During my chats with Canon Lydia Lopez over the years, she spoke proudly of the Orange County branch of her family and especially her niece, EvaMarie Rodriguez Morris, professor of art history at Saddleback College. In her eulogy today at Lydia’s celebration of life as All Saints Episcopal Church Pasadena, Eva did her Aunt Lil proud in return. Other speakers were Lydia’s son, Alejandro; her former spouse, Fred; and her longtime Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles friend and colleague Canon Bob Williams. The Rev. Will Wauters (who, in his native Asbury Park, N.J., used to play pool with Bruce Springsteen) lifted the rafters with a homily about Lydia’s justice work, especially on behalf of the United Farm Workers, and decades of community organizing. The Rev. Mary Moreno Richardson and the Rev. Alfredo Feregrino were gospelers. The Rev. Richard Estrada and the Rev. Jose Garcia represented her beloved Church of the Epiphany, Los Angeles; her friend the Rev. Canon Thomas Carey, Epiphany’s former vicar, came all the way back from New York. The All Saints rector, the Rev. Mike Kinman, bade us welcome, and I celebrated Holy Eucharist, which had sustained Lydia in all her labors building up Christ’s kingdom of love and justice.
