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Outpouring of Episcopal support felt amid fires in Pacific Palisades, San Gabriel Valley foothills, Hollywood Hills
Relief contributions requested via diocesela.org/annual-appeal
By Pat McCaughan
Locally and nationally, the Episcopal community has rallied together, in a resilient outpouring of prayers, love and support as out-of-control Southern California wildfires blazed a second straight day, destroying thousands of acres, homes, schools, and an Episcopal church among various houses of worship and historic buildings, forcing mass evacuations.
“This is devastating, incomprehensible, the magnitude of what could happen so quickly,” said Sharon Pewtress, chief operating officer of Episcopal Communities & Services (ECS), of the Eaton Fire, which began burning Tuesday night in the hills above Altadena in northern Los Angeles County, destroying St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and School there early Wednesday morning.
ECS, which operates several senior communities within the diocese, evacuated some 200 residents from its Altadena MonteCedro residence.
CNN reported that the fire has killed five with zero percent containment.
“Our property this morning was very scary; we thought we were going to lose it,” Pewtress said. Sheriffs arrived with evacuation orders before sunrise and transported residents on buses to the Pasadena Convention Center.
Episcopal Communities and Services (ECS) President James Rothrock speaks with Canon Kathy O’Connor outside emergency shelter at Pasadena Convention Center. He and staff colleagues oversaw safe evacuation of MonteCedro retirement community residents.
There, Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor and Canon Kathy O’Connor visited with evacuees. An historic building, the Scripps Home Gloria Cottage, located on MonteCedro’s property, was lost, Pewtress said, but otherwise the campus was presumed intact.
Taylor, in a YouTube video message to the diocese noted the outpouring from across The Episcopal Church.
“Offers have been flooding in from all over the diocese, from individuals, parishes and missions that have room for evacuees who need shelter. Thank you. Bishops form all over The Episcopal Church, including Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and our former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. We have heard from Bishop Diane (Jardine Bruce) in the Diocese of Western Missouri and many colleagues all over the church, pledging themselves to your care and safety,” Taylor said.
Properties continued to blaze, including in a sixth fire, in the Hollywood Hills, fueling chaos, uncertainty, fear and “losses too great to bear,” Taylor said. “The list of names of members of our churches in the San Gabriel Valley and Pacific Palisades area who’ve lost homes could exceed 40 or 50 by the time all of the news is in,” he said.
Assistance to those displaced is underway, he added, noting that contributions to the diocesan “One Body, One Spirit Annual Appeal” have been earmarked for fire relief and will be supplemented through aid from Episcopal Relief and Development, The Episcopal Church’s disaster relief agency.
“Thanks for your courage, your fortitude, your faith and your love. An emergency such as this, is an epochal generational event for our diocese. In moments such as this, we reclaim our oneness in Christ. We gather at the foot of the cross and enfold one another in our arms and in prayer. And we pledge to continue to glorify God and to care for one another, especially those most at risk and most in need.”
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—The Rev. Canon Pat McCaughan, news editor of The Episcopal News, is vicar of St. George’s Church in Laguna Hills.
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