The Holy Spirit keeps bringing me back to Huntington Park and lively, welcoming St. Clement of Rome Episcopal Church. Bishops’ visitations here feature dozens of confirmation candidates, sometimes with baptisms thrown in — okay, 13 baptisms last March, to be precise, plus three dozen first communions. Once they invited me for Mother’s Day, a Sunday of 200 hugs and pictures I’ll remember forever. When the parish hall was being used one night last year for a community event, a member and teenaged boy were injured in a shooting. The member, Berta, who put herself in the line of fire, is my hero forever. After that, I visited to check to see how everyone was doing.
Today, it was just because. My visitation schedule ends in early July, when we ordain and consecrate the eighth bishop of Los Angeles, Antonio José Gallardo Lucena. I picked my last round of churches and made a point to add St. Clement’s. I preached and presided this morning at the Spanish language mass. Because we had to rearrange some dates, there was only a week to plan, so we only had one confirmation, Mia Danya Ojeda. Over 80 were in church, including my hero, Berta, and her husband, Francisco, who assured me all is well. They offered me a group hug.
It occurred to me today that one of the draws at St. Clement’s is the irresistible smile and energy of the long-time vicar, the Rev. Santos Flores. Besides being a brilliant priest and pastor, he’s a gourmet cook. Today after church, we had four entrée choices. He went to each table and took orders. He does this almost every Sunday, staying up late cooking Saturday night. He told me he cooks Mediterranean, Mexican, Italian, and French.
Santos turns 72 in April but will petition, with his Bishop’s Committee, to continue as priest in charge on a year-to-year basis, as the canons of the church permit. I checked with both his spouse, Angelina, and daughter Damaris Medina, a hospice worker and the devoted and endlessly patient parish photographer. Both assured me that Santos’s ministry keeps him young and promised to let the diocese know if they thought we were taking advantage. His son Jose, who has also supported his father’s ministry all his life, was briefly aboard before heading to Messiah Episcopal Church in Santa Ana, where he is serving an internship year as he discerns his own call to leadership in the church.
Senior warden Eleuterio Hernandez and his spouse, Laura, served as my gracious chaplains. Forty members came up for blessings before Holy Eucharist. After church, Damaris set up her magic iPad device for another round of family and individual photos. Knowing it was my last visit before retirement made my heart full.
At lunch, over my choice of pollo asado, I sat with Angelina and Diego, a construction worker and volunteer minister who ran audio during the service. He and his spouse have four children, the eldest an undergrad at Cal State Long Beach. I mentioned how pleased I was that the Bishop’s Committee continues to support Santos’s ministry to kids in the neighborhood who are at risk from gangs.
Diego confirmed what Santos and others experts say. Almost all the adults in the church’s neighborhood have to work long hours, some at two or three jobs. Some kids just don’t have enough supervision after school. One of his eldest’s best friends from childhood is at risk. Trump’s cruel, racist roundups make life even more anxious. Anyone who tells you these problems have to do with anything besides socio-economic injustice is trying to sell you something. I like what Santos and St. Clement’s are offering instead – the deathless hope of the risen Christ and the rock-solid foundation of community and extended family. Our risen Lord Jesus Christ does this. Thanks be to God.
