Episcopal Press and News
LOS ANGELES: Convention focuses on faith, future, leadership and mission
Episcopal News Service. December 8, 2009 [120809-05]
Pat McCaughan
The 114th annual convention of the Diocese of Los Angeles celebrated the historic election of two suffragan bishops and officially welcomed back to the fold the congregation of St. Luke's of-the-Mountains Church in LaCrescenta, during "Faith & Our Future" Dec. 4-5 at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, California.
A majority of the 680 clergy and lay delegates attending the two-day gathering on Dec. 4 elected the Rev. Canon Diane Jardine Bruce, 53, on the third ballot as the diocese's first woman suffragan bishop. A well-known Los Angeles area priest, she had served for nine years as rector of St. Clements by-the-Sea Church in San Clemente, and is the 16th woman elected bishop in the Episcopal Church.
A day later, the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool was elected as the diocese's first openly gay and partnered bishop suffragan, after seven rounds of balloting. Glasspool, 55, has served the past eight years as canon to the bishops in the Diocese of Maryland and becomes the 17th woman elected bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Convention also honored retiring Bishop Suffragan Chester Talton and Bishop Assistant Sergio Carranza, for 19 and seven years service, respectively, to the diocese.
Delegates gave the congregation of St. Luke's in-the-Mountains Church a standing ovation and hearty welcome back to the diocese. A local court had ordered the church property, which had been held by a breakaway group, to be returned to the diocese Oct. 12. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno announced the formation of a team of clergy and laity to facilitate the eventual return of three other disputed properties: St. James Church in Newport Beach; St. David's Church in North Hollywood; and All Saints Church in Long Beach.
Bruno incorporated the concept of home as an acronym during his Dec. 4 annual convention address to describe a five-year diocesan mission plan to deepen congregational spiritual connections via: Health & Hospitality; Openness & Outreach; Mutuality & Via Media; and Equality & Education.
He called upon convention to pray and to work to achieve justice in Uganda "where an oppressive political system is seeking to criminalize same-gender relationships" and praised the diocesan commitment to its companion Diocese of Jerusalem. According to Bruno, more than 400 Southland Episcopalians have engaged peacemaking efforts and met with local Episcopalians while on pilgrimages to the Holy Land over the past several years. About 25 diocesan youth have also joined high school pilgrimages in the last two years; in 2010 a young adult trip for those aged 18 to 25 will be added.
Keynote speaker Brian McLaren, founder of the Spencerville, Maryland Cedar Ridge Community Church and well-known emergent church author, addressed issues of faith and the future church. "I get asked all the time, what will the church of the future look like? The answer is, I don't know," said McLaren, whose latest book, "A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith," will be released in February 2010.
Rather, McLaren said, a healthier question might be: "What will we as God's people create? The question has to be what we are going to do."
He said the Episcopal Church is uniquely positioned to become the future church but added, "What do you think about the future of the church, if our only concern is the future of the church?" asked McLaren. We need to seek "to leverage the church for the sake of the world … something that smells like, has the aroma of the Gospel."
In other convention business, delegates elected diocesan officers, approved amendments to the diocesan constitution and canons, and adopted a $6 million budget, representing a 7.5 percent decrease from the previous year. Bruno told the gathering that balancing the budget included downsizing by 13 the number of staff positions, via attrition, transfer and job elimination. Two employee positions were also eliminated at Camp Wrightwood when the camp was closed after the U.S. Forest Service determined the property was located in an avalanche zone, Bruno said.