Is Israel’s brutal counterinsurgency in Gaza an act of genocide? Is Israel an apartheid state? It depends on whom you ask and where they stand. This week in Louisville, at the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church, we debated these two words all week, in hallways and over meals. I have my views, and […]
It’s hard to read the raw statistics without cringing. Sixty percent of the U.S. population is white but just 30% of those in federal prison. Just over 12% of us are people of African descent compared to nearly 35% of prisoners. People don’t vary according to race in their moral and ethical capacity, although I […]
When a Union general proclaimed in Galveston 159 years ago today that the enslaved people of Texas were at last to be considered free people, the Civil War was over. The so-called confederacy had ceased to be. But in the depths of Texas, which had entered the Union just 20 years before under the banner […]
If every person encloses a universe, behold the multiverse of today’s LA Pride parade route in Hollywood. A hundred thousand came to the 54th annual parade, organizers predicted. LGBTQIA+? PFLAG? Supportive? Curious? Wanting to be entertained? You’d have to ask everyone. I would have liked to. This afternoon I rode in splendor on the back […]
Siblings in Christ – fellow friends in Chet – on behalf of a grateful diocese, I offer blessings and thanks to the Program Group on Black Ministry and the H. Belfield Hannibal Union of Black Episcopalians for getting Chet and April back to the Cathedral, for getting Canon Dr. Chas Cheatham back out of Atlanta, […]
At festive grand opening ceremonies on Monday for the Santa Angelina Apartments in Placentia, 64 units of affordable and permanent supportive housing for seniors, my heart was full thinking about all our partners but especially the risk-taking, love-spreading people of the Episcopal Church of the Blessed Sacrament. Because while church people are famously averse to […]
You may remember it from our conversation yesterday, when Dr. Kathy Wilder was helping us with conflict management. Jamie, vicar of The Church of the Epiphany in Oak Park, stood up and talked about the holy space that exists between stimulus and response. We absorb that thoughtless comment, that shaming email, that belittling criticism. We’re […]
Actor and activist Edward James Olmos has known the Rev. Richard Estrada and the late Canon Lydia Lopez for years. Born in east Whittier, Lydia marched for Chicano and farmworker rights and fought to keep insurance companies and transit officials from disadvantaging Hispanic neighborhoods. She also helped form two generations of ordained clergy in the […]
As a bishop in The Episcopal Church, I grieve the harsh language about our trans siblings contained in the Vatican’s new declaration entitled “Dignitas Infinita.” For their own sake, people should undertake gender transition only after deep, careful discernment. But by now most of us have relatives and friends who have achieved a measure of […]
Some 40 lay and ordained leaders representing 13 Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles missions and parishes spent two days walking the New Camino this weekend at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park, learning from experts all over the country how to do Hispanic ministry without necessarily speaking a word of Spanish. Sponsored by the diocesan Program […]
