from the LA Diocese News
Bishop Suffragan Diane M. Jardine Bruce announced a virtual “Called to the Wall” pilgrimage in support of immigrants at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 15 in partnership with the bishops of the dioceses of San Diego and Northwest Mexico.
Bruce reported that she has resumed in-person pastoral visitations, and that New Community ministries, including The Gathering, a space for Asian American and Asian Pacific Islander spirituality; Latino/Latina ministries; and Black ministries are actively planning upcoming events.
The Program Group on Stewardship and Sustainability is also planning a series of 2021 webinars on various topics, including how to talk to millennials about giving, legacies and more, in partnership with The Episcopal Network for Stewardship, or TENS.
Taylor offered a quick snapshot of the recent House of Bishops gathering, where bishops held courageous conversations about current social challenges, including, at the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, “the scary presence of Christian nationalism, associating the gospel with the state, money, power, and whiteness.”
In response to a question about returning to indoor worship, he said that once counties go back to the red tier in California’s Covid-19 color-coded case tracking system, leadership teams at parishes and missions will have the discretion “to go to inside worship, with modifications, the same 25% of capacity, or 100%, or 100.” (A new set of diocesan guidelines for returning to in-person worship was released on March 16 and is available in English and Spanish.)
Singing will continue to be restricted, Taylor said, adding, “So we are not going to have the Easter we were hoping for but, depending on the local churches’ decisions, we might at least be with one another.” (The new guidelines, prepared by Taylor’s Council of Advice, do permit solo and small-choir singing with appropriate precautions: congregational singing is still banned in all circumstances.)