When I visited St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Buena Park in 2018, I took a picture of Jordyn as she handed me a piece of cake. The Rev. Canon Mary P. Trainor looked on. We re-created the scene Tuesday night with the Rev. Dr. Cindy Voien, Mary’s successor as vicar. Now 15, Jordyn completed the process by once again giving me a piece of cake. It was a joy to get to know her and her devoted grandmother, Helen, a little better.The occasion was a wonderful retirement dinner hosted by Cindy and her folks. Parish administrator Christine Hentz had helped see to every detail. Among other treasures, they gave me a Padres cap and tacit permission to root for San Diego after Kathy and I hit town in July. This is relatively easy grace coming from an Angels-loving Orange County congregation that sings hallelujah when the Padres beat the Dodgers. But whatever they say about it, I’m going to keep my cap. Though he made his share of mistakes, my old boss Richard Nixon got it right when he said you have to root for the home team — unless you move to San Francisco.
Other gifts included an au revoir song to the tune of “Danny Boy” and kind remarks from Cindy that I’ll long treasure. Over a delicious Italian dinner, she told me she fell in love with philosophy when a friend at UCLA suggested she take a class. She got her Ph.D and taught at Whittier College. The St. Joseph’s vicar since 2022, Cindy expertly oversaw the planning, construction, and opening of the Orchard Garden Apartments, 66 units of affordable and permanent supportive housing. Two apartment residents were along for dinner.
At the tables during dinner, I solicited retirement advice, heard sea stories from church members who married into the Navy, and affirmed the view of Belizean American friends that Marie Sharp’s is the world’s best hot sauce. Kathleen Najarian, the church musician, who also taught at the collegiate level before retirement, still serves as a consultant to advanced pianists. Over 35 years ago, as director of the Nixon library, I launched a free concert series in which Kathleen has performed, using the Steinway B grand that Roger Williams gave us.
In my remarks, I thanked everyone for their ministry in the spirit of the hospitality, courage, and curiosity of their patron saint. Small churches that are full of the spirit like St. Joseph’s find that our God in Christ will show the way through anxiety about numbers and budgets. By welcoming neighbors they’d never met, St. Joseph’s added a sturdy plank to their financial foundation. Meanwhile, the church that feels like a family is the best kind of scandal when power tries to win by ripping us apart. After all, according to holy scripture, when tyranny drove Joseph and his little family into exile, there were only three of them.
