Massachusetts-born, Red Sox-rooting rector of St. Andrew & St. Charles Episcopal Church in Granada Hills for 32 years, which is to say nearly two generations, which means he now baptizes the babies of babies he baptized, the Rev. Canon Greg Frost is retiring come the feast of the Nativity.
When I visited on Sunday, I again experienced the spirit of welcome he has modeled for his people, making it the kind of parish you would probably want to attend, as well as the anxiety that comes from thinking about his retirement and wondering if the church they love will be the same.
After services, after Kate’s homemade blueberry scones at the reception in the parish hall, Greg hosted the vestry and me for lunch at the rectory he shares with his spouse, Janice, a retired medical executive. We talked about the anxiety, which is natural, and then gave ourselves permission to talk about anticipation. When we are in the Resurrection, all things are being made new, even things which we’d rather never changed. What does our God in Christ have in store? How has the Holy Spirit, through the medium of Fr. Greg’s cheerful, devoted leadership, already sown the seeds of an abundant season to to come?
The coming transition made it a rich Fathers Day indeed, especially with some Juneteenth reflections thrown in. It helped to have Jesus’s parables about fields and trees that feed multitudes growing from tiny seeds. Read that as small acts of kindness and grace building up great families and institutions.
Longtime member Pete Boone, whom I’d gotten to know when I visited two years ago, happened to be back in church this week, with both his daughters, after several months away recuperating from an injury. Long retired from his rectorship in Lancaster but aboard most Sundays with his retired educator spouse, Susan, the Rev. Phil Strange spells Greg in the pulpit from time to time. My chaplain was the junior warden, Joaquin Atwood-Ward, a medievalist-turned-high school history teacher whose father, David S. Ward, wrote “The Sting” for Newman and Redford. David now teaches at Chapman University. Veteran member and now parish administrator Marsha Van Valkenburg is sowing the seeds of her insights and experience as a member of Diocesan Council. Devoted parish treasurer and engineer David Gundrum reports that the name of his father, the Rev. Canon James Gundrum, as a former secretary of General Convention, appears as the authorizing party in many editions of the hymnal and prayer book.
So many sowers sowing so many seeds — and now eight more, the cohort whom the Holy Spirit confirmed or received in The Episcopal Church during our service of Holy Eucharist, among them Jet, elder grandson of my old friends from St John Chrysostom Church, Monte and Robin Kessler Nelson. I had baptized Jet as a baby. Go figure. It was Fathers Day, Fr. Greg’s last Fathers Day at this wonderful church before moving to far Simi Valley, and all I could see were mustard seeds and mustard trees everywhere.
