The Rev. Dick Belliss, his friend the Rev. Canon John Saville said Sunday in a lovely homily at his celebration of life, was a “marathon man” — in for the duration as a life-long runner but also as a cheerful pastor and prophet of God’s justice. Ninth rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Riverside, Dick was ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles by Bishop Bloy and served here his whole vocational career.
A graduate of Whittier College like Richard Nixon, Dick served at All Saints from 1969, the first year of the Nixon administration, until 1994, the year Nixon died, when Bill Clinton was president. This is not a partisan comment but an elaboration of John’s marathon metaphor. Think of all the tumult and change of those years, in politics and culture as well as in the seasons of congregants’ lives, all the counseling and reassurance, the celebrating and mourning, the teaching and gracious lending of differing perspective. What a gift to be able to hold all that as Dick did under the wing of his conscientious servant leadership.
The current All Saints rector, the Rev. Canon Kelli Grace Kurtz, made the deft decision to offer Dick’s celebration of life during regular Sunday morning worship, where she and I co-presided. Dick’s friend Rev. Canon Lynn Jaye read the gospel. The church was full, including with friends from other churches he’d served or attended such as St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Santa Clarita and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Corona.
Dick’s daughters Kathleen, an Israel-based artist, and Janet, a respiratory therapist, had kept watch with their father when he died just before Christmas and sat with their family in the front. Across the aisle was the Rev. Canon Victoria Hatch, the first woman ordained a priest in our diocese. At the reception afterward, I had a rich conversation with the Rev. Conrad Nordquist about Dick and other heaven-dwelling friends.
Joan, Dick’s wife of 61 years, died nine years ago. I first met their daughter Kathleen in 2019 when she and Kelli Grace brought Dick to see me at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park. He was picking up the rugged hand-carved staff that signifies one’s status as our oldest canonically resident priest. Kathleen and Janet returned it to me yesterday. My sacred duty is to get it into the hands of the Rev. Canon Lewis Bohler Jr., who retired in 1996 after 35 years as rector of Church of the Advent in Los Angeles. Last time I talked to Lew, he was, at 97, assisting at two churches in the Atlanta area. Road trip?
