July 6, 2023 | VOLUME 35, ISSUE 25

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Sixth Sunday after Pentecost:

July 9, 2023

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Zechariah 9:9-12

Psalm 145:8-15

Romans 7:15-25a

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30



Preacher: The Reverend Argola E. Haynes

Sunday, July 9, 1:30 & 5:30 PM: Grass Roots Neighbors Outreach

Holy Nativity Episcopal Church

Saturday, July 15, 8 AM - 4 PM: Neighbors 4 Neighbors in St. Bede's parking lot

Sunday, July 16, 1:00 PM: A Time for Sharing & Remembrance to honor Gloria Bando at the home of Kimberly Bouzguenda

Dinner and Assembly for the Backpack Project: Date to be determined, near the end of July, beginning of August.

Bible and Breakfast

Tuesdays | 9:30 AM

Luther Hall & Zoom

Midweek Eucharist

Wednesdays | 7:00 PM

Sanctuary

Adult Forum

Wednesdays | 7:45 PM

Luther Hall & Zoom

GRASS ROOTS NEIGHBORS

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED

July 9| 1:30 PM & 5:00 PM

Grass Roots Neighbors is a volunteer community organization. They meet the immediate needs of our neighbors experiencing food and housing insecurity. GRN mobilizes to fill the gaps in existing services by providing assistance with love and respect. The organization's vision is to be a community effectively involved in ending poverty. ​

Among their outreach programs, GNR cooks and delivers a hot meal every Sunday to various encampments on the Westside. Once a month, St. Bede's with Holy Nativity assists GNR with preparing and providing meals. There are now four different volunteer time slots:

• 2 - 4 PM (mostly chopping of fruits and veggies)
• 4 - 6 PM (mainly packaging food)
• 6 - 8:30 PM (loading and distributing the food)
• 7:30 - 10:30 PM (distributing food in Venice by bike)

GNR utilizes the kitchen facilities at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church.

Support Economic Justice for Hospitality Workers

St. Bede's is joining the fight for economic justice for hospitality workers in Los Angeles. I have attached an email from The Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez outlining the ways we can help.

Contact Rev. Jennifer to be part of the team this summer.

Last week CLUE members (including Lana Spraker and The Rev. Jennifer Wagner Pavia from St. Bede's Mar Vista) from across Southern California joined with tourism workers for a historic action of witness. We called attention to the conditions that hotel workers face and the incredible opportunity for change.

Together we sang, chanted, prayed, danced and waited for change to come. Workers tell us they were inspired and deeply moved by our support. Now a new phase in this journey begins. Will you join us?

Yesterday, nearly 100 UNITE HERE Local 11 contracts expired across our region, and workers are preparing to strike. We anticipate thousands of workers will be on the street demanding more for their families.  

You have an opportunity to be by their side in this righteous fight.

WHATS NEXT:  

Our friends at UNITE HERE Local 11 have asked for your help in the following specific ways.

ADOPT A PICKET LINE

Please consider adopting one or more picket lines--either as an individual or as an organization. 

Adopting a picket line means agreeing to the following commitment:

You will pick a geographic area (or more than one) that fits your community on the sign up sheet, and if a strike is called you will be assigned to a specific hotel in that area. 

• Commit to at least one two-hour shift a week to walk the line and visit workers. 
• Commit to bring refreshments to the picket line (coffee, snacks, pizza, etc.).

A signup sheet is here. 

Please contact your CLUE organizer or Mary Entoma at mentoma@unitehere11.org or (650) 753-9598 for more details. 

JOIN THE MUTUAL AID COMMITTEE

Volunteers are needed for the second week of the strike and beyond to meet with workers who are most financially vulnerable. You'll help them make calls to key creditors to help them defer payment until the end of the strike. 

• The Mutual Aid Debt Response team will be asked to commit to a volunteer schedule, completing two shifts a week and will meet at UNITE HERE offices downtown.
• You don’t need experience. You just need to be willing to talk on the phone.  You will receive training. 

This is a powerful form of solidarity that helps workers feel confident on the picket line.

Sign up here to volunteer. 

Please contact your CLUE organizer or Senator Zavala at szavala@unitehere11.org or (714) 493-1815 with questions. Thank you again for walking this path with workers. Together, we will win this struggle for all of us.

In faith and solidarity,

Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez, CLUE Justice

A Time to Share Memories: Gloria Bando

Please join us for a time of remembrance and sharing to honor our sister, Gloria Bando. 

HOSTESS: Kimberly Bouzguenda 

DATE: Sunday, July 16 

TIME: 1:00 PM

LOCATION: Kimberly's home

4472 Walnut Avenue 

Long Beach 90807 

Light refreshments will be provided. 

RSVP appreciated: 651-278-7113 

For the last several years, St. Bede’s has partnered with First AME Church on a back-to-school backpack project for children in foster care, and this summer we are doing it again.

We plan to fill 45 backpacks (15 for elementary school-age children, 15 for middle school and 15 for high school), and we’re collecting monetary donations to buy the supplies that will go inside.

If you’re writing a check, please make them payable to St. Bede’s with “Backpack Project” in the memo portion (at the lower left corner of the check.) You can bring the checks (or cash) to church, mail the checks to church, or send your checks to Alice Short (3156 Coolidge Ave. Los Angeles 90066). In addition, you can donate via the St. Bede’s Vanco e-giving and payment process site.

We’d be grateful if you could make your donations by July 16, and we plan to schedule our “assembly dinner” at the end of July or the start of August. 

Questions? Please reach out to members of the Mission Committee.

Are you planning to attend worship online and want an easy way to make a pledge payment? Do you want to ditch the checkbook and set up reoccurring payments? Are you looking for a convenient way to make a one-time special gift to St. Bede's?

Did you know you can make donations online to St. Bede's, securely and easily?

Visit the St. Bede's website and at the top of every page, look for the "Donate" button. When you click on the "Donate" button, you will be transported to St. Bede's Vanco eGiving and Payment Process Site.

Vanco is an industry leader in online payments. More than 40,000 churches, faith-based groups, nonprofits, schools, and educational organizations trust Vanco to securely complete transactions every day. Vanco complies with PCI Level 1 standards, the highest security standard in the payment processing industry.

You are invited to set up one-time or recurring gifts using credit, debit, or bank transfer on Vanco's secure payment processing platform. Giving online through the Vanco site saves time and the hassle of remembering to bring your offering. In addition, you decrease the expense incurred by St. Bede’s from handling and processing checks and cash.

State assembly member Chris Holden, accompanied by other civic and faith leaders, addresses a July 3 press conference encouraging support for legislation to solve California’s housing problem. Photos: Janet Kawamoto

Local faith, civic leaders support housing legislation as homeless count rises

by Janet Kawamoto

“Our society is rich enough that no one should have to sleep on the street or go hungry. It’s that simple,” Bishop John Harvey Taylor of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles said at a July 3 press conference of civic and religious leaders organized by LA Voice, an interfaith justice advocacy group, and held at First Christian Church of Burbank.

“There are other problems to solve,” Taylor continued, standing next to Assemblymember Chris Holden (41st Assembly District), a representative from State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, and leaders of local Christian, Jewish and other faith groups. “We can care for people when they’re addicted or ill instead of putting them on the street or putting them in jail. But let’s start with a blanket and a crust of bread. We can do that; everyone with something to eat and a place to lay their head. Call that a bare minimum for a society to be called civilized.

“It’s the day before Independence Day, and we need to declare independence from homelessness in our region.”

The 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count results, released June 29, showed “a 9% rise in homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles County to an estimated 75,518 people and a 10% rise in the City of Los Angeles to an estimated 46,260 people,” according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which conducts an annual count of homeless people in the city. “While this year’s increases are slightly lower than previous year-over-year increases in the homeless count, they continue a steady growth trend of people experiencing homelessness in the annual Point-in-Time Count (PIT Count).”

Other major cities in California have seen similar increases: homelessness is up 26% in San Bernardino; 12% in Riverside.

Taylor reiterated the Diocese of Los Angeles’ pledge to build affordable housing on 25% of its properties. One such project is already open at St. Michael’s Ministry Center, Riverside; another, at Blessed Sacrament Church, Placentia, is nearing completion; more are in the planning stages.

READ MORE HERE

Episcopal, interfaith ministries of St. Paul’s Commons will be featured in booth at Echo Park’s Lotus Festival July 15-16

by EN Staff 

Episcopal and interfaith ministries based at St. Paul’s Commons will be highlighted in a booth at L.A.’s 42nd Annual Lotus Festival set for July 15 – 16 in Echo Park. Admission is free for the two-day event expected to draw some 125,000 attendees.

Situated in the park across from St. Paul’s Commons, this year’s festival will bring special recognition to the people and culture of Indonesia while offering a range of Asian food, art, exhibits, and activities including traditional dragon boat races on Echo Park Lake. More on the festival is here.

St. Paul’s Commons’ booth will feature ministries of St. Athanasius Episcopal Church, located along Echo Park Lake since 1917, and dating from 1864 as Southern California’s oldest continuing Protestant house of worship. To mark the Lotus Festival, the church will be the setting for a free 4 p.m. July 16 Sunday cello concert and dialogue presented by St. Paul’s Commons and Laós Chamber Music titled “Incomplete Memory: A Performance and Conversation on AAPI Identity in Classical Music.” (See related story here.)

READ MORE HERE

Bishop John Harvey Taylor displays his first-pitch ball at the 2022 Episcopal Night at Dodger Stadium. Photo: Janet Kawamoto

Ticket orders open for 2023 Episcopal Night at Dodger Stadium

by EN Staff

The Diocese of Los Angeles will once again descend on Echo Park for Episcopal Night at Dodger Stadium on Friday, Sept. 1 for a game (with playoff potential) against the Atlanta Braves, according to the Rev. Canon Greg Larkin (AKA “Canon Baseball”), who has led this event since its inception in the 1990s, during Bishop Fred Borsch’s tenure.

A coordinator in each congregation will monitor signups, collect ticket money ($30 per ticket; same rate as last year) and place orders with Larkin. Tickets will be delivered electronically to the coordinator, who will then distribute them by email to parishioners, according to instructions recently sent to clergy. Tickets must be readable on a cell phone for entry to the stadium. All ticket orders must be sent to Larkin by July 18; coordinators will set deadlines for their congregations..

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Hundreds of young people gather for Episcopal Youth Event, being held July 4-8 at the University of Maryland in College Park. Photo: Episcopal Church Office of Communication

Episcopal Youth Event 2023 begins, calls teens to a ‘new age of faith’

By Logan Crews

The Rev. Yohana Lukumayi, left; the Rev. Frank Joseph; the Rev. Agripa Ndatila and the Rev. Daniel Karanja speak with two women who participated in the closing Eucharist for a gathering of Africans interested in reducing discrimination against people with disabilities. Beatrice Lengila, left, who uses a wheelchair, can compose a song just after listening to a message during worship services and is learning how to read and write. Mwajabu Mbaluku Salumu also uses a wheelchair when she has one. She was very ill as a child, and the lack of intervention resulted in her disabilities. A Muslim who cares deeply about the legal rights of people with disabilities, she chairs a local 500-member group of people living with disabilities. Photo: Office of Global Partnerships

The 2023 Episcopal Youth Event is in full swing as hundreds of teenagers, adult chaperones and bishops traveled to College Park, Maryland for a week of fellowship, learning and worship.

EYE’s theme is Regreso a Casa (“return home” in Spanish): A New Age of Faith. The conference was originally planned for 2020 but was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pent-up energy accumulated during the three-year hiatus is now bursting across the University of Maryland campus.

“This is like my big step into the world to see new things and meet new people,” said Izzy Blevins, a high schooler from the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.

The event began quietly on the evening of Independence Day, with an ice cream social that quickly moved inside after the July heat started to melt the ice cream and light rain fell on the delegations arriving on campus. On July 5, members of the student leadership team welcomed participants to a worship service and the opening keynote speaker, Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson.

Johnson introduced one of EYE’s themes taken from the book of Esther: “For such a time as this.” Esther’s story, he said, can be an inspiration for youth because of how God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things, just at the right time.

“Our youth are not the future, our youth are the present,” Johnson said during his address. “They are the ones who need to be taking the lead. They’re the ones who are going to tell us as a church where we need to go and how we’re going to get there.”

The roughly 600 youth and their 200 chaperones in attendance at EYE represent 108 dioceses, spanning 22 nations or territories. The bilingual English-Spanish opening worship service was meant to set the tone for this week’s multicultural celebration of faith, and the worship band’s setlist featured songs from gospel singers and LGBTQ+ and Latino musicians.

One song, “Montaña” by Salvador, had the room dancing with its dramatic flair and quick tempo.

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Anglican Communion: Helping African children with disabilities begins by refuting cultural, religious myths

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

The pastor’s wife rose to pray at the end of the first meeting of a support group for 25 Tanzanian families caring for children with disabilities. “I’m really sorry that your child has been cursed by the devil,” she began.

A year later, the same woman stood up at another meeting of the group to say she had misspoken and to ask for forgiveness, describing the youngsters with disabilities as “beloved children of God.”

Transformation of religious beliefs and cultural attitudes towards disabilities underlies the goals of the Bethesda Disability Program that Wendy Broadbent, a Utah Episcopalian, founded in 2015, the same year Broadbent became an Episcopal Church volunteer in mission. The Bethesda program is now part of the St. Philip’s Theological College in Kongwa in central Tanzania. The program rests on a family support group model “which encourages the adults caring for children with disabilities to come out of hiding and learn about empowerment,” according to the St. Philip’s website.

A year before Broadbent started her work, the African Child Policy Forum reported that children with disabilities “face extreme forms of violence, stigma and discrimination based on misconceptions about the cause of disability that are rooted in cultural beliefs and traditions.” Its report noted that, in truth, “disability in Africa is largely attributable to war, poverty, and inadequate access to health and rehabilitation services.”

Broadbent’s work in Tanzania is rooted in her experience caring for and advocating for her three children, all now in their thirties, who have experienced physical, learning and trauma challenges. She’s spent more than 25 years working with families of children with disabilities, currently with New Jersey-based SPAN Parent Advocacy Network. Broadbent’s career as a corporate lawyer helped her navigate her children’s legal rights and teach others to do the same.

READ MORE ON ENS

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