1. Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

2. As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

3. After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

4. Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

5. In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

Resume

Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

 

All my life I have known that I have been called to serve God in Christ in God’s Church. Early in my life, as a Roman Catholic woman, this call manifested itself as a call to become a nun. A fateful first kiss dashed hopes of answering that call, as my sense of call was clouded with thoughts of marriage and family. It was painful to feel called to serve, but not feel that I was able to do so.

In my junior year studying Linguistics at UC Berkeley, I took a series of tests at the Education Center designed to tell you what you should be when you “grow up”. The counselor told me, “The first thing the tests indicate is that you should be a priest; the second, a banker.” I looked at her, angry and dismayed: “I’m a Roman Catholic woman. I can’t be a priest. I can’t be a nun because I’m engaged to be married. And I can’t add two and two – I could never be a banker. This has been such a waste of my time.” I stormed out of her office, heartbroken.

I became an Episcopalian in 1986, having attended one service. The Episcopal Church kept the best of what I loved about being a Roman Catholic but did not include in its polity the things that always bothered me about the Roman Catholic Church. I truly felt as though I had “come home.”

One day shortly thereafter, I was driving home from a service where a woman had just celebrated the Eucharist. Suddenly I felt as though an elephant was standing on my chest – I couldn’t catch my breath. Having recently given birth, I feared that I might have a fatal blood clot. I pulled the car over to the side of the road. I turned off the engine, thinking if I was dying, I didn’t want to kill anyone else with the car. My life began going across my windshield like a video: I felt that early call to serve. I saw that first kiss. I saw the woman in the Education Center and her words which I had forgotten! I thought to myself, barely breathing – “Holy Moley -- I’m a banker! Holy Moley – I’m in a place where I could be a priest.” The face of the woman who had just celebrated the Eucharist was in front of me – and then her face became my face. A booming voice in the car asked me, “When are you going to stop running and say yes to me?” I managed to get out a little “okay”. In that moment the elephant left my chest. My legs felt as though they were Jell-O, and it took about 45 minutes for me to compose myself enough to drive home. Having left a newborn at home with my husband Steve, and it being well past her nursing time, Steve came running out to the car with our screaming daughter.

“Where were you, are you okay – what happened?” he asked me.

“What if I told you I have to be a priest?” I asked him.

“As long as you don’t have to take a vow of chastity, it’s fine with me,” was his response.

For more than two years after that incredible day, Christian education, daily prayer and regular worship fostered and deepened this call. My understanding of this call became deepened within me through prayer and reflection, and was echoed by those in the parish discernment committee. I was ordained to the Transitional Diaconate in 1997 and to the Priesthood in 1998. My husband Stephen has been a strong support through all the years of my discernment, ordination and ministry.

In the past few years I have found myself in the position of being nominated for Bishop several times. Each time (save one) I said, “No, thank you.” I did respond to one search half-heartedly, even though I did not necessarily feel called.

When the call for the election of two Suffragan Bishops in the Diocese of Los Angeles was made, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who approached me asking if they could nominate me when the time came. “No, thank you” was my typical response. As this went on, I started to become almost rigid when approached. One person grabbed me by the arms and said to me, “Diane, you need to stop saying no. You need to bring this to prayer before you say no.” Bring it to prayer I did.

All through Advent and Christmas, I prayed. I took this with me to the Holy Land early this year. As this was a clergy familiarization pilgrimage, I was surrounded by my fellow brother and sister clergy. It was a wonderfully prayerful time. Our first day at the top of Mt. Tabor we were asked to look at what needed transfiguring or transforming in our lives and to bring that to the foot of the cross near the end of the pilgrimage. I prayed intently about this very different call all week. At the foot of the cross I laid it down. What came back in prayer was this: “Diane, this isn’t about you and what you want to do. This is about answering ‘yes’ and engaging the process. This is about understanding that call doesn’t always come from within.”

All my life I have known that I have been called to serve God in Christ in God’s Church. Sometimes it takes God stopping me in my tracks, as in my car that day to make me listen. While I have known surely about my call to the priesthood from within me, I have come to understand that I have been and am being called out by my peers and by laity around me in the Diocese of Los Angeles. I have come to understand that I blocked my ability to sense and see this call which has been reflected back to me so powerfully by those around me. Through prayer and reflection, I have now come to understand this call to the episcopate in the Diocese of Los Angeles from within as well as outside myself, and I am now ready, wholeheartedly and prayerfully, to answer yes! to this new call.

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As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

Throughout my adult life I have worked in ethnically and economically diverse settings. My ministry in this area began long before I was ordained. At my first job (at what was then Crocker Bank) I was the supervisor of a group in which I was the only Anglo, female, native English-speaking Christian. No one spoke to each other—in fact they hated each other -- and everyone worked on their own. I re-divided the work load and created teams of people who had to learn to work together to keep from failing. Monthly potlucks where people were to bring typical dishes from their country of origin proved to be a great “ice breaker” with this group. By the end of my few years there, not only did the individuals in the group get along with each other and perform their jobs well, they were frequently looked at as management material because of their ability to work cooperatively. I felt at home in this diverse group of people, and was enriched by the experience of learning about their languages and customs.

Working under Brad Karelius at the Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana while I was a Ministry Study Year student and later, after ordination, I felt as though I had “come home” to a community which was diverse ethnically and economically. I was active in all aspects of ministry at the Church of the Messiah, including the Hispanic Ministry. I am most proud of helping to write a grant for starting a day care center and pre-school for low income families in Santa Ana – Hands Together: A Center for Children.

At St. Clement’s by-the-Sea I pastor in a mixed Latino/Anglo neighborhood. Next to million-dollar homes near the beach are buildings with two or three families sharing one small apartment. We offer three services every Sunday: two in English and one in Spanish. I minister to a group ranging from the very wealthy to the very poor. I am most proud of having helped start the Peaceful Warrior Tae Kwon Do Academy for at-risk youth in the neighborhood.

My language skills (Spanish as well as some Mandarin and Cantonese) and cultural sensitivity have helped me minister to a broad community and to honor differences, including worship styles and pastoral needs. I am able to be present with and minister to the rich and the poor, as well as to listen to and learn from people of different cultural backgrounds. I am at ease with all people and am able to put them at ease. I am also able to identify or participate in identifying needs in the community and work with the congregation and other non-profit and government agencies to help meet those needs.

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After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world? Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

Christ’s arms are wide enough to include all. I worked hard before General Convention 2003 to make sure my economically, culturally and theologically diverse community stayed together – and we did. We not only stayed together, we grew -- and we continue to grow. A challenge for the Diocese, the National Church and the Anglican Communion, is to continue to be welcoming and open. We as the Episcopal Church have had a long history of living together with differing views and opinions. It is one of the reasons that I was, and remain, so attracted to Anglicanism.

Another challenge our Diocese faces is the economic crisis not only in America, but around the globe. My work as a banker for 17 years has prepared me well to lead my parish and others in the economic challenges we face. Through open communication, teaching, and preaching, I was able, with the help of the vestry, to turn around a financially troubled parish. We were also able to grow our outreach budget and our Mission Share Fund pledge, which is crucial in these days to meet the growing needs not only in our community, the Diocese, the National Church, but also globally. It takes creative thought, teamwork, prayer, and living with a sense of abundance in our lives to meet these challenging times in order to ensure mission, ministry and programming continue, and that new ministry initiatives are nurtured and funded.

We are in a world that is changing. Keeping with the Anglican tradition, we must be able to deliver the good news of God in Christ in the vernacular of the people. In the 16th century it was translating the liturgy/Bible into English. In this century, it is not only utilizing the internet but also exploring alternative ways and venues to deliver the good news. The work of the emergent Church is helpful in this regard and is part of my doctoral thesis.

In the midst of any change varied attributes are needed by leaders in a faith community: a strong prayer life; a calm presence; a listening heart; an open and transparent communication style; a desire to coach and teach; the ability to involve the people affected in making decisions; the willingness to speak the truth in love; and a good sense of humor. A Bishop Suffragan must be able to work collaboratively with the Diocesan, the other Bishop Suffragan, Diocesan Staff and Congregations, helping to live into the vision for the Diocese. Leaders in today’s Church must be flexible in their management style and available to those who need them. They must also be willing to sit and listen, finding where the people are, where the Spirit is moving, and to respond. My years in management in banking, my training under a strong mentor in a multi-cultural, economically diverse parish (Messiah, Santa Ana) and my successful turn-around of a troubled parish have honed all these skills in me.

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Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

I am a high-energy person who loves Jesus Christ, all God’s people and God’s creation. In terms of the intersection of my passions, skills, interests and gifts:

• My pastoral, managerial and financial skills helped me to effectively turn around and grow a parish that was struggling not only with an aging membership, but with financial problems due to prior sexual and financial misconduct.

• I love to preach and teach, not only to offer the good news, bringing people closer to God, but to raise awareness of the varied and deep needs of this community and world. My current focus is on “going green”, with St. Clement’s being more conscious of the footprint we are leaving on the earth.

• I love technology and built the parish website as well as the weekly email blast and parish blog, which have been well received within and outside the parish.

• The beautiful liturgies in the Book of Common Prayer are celebrated each Sunday and Holy Day. Developing liturgies for alternative services has been a great creative outlet not only for me, but for members of the worship team, and they have been popular at the parish. To this end, my D.Min. focus is on the use of creative liturgies and their effect on church growth.

• My network of colleagues within the Diocese as well as those scattered across the United States has been helpful in connecting people in need as well as serving as mutual sounding boards for ideas. This has also been true among my clergy friends in other denominations.

• Reconciliation has been a passion of mine even before being trained by Brian Cox. It helped me keep St. Clement’s together when other parishes were having problems before and after General Convention 2003.

• Seeing the need in a community and meeting it is important in my ministry. This takes two forms: partnering with outside agencies to provide services, and working from within our own community. In terms of partnering, this has included outreach involving health care, ESL classes, affordable housing agency support, twelve-step programs, City of San Clemente community meetings, and Emeritus programs from the local Junior College. In terms of St. Clement’s, we respond with support for disasters and provide aid to Marines who are deployed and their families since 9/11 (we are located next to Camp Pendleton). We developed a successful Tae Kwon Do program for at-risk youth in the neighborhood, with referrals from the principal at the school across the street. We are told by the principal that student’s grades and focus have improved after being in our program.

I love this Diocese and feel blessed to be here, ministering and sharing my gifts and skills with members of my own parish community and with my fellow clergy and lay brothers and sisters. In this way I understand that my greatest gift as a Bishop Suffragan (should I be elected) lies in sharing myself – and my gifts -- with others.

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In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:36b-40

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-39

These words have burned in me all my life. We are to love the one who has always loved us unconditionally, and to love others as we are loved. If we love in this way, we are to care for every human being, as we all are made in the image of God. For me, this means we must work to ensure that every person, regardless of gender, race, creed or sexual orientation, has equal access to education, gainful employment, health care, housing, and live in places free of toxins in the air and in the ground, and finally – to live in peace. In addition, in the case of Christians, all the sacraments and sacramental rites of the church must be equally accessible to all. This firm belief defines and forms my ministry today.

Preaching and teaching regarding the intersection of the great love that God has for humanity and this world and the deep needs in this world are essential to raise awareness of issues and effect change in this world. Each parish has the ability to look around its community and address these fundamental needs around them. Yet, we can’t stop there. Needs in the Diocese, the nation and the world are great. Each parish has the ability to focus on one or more of these issues and to make a difference in the world. When we do so, we are loving each other as Christ loved us, and spreading the love of God in Christ throughout the world.

Preaching equality and looking at where we ourselves are not living out the gospel is important in any community. If we can’t open our arms wide and offer the love of God in Christ to all, and address the deep needs and concerns of this world, we’re not living out the gospel. When we live out the gospel, we find that there is more and more we can do, and are invited to do. When we live out the gospel, we find ourselves and our parishes energized, and our arms open even wider! We need to spread the love – and preach love. To love all as Christ loves us – not just people like us, but everyone. If we could all do this, this world of ours would be the place that God wishes it to be – a place of harmony, love, and peace. This is my passion. This is my ministry.

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Current Resume

The Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce

EDUCATION
• Seabury Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, DMin in Congregational Development in process. Working Thesis Title: U2 and Pirates and Prayers, Oh My! The use of alternative liturgies and their effect on church growth.
• Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA: MDiv, 1997
• University of California at Berkeley, BA in Linguistics, 1979

 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2000 to Present: St. Clement’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, San Clemente, Rector
Responsible for all aspects of the pastoral care, administration and growth of the parish. Work with laity to develop programs to attract new members, and to add to the current parish offerings. Work on outreach projects in San Clemente, including affordable housing initiatives and homelessness issues. Work with Education Committee to enhance Christian Education offerings at all age levels. Introduced Good Friday and Easter Vigil Services to parish, as well as new liturgies for special feast days, including St. Patrick’s Day, the Marine Corps Birthday/Veterans Day and Peace Mass in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. Created alternative
services for the first Saturday of each month. Increased the pledge base by over 75% in three years. Grew the parish from a pastoral size parish to a program size parish. Worked with laity to develop a stronger Spanish-speaking congregation. Co-founded a Tae Kwon Do program for at-risk youth in the neighborhood.

1997 to 2000: Church of the Messiah, Santa Ana: Associate Rector
Responsible for Women’s Ministry and Youth Group. Assisted with Stewardship campaigns, and all aspects of liturgy and Parish Life. Worked with the Rector and laity on developing Christian Education offerings for the parish. Assisted in grant writing to develop a child care center/preschool for the working poor.

1980 to 1997: Wells Fargo Bank (formerly Crocker Bank)
Vice President, Compensation Management and Analysis
Managed the unit responsible for analyzing profitability and administering incentive compensation programs for the Corporate and Commercial Banking Groups. Time in Position: 3 years
Assistant Vice President, Commercial Banking Credit Services
Managed and staffed the helpline for all mainframe and desk top applications. Time in Position: 2 years
Assistant Vice President, Commercial Banking Implementation Team
Responsible for conducting training and developing manuals and training materials. Time in position: 1 year
Assistant Vice President and Operations Manager/Business Analyst.
Established and managed unit responsible for supporting the Wholesale Relationship and Profitability system. Designed and conducted extensive system acceptance testing. Time in Position: 5 years

Assistant Vice President and Section Manager
Managed 3 unit managers and a staff of 30 in the Wholesale Demand Deposit Account Research Department. Time in Position: 2 years
International Banking Officer/Project Manager
Managed unit responsible for reviewing, analyzing and improving International Operations. Analyzed efficiency of each operating unit to ensure accomplishment of goals. Assisted with determining proper staffing levels, established training programs, developed operating procedures and all budgets. Time in Position: 1 year

Supervisor/Section Manager
Managed 3 supervisors and a staff of 35 in the Payment Investigations, Compensation Claims and Due From Reconcilement departments. Time in Position: 3 years

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
• Member, Diocesan Standing Committee – 2005 to 2008 (3 years as President)
• Presenter, Church Administration and Finance, Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, 2008
• Deputy (C3) to the 2009 General Convention
• Presenter, Diocesan Stewardship Events – 2001, 2008 and consultant to parishes.
• Reconciliation Team Member – 2002 to 2006.
• Board Member, Episcopal Theological School at Claremont – 2004 to 2006
• Board Member, Canterbury at the University of Southern California – 2003 to 2006
• Chaplain and Board Member, Camp Stevens -- 1998 to 2003
• Organizer and Facilitator, Dialogues on War – 2003
• Ecumenical Advisory Team Member – 2001 to 2005
• Natural Church Development Training – 2004
• Kaleidoscope Training -- 2004
• Board Member, Mary Erickson Community Housing – 2002 to 2003
• Co-Leader, New Ordinands Group through Fresh Start – 2002 to 2003
• Commission on Liturgy and Church Music -- 1999 to 2002
• Diocesan Investment Trust -- Board Member 1994 to 2002

AWARDS AND HONORS
• Bishop Garver Clergy Awards – 2007, 2008
• Pastor of Excellence Scholarship at Yale Divinity School, 2004
• Named honorary Canon of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul – 2003.

LANGUAGES
• Spanish – conversational and reading/writing ability
• Mandarin – some conversational and limited reading/writing ability
• Cantonese – some conversational ability

INTERESTS
Hiking, yoga, studying languages, reading, creating note cards using vintage postcards, and hand-building ceramic projects.

PERSONAL
Born June 1956 in New Jersey

Married Gregory Stephen Bruce

Two adult children

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1. Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

2. As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

3. After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

4. Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

5. In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

Resume

Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.


And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14b, RSV)

I was born in February 1954, on a rainy Tuesday (Tuesday’s child is full of grace) in Staten Island Hospital, New York, where my father was Rector of St. Simon’s Episcopal Church and Vicar of All Saints’. Both my parents grew up in the Episcopal Church, and each modeled a profound faith in God that was given to me as gift while I grew up. We moved to Goshen, N.Y., in April of 1954 where my father was Rector of St. James’ Church for the next 35 years until his death in 1989. As with most children, I suspect, God was more transcendent than immanent, more other than palpable in community to me.

It was during my college years (1972-1976) that I began to discern a vocation to ordained ministry and concomitantly to discover my sexuality. Both these areas were sources of intense struggle for me, as I wrestled with such questions as; Did God hate me (since I was a homosexual)? or Did God love me? Did I hate (or love) myself? Was it really possible, not to mention appropriate, for women to be priests? My father’s answer to this last question was a resounding NO, and true to his own colors he never publicly supported women’s ordination, although I became something of an exception to the rule.

God was still transcendent and other to me as I entered Episcopal Divinity School in the Fall of 1976, just as the General Convention in Minneapolis was wrestling to recognize the reality of women called to be priests, the new Prayer Book, and what to do with the Philadelphia 11 and the Washington 5 as we termed them at EDS. My role models at that time represented two different ways of doing things in response to God’s call: Carter Heyward and Carol Anderson. Carter, for me, represented the courage to break through barriers – not without cost – in order to become fully the person God is calling you to become. Carol represented the sacrificial love of the Church that manifested itself in restraint, and also came at great cost. Both of these courageous women have continued to model for me the integrity of responding to God’s call with your whole person, being exactly who you are.

After my ordination to the Diaconate on June 13, 1981, I became Assistant to the Rector at St. Paul’s Church in Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia) under the tutelage and rectorship of Jim Moodey. God was beginning to be more in Christ for me, more present, closer, more a part of my daily walk. I grew a lot in three years at St. Paul’s, staying in touch with my spiritual director: Martin Smith, and being the only full-time cleric at the resource size parish when Jim was elected Bishop of Ohio and the parish moved into transition. When the next Rector of St. Paul’s was called, I accepted a call to become Rector of St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s (SLAM, as we affectionately referred to ourselves) in the Allston section of Boston. For the next seven years I helped the Holy Spirit build up this exciting branch of the Body of Christ while simultaneously dealing with a host of urban issues such as immigration, housing as a right, the four-pronged economic justice plan that came out of General Convention in 1988 and focused on land trusts, cooperative housing, worker-owned businesses and community development credit unions.  And, because the kairos appeared to be coming, I had the privilege and subsequent joy of nominating and working with Barbara Harris, as she became the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion.

It was in Boston that I met my life partner, Becki Sander, as she was studying for a dual degree in theology and social work. We have been together since 1988, and Becki has just earned her Ph.D. in Social Work, having written an excellent thesis on Restorative Justice. God has blessed us richly and continues to do so.

In something of a surprise move, God next called me south of the Mason-Dixon Line to St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland where I had the honor of being Rector for the next nine-and-one-half years (1992-2001). While striving to be honest about who I was (when asked directly about my sexuality I responded honestly and directly), it was also a time in the church when uncertainty about issues of sexuality reigned. The good people of St. Margaret’s gave me room to be myself without asking explicit questions, and I gave them room to be themselves: (at that time) a relatively conservative, but Jesus-loving parish of untapped potential. This resulted in a mostly joy-filled love affair during which the parish grew by leaps and bounds (St. Margaret’s is now one of the most exciting parishes in this diocese) and I grew profoundly in my knowledge and love of the Lord. The cost, however, was that my partner, Becki, was invisible as far as the parish was concerned, although we developed deep friendships among our different colleagues outside of St. Margaret’s.

In the Spring of 2001, the Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Maryland accepted a call to a parish in Arizona, and I was among those who tested out whether or not God was calling me to work on a diocesan staff. Because the Bishop Diocesan, Bob Ihloff, wanted to make it clear that we were building a team ministry and I was to work with the Bishop Suffragan, John Rabb, as well, the title was changed to Canon to the Bishops. I was called, and after much laughter and countless tears as St. Margaret’s and I celebrated our time together, I began my new job on October 1, 2001.

For the first three years of my eight-year tenure (so far), I grieved the loss of being a Parish Rector, at St. Margaret’s in particular. In my heart, I believe there is a significant part of me that is and always will be a parish priest. I use that to remind myself of the kind of service a diocesan staff should try to provide for the diocese. So, for example, if I’m sending an “allclergy” e-mail, I try to imagine what it’s like to be sitting at my desk as Rector of a parish reading the e-mail. Is it clear? Does the Diocese know what it’s doing? I promote with the staff the fact that we are here to serve the Diocese, so that whenever we are receiving a phone call or e-mail we should be ready to help in whatever ways we can, and if we can’t, we should be able to refer people to someone who can.

 
I have come to love what I’m doing now with all its challenges and opportunities to learn. Since I have described many aspects of my current job in others parts of this application, I won’t repeat them here. The Diocese of Maryland has recently been through a search process, the election of our current Bishop: Eugene T. Sutton, his Consecration a year ago, followed rapidly by Lambeth and now, preparation for the upcoming General Convention in Anaheim. Eugene has asked me to stay on, amidst other staff changes, and this I’ve done, committed to the transition, and along with Bishop Rabb, trying to help Bishop Sutton be the best possible Bishop for Maryland God is calling him to be. Yet I find myself yearning for something new and different. In my spiritual life, I am experiencing a “holy unsettledness” - perhaps the stirrings of a new call?

When one of the clergy in our diocese asked if he could submit my name for Bishop Suffragan of Los Angeles, I went to your web site, read the material, and thought: “Wow! This is exciting! I would love to explore this new possibility and discover what God is up to now.” With respect to the episcopal part of discerning this possibility, I would say two things. One is that functionally, I do many of the ministries our bishops do without having been elected. I travel all over the Diocese of Maryland visiting a different parish each Sunday to preach and celebrate the Eucharist and support individual clergy and the congregations committed to their charge in their own mission and ministry in Christ. I represent the bishops on a variety of different committees and commissions. I do Mutual Ministry Reviews, facilitate Vestry Retreats, lead spiritual retreats, and provide pastoral care for the clergy and their families. Obviously I do not have the same authority as a bishop - but that lack comes with the advantage of knowing that some people speak to me instead of either of the bishops precisely because they don’t want to speak to the bishops!

 
The second thing is simply to say that it’s time. It’s time for our wonderful church to move on and be the inclusive Church we say we are. I believe that the Diocese of Los Angeles is in alignment with the kairos – ready to move boldly into the future, with a strategic plan centered in the love of God and purposed with bringing God’s Reign of Justice and Love further into being, modeling for the whole Church an episcopal team. And maybe, just maybe, God is calling me to be a part of that exciting future.

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 As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities?  What gifts will you bring to our unique setting? 

As an ordained priest, I have served parishes in: a wealthy, homogeneous area (St. Paul’s, Chestnut Hill),  a small, working class, culturally diverse urban neighborhood (St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s, Boston), and in a suburban, middle class, rapidly developing area (St. Margaret’s, Annapolis). In my current job as Canon to the Bishops, I have the privilege of sharing with the Bishops in the cycle of Diocesan Visitations. Thus, each Sunday I preach, celebrate the Eucharist, and have the opportunity to support the mission and ministry of a different congregation in the Diocese of Maryland. Our congregations range from the poverty of areas of the Western part of the State, which is part of Appalachia, to the wealth and privilege of Howard County, the fourth wealthiest county in the country.

In addition, as part of a companion diocese and parish relationship, I have spent time in Tokyo, Japan, and hosted our Japanese sisters and brothers here in Annapolis. In 2004, I represented the Diocese of Maryland at the Enthronement of Archbishop Justice Ofei Akrofi as Primate of the Province of West Africa, and then hosted for an entire summer my counterpart in the Diocese of Accra and his family. I have been to Israel/Palestine twice - the second time in the form of a three-month sabbatical during which our pilgrim group studied issues of peace-making, reconciliation, and a host of related topics.

More recently, during the fall of 2006, I was a Merrill Fellow at Harvard Divinity School studying World Religions with the goal of being better able to engage, as a Christian, with people of other faiths. I had the extraordinary privilege of working with Dr. Diana L. Eck, author of the ground-breaking book, A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Now Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation (c.2001). We visited and experienced Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Buddhist communities of a variety of different ethnicities and religious histories, engaging in dialogue and worship, all in the Greater Metropolitan Boston area! We had the goals of deepening  understanding of the different ways people develop a relationship to God, and  respecting the dignity of every human being. I love being a Christian, and as my own roots have deepened, I am more willing and able to engage with others of different faiths. In fact, as I do so, I find my own faith and identity deepened by the encounter.  I continue to work with and support the Pluralism Project operating out of Harvard University.

The gifts I will bring to the unique setting of the Diocese of Los Angeles are: a profound love of people; a willingness to learn new things; an appreciation of others’ gifts and skills; the broad and deep experience of 28 years of ordained ministry; the “fresh” eyes of an “Easterner”;
and the energy and enthusiasm that seem to come from the new things that God is always doing.

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 After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

First of all, “Faith and Our Future” is a wonderful theme under which the Diocese of Los Angeles has chosen to develop a strategic plan. Welcoming All as Christ, Renewing God’s Creation, Serving with Generosity, and Building New Community are incredibly inspiring values which are more than values – they describe the way we ARE church!

The Episcopal Church has some real gifts to offer the emerging world. We have a rich liturgical tradition and a spirituality that is informed not only by Western Roman Christianity, but also by the Celtic Tradition. We value diversity and (at least) try to give each other space to differ. We have a theology that is based not only in the Resurrection, but also on the Incarnation. We hold that the three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason (which includes experience) is an appropriate way in which to discern God’s Will. But we can be hampered by the disadvantages of the colonialism that is part of our history, institutional structures that change too slowly, and a lack of the freedom that faith brings in response to fear.

I see at least two major challenges facing the Church as we look ahead to the future: first, How do we make accessible to people the riches with which we are blessed? And second, How do we clergy adapt ourselves to the rapidly-changing demands of leadership in the emerging church? With respect to the first challenge, the opportunity is to explore and create ways in which to help parishioners share their gifts and faith in making disciples for Jesus Christ, as distinct from being anxious hoarders of our gifts living in the fear of losing a mythical golden age. With respect to the second, the opportunity is for clergy to work and learn together, sharing hope and fears that are, more likely than not, very common in this rapidly changing world. We need to have healthy clergy who continue to learn and grow throughout their lives and who radiate the joy of Christ’s love for all.

One of the responsibilities of my current position is to be a pastor to the clergy of the Diocese. I meet every week with clergy, both individually and in groups, for spiritual direction, counsel, coaching, and consultation. I love facilitating Vestry Retreats and Mutual Ministry Reviews and have developed deep listening skills, congregational development strategies, and basic problem-solving techniques. I have experience in alcohol and drug interventions, and conflict resolution. I bring organizational and administrative skills from my experience as “Chief of Staff” of the Diocesan Staff of Maryland, and have at times been referred to as the “glue” that holds our team together. My interests in community building, trying new ways of doing things, and my long-abiding love of people will help shape the future of the Diocese in which I serve.

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Where do your passions lie?  In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

The passion that seems to motivate my entire being is that of right relationship. I love God and I love people, so the particular angle I take in working to bring forward the Reign of God is to do justice. I have a passion for community and I love working on/being a part of a team. A third passion that infects my being is a passion for imagination and creativity. Connected with this last is my passion for the new and different, which always gives me energy and excitement.

So with respect to the areas of ministry in which my skills, interests and gifts converge, community-building is at the top of the list. With the skills of preaching, teaching, healing, deep listening, and the capacity to organize and administrate, and the gift of being a loving person, I have helped the Holy Spirit build up various communities from softball teams to parishes to the Diocesan Staff of the Diocese of Maryland. Multi-cultural, Inter-faith, and Inter-ethnic interests have resulted in my leadership and participation in the Anti-Racism Commission, the Reparations Task Force, and the Pluralism Project. I am currently the Staff liaison to Trinity Episcopal Korean Congregation, and the about-to-be-formed Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Diocesan Convention also comes together out of my office, which is Diocesan Community Building at its most challenging!

Being a four-term deputy to General Convention has been another area of ministry in which my skills, interests, and gifts converge. I have organized Maryland’s Deputation and worked for good communication and information sharing in the forms of Pre-Convention meetings regionally, Post-Convention meetings for report-back, and ongoing tracking of such important issues as the Millennium Development Goals and the Anglican Listening and Covenanting Processes.

In looking at the Position Profile, particularly the Possible Specific Areas of Oversight and Accountability, I get really excited at the possibility of offering my considerable experience, gifts and skills to the Diocese of Los Angeles. In addition to Episcopal visitations, being part of an Episcopal Team, and the opportunity to learn about all of the exciting ministries you all are clearly engaged with, the Diocese could use me as a Teaching/Training Bishop, doing Mutual Ministry Reviews and Training; Vestry and Bishop Committee Training; Stewardship Training; Misconduct Prevention Training; LEM Training; and Congregational Development; as an Administrative Bishop (with all the areas you listed on the Position Profile) – employing my experiences as Chief of Staff here in Maryland and also having worked on the Dispatch of Business and Program, Budget, & Finance Committees of the larger Church; or as Pastoral Care Bishop with special emphasis on Clergy families. Best of all, I’m flexible and adaptable, excited by the possibilities electing two Bishops Suffragan at the same time offers, and I bring eight years’ experience of working with some highly-powered bishops!

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In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

In September, 1979, The Episcopal Church held its General Convention in Denver, Colorado, and I was one of five students from Episcopal Divinity School in attendance. The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Spears, Jr. – at that time Bishop of Rochester – submitted the Report of the Standing Commission on Human Affairs and Health, which read, in part, “There should be no barrier to the ordination of those homosexual persons who are able and willing to conform their behavior to that which the Church affirms as wholesome.” and “The General Convention should enact no legislation which singles out a particular human condition and makes of it an absolute barrier to ordination,...” (Blue Book, p. 68). An Open Hearing was held on September 12, 1979, chaired by Bishop John Coburn who headed a subcommittee whose sole task it was to receive all resolutions concerning human sexuality and “perfect” them for the House of Bishops. As a 24-year-old seminarian, I registered to give one of the many three-minute or less witnesses. Shaking in my little pulpit pumps, and in front of at least 1,500 people, I tried to make the point that when we are talking about human sexuality, we’re not talking about issues, we’re talking about people. I ended my “speech” with this: I trust that God’s Love at this Convention will transcend the issues and address the people – all of us – in our wholeness. I trust and I pray that that same love will prevent any of us from condemning others - particularly in this case, homosexuals, in our human, and full, and loving wholeness. After I sat down, my Bishop, Paul Moore, Jr., came over to me, gave me a great big hug, and said: “Now that you’ve come out to 1,500 people, don’t you think it’s about time to tell your parents?!”

It’s 30 years later and I almost feel as though I could give the same speech again. I still have the frayed and yellowed paper upon which I wrote it over a cup of coffee in a local McDonald’s. Almost, but not quite. You see, my essence and my vocation have been interwoven since college, and I’ve learned and grown because of that. I learned about prejudice and oppression not just by engaging with my African-American friends, but also through discovering who I really am, and how these dynamics work, and the cost of silence.

So – of all the worldly issues you all have named, I have been touched and changed the most by issues of gender equity and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. Yet I am not a “single issue” person, and I preach passionately about peace-making, reconciliation, the need to battle the evils of racism, and overcome extreme poverty. I continue to support, and work for the Millennium Development Goals as a comprehensive, world-wide way in which we engage God’s purposes for the world.

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Resume

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2001 – Present: Canon to the Bishops, Diocese of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
     Share Sunday visitation rotation to 117 congregations of the diocese with two bishops. Visits to a different parish each week include preaching, celebrating the Eucharist, attending Vestry meeting, meeting with clergy, teaching adult forums, and writing a summary assessment. Participate on Planning Team for Diocesan Convention. Coordinate and support Diocesan staff and Diocesan Mission Team. Conduct vestry retreats, Mutual Ministry reviews, crisis intervention, spiritual direction and retreats, congregational development, and pastoral and mission strategy planning. Represent bishops on Bishop Claggett Retreat Center Board, Johns Hopkins Chaplaincy Committee, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Baltimore Seafarers’ Institute Board, St. Mary’s Outreach Center, and as requested. Attend Diocesan Council and Council planning meetings. Provide pastoral care, vocational guidance, and support to clergy and their families. Participate in conflict management and pastoral interventions as requested.

1992 - 2001: Rector, St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Annapolis, MD
     Preached, led worship, taught, administered, pastored, and empowered a parish of 500+ communicants. Supervised a staff of 7 including Director of Church Preschool. Orchestrated 10 church commissions. Directed/facilitated the design and management of $4.5 million endowment including a Grants Program that awarded $145,000 annually. Pledge income rose 225% during tenure to $310,000 in 2001. Parish budget in 2001: $384,400. Bishop’s Award for Outstanding Ordained Ministry in May 1999.

1984 - 1992: Rector, St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s Church, Boston, MA
     Stabilized and built up small, urban neighborhood parish over a seven-year period. Empowered lay leadership to operate as a team. Taught community-building and economic and social justice. Parish membership grew from 50 to approximately 150. Budget increased from $44,000 in 1984 to $102, 552 in 1992

1981 – 1984: Assistant to the Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, PA
     Organized and activated execution of parish outreach program. Shared preaching, worship, counseling, and pastoral calling responsibilities with other clergy on staff of this Resource size parish.  Full-time interim Priest-In-Charge, 1984

1978 - 1979: Program Developer, Massachusetts Bible Society, Boston, MA
     Administered Biblical scholar education program. Distributed Bibles to parishes-in-need. Visited, preached, and collaborated ecumenically with churches throughout the State of Massachusetts.

 

EDUCATION AND ORDINATION

Fall 2006 Merrill Fellow, Harvard Divinity School
Coursework and Faculty
     The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, The Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas
     World Religions in Boston, Dr. Diana L. Eck
     Religious Dimensions in Human Experience, Dr. David Carrasco
     Merrill Fellows’ Colloquium, Dr. Emily Click
Fall 1998 Certificate Program, St. George’s College, Jerusalem
The Bible and the Holy Land, Past and Present
In-depth (eight weeks) experience of the Bible in its geographical, historical, and theological contexts through travel, study, and dialogue. Travel throughout Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey. Introduction to contemporary issues of peace and justice and Islamic Studies

March 1982: Ordained Priest by Bishop Lyman Ogilby (Pennsylvania)
June 1981: Ordained Deacon by Bishop Paul Moore, Jr. (New York)

May 1981: Master of Divinity, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 1976: Bachelor of Arts, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Magna Cum Laude; Honors in Music; Hufstader Prize – Outstanding Senior Woman

DIOCESAN AND NATIONAL CHURCH RESPONSIBILITIES

1999 – Present: Representative to Province III
1993 – Present: Member of Clerica, the association for women clergy in Maryland
2000 - 2009: Elected Head Deputy to General Convention; Dispatch of Business Committee (2003, 2006) Program, Budget & Finance (2009)
1993-2000: Board Member, Episcopal Social Ministries, Maryland
1994-1998: Diocesan Standing Committee, President, 1996-1997
1993-1995: Diocesan Planning Commission
1985-1992: Executive Committee, Episcopal City Mission, Chairperson 1991-1992

TEACHING EXPERIENCE/SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Spring 2007: Lenten Missioner to Memorial Church, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1985 - Present: Designed and facilitated over 20 spiritual retreats
1993 – Present: Cursillo Spiritual Director on five weekends
1986-1992: Lecturer in Pastoral Theology, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA
1986 – 1992: Certified Field Education Supervisor, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA 

Taught the following curricula:  Living Into Our Baptism, Education for Ministry, and Kerygma Bible Study

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1. Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

2. As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

3. After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

4. Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

5. In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

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Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

My walk with God in Christ began very early in life. I was born in the Bahamas to parents who felt their lives would improve economically if they relocated to the United States. My father’s sister lived in Florida, and the family moved to Florida when I was around three years old.

After settling, the first community event we attended as a family was at the local Episcopal Church – St. Andrew’s, which eventually became my church home. Through Sunday school, I learned the Catechism. Following Confirmation, I became a Lay Reader, held leadership roles in Episcopal Youth Council (EYC) and the Girls Friendly Society (GFS), and represented St. Andrews in oratorical and debating events. Additionally, I assisted my mother with the altar guild, and sang in the young people’s choir. Attending and participating in my church community were integral to my formation and my continued walk with God in Christ during my teenage and young adult life.

Most of the congregants in St. Andrew’s were from the West Indian culture, and I was immersed in a community that valued their relationship with God and each other, while holding the traditions of the Episcopal Church and basic values in high esteem. It was that tradition and those values that helped to form me into the young adult that I became and that tradition and those values continue to be a part of who I am today. These included the values of doing one’s best; being fair and honest; being grateful for one’s gifts and blessings; understanding the importance of sharing, celebrating, having fun; recognizing the need for self care, and the value of holding all of God’s people in reverence. 

As I dealt with life’s challenges, I must admit that my call to ordained ministry came as a surprise. As I communicated with family and friends about my perceived call to ordained ministry, my sense of call became real and deepened. The die was cast, and off I went to seminary. It was both a delight and scary to return to a classroom after many years of absence. My seminary education was also a development experience in that it allowed me to bring most of what formed me in this Church into the educational endeavor, thereby enhancing the richness of the experience.

Following seminary, I shared my knowledge, skills and ability with the fastest-growing congregation in the Diocese of North Carolina. It was St. Patrick’s in Mooresville, N.C., where I was Assistant Rector. As one of the few integrated communities in the Diocese, it was quite progressive. Our community had a strong peace and justice vision, and we celebrated the first same-sex blessing in the diocese. In retrospect, it seems that God was preparing me for my call to All Saints and the Diocese of Los Angeles.

As a large, urban progressive community, All Saints certainly presented its challenges. Initially, I struggled with the largeness of the community. Having shared my skills within the Diocese of North Carolina, I sought to duplicate those efforts here. It didn’t take me long to learn that it would require a constant balancing of primary responsibility with a desire to serve the Diocese. All Saints helped me to grow in Spirit-driven ways. I have come to realize that I bring something to the community through my influence in pastoral care, development of programs and a strong voice for our community to be God’s presence through seeing all people as equal.

The time that I’ve spent at All Saints and the Diocese has allowed me to bring and to use all of my gifts in an extraordinary ministry. I have been able to draw from my life experiences – being a widow, a mother, sister and daughter; having had a failed marriage and a wonderful marriage; knowing and understanding grief and loss through death; appreciating joy through growth. Most importantly, I have the space to add to the tradition and values that helped to form my early life, and to appreciate more fully the commandment of Jesus, “Love God with all one’s heart, mind and soul and love one’s neighbor as oneself.”

As a cradle Episcopalian, I have seen our amazing Church lead the world in becoming the hands, feet and most importantly, the heart of God. I recall the days when I was unable to be an acolyte because I was a girl, and wondered why not. Especially since I was encouraged to believe that I was a fantastic girl – one who would have added to our church's celebration because of the values learned from my community and family. I remember when the Philadelphia Eleven were “irregularly ordained,” and wondered why those women could not have been ordained. However, our Church, through contentious and difficult times, saw the need to do what was right. It has always made me proud to be a member of and to serve in this Church – a Church that in an amazingly short period of time has gone from not allowing girls to be acolytes to ordaining women to be priests, bishops and presiding bishop. I believe our greatest God presence is that we ordain all to the priesthood and the episcopate, regardless of race, gender or ethnicity. As our Church continues to be the light that overcomes the darkness though holding society, our country and the world to accountability, my sense of call to serve with more responsibility expands.

It is through this journey that I come to a new call. Once again, it is a surprise. However, I do believe that God, through my colleagues, family and friends is asking me to continue to work in another aspect of the vineyard. I believe that God is calling me “to be more than a human being and to be a human becoming.” I submit this application with the anticipation that, with God’s help, the discernment will continue.

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As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

For most of my adult life I lived and worked in ethnically and culturally diverse environments.

Although, not ordained, during seminary, my role as a Chaplain was to assure that all cultures and ethnicities were represented during weekly chapel. Therefore, I worked with Korean, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and Roman Catholic students. This experience was greatly transformative. It was fascinating to learn from my Korean colleagues how Ming Jung theology helped them to accept and appreciate Christianity. It was equally fascinating to realize how Abraham played a major role in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths.

Following my ordination to the diaconate, I worked in a community that was predominantly white. Actually, the percentage was 85 percent white 15 percent other, including East Indians, Asians, Latinos and African Americans (in order of percentage). Within three months of my being ordained a priest, my rector went on sabbatical for four months. I was the only priest present, and was able to help grow our community. Just before relocating to Los Angeles, we began to assist a group of Latino women. Only a few spoke English. I was in the process of working with a coalition of area churches to develop English as a second language (ESL) classes. My responsibility was finding an accredited program, developing a curriculum and finding space for classes. Although I left before the classes began, the foundation was in place.

My relocation to Los Angeles was to accept a call All Saints in Pasadena, where the focus is “changing the human race into the human family.” Therefore, realizing the need to minister to our Latino community, we began a new bilingual service. Abel Lopez is the primary priest for this service; however, I serve as assistant. I celebrate in both English and Spanish. When Abel is unable to lead the service, I am the priest in charge. Although I do not speak Spanish fluently, I comprehend -- if spoken slowly -- and read the language. I am currently taking classes to learn to speak Spanish.

Additionally, All Saints has a strong peace and justice presence within our Diocese, our state and the nation. I traveled to Malawi and met with and worshipped with members of the Anglican Communion. I served on the Program Group for Black Ministries. In addition to being the priest responsible for pastoral care, I am the clergy representative of the Executive Team. Our primary responsibility is decision-making oversight of church operations.

The gifts that I bring to this unique setting are my willingness to continue to stretch myself to undertake new adventures; a wonderful pastoral presence; a great work ethic; organizational development skills and the profound knowledge that I do not walk this journey alone and only can accomplish all that I do through the God of love, compassion and grace.

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After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world? Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

"Faith and Our Future” aptly helped me to understand the direction of our Diocese. As a strategic plan, “Faith and Our Future” presents us with many opportunities. I believe included in these are:
     • Enhancing, strengthening and expanding the wonderful cultural diversity we have within the diocese.
     • Reinforcing our current ministries, while discerning how we may cluster ministries with similar missions.
     • Finding ways to involve all generations to prepare our young people to undertake responsibility and assume their roles within our Church and the greater Anglican Communion.
     • Determining how to do church creatively.
     • Leading our Diocese and the Communion to be more socially responsible.

Our challenges as well as our opportunities will continue to be the expansiveness and diversity of our Diocese. How do we get all of our people to share in and experience the vision of the “Great Emergence” while giving more abundantly of their time, talent and treasure, particularly in light of the economic condition of our state and the nation? How do we effectively use our clergy so that all their gifts, skills and passions are met and employed? These are some of the challenges and opportunities facing the implementation of the strategic plan.

Prior to relocating to the Diocese of Los Angeles, I served on the Diocese of North Carolina’s Mission Strategy Committee. The goal of the Committee was to do exactly what the Diocese of Los Angeles plans through the “Faith and Our Future” profile. The experience prepared me for the challenges all denominations would face as the population changes and shifts toward primarily a generation of the unchurched. It prepared me for the impact of Internet communication, the differences in the way young people socialize, and the increased isolation of the aged and elderly. The experience helped me to realize that being a pastoral presence and a good preacher were essential. It also helped me to understand and be hopeful that the task of the Committee could be implemented with a comprehensive strategic plan. I believe that experience will be beneficial to accomplishing the work of fulfilling “Faith and Our Future.”

Finally, I believe all my experience: as a human resources manager in both the private and public sectors; a communications manager and trainer; extensive multicultural experience and training; strategic planning and executive level decision making skills, along with a strong pastoral presence have all prepared me to assist our Diocese in moving forward.

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Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

My primary passion is being God’s presence to everyone that I meet.

My work passions are organizing, strategizing, problem solving, planning, sharing my love for God and God’s work within our Church and community and driving all over this state to explore its beauty. I enjoy the challenge of changing a negative situation into a positive one. Celebrating the Eucharist and reading the Gospel give me joy. 

I am skillful at analyzing a situation and presenting solutions, mediating, preaching, writing, and knowing when to keep quiet. My gifts are genuine pastoral care, knowing how to be a team player and encouraging others to grow and reach their full potential, while knowing that my relationship with others is an extension of my relationship with God.

I believe my passions; skills and gifts have assisted me in my ministry in the Diocese and at All Saints Church, where I enjoy working with a Rector whose ministry encompasses not only our Diocese but also the National Church and our country. I also enjoy working with colleagues who share their gifts with the Church, both nationally and internationally. It can be difficult, if one is not comfortable in one’s skin, to grow in grace and develop one’s gifts to the Church. However, I believe I have the ability to appreciate the gifts of all my colleagues and collaborate to enhance their gifts, as well as my own. I also believe, as a team player, it’s important to enjoy one’s work – which I do. 

The most significant area my passions, skills and gifts converge is in my role as Senior Associate for Pastoral Care and Spiritual Growth. Since my arrival at All Saints six years ago, the program ministry has grown tremendously. Seven new ministries developed – including one in which lay persons are trained to counsel other parishioners – all focusing on providing ministries in which all members are educated and inspired to love God, themselves and their neighbors.

My vision, if employed as a Bishop Suffragan for the Diocese of Los Angeles, is to continue to use and to bring all my passion, skills and gifts to assist the Diocesan Bishop and fellow Bishop Suffragan in welcoming all as Christ, renewing God’s creation, serving with generosity and building new community – with God’s help.

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In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

Within our Diocese, All Saints Church is a leader seeking to make a change and seeking to leave a mark on God’s creation. I believe the work done at and through All Saints literally prepares me for the work we seek to do at an even greater level through the Diocese. 

Being both female and African American, I am strongly committed to changing our Diocese, Church and the world. If we are to exist, we must all make the effort to remember that we are all children of God. Desmond Tutu stated it best in a sermon preached in 2005, “This family has no outsiders. Everyone is an insider. When Jesus said, 'I, if I am lifted up, will draw . . .' Did he say, 'I will draw some'? 'I will draw some, and tough luck for the others'? He said, 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all.' All! All! All! – Black, white, yellow; rich, poor; clever, not so clever; beautiful, not so beautiful. All! All! It is radical. All! Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Bush – all! All! All are to be held in this incredible embrace. Gay, lesbian, so-called 'straight;' all! All! All are to be held in the incredible embrace of the love that won’t let us go.” 

As I move along my life’s journey I am changed by the work we do as a Church. I am changed through our efforts to be a compassionate, reconciling Church that lives in the house of love rather than the house of fear.  It is through working with all my colleagues that I am changed to strive not “to get to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth.” It is through Bishops who are willing to speak openly against such issues as Prop. 8, that I am changed to stand up for justice. Mostly, I am changed to know that God has work for me to do and my sense is that through my experiences with my current church and this Diocese, I’m being prepared to do that work.

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 Autobiographical Statement and Current Resume

The Rev. Zelda M. Kennedy

A native of the Bahamas, the Reverend Zelda Kennedy currently resides in Pasadena, California. As the Senior Associate for Pastoral Care and Spiritual Growth for All Saints Church, her goal is to offer and coordinate pastoral care and counseling, as well as spiritual direction to members of the All Saints community. Prior to relocating to Pasadena, Zelda worked as an Assistant Rector at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Mission in Mooresville, North Carolina. Zelda has served as a chaplain at Griffin Hospital in Derby Connecticut, as well as an intern at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Pittsboro, North Carolina and at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in New Haven – New Haven’s oldest Black Episcopal congregation. In the Diocese of Los Angeles, Zelda served as the Chair of the Commission on Black Ministries. She also taught at Bloy House in Claremont, California. Within the Diocese of North Carolina, Zelda served on the Commission for Multiculturalism, Committee on Christian Education and Formation, Penick Village and The Summit Boards, the Absalom Jones Initiative, and the Diocesan Mission Strategy Committee.

Zelda is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Seminary, where she received a Masters of Divinity degree and Certificate of Anglican Studies. During her time at Yale, Zelda served as Chapel Minister for ecumenical services; Coordinator of the Parks-King Lecture – in honor of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Coordinator of Seminarians Interacting; Chair of the Organization of Black Episcopal Seminarians; and Research Assistant for Dr. Gilbert Bond. She attended Fisk University for two years and received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Prior to accepting her call to the ministry, Zelda worked for the City of Durham’s Human Resources Department. One of her positions was as the Organizational Manager, in which she was responsible for recruitment and selection, employee relations, employee services and organizational development. Her last assignment was as a Special Assistant to the Senior Assistant City Manager. She has also worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, in Community Banking and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Zelda was born in September 1947. She is a widow with one daughter.

 

OBJECTIVE

Seeking a clerical position within a mission of the Church. Proven leader and team player with specialties in program development, pastoral counseling, facilitation and training.

 

SUMMARY

• 18-year record of successful program implementation and development in human resources management, including employee relations, employee assistance, training and development.
• Proven ability to recruit, train and develop new personnel
• Demonstrated skills planning, implementing, coordinating and directing programs.
• Demonstrated skills preaching and public speaking
• Trained Mediator

 

EXPERIENCE

2008:  Episcopal Theological School at Claremont: Teacher – Conflict Resolution in Churches
2003 – present: All Saints Church, Pasadena, Senior Associate for Pastoral Care and Spiritual Growth and Executive Team for Church Operations

2000 – 2003: St. Patrick’s Mission, Mooresville, North Carolina, Assistant to the Rector and Priest –in-charge during Rector’s 4 months sabbatical (2002)
1997 – 2000: Berkeley Seminary/Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut
     • Senior House Resident – Berkeley
     • Chapel Minister – YDS
     • Chaplain Intern, Griffin Hospital – Derby, Connecticus (CPE)
     • Parish Intern St. Luke’s Episcopal Church – New Haven
1985 – 1997: City of Durham, North Carolina
     • Internal Consultant – City Manager’s Office
     • Affirmative Action Specialist – Affirmative Action Department
     • Organizational Development Manager – Human Resources
     • Trained Mediator for the City of Durham

1979 – 1984: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Communications Officer and Trainer
1971-1977: Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City, Program Coordinator – Corporate and Social Responsibility

 

EDUCATION

M. Div. Berkeley/Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT (2000)
BA University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NCC (1984)

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1. Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

2. As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

3. After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

4. Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

5. In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

Resume

Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

In the course of my priestly ministry, I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to contemplative prayer. This practice has been a source of grace and deepening intimacy with God through Christ. It has confirmed an intuition that I’ve held for as long as I can remember that God desires a deeply personal relationship with each of us. In my experience, contemplative prayer has been a way of getting in touch with my own desire for God, a desire that is awakened and nourished in us by the sacramental life of the Church. 


As an offering of our selves to God in union with Christ for the sake of the healing of the world, contemplative prayer is not an end it itself. It is the opening of a gateway within us through which God’s love can flow to others. The fruits of this practice include a clearer perception of reality as it is revealed in the present moment, a capacity to respond intuitively to what is revealed, and greater knowledge of one’s self, both one’s gifts and one’s limitations.

As we consciously seek to give ourselves to God in love, God gives us right back to the world in love, but with a greater sense of awareness and compassion. In this dance of giving and receiving in love, we share in the very life of God. It is from this place of inner spaciousness and freedom that we can move beyond ego in our ministries in such a way as to be more available to God’s reign. The sacramental and contemplative grounding of our common life prepares us to participate in God’s great project of reconciliation.

It is in light of this perspective that I’ve found myself considering the nature of episcopé, and whether I might be called to exercise the ministry as a bishop. Episcopal ministry is fundamentally a matter of “overseeing” or “seeing over”: seeing the “big picture” or seeing reality whole. Such vision is a contemplative charism, and while it is by no means restricted to the order of bishops, bishops are called to be symbols of this gift and shepherds, who reflect this larger vision and gather the people of God to exercise their gifts in light of that vision.

I understand my vocation largely in terms of nurturing such vision among the people of God, and engaging the Church’s service to the world from within this holistic perspective. As I grow in my own openness to this gift, I feel called to discern with others whether or not I am meant to exercise it as a bishop. I’ve begun to do so with my spiritual director and my bishop, and I’m grateful for the chance to do so with the Diocese of Los Angeles.

I’m particularly drawn to the Diocese of Los Angeles because of your commitment to shared episcopé, exemplified by a team of bishops. I think this is a healthy model for both the bishops and the diocese as a whole. It allows for an episcopate that is more reflective of the diversity of the diocese, capable of greater breadth and depth of vision, and better equipped to creatively lead the diocese in service to the world.

The diversity-within-unity that is the Diocese of Los Angeles is a beautiful expression of the Body of Christ. It would be a joy and privilege to share the gift of episcopé with you as a bishop suffragan, together offering the Church and the world a holistic vision and practice of Christian discipleship.

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As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

My own life story is marked by an increasing engagement with ever more diverse communities, coincident with a growing capacity to acknowledge, integrate, and transcend my own experiences of social privilege and social stigmatization. My life and ministry is about building bridges between diverse life worlds.

Growing up in a segregated, white, working class community, it was a liberal education that opened my eyes to the diversity of peoples and challenged the prejudices I’d learned. But my first real experience of cultural and ethnic diversity came as a young adult, when I spent several years working in Chicago with homeless adolescents in a shelter program and, later, in a drop-in program for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. These early and formative work experiences largely were spent with African-American and Latino youth, and coincided with my own process of coming out as a gay man.

What I discovered in those years was the extent to which people in different social locations inherited a very different set of opportunities and barriers, and how much people suffered and valiantly struggled for a better life as a result. The gift in this is that I had to come to grips with both my own relative social privilege as a white, well-educated, male, and the marginalization I experienced as a gay man. In whatever contexts I have worked subsequently, a commitment to the work of personal integration and social reconciliation has remained with me.

This commitment took on a greater sense of personal urgency when my husband, Andrew, and I became parents. When we began the journey of adoption ten years ago, we didn’t anticipate that we would fall in love with a beautiful, African-American baby boy named Nehemiah. It was with some fear and trembling that we two white, gay men embarked upon raising our son. Being an inter-racial family has brought with it a deepening awareness of the pervasiveness of racism, and the struggle of helping our son to acknowledge it without becoming defined by it. We have to make conscious choices about work, school, and residence.

Today I find myself rector of a vibrant, growing, and multicultural parish that is reflective of the social and economic diversity of San Francisco’s Mission Neighborhood. St. John’s bridges the boundaries between Latino and Anglo cultures, queer and straight sexual identities, high tech professionals and dual-diagnosed people living on the streets. We are located at the heart of the city’s urban hipster scene, and the epicenter of the meth and heroin trade. All of this is reflected in our common life and ministry.

The gifts I bring to this work are an undefended heart, a profound commitment to truth-telling, and a pastoral ability to invite people to receive the “otherness” of others as a gift, rather than as a threat or a judgment. When we are in touch with our deepest yearning for wholeness, we become available to God for creative ministries that transcend the binary opposition between victim and oppressor. We become human together.

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After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world? Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

I’ve been part of an emerging mission strategy in the Diocese of California called “area ministry” that seeks to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the “Great Emergence.” It is based on three principles: 1) embeddedness in the local community, 2) engaging collaboration, and 3) embracing diversity. All of these principles are inter-related.

An embedded congregation participates in sustaining the local culture, local economy, and local ecology where it is located. Such congregations are a “habitation” – a place where people actually live integrated lives, rather than a “destination” – a place of resort for spiritual recreation. The focus is on “becoming church” rather than “going to church.” Membership in a church community is no longer normative in our culture. It is simply one option among many. The Church has to demonstrate solidarity with people’s struggles and hopes if we are to be taken seriously.

Engaging collaboration moves us beyond the parochial mentality of “one building, one priest, one organ” as the only model of being church. It is a model that sees congregations as isolated, independent entities in competition with one another for resources and prestige. It reflects the individualism of our culture and the default congregationalism of our polity in practice, however much we proclaim the diocese as the local church. Collaboration requires greater flexibility in our institutional structures and openness to one another; sharing ideas, resources, and power to accomplish together what we could never do alone.

Embracing diversity is about becoming a truly multicultural church, reflective of the diversity of our communities. “Culture” refers not just to ethnicity, and is about much more than language and skin color. Our congregations tend to be far more homogenous than our neighborhoods, and don’t even come close to reflecting the diversity of our schools and workplaces.  

Living these principles is a journey of many small steps. Some of the steps we’ve taken in our area ministry collaborative include:

• Opening the Julian Pantry, a shared ministry among three congregations providing free, healthy, local food every Saturday to more than 200 neighbors;
• Consolidating the congregations of St. John the Evangelist and El Buen Samaritano into one church building with shared resources and ministries, offering English, Spanish, and bilingual worship opportunities;
• Bringing six congregations together to celebrate bilingual Ash Wednesday services at the two subway stations in our neighborhood, so that more than 500 people could receive the imposition of ashes during their work/school commute;
• Commissioning a young, local graffiti artist to paint the back of our church building;
• Celebrating Pentecost with a bilingual, outdoor mass in a local park;
• Sharing administrative staff and resources among three congregations, and making efforts to buy local, fair trade, and recycled products whenever possible.
• Offering an adult spiritual formation program in the workplace for members of three congregations.

We can’t wait for people to come to church. We have to become the church where people are already. This is the experience and spirit that I bring.

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Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

Some years ago in a small group setting, an elder member of my parish shared his faith journey. He is a cradle Episcopalian and a staunch Anglo-Catholic. I was surprised and deeply moved by how he began his presentation: “From my earliest memories, when I first learned of Jesus, I knew that I loved him and that he loved me.”

This is a man in touch with his deepest spiritual yearning, grounded in what Marcus Borg describes as “first-hand” religion. “First-hand” religion is an experience; “second-hand” religion is a report about the experience of others. Too often, people come to the Church desiring first-hand religion, and all we offer is second-hand religion. People desire to be transformed, not merely informed.

I have a passion for inviting people to experience “first-hand” religion, embracing Christianity as a path of personal and social transformation grounded in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I use my gifts as a spiritual director and teacher in the service of formation at the level of community – through preaching, education, retreat leadership, leadership development, and social justice work. There is no reason why a vestry or commission meeting, a food pantry or protest march, can not be an opportunity for spiritual formation. As a bishop suffragan, I would bring this passion and approach to my work with clergy, lay leaders, and congregations.

My experience is that the inward journey of transformation is coincident with an outward journey of transformation. The more deeply we are grounded in God’s love, the greater our capacity to embrace a wider circle of community. Thus, I have a passion for the Church as an increasingly inclusive communion of the people of God.

In my current ministry context, this has taken the form of working to unite a largely gay Anglo congregation with a Latino congregation that includes diverse Central and Latin American cultures. Last year, St. John’s and El Buen Samaritano entered into a creative collaboration to share ministry in the Mission Neighborhood, the culmination of a process that took several years of preparation. It has required patience, vision, political and organizational acumen, and the ability to inspire people to embrace change as an opportunity. I would hope to employ such skills as the Diocese of Los Angeles lives into an inclusive vision of the Body of Christ.

Finally, I have a growing passion for Christian-Buddhist dialogue. This is the result of personal interest combined with an evangelical and theological imperative to interpret the Christian faith to those shaped by other religious traditions. Many seekers and “lapsed” Christians who come to St. John’s have been formed by Buddhist practice, particularly vispassana and zazen. Through study and exposure to the San Francisco Zen Center, I’ve just begun to acquire some facility with Buddhism as a “second religious language.” My interest here is not syncretism, but mutual learning and deepening solidarity in the work of reconciliation. The bishops of our Church must be willing to engage interfaith dialogue and action.

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In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

I serve an inner-city congregation. Each day when I drive down Caledonia Alley to park behind the church, I see gang graffiti on the buildings. I have to be alert to make sure that I don’t drive over someone lying unconscious in the street. As I open the gate of the parking space, I sometimes step over syringes and human feces. Often, I do so with indifference, compartmentalizing my experience as if all this has nothing to do with me.

But occasionally, I become willing to perceive the signs of human degradation and suffering. When I am vulnerable in this way, my eyes fill with tears. Such tears are a sign that I am fully alive. They represent an awakening of the heart, recognizing that the whole creation, in all its brokenness, is irrevocably loved by God. The heart is the spiritual organ of perception, and our tears wash it clean so that we may see as God sees, with soft eyes.

All forms of suffering have the capacity to awaken our hearts, for they all bring into awareness our vulnerability.  When we are willing to be vulnerable, we are open to experiencing and responding to reality as it is – in its suffering and its joy. Caledonia Alley, marked by poverty, racism, gang violence, and addiction, is a place of suffering. It is by no means the only such place. In recent years, I’ve had the privilege of travelling to Kampala, Uganda and parts of El Salvador. I’ve been touched by the stories of suffering in those places: of civil war, poverty, environmental degradation, violence against gay and lesbian people. It is a heart-breaking roll-call of atrocities.

But all these places are marked by joy as well: the joy of recovering from addiction; of reconciliation and rebuilding in the aftermath of war; of planting trees, digging wells, raising children, claiming one’s dignity in the face of bigotry. I am continually humbled and amazed by the capacity of people to reclaim their humanity in the image of God again and again, in the midst of circumstances that I fear would crush me; their capacity to dance, and sing, and make love – to affirm life – in the face of suffering and death.

It is these experiences – not issues – that have touched and changed me. They have confirmed the message of the Gospel that I am called to preach. The reign of God is here and now, within us and among us, if only we are willing to allow its reality into our awareness. God’s reign breaks-in through our broken, undefended hearts.

We discover our true identity in Christ as we grow together in conscious awareness and acceptance of the risk and promise of our vulnerability. The Church is constituted as a community committed to making vulnerability not only bearable, but also holy and healing. Knit together in love, we can move beyond fear to offer ourselves in union with Christ for the sake of the salvation of the world.

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Autobiographical Statement and Current Resume

 For me, the heart of ministry is inviting people and communities into a deeper love of God, and of all things in God, through Jesus Christ. It is a ministry grounded in contemplative practice, nurtured by collaboration and inclusive community, and profoundly committed to the good news that God’s reign of justice, generosity, and joy is present to us here and now.

I was born and raised in northwest Indiana, and graduated from Indiana University (B.A cum laude), the Chicago Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Anglican Studies certificate). This year, my husband, Andrew Aldrich, and I celebrated our fifteenth anniversary. We are the proud parents of our eleven year-old son, Nehemiah.

Ordained in 2002, I served for two years on the staff of both Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco, and Every Voice Network (EVN). EVN is a ministry providing educational resources for The Episcopal Church, such as the popular Via Media series. Since 2004 I have been Rector of the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist, San Francisco. St. John’s is a small, vibrant inner-city congregation whose average Sunday attendance increased by more than 25% in the past four years. Last year, we began a shared ministry with the Iglesia Episcopal del Buen Samaritano, offering worship in English, Spanish, and bilingual formats.

Prior to ordination, I worked in the non-profit sector in a variety of capacities: from participating in the founding of a long-term shelter for adolescents operated by The Night Ministry in Chicago, to senior staff and consulting positions with the development office of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

I currently serve the Diocese of California as chair of the Resolutions Committee and as a member of the Ethnic and Multicultural Ministry Working Group. As president of our diocesan lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) ministry’s advisory board, I served on the steering committee of Claiming the Blessing (CTB). CTB is a national collaboration among LGBT ministries and justice allies throughout The Episcopal Church. I also served as an alternate deputy to the 2006 General Convention.

The Episcopal Church offers a vision and practice of Christian life that resonates deeply with the spiritual hunger of our world. It is my great privilege to work with others in sharing and realizing that vision.

 

Personal

b. April 1967, Gary, Indiana
Family: husband, Andrew Aldrich, and son, Nehemiah Kirkley Aldrich (b. July 1998)

 

Education 

Spiritual Guidance Program, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, in process
Certificate in Anglican Studies, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, May 2002
Master of Divinity, Chicago Theological Seminary, May 1993
Bachelor of Arts cum laude, Indiana University, May 1989

 

Ordination History
December 7, 2002: Ordained Priest, Diocese of California, The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing
June 1, 2002: Ordained Transitional Deacon, Diocese of California, The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing

Ministry Strengths

Preaching/Public Speaking
• More than seven years of increasing responsibility for preaching at the principal Sunday Eucharist
• Sermons demonstrate theological depth and a solid grasp of the central themes of Scripture
• Homiletic style is lectionary based, concise, thoughtful, engaging, and focused on making connections between the Biblical story and everyday life
• Confident public speaker in a variety of settings from small groups to large assemblies

 

Liturgical Leadership
• More than seven years of increasing responsibility for planning and presiding at liturgies, including Sunday and weekday Eucharists, the Daily Office, funerals, weddings, same-sex blessings, and occasional services
• Adept at liturgical experimentation rooted in traditional forms and at creating innovative liturgical resources for special occasions
• Committed to the use of expansive language, making connections between liturgy and social justice, and including the laity in liturgical leadership
• Experience making liturgy accessible to people of all ages
• Sensitive to the role of music as an aid in worship and comfortable singing service music

 

Stewardship
• More than eighteen years of increasing responsibility for recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers in a wide variety of settings, as well as supervising paid staff
• Strong skills in personal and communal discernment, assisting institutions and individuals in identifying gifts for ministry and matching them with community needs
• More than ten years of experience creating and overseeing budgets for non-profit organizations
• More than ten years of high-level responsibility for annual fundraising in a variety of settings, from large public institutions to a small mission church
• Competent overseeing direct mail, major donor, and capital campaigns
• Experience writing solicitation letters and grant proposals
• Comfortable making direct appeals for major gifts from individuals and households

Spiritual Guidance & Pastoral Care
• More than eighteen years of experience providing pastoral care and crisis counseling to youth and adults
• Comfortable calling on parishioners in home, work, and hospital settings
• Strong skills in couples’ counseling, especially preparation for marriage
• Skilled retreat leader for small groups and congregations
• Comfortable in the roles of spiritual director and confessor
• Committed to personal spiritual disciplines and assisting others to develop their own
• Devoted to incorporating spiritual formation in all dimensions of congregational life

Christian Education/Formation
• More than a decade of experience planning and leading adult formation programs for congregations in a variety of formats: Sunday forums, small groups, workshops, retreats, and speaker series
• Participated in developing diocesan curriculum related to marriage and the blessing of same-sex unions
• As part of a team at Every Voice Network developed Christian education materials used nationally
• Experienced in recruiting, training, and supporting lay leaders in a variety of ministries
• Deeply committed to assisting Christian disciples in understanding and practicing their faith
• Certified Godly Play teacher

Social Justice Ministry
• Part of a team that created a four-congregation collaborative in support of the Anglican Diocese of El Salvador, including annual mission trips
• Part of a team that opened the Julian Pantry, a collaborative effort among three congregations providing groceries for more than 200 households each week
• Experience at the congregational, diocesan, and national level advocating for the full inclusion of LGBT people in church and society
• Strong skills in fundraising to support social justice ministries
• Wrote and sponsored a resolution condemning torture adopted by the Diocese of California, and testified in support of it at the 2006 General Convention
• Experience publishing opinion pieces and editorials, and comfortable dealing with the media

 

Employment History

March 2004 – Present: The Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco, Rector
March 2002 – March 2004: Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church & Every Voice Network, San Francisco, Associate Vicar & Associate Executive Director
August 1999 to March 2002: University of California School of Law, Berkeley,  Director of Alumni & Donor Relations/Consultant
March 1998 to August 1999: Library Foundation of San Francisco, San Francisco, Director of Annual Giving
March 1997 to March 1998: Spectrum Center, San Anselmo, Interim Executive Director & Program Director
February 1996 to March 1997: Project Open Hand, San Francisco, Volunteer Coordinator
February 1994 to Dec. 1995: Horizons Community Services, Chicago, Illinois, Youth Program Case Worker
Sept. 1992 to February 1994: The Night Ministry, Chicago, Illinois, Case Worker/Interim Shelter Director

Diocesan & National Church Involvement

President, Advisory Board, Oasis/California: Diocesan LGBT Ministry (2005-2007)
Member, Steering Committee of Claiming the Blessing (2002-2007)
Co-Chair, Bishop’s Task Force on Marriage and Blessing, Diocese of California (2004-2005)
Alternate Deputy, Diocese of California, 2006 General Convention
Chair, Diocese of California Resolutions Committee (2006-Present)
Member, Diocesan Ethnic & Multicultural Ministry Working Group (2007-Present)

 

Publications

“On Not Being Scandalized: Lectionary Reflection for the 5th. Sunday after Pentecost,” Witness Magazine at www.witness.org (June 2005)
“Struggling for Sacramental Equality: Book Review,” Witness Magazine at www.witness.org (February 2005) “Why I Believe in Gay Marriage,” Pacific Church News (Winter 2005)

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1. Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

2. As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

3. After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

4. Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

5. In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

Resume

Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

The first step into this process began with prayer, not just for me but also for everyone that is and will be part of this process. It has also taken me to conversations with people whom I trust and value as friends and mentors in my life. The outcome, so far, is that I desire to continue the discernment with you and to accept this holy process that will take us where we need to go. I commend myself to the Spirit of God that I trust is at work in this process and in the diocese. As I read the profile I get excited to learn about the wonderful and challenging ministries that are happening and being created and/or nurtured to respond the needs of the people and to do what God has called of us to do and be.

I am a 40-year-old priest; I would feel more inclined to say “young” but in English not using the word “old” in this expression the phrase would mean something differently. Born in Guatemala. I am a cradle Episcopalian, and I also note that I am an Episcopalian by choice. In my 12 years of ordained ministry I have had the honor of serving in very diverse communities by choice and call. These experiences have molded me and given the opportunity to grow and learn about what it means to live in community in the midst of differences and conflicts and also in the joys and celebrations. I have arrived at this juncture in my journey full of excitement and great expectations for what the future might be. One of the most exciting and testing parts of ministry is discernment; we open ourselves to God's guidance and will. It is also one of the most frightening parts of ministry because the discernment could lead to a path that is not necessarily the one we would what to take.

The diocesan profile is full of opportunities and significant potential. Bishop Bruno is a person whom I have admired and believe to be a great visionary, committed and a practical person. These are aspects of this process that are enough to get anyone excited and willing to embark on the journey with you. It is also the characteristics of the Diocese of Los Angeles that present a call to me in a very deep and tangible way. Deep because the spirit of the ministries described in the diocesan profile are not ministries about staying on the surface of the issues but they invite, encourage, inspire and challenge everyone to journey deep within oneself and respond with action. Tangible because all you need to do is walk, drive or look around the communities and you will recognize the issues described in the profile in a particularly powerful way, and the response of the diocese is driven by the spirit of God in the life of the people. I am honored to offer myself to you and the process.

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As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

Most of my work history, related to church, has been in the context of communities that are diverse, multicultural, multigenerational, and economically diverse. As communicator coordinator for ICMD (InterCultural Ministry Development) in Province VIII, my role and contribution as a leader was that of interacting and relating to the diverse community of the Province. This experience gave me the opportunity to grow in many different ways. There are two major growth aspects that I feel are relevant to the question of gifts that I bring. First is the recognition of who I am and the richness of my culture and ethnic background. Second is the recognition and honoring of the richness that other cultures and ethnic groups bring and share with me and the community. These two are the most powerful principles of relationships and community building that I have experienced. My experience and practice of ministry is founded on these principles. I believe my gifts are very relevant in this area of the ministry in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

I have been called to serve and minister in many different capacities in the Church and community. I believe and understand from the people that have called me to serve that one of the reasons that the invitation have come to me is for my gifts to listen, speak, lead and follow in the context of diverse points of view, opinions and backgrounds. The most prominent point that I would choose to emphasize in this sharing of my self is that the calling and ministry of the church is only complete or made whole when we build community center in the love of God and when we can work and develop the ministry in community where walls are tare down and bridges are build.

As the first Latino to serve as a chaplain at General Convention, I know that one of the reasons I was called to serve in this role is that I have a reconciling approach to relationships and in the building of community. Currently I serve in one the congregations that in 1991 were written about in the book “To Seek and to Serve” in which the first chapter is about us. We still are a very diverse and inclusive community. We are the only congregation in the diocese that has a ministry with the First Nations community. We are not separate but an integrated group of cultures, ethnic groups and generations.

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After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world? Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

I can see that one of the challenges in the plans set in out in the profile is to ensure that all the areas listed get the resources needed. The lists of ministries that have been identified are very important and certainly mission priorities. They are opportunities that should not be compromised but that need the commitment and the resources to make them happen.

I get the sense that the commitment is there and that people are behind the ministries; what will make the opportunities triumph over the challenges is the energy that the individuals bring to the ministries and how the individuals become a community. The “Great Emergence” as name in the question can be view as the potential for new opportunities. Change is part of our lives and what we need is to learn to deal with change not as a threat to life but as an opportunity to grow, develop, strengthen, and nurture something new and exciting.

The key in this process is in how we communicate and call people to listen and share, my skills are aim in inviting people to the table and intentionally create safe places and times and where people actually listen to each other and communicate with one another and share about their passions and challenges. One of the proofs that I can contribute to substantiate this claim is based something that happened about a year ago in our parish. The congregation where I serve is the only Episcopal Congregation in our diocese that has a Native American Ministry that is active. This ministry is led by my associate who is a Lakota priest. One of the projects that I had the honor to lead and see to its joyful and positive culmination is the building of a new Sweat Lodge. We've had a Sweat Lodge for the last 15 years and in the last four years, we have encounter problems and conflicts because of it with our tenants and neighbors. I had to work with those that share in the use of our property and our neighbors to workout a compromise without undermining the significance of this sacred and important place for the Native American community. We have a new Sweat Lodge that is much better and bigger as the outcome of this process. It got build with funds from one of the organizations that share our facility.

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Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

My biggest passion is people; I feel and get energized and engaged in community. I believe that my gifts, skills and interests converge with my passion to interact with people. to be and remain connected is one of the greatest needs that any diocese or community have,. This connection comes at different levels; at a personal, communal and global level. I thrive in making connections; I like technology but love the personal interaction. If I would be asked about a ministry in particular, I would have to name it Ministry of Presence. Being present in the context of individuals and community is not simply a passion but a real expression of who I am. I would admit that this is equally a challenge because there is so much need for this type of ministry that many times is difficult to take one opportunity over another. The one thing that is helpful to me is to know that priorities have been set in place to assure that in the decision-making process, we are responding to the area that has been identified as priority. What makes this an easier task for a Suffragan Bishop is that there is a Diocesan Bishop who sets that priority and is the one that leads. I like to be on the move, stay active and connected.

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In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

In the two reflections that I have submitted to you, my vision and understanding of, and faithfulness to, God is centered on the principle that God's call is in the midst of all the issues stated in your question. The responsibility that we have as preachers, not only in word but also in action, is how we proclaim this good news of God in a way that people will truly hear and listen and be touched by the spirit. We need not to simply talk about the Good news but to ensure that as we participate and deal with that Good news we listen and attend to God's guidance in how we live it out. The only way, let me repeat, the only way we can know and understand God's will is by doing it, participating, interacting and actively sharing in the life of whatever it is that we are trying to discern. Prayer is simply one element of the process. Prayer without action is as Love without giving.

I have grown in my understanding about some of the issues listed in the question not only by education and being informed about them but by taking the time to live in the midst of them. This in not to suggest that I have lived in every situation, but my relationships with many people that live or have lived them, I have come to understand and appreciate what it means to them and how God has been at work. I love to read the question as stated, “Prayerfully engaged”, because it is in the answer to prayer and in the heart and process of prayer that we can receive what we need to remain engaged in the ministry, what God has called us to do and be.

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Current Resume

OBJECTIVE

I understand my call and I know my passion to be to serve God and the Community through worship and action. To be present, to listen, to share and to live the Gospel in community. To develop and nurture relationships in ways that allows and encourages us to see God’s presence in each other.

EXPERIENCE

2003 – Present: Rector at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in San Jose, California.
     • Minister in a multicultural congregation.
1999 – 2002 Hispanic Missioner in the Diocese of Spokane in the State of Washington
     • Support and minister to and with four Spanish speaking congregations.
     • Raise consciousness through out the Diocese about the need to minister in a cultural
diverse community.
     • Be an advocate for Hispanic Ministry.
     • Foster and support relationship between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking
congregations, especially those that share facilities.
1996-1999 Diocese of Belize Belize Central America Priest in Charge
     • Developed leadership among youth and adults.
     • Local manager and chaplain for Saint Matthew’s and Christ the King Anglican Schools (18
teachers, 550 students).
     • Developed Stewardship program that helped to pay Diocesan assessment fully for the first
time in the history of the Congregations.
     • Promoted new ministry in the community to represent the demographic of the town.
     • Foster ecumenical work.
     • Developed Christian Education programs for Adults and Children.
     • Member of Commission on Ministry, Education Board, Finance Board at Diocesan Level
1992-1996 Province of the Pacific - Province VIII
Administrative assistant to the Director of Intercultural Ministry Development
     • Managed database for multicultural ministries in the Province
     • Coordinated conference at provincial and local level in multicultural ministry development,
Cultural sensitivity.
     • Participated in planning conference with theme "When your neighborhood is changing
but your congregation is not"
     • Assisted congregations exploring opening doors to multicultural ministry.
     • Assisted in implementing programs for multicultural ministry at diocesan and
congregational level.
1991-1996 Saint Philip's Episcopal Church San Jose, CA "Lay pastor”
     • Ministered to and with Latino congregation.
     • Served as liaison between Latino congregation and other congregation in the parish.
     • Conducted services, preach and assist Rector at St. Philip's.

 

EDUCATION

1992-1996 School for Deacons, Diocese of California
     • Bachelors in Theological Studies. Program developed by this school with support from
Church Divinity School of the Pacific to meet the needs of Latino ministry in the U.S. A.
1982 -1985 Instituto de Bachillerato en Computación Guatemala
     • Bachelor in Computer Science. Programming and System Analysis

 

CONTINUED EDUCATION

2000 Gonzaga University Spokane Washington
Continued Education - One month of intensive studies on
     • Multicultural ministry
     • Old Testament
     • Creative Christian Education for Adult and Children
2007 CREDO I – Duncan Conference Center
2008 Kaleidoscope Institute – Winter Program
     • Week long program with a focus on Diversity and Planned change in
Congregational Development

 

EXTRACURRICULAR

• Member of board of Trustees – Diocese of El Camino Real
• Deputy to General Convention (2006 and 2009) – Chair of Cognate Committee 14 –
Ministry 2009
• Chaplain to General Convention 2006 (House of Deputies)
• Co-chair of Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism (Commission of
General Convention)
• Former Member of Council of Advice for National Hispanic Ministry
• Member of Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy Board – Santa Clara County
• Former Member of Youth Ministry Council (National Level)
• Computer repairs
• Member of Task Force on Youth Development and Welfare (Local Level)

 

DATES OF ORDINATION

• DIACONATE: June 29, 1996. Saint Philip's Episcopal Church, San Jose California
• PRIESTHOOD: February 1, 1997. Christ the King Anglican Church, Dangriga, Belize, Central America.

 

PERSONAL

• Born – July 1968
• Married to Thelma
• Two children – Jonathan (18) & Christopher (13)
• Hobbies – Work with Computers and Read

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1. Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

2. As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities? What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

3. After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

4. Where do your passions lie? In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

5. In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

Resume

Provide a description of your walk with God in Christ that brought you to this moment of discerning a call to the episcopate in our diocese.

 My sense of vocation began with my baptism, and I began to discern my call as a lay minister. By the age of 19 I had leadership experience in five mission congregations. After attending a weekend Cursillo retreat when I was 18 years old, I felt called to enroll in the diocesan seminary (Santo Tomas) of the Diocese of Guatemala to pursue ordained ministry. I graduated with a Bachelor of Theology after completing three years of academic training in theology, pastoral and liturgy, which shaped my Christian vocation in the context of the Episcopal Church. In addition to my academic pursuits, I received concurrent training to function as a missionary priest. On June 6, 1986, I was ordained to the diaconate and November 24, 1988, to the priesthood.
 
This theoretical and practical training, which continued in communities where I did my field work, greatly strengthened my relationship with God and the Anglican/Episcopal Church. All of this training has helped to grow in relationship with God, with the church, with the community, with family and myself. It also has helped me develop a daily devotional practice that is a valuable and important asset: personal devotions using the Book of Common Prayer in combination with centering prayer.

My priestly vocation has been shaped also by my mentors. I have been fortunate to have been called by God to work in dioceses where the bishops in their role as pastors were my mentors. Each of them has been excellent and has inspired me in new ways about how to be a pastor and a servant. They have taught me that I must respond with a presence, support and resources when there is an emergency or a crisis, also that I must be a steady example of faith in calmer times.

Currently, I come to this moment to discern the call to the episcopate after praying and consulting with my mentors, fellow clerics and trusted lay people. I have attended retreats with fellow clerics in both Episcopal and ecumenical contexts to review this aspect of my spiritual life and to help shape the sense of my vocation.

As a result of this discernment work I believe that I have the skills and experience to be Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles. I believe that God has called me to work under the leadership of others. At the same time, God is calling me to share with others my leadership so that I can best influence and encourage them to work in partnership for the Reign of God. I feel that God is calling me to keep the unity and diversity of our Church and to be a faithful and loving pastor so that people can see in me an example of what it means to be Jesus’ disciple in this world full of challenges. If I am elected, I will continue the mission of the Episcopal Church as I have always practiced since I was ordained: to serve the people of God.

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As our diocesan profile discloses, ethnic and cultural diversity are hallmarks of the Diocese of Los Angeles. What experiences have you had as a minister in culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse communities?  What gifts will you bring to our unique setting?

 
In my 26 years as a member of the Episcopal Church, I have been exposed to many different cultures and ethnic groups, for example:

• THE GARIFUNAS: The Garifuna Tribes, also known as the Black Caribs, originated in the 17th century in San Vicente, about a century after the conquering of Central America. I was the Priest-in-charge of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Izabal, Guatemala, where I developed an action plan to reach the Garifunas and Meztizo families. This project helped our church to grow and the Garifunas and Meztizos became and still remain a strong and supportive group within the church.

• MAYAS: I was appointed as the Priest-in-charge of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in the highlands of Guatemala among the Mayan families. As the missionary priest I was responsible for planting and developing the congregation the Holy Nativity among Mayan families in Totonicapan, Guatemala.

• CHAPLAINCY: My experience working as an army, hospital and prison chaplain enabled me to work with many different kinds of people in a variety of life circumstances and crises.

• REFUGEES: I was called to become the Hispanic Missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Belize working among refugee families who moved into Belize because of the political, social and economic conflicts in their home countries. Those years in Belize helped me to practice my ministry among people of different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

• ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH, HAWTHORNE: The opportunity to serve at St. George’s has allowed me to build a multicultural congregation, including Anglos, Latinos, Nigerians, African-Americans, Palestinians and people from the Caribbean. One of my goals for this community has been to develop effective leaders and healthy relationships among this diverse group of parishioners.

The gifts I bring to our unique setting

In our unique setting every day I see new challenges and those challenges encourage us to have a much more global vision. In the Diocese of Los Angeles we have goals for mission that we want to accomplish together in the context of our strong and diverse community. If we effectively communicate these things to the people we invite, I think they will respect us and engage with us toward achieving these goals. I believe I have the gifts, background and experiences to lead and build an authentic openness where I can enable people to be informed, moved, challenged and engaged in ministry. Specifically, I can identify the following gifts for ministry:

 

• I have the ability to identify key people, new leaders or new facilitators who will help us to meet our goals.

• I am open to encouraging and providing ample opportunity for participation by many different people and interests.

• I like to work in mutual cooperation with others and engage in the exchange of ideas and answers.

• I have the ability and inclination to direct and manage multiple different situations and activities.

• I am skilled at working with individuals and groups as a facilitator and trainer.

• I have the ability to train lay people and clergy to develop a new sense of congregational growth and spiritual journey.

• I have the capacity to invent and formulate visions for the future.

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After reading the diocesan profile, “Faith and Our Future,” what are the major challenges and opportunities that you envision as the diocese moves forward amid the “Great Emergence” of change within the church and the world?  Describe how your gifts, interests and experience will help to shape the future of our diocese and the church.

We are experiencing a time of great change in the church and the world and this calls us to be resourceful and flexible. We need to recognize that our experience of how we “do” church may need to change. All of these are significant challenges to our ethos as Anglicans.

Willingness to engage in fresh expressions of ministry

I embrace our Anglican/Episcopal liturgies and worship. This is where I feel most at home and inspired by God. However, I see in our tradition an opportunity for flexibility that we do not always embrace. I think that in this time of cultural shift we need to be willing to invigorate our worship and practice with fresh expressions that welcome people and encourage them to join with us in serving God. In my experience at St. George’s we have enhanced our traditional worship with regular bilingual/“bi-musical” Spanish/English worship, and on special occasions we also include Ibo and Arabic. We regularly use a projector instead of a printed bulletin to save resources and encourage people to look up during worship. Our ministry of the Word includes regular telling of the gospel by English and Spanish tellers to help our people hear the story in a new and vital way. These worship and ministry expressions have helped our congregation to grow in numbers and in Christ.

Building vital church communities

This time of “Great Emergence” calls for building up the church in creative ways. Finding enough resources to move the diocese forward is a major challenge. I see renewing established congregations and building new communities as a highest priority. We are called to good stewardship in this work. I can see a challenge to distribute resources to programs or congregations willing to move from maintenance to mission. This may call us to make tough choices, but I believe that is the responsibility of leadership.

I also believe we should provide mentoring help for new and struggling missions and congregations. I recommend creating a diocesan bank of talents and materials to provide resources/advisors to share best practices of ministry with congregations. I know from personal experience that the financial guidance of the diocesan business consultant has helped with St. George’s finances. Missions and parishes need access to resources and guidance (both professional and volunteer) to help them grow.

Partnering with the community and the world

Another opportunity is strengthening and extending our companionship in mission locally, nationally and overseas. I strongly believe in the need to take the church out into the community and I have lived this in my ministry. As examples, I received an award from Loyola Marymount University for building bridges between local schoolchildren and their counterparts in Nigeria and Guatemala; I serve on the Hawthorne High School Youth Violence Taskforce working with police and local government to develop a culture of peace among these youth; I am active in the Hawthorne Ministerial Association joining with other Christians to meet the needs of hunger and homelessness in our community; I am active in CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice).

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Where do your passions lie?  In which areas of ministry do your skills, interest and gifts converge? How have you exercised these ministries in the past and how do you envision that they might be employed as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles?

 My passion is to serve the people. I find joy in serving people and helping them find and share the love of God in their lives. Currently, I am a pastor of God’s people – both within my own congregational community and the larger community of Hawthorne. In the past I have enjoyed serving God’s people as a missionary priest in Central America. And I look forward to the challenges God will put before me for serving God’s people – perhaps as Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles. I think that my experience as a missionary helped me to discover that I must always be accessible to people. To function as a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles one must be willing to serve.

I like being where people need me. I think this is why I have been successful as a missionary priest. I have come into situations of an empty church where I needed to go out into the community and find people to serve. And the people are always there, even if they are not always coming to church.

I like working with people and counseling them about their decisions. My experiences as a missionary, pastor, priest and vicar provide a strong background to draw on in this pastoral counseling. I have been able to help people assess situations and see a productive way forward to making right or wise decisions. I think that this skill can be especially useful as a Bishop responsible for nurturing and guiding other clergy.

I possess the qualities to lead individuals and groups working together for the same purpose. I was educated and trained as a missionary leader. As a priest I have worked in various areas in my ministry: preaching, teaching, promoting and organizing new missions. My skills and experience could help the diocese to develop in those areas where we need to combine administrative and missionary work. My background and experience enable me to help the diocese strengthen our mission outreach. This is necessary if we are to be successful in creating a vibrant and cohesive multicultural community.

I enjoy the challenge of growing churches. This would be of great value and assistance to the Bishop Diocesan. I think a good number of missions and parishes have an average Sunday attendance of 100 members or less. Over the last eight years I have built up a small and dying congregation into a vital, multicultural congregation within the Diocese of Los Angeles. These skills and experiences strengthen my ability to help other congregations, because I am fully aware of the difficulties of building a church at that level. My experience with the methods for growth and my understanding of how to change the dynamics of participation would be of significant value to our diocese.

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In our diocese, many are prayerfully engaged with issues such as world poverty, climate change, war and peace, economic justice, immigration, gender equity, and the status of gay and lesbian people in the church and society. How have these and other worldly issues touched and changed you, and how do you feel called to preach the gospel as a mediator of God’s purposes in the world?

 All of these issues mentioned are important to the church and to the world, but I would say that the issues of immigration and economic justice have been the most influential in the development of my ministry. I am an immigrant, and I have spent much of my ministry working with immigrant and refugee populations both here and abroad.

I found myself working with an internal immigration movement from the rural area to urban area in my own country of Guatemala in the 1980s. In the 1990s I worked with refugees families from several countries of Central America who fled to Belize. At present I am working with immigrant families — Palestinians, Nigerians and Hispanics — who have settled in Hawthorne. In all of this I have learned the positive experience of being close to them that has help me to identify their needs and to find ways to serve them with a more specific outreach plan. This has led me to develop ministries with low-income families. Our diocesan ministry—and one that I feel called to — is to find better ways for economic justice that will bring progress and health to our families, communities and enterprises.

Bound up with the issue of economic justice is the issue of immigration. I support comprehensive immigration reform because today our country faces a broken immigration system that divides families, pushes people into the shadows, and fails the needs of the workforce. As a minister of God, it is my responsibility to preach the message of justice for all people.

The one word that comes to me when I consider the issues of immigration, as well as gender equality and gay and lesbian people, is “welcome.” It is a key word in one of the four components of our diocesan strategic plan and it has also been the successful word in my ministry in all the places I have worked. At St. George’s Church this spirit of welcome as Christ welcomes all of us has helped me to build a multicultural community of faith. First I became aware of who was around me, then how to become tolerant and pray for the process of acceptance, and finally how to build a sense of loving each other. As a result, the salvation that I proclaim is not a matter of gender, sexual preferences, race or social status, but one of unconditional acceptance and love.

I believe that God’s intends me to be a peacemaker. My hope is to provide a message that helps people identify issues relevant to their dispute or negotiation and to create a safe environment in which to share an authentic message of reconciliation; a message that persuades and brings people together for dialog and unity. I feel that God chose me to be a reconciler not a judge; to be a builder of bridges between people. The gospel that I am called to teach is one of loving our neighbor as ourselves.

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Current Resume

Ministry Objective

To use my gifts, abilities and experience in multi-cultural ministries, missionary outreach and pastoral care in the best service to God and God’s people.

 

Highlights

• Born in Guatemala; educated in Guatemala, Belize, Mexico and USA

• Episcopal priest with more than 23 years experience in pastoral care and administration.

• Skilled in building bridges to connect people on parishes, missions and communities levels.

• Able to work successfully as a religious leader in a multicultural context.

 

Ordination

• Diaconate – June 6, 1986, Cathedral of St. James, Guatemala, The Rt. Rev. Armando Guerra

• Priesthood – November 24, 1988, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Guatemala, The Rt. Rev. Armando Guerra

 

Employment History

2001- present: Vicar, St. George’s Episcopal Church, Hawthorne, Diocese of Los Angeles
Responsible for administration and pastoral care of a multi-cultural mission church.

2001-2003: Assistant Priest, St. Cross Episcopal Church, Hermosa Beach, Diocese of Los Angeles. Responsible for planning and leading the Wednesday service.

1996-2001: Hispanic Missioner and Priest-in-charge, Anglican Diocese of Belize. Responsible for Hispanic Ministry program at St. John’s Cathedral, Belize City, Belize. Responsible for mission development and pastoral care among Hispanic refugee families at three mission congregations in western Belize.

1993-1995: Priest-in-charge, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Responsible for pastoral care and mission development among Ladino and Mayan communities.

1986-1992: Priest-in-charge, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Responsible for mission administration and pastoral care among the Mestizo and Garifuna communities.

Major Appointments and Relevant Experience

• World Missions Group, Diocese of Los Angeles, 2004-present

• Kaleidoscope Trainer, Diocese of Los Angeles, 2005-present

• Standing Committee, Anglican Diocese of Belize, 1997-2001

• Commission on Ministry, Diocese of Guatemala, 1988-1995

• Commission on Ministry, Anglican Diocese of Belize, 1997-2001

• Justice and Peace Committee, Diocese of Guatemala, 1990-1995

• Instructor, Maya Episcopal Seminary, El Quiche, Guatemala, 1993-1994

• Deputy to General Convention from Diocese of Guatemala, Indianapolis, IN, 1994

• Chaplain at County Facilities, Prison and National Hospital, Izabal District, Guatemala, 1987-1992

• National Army, Izabal District, Guatemala, 1987-1992

• Director of Lay-Minister Training School, Guatemala, 1989-1992

• Mentor for the Permanent Diaconate Program, Diocese of Guatemala, 1990-1992

 

Education

• B.A., Theology, St. Thomas Apostle Episcopal Seminary, Guatemala, 1986

• Master of Sacred Theology, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Seminary, Mexico, 1992

• B.A., Arts and Science, National Institute Jacob Arbens, Guatemala, 1995

 

Continuing Education

• The Palestine of Jesus-Tantur, Jerusalem, Israel, 2008

• Clergy Training System Group, Santa Barbara, CA, 2007

• Preparation for Preaching, Washington DC, 2007

• The Hispanic Ministry, Virginia, 2006

• Healthy Congregations, Santa Ana, CA, 2005

• Kaleidoscope Institute, Los Angeles, 2004

• CREDO-Church Pension Fund, Florida, 2004

• Planning for Tomorrow, Los Angeles, 2003

• Methods of Evangelization, Nashota House, Wisconsin, 2002

• Fresh Start, Diocese, Los Angeles, 2001

• Anthropology and Ethics of the Priest, Guatemala, 1991

• History and Theology of the Evangelism, Guatemala, 1990

• Evangelization and Politic Process in Central America, Guatemala, 1990

• Ecumenism and Sociology, Guatemala, 1989

• Management Projects, Guatemala, 1988

• Theology-Canon Bergesen, Guatemala, 1985

• Liturgy, Dr. Louis Weil, Guatemala, 1985

 

Personal

Born May 1964 in Guatemala
Married to Elena Vasquez
Three sons: twins Donato and Valentin (age 24); Martir, Jr. (age 12)

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