Briefing on Missions to the Taiwan delegation

Our visitors from the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan and we share anxiety about political factors largely beyond our control. In varying degrees, Taiwan’s people worry about threats from mainland China, including the possibility of invasion. In the United States, immigrant workers, including many who attend our churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, and […]

Daily prayer: Gathering

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions […]

Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel, hosting the Taiwan delegation

When Fennie, Katherine, Thomas, and I visited the city of Taichung, on Taiwan’s west coast, during our visit last September, we got a morning tour of St. James Episcopal Church and School from its beloved rector, the Rev. Lily Chang. This was right after kids arrived for the day. It was just like drop-off here […]

Welcome dinner for the Taiwan delegation

When President Nixon began the process of normalizing relations with the Peoples Republic of China in 1972, he hoped we could continue to maintain our friendship with the people of Taiwan. Nowadays, when people say “China,” they usually mean the mainland. Taiwan has been pushed to the margins in the political conversation. Yet when Fennie, […]

Welcoming the Taiwan delegation

My scrapbook from the first hours of the 10-day pilgrimage of Hannah and the Rt. Rev. Lennon Yuan-rung Chang and their colleagues from the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan, including two priests and several missionaries from Malaysia. The Revs. Dr. Fennie Hsin-Fen Chang and Thomas Ni and I met the delegation at the airport, and the […]

Visiting Vince Mazzuchelli

Love made Vince Mazzuchelli a calligrapher. He first turned the words of scripture into fine art in the 1970s, he said, during The Episcopal Church’s arguments over the new prayer book and women’s ordination. Vince was in favor of reforming the church he loved to make sure that all were included. For his first work, […]

Guibord Center: ‘We Are the Light’

Our nation’s personality is being chemically altered. Someone has ordered us a heart transplant, and we don’t recognize the provenance of the new organ. The light of liberty and justice for all, streaming from the imperfect though earnest work of the founders, the light of the American dream – it’s been wired to a dimmer […]

Christian responsibility in difficult times

My colleagues in Christ, I’d like to devote my time, and perhaps a few minutes extra, to exploring the likelihood that the cruel road the Trump administration is following will bring our neighborhoods and our nation to the brink of a catastrophe that will demand a strenuous prophetic and pastoral response from the church of […]

In the Key of Heart

Canon Kathy Hannigan O’Connor believed in the idea of having my portrait painted long before I did. My reaction was that the first six guys actually looked like bishops. I couldn’t quite imagine sharing their wall space. She was gentle and gracious, but she insisted that we were going to do it, and so we […]