

Even as skies lowered, promising rain and threatening mudslides, hope arose this holy Saturday in the aftermath of the Eaton fire.
In conjunction with nearby Vintage Church, All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena offered a legal clinic for wildfire victims, especially those who’ve lost their homes, to help with FEMA, insurance, and temporary housing issues. It was all organized by the large-hearted Jeff Baker, an Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles chancellor, Pepperdine University associate law school dean and professor, and novelist. Jeff blew on his trusty legal eagle ram’s horn and gathered 80 attorneys and law students for one-on-one meetings with victims, just a few of them parish members.
After thanking Jeff and his colleagues, I headed north to the Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church campus in Altadena, where fire destroyed everything but the new St. Mark’s School preschool building. It was my first visit since Jan. 8. The neighborhood hadn’t needed another lookie-loo. While the streets are relatively quiet now given that it’s a disaster area, all along North Lake, volunteers and officials are still providing for those in need. The devastation, all the lost shelter and employment, the beloved homes and favorite haunts, is impossible to take in. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Also visiting the church campus on Altadena Dr. were a parish family as well as a member of a neighboring church who expressed his kind condolences.
Overlooking the patio where students had their lunch, I sat and said noonday prayer.
I prayed for all who lost their homes and for the neighbors in Altadena who lost their lives, in some cases because the warning to evacuate came too late or not at all.
I talked to our God in Christ about all the St. Mark’s weddings and funerals, baptisms and confirmations, laughter and tears, music and prayer, all the beautiful sounds frozen in the remains, ringing forever in God’s ear.
I gave thanks for the Rev. Carri Grindon, the rector, and her fellow parish leaders and members, who, by the grace of God, are precisely those whom St. Mark’s needs for the ministries of reflection, recovery, and rebuilding.
I gave thanks for the hospitality of the Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton at St. Mark’s’ Church’s temporary home at St. Barnabas Eagle Rock, and for the Rev. Jeffrey Stoller Thornberg and his colleagues at The Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, who have cheerfully made room for St. Mark’s students.
“Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, ‘Peace I give to you; my own peace I leave with you.’ Regard not our sins, but the faith of your Church, and give to us the peace and unity of that heavenly City, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, now and for ever. Amen.”


