We had a very meaningful Presbytery meeting on Saturday. We took several actions, several of which affirmed emerging and veteran leadership in the Presbytery:

• Charlene Jin Lee was advanced to candidacy in the preparation for ministry process
• Harlan Redmond’s proposal for Interwoven New Worshiping Community was approved
• Jeff O’Grady and Jan Cook were granted Honorably Retired status as they leave their pastorates with San Marino Community Church later this spring
• Ally Lee was elected Stated Clerk for Administration, Steve Salyards elected as Stated Clerk for Judicial Process, and my call as Executive Presbyter was renewed for another 3 years
• Deidra Goulding was made Moderator of Session for St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in La Puente, and the contracts for Ally Lee with Knox Presbyterian Church in Pasadena and Larry Ballenger with Arcadia Community Church were renewed
• The Presbytery offering was dedicated to the Immigrant Accompaniment Ministry
• The June 19 Presbytery meeting was announced as a Zoom-based day of education
• Presbytery members were invited to an April 22^nd discussion on reopening church sanctuaries, and a virtual border trip to learn more about justice for immigrants in May and September.

There was much to be celebrated, and this meeting highlighted many gifted members in our presbytery family. Charlene’s evolving sense of her ministry was affirmed by her youth pastor (Rev. Mark Hong, who is now our Synod Executive and Stated Clerk) to students whom she taught as a seminary professor, such as Bong Bringas. Charlene’s call includes her voice in the public square; her appearance with us coincided with a powerful column in Presbyterian Outlook in response to the March 16 shootings in the Atlanta area, “Aching Hope: Mourning Violence Against Asian-American Women.”

The vision expressed in Harlan Redmond’s proposal for the new worshiping community, Interwoven, was an inspiration to everyone, especially Pasadena residents who know the need for a holistic ministry of empowerment and racial reconciliation that Interwoven anticipates.

It was a testament to the ministry of Jan Cook and Jeff O’Grady—and as Jan later wrote, God’s “holy synchronicity”—that the meeting affirming their retirement also affirmed Charlene and Harlan, who are both members of San Marino Community Church. As Jeff and Jan retire in May and June, they can see how they contributed to the next generation of leaders as pastors and CPM chair.

But importantly, this meeting also marked the Presbytery’s commitment to focus on dismantling structural racism throughout this year. Dismantling structural racism is one of three priorities set by the national church as we follow the vision of being a Matthew 25 Church. The other two priorities are eradicating systemic poverty and supporting congregational vitality.

Because of the diversity in our presbytery membership, we can learn a lot just from getting to know each other better. So we had three breakout room conversations in the meeting, to check in on the

state of our world, to share our personal experiences of racism, and to share how we have—or have not—taken action to confront racism in our individual lives.

In just these short interchanges, I heard of a COVID-induced conversation group that started among one person’s diverse neighbors, and how people stood up for people with disabilities whom they love. It confirmed for me the importance of relationships, because it’s easier for people to confront racism if they have beloved people in their lives who would be hurt by that racism, just as they felt for their loved ones who were hurt when they were ridiculed for their disabilities. And getting to know and appreciate your neighbors is a great way to love more people with whom you can stand in solidarity.

Finally, a survey was made available, so presbytery members can share their interest in various discussion groups, participation in the Intercultural Development Inventory, the virtual border trips, and/or participating in leadership in the Presbytery. If you have not yet taken the survey, please do so by clicking here.

Last week, I happened to see a Facebook post from Pasadena Presbyterian Church from a year ago, after our own Rev. Dr. Casper Glenn gave a talk on his friendship with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The post ended with this:

When someone in the group mentioned that it was an honor to hear these stories from a person who had so much to do with the civil rights movement, Rev. Glenn put his arms around everyone and said, “it is great for all of us to be together.”

This is my hope, that we fight against racism not as brave individuals, but because it is great for all of us to be together, and to more fully enjoy God’s marvelous creativity in crafting each one of us. It may be uncomfortable to reflect on the ways we are infected by racism, but just like confession, just like Lent, it’s important for us to reject what is not of God, so that we may rejoice in the new life that Jesus suffered to create for us. So I pray that this presbytery meeting was not just a breakout for how we use Zoom, but it marked the beginning of us being an even stronger and more vibrant reflection of God’s kin-dom.

Thank you for being partners on this journey.

In Christ’s peace,

Saturday was a great day in God’s world. At Westwood Presbyterian Church, the Presbytery of the Pacific ordained to the ministry of Word and sacrament Elder Mark S. Jones, Sr.

I hope that some of you might know Mark Jones, and not just because he spent 26 years in the CPM process before his ordination. Like many people under care of CPM, Mark has been too busy doing ministry to prepare for it. Among other things, Mark has been a long-time ruling elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, he has been on staff of Westwood Presbyterian Church in a variety of ministries, and heqw1aza was CRE pastor of Community United Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. Throughout, Mark has been a faithful leader in the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, he has served the national church through the Racial Equity Advisory Committee (formerly ACREC), and has been a tireless, always loving, servant of the Lord.

As Mark gave his first benediction as the Reverend Mark S. Jones, Sr., I was flooded with memories of great stories about him—just as every other person had their favorite stories. One that struck me was a tragic one, though. We were at a national meeting, sitting together in the back of the room of the closing service. The plenary speaker was a woman missionary who was talking about how “we Presbyterians” needed to reach out to “them,” meaning people of color and immigrants. This is a common irritation for me, because many dominant-culture Presbyterians have a habit of speaking to each other as if all Presbyterians are of the same background. Even though they do account for over 90% of the denomination, there are a few of us who don’t fit that category, yet long to be recognized as part of the “we Presbyterians.”

This mild irritation took on tragic proportions that day, however, because while we were finishing up the meeting, Mark was getting texts from his sister, whose teenaged son Bijan had been shot while in his car, and who was about to die in the hospital. Whereas most Presbyterians think about victims of drive-by shootings as a very distant “them,” here was a constantly faithful leader whose beloved nephew was most definitely one of us.

This and other joyous stories came to my mind during Mark’s ordination service. Because of COVID, there were very few people physically present in the Westwood sanctuary, so only one person was allowed to lay his hand on Mark for his ordination. That person was Rev. Dr. Charles Marks, another great leader in the Church, who has served as pastor, seminary professor, and staff of Synod of Southern California and Hawai‘i as well as the national church. As Charles stood with his hand on Mark’s head, I was reminded of the story of Elijah and Elisha, and all the ways the inheritance of service to God is passed from generation to generation.

The tradition of Black Presbyterians is an exceptional one, marked by current leaders such as Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, President of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, and Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk; Rev. Dr. Charles Marks and Rev. Dr. Casper Glenn, both of whom are retired in our

community (and both should have books written about their amazing lives); mathematician Elder Katherine Johnson, who DID have a book written about her (“Hidden Figures”) and Condoleezza Rice, daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian pastors, who has had several; and Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, who wrote the book on Womanist ethics (including “Black Womanist Ethics” and “Katie’s Canon:  Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community”).

Of course, there are countless saints of all backgrounds who reflect the giftedness of the Presbyterian Church. One of my great mentors in this Presbytery is Rev. Bryce Little, who in turn shared the news about Elder George Cassat, long-time Treasurer, Trustee, and generous supporter of the Presbytery and Synod. Elder Cassat, a financial advisor who volunteered his expertise to others and was a lifelong Rotarian, was a member of our churches in Arcadia and San Marino, and passed on to the Lord at the age of 97 on December 3, 2020.

This Saturday is our Presbytery meeting. Among other things, the meeting will be the opportunity to celebrate two exceptionally gifted leaders in our church who will be retiring, Revs. Jan Cook and Jeff O’Grady. We will also have the opportunity to celebrate two exceptionally gifted leaders who are coming into greater leadership in our church: Dr. Charlene Jin Lee, whose PhD advisor was Katie Cannon and who will be seeking advancement as Candidate under care of our CPM, and Harlan Redmond, well-respected community organizer and soon-to-be Princeton MDiv who is also under care of CPM, and who has a compelling proposal for a new worshiping community in our Presbytery.

This is an exciting time for the Presbyterian Church, and for San Gabriel Presbytery. We give thanks for the great leaders who helped bring us to where we are now, and we can look ahead to outstanding leaders who will continue to fulfill God’s mission in this area, with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love (W-4.0404h). We have a wonderful opportunity to expand greatly who is included when we say “we Presbyterians,” and the Presbytery leaders are hoping to provide more ways for us to explore what it means to connect with more children of God than ever before. May our hearts and faith be big enough to embrace all whom God puts into our branch of the family tree.

I encourage you to register for the Presbytery meeting—even if you are not a commissioner, you are welcome!—and I hope to see you on Saturday.

In Christ’s peace,

Even though I can’t believe the number of columns I’ve written over these years with you, it seems there’s always something—or several things—to talk about. For instance, I remind you that in less than two weeks, we will be having a Presbytery meeting, so please don’t forget to register for that. Among other things, we will have the opportunity to hear from two gifted emerging leaders of the Presbytery, and I’m so grateful and happy for that.

And as I write this column, I hear of the first glimmers of hope that we are almost afraid to express, hope that is coming as the number of people being vaccinated goes up—and the number of people suffering from COVID goes down. The guidelines being issued to people who have been fully vaccinated sound a little confusing, and they remind me of Bruce Reyes-Chow and others anticipating the complexity of our new hybrid reality. We as a Presbytery have not yet given guidance on how to worship indoors—we’re not there yet; LA County is still in the highest tier of infection, and even those who have been fully vaccinated are told to still wear masks in public and avoid medium and large gatherings. The “reopening” will require much planning, and we will attempt to share guidance as we hear of it.

Perhaps it’s not as pressing for me, because I’m not yet eligible for the vaccine, so I don’t yet feel the freedom that others are feeling. We do tend to see the world through our own particular lenses, which is why diversity is so important—the more people from various backgrounds we have in leadership, the more views on God’s world we get. For better or for worse, right now you get me writing this column, from my particular perspective as a third-generation Japanese-American woman from a family that has long attempted to serve God’s mission of justice and peace.

So, for instance, I think I’ve mentioned that much of what I know about combating racism I learned as a child, from my parents. (A good reminder that children are watching and listening, even when they don’t seem to be.) I remember a TV news item during the Senate hearings on redress and reparations for Japanese-Americans who were displaced and incarcerated in camps during World War II. As politicians do, one Senator spoke hyperbolically about what he heard, saying “the internment camps were the worst injustice in the history of the United States.” My mother, who herself was sent to the Gila camp in Arizona, scoffed and said, “That’s ridiculous. What we went through was nothing compared to what was done to Blacks.”

This is a good illustration of the term BIPOC. The term refers to Black, Indigenous and People of Color, and attempts to maintain solidarity among all people of color, while acknowledging the specific trauma that has been perpetrated on Black and Indigenous people in the United States. I do not believe that anyone can deny that racism has affected all people of color, but this nation’s treatment of Black and Native people has at times reached genocidal proportions.

My mother’s teaching did not deny the injustice done against her and her contemporaries, but she kept it in perspective, and she did not deny the injustice done to others. In the same mindset, I feel the need to acknowledge the rise in anti-Asian violence that has coincided with the rise of COVID-19.

As other Asians have discussed this, I have lived in relative denial, because while the name-calling, spitting, and exclusion of Asians have escalated across the country, it did not result in the hugely disproportionate number of deaths experienced by Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans during this time period. Asians have not suffered as much from poverty or lack of adequate and responsive health care (not saying they have not suffered AT ALL, just not as much), so we have not contracted COVID or died from it at the same heightened levels as other people of color. Nor have we faced the same levels of undue violence at the hands of police officers (again, not totally—I have my own police harassment story).

And, we Asians who live in Southern California (especially San Gabriel Valley!) seem to be in some kind of protective bubble—or so our friends who live in other states tell us. But this bubble may be ephemeral, as we hear of elders in the Bay Area who were attacked, one fatally—or of an Asian elementary school teacher’s aide who was beaten with his own cane while waiting at a bus stop in Rosemead. Only recently have these attacks been mentioned in the news media, because the numbers have been relatively low, and perhaps because these attacks do not conform to the “model minority” myth of Asians that has been used as ammunition against charges of racism by other people of color.

The leadership of San Gabriel Presbytery has raised the question of racism, and how we can more intentionally work to dismantle it. As Christians, we know that we live in a world that has been broken by inherited sin, including the sin of racism. And as Christians, we know that we are offered the opportunity to be freed from sin, not through our efforts but through the gift of Christ’s grace.

As North American Christians of all races, we are claimed and called by God to share the good news that in Christ we can be freed from the sins that divide us, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to be agents of love and justice. This isn’t automatic; Hebrews 12:1 speaks of “the sin that clings so closely,” and tells us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” And we need not reduce the issues of the world to black-white or male-female; if we take the time to see each other as the people God made us to be, we may more fully appreciate God’s amazing creativity in fashioning and forming each of us as beautifully unique glimpses into God’s kin-dom.

We can be a beacon of hope in this world beaten down by division, as we come to love and live together, respecting and enjoying each other for all that we are. May it be so.

In Christ’s peace,

Every Thursday at 4 pm, Monte Vista Grove has been holding their Convocations by Zoom. I have attended several, and they have been fascinating. It seems that because they are meeting via Zoom, they are able to hear speakers from Virginia, Chicago, and Australia. Their current series will continue through March, and I encourage you to join them via https://www.mvgh.org/convocations

This coming Thursday, the Convocation will celebrate the World Day of Prayer, this year led by the women of the island nation of Vanuatu. On March 11, General Assembly Co-Moderator Elona Street- Stewart will speak; she is a wise Indigenous woman who has been a national church leader for decades. It was so perfect that she and Gregory Bentley are Co-Moderators at this moment, because both have been strong leaders and prophets for the PC(USA) for many years, and so are well prepared to provide guidance and challenge during this time of new awareness and self-examination.

On March 18 and 24, Ross Purdy and Jerry Andrews will speak on “Evangelicalism in the Presbyterian Church Today.” I am so grateful for the opportunity to listen to these sessions, because the evangelical voice has been almost totally silenced in the PC(USA) in recent years. I am also grateful for evangelical leaders who continue to strive to be a reconciling presence through and after the conflict that caused so much distress in the denomination. Jerry Andrews has been especially proactive in seeking dialogue among evangelicals and progressives in the PC(USA).

I could not attend last week’s session, but the talk from the week before still rings in my ears. The speaker was Trevor Wie, a man who was raised among the Original Peoples of Australia. He took on the challenge of explaining the social psychology and value set of his indigenous culture—in less than one hour! It was a daunting challenge which he took on valiantly, but I confess I had a difficult time understanding all he was sharing with us. I took to spotlighting other attendees to see if they seemed to be tracking better than I.

I was especially intrigued in Mr. Wie’s talk because the description included the statement “When you are asking questions you are not listening.” That statement immediately took me back to Hawai‘i, where I could see the stark contrast between the locals (Polynesian and Asian) who learned by watching their elders, and the mainlanders who needed verbal instructions given to them. This caused stress for the locals whose ways were ignored or misinterpreted unless they forced themselves to explain what had never been reduced to words before, and the mainlanders felt excluded and mystified by local ways that were not explained to them.

It also reminded me of my surprise when I was told that a Hawaiian value was tentativeness. Now how often have you heard a North American parent say, “I just wish my child would grow up to be more tentative!” The value of being tentative is not one of timidness or fearfulness, but of grace, or a reluctance to impose oneself unnecessarily on others.

As Mr. Wie spoke of the importance of permission, I thought of Indigenous people on this continent, who are so careful to seek permission before they speak of their ancestors, or of their culture. That clicked for me, how difficult it was for me to understand Mr. Wie’s sharing as long as I listened from my North American, non-Indigenous context. When I lived in Hawai‘i, I had the great privilege to serve a native Hawaiian church, so I had several years of stories and practices and lessons and mistakes and forgiveness that helped me glimpse into an entirely different way of being. I can’t say that I truly understood their world view, but I could see how there was a very different set of values that, when taken together as a whole, provided an alternate way of life that taught me so much. When I lived in Hawai‘i, I often thought I was a better person when I was there—I think I brought back with me some of what I learned, but I apologize to you all now for what I have forgotten!

Even if I was qualified to explain, I would not try to articulate this way of being that is so fundamentally different from the dominant culture here. But a few values that I think might be shared with other indigenous cultures include:

• the strong sense of community belonging (and seeing oneself only within the context of community),
• the dual values of gratitude for abundance, and responsibility (or practicing moderation),
• the integration of spiritual/physical/rational/intuitive experience, and
• the value of humility, which might be adjacent to tentativeness, as a sign of respect for

Why am I sharing this? We are in the season of Lent, and we are reminded of the ways Jesus sacrificed himself for the cause of righteousness—and then challenged us to do likewise. Yesterday I heard a preacher be totally open with the difficulty of trying to follow the way of Jesus, when we remember that the way of Jesus was the way of the cross. In our society, much of Jesus’ teachings would be considered irrational, and downright unhealthy. But if we are truly converted away from the ways of the world, if we fully lean into the goodness of God and life eternal, if we want to emulate the love of Jesus for friends and those in need, then perhaps we can let go of what seems reasonable—which can also be restricting us from a faith-filled life.

Rather than picking and choosing one lesson or another—like choosing one thing to “give up for Lent”

—perhaps we might offer our whole selves to God. And by giving ourselves to God, we may see how everything falls together, in a way that celebrates community, and grace, and abundance, and giftedness, and humility, and self-restraint, and gentleness, and respect, and trust in God whose power to love and save has been shown to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus warned us that this new way of being will be misunderstood, even hated, by the rest of the world, because the way of God’s realm is not the way of the world. May we follow God’s way—and by doing so, our lives will be small glimpses into the kin- dom. What a heavenly calling!

May this Lenten season remind you of God’s love. Peace,

Wendy

February is Black History Month, and before the month runs out I wanted to share a thought about it.

It’s an opportune time to gauge where we are these days in the celebration of our multiracial nation. This year, there has been much more interest in confronting racism, including a more open acknowledgement of the ways white privilege pervades our lives and the very fabric of our society. But during Black History Month, I believe it’s important to appreciate how African Americans are so much more than victims of racism. Certainly racism is the original sin of this nation, and has been used against African Americans and Indigenous peoples more than anyone else. But there is much to celebrate in the legacy of Black Excellence in the United States. There are countless stories of heroism, insight, creativity, and perseverance to tell—stories of well-known people like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, W. E. B. Dubois, Dorothy Vaughan and Katherine Johnson. And then there are folks who aren’t as well-known, like Hazel Scott and Beulah Mae Donald and Robert Smalls. I’ve written about Ms. Scott and Ms. Donald in the past, but not Mr. Smalls.

Robert Smalls was born in 1839 to Lydia Polite, a woman enslaved by Henry McKee. As a teenager he was hired out to various jobs in Charleston, South Carolina, eventually gaining increasing knowledge and responsibility working as a longshoreman, a sail maker, and eventually he was piloting ships. By the time he was 23, in 1862, he organized an escape for himself and 16 others by taking the Planter, the gunboat he was working on, past several forts, including Fort Sumter, and he delivered the boat to the Union Navy. Smalls gave to the Union not only the ship and the arms and property on it (including a Confederate code book), but he shared his substantial knowledge of Confederate troop movements and the mines he had planted in his enslavement.

Smalls went on to pilot several boats in several campaigns, and went to Washington, DC, with Methodist minister Mansfield French to persuade President Lincoln to permit Black men to fight for the Union. Soon after, an order permitted up to 5,000 African Americans to enlist in Union forces. Smalls himself was present in 17 major battles and engagements in the Civil War.

After the war, Smalls went back to his hometown of Beaufort. He purchased the house where he and his mother had been enslaved, and his family moved in. He also bought a 2-story building to use as a school. While his former master, Henry McKee, had passed away, McKee’s widow Jane Bond McKee faced poor mental and physical health later in life. Smalls allowed Mrs. McKee to move back into the house, and though she imagined that he was still enslaved to her, Smalls cared for her until her death.

Robert Smalls went on to enter politics. He was one of the founders of the South Carolina Republican Party, and in 1868 he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. There he helped to write their new constitution, and he was dedicated to provide free education to all children in the state, regardless of race, and authored legislation to establish its first public education system.  Smalls

served in the US House of Representatives 1875-1879, 1882-1883, and 1884-1887. In addition, he contributed to the economic development of the Charleston area, starting a local railroad and publishing a local newspaper. Robert Smalls remained an influential leader in South Carolina until his death in 1915, having left behind a legacy of human rights, education, and entrepreneurship.

When we were preparing for WinterFest, Cyndie Crowell shared the great expense Trinity Presbyterian Church had to pay to eradicate the asbestos that got released when they worked on the preschool roof. They had to close down the preschool, pretty much take the rooms down to the studs, and rebuild the classrooms from scratch, and they went through the pain of hearing and responding to the great disappointment of the preschool’s staff and families. After listening to Cyndie’s tale of woe, another panelist, Stephen Robertson, suggested that asbestos is a good metaphor for racism. It’s hidden in nearly all our buildings, it takes an enormous cost and almost total demolition to remove it, and though it’s dangerous, we ignore it until it’s exposed. (It occurred to me that many have decided the most efficient way of dealing with asbestos is not to eradicate it, but just cover it over, because it’s so expensive and intrusive to really get it out.)

The happy ending is that the relationships were preserved, and the resulting classrooms were better than they were before—since they had to deconstruct the classrooms, they took this as an opportunity to rethink some things and make other improvements.

When we see the amazing contributions made by Black Americans even under the yoke of slavery and entrenched white privilege, perhaps we can seek to eradicate racism, no matter the cost and the lengths we must take, with the confidence that we will end up not only with stronger relationships and freedom from the threat of its deadly poisoning, but also we can build in a better new way of living and working together. And once the sin of racism is gone, we can’t even imagine the greater initiative, ingenuity and faithful leadership that will be liberated, for the benefit of everyone and to reflect the glory of God. Let it be so!

Peace,
Wendy