ceremony with music and dance, echoes from homes seized and lost.
Homes found by our new neighbors, with all 50 units rented.
The home St. Michael’s has been in recent years for the food insecure, the housing insecure, and for all who seek the Risen Christ at the eucharistic and fellowship tables each Thursday morning.
The test home for the 21st century church that St. Michael’s is becoming under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Mary Crist, whom Bishop Bruno sent here 12 years ago to do something amazing if not fully revealed (until Monday!) to glorify God and care for God’s people.
