Our First Days in LA with New City Parish

Here's our first experience of LA... gridlock.

 Fun, huh?  Thankfully it got a whole lot better as we learned to avoid the freeways...

Angelica Apartments owned by Angelica Lutheran Church (located to the right) in the Pico-Union District of LA.  (Love those palm trees!)

Saturday morning we arrived at these studio apartments in a Latino part of the heart of LA.  We are less than a mile away from downtown near an area called LA Live which is slated to be the Times Square of LA.  Soon after we moved in, we were greeted by Brian Eklund who is the Director of the New City Parish Metro Ministry and Training Center.  He is a retired pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, one of the New City Parish members of the coalition.  What a welcoming and knowledgeable person! 

Pastor John with Pastor Brian who was our guide for Saturday's tour.

Brian took us on a 7-hour tour of the city from the grass-roots perspective--definitely not a tourist tour!  We saw the highrise areas of the business district, a vibrant Chinatown, the Fashion District, the Toy District, Skid Row, the Historic Core, Watts, Compton, Inglewood, and the epicenter of the Civil Unrest of '92.

Watts Towers, created during a 28-year period by Simon Rodia, who finished them in 1954 (steel, concrete mosaic pieces of pottery, glass, shells, found objects) -- an icon for Watts.

The Watts Towers are really beautiful, in contrast to what I thought when I first got out of the car to see them (Leigh).  We saw a video about the man and his work back in the day and wow, for an "unskilled laborer" which is what he was thought to be, what an amazing feat of beauty he created in making these towers out of wire and concrete with a mosaics overlay.  He had no scaffolding, cranes, heavy equipment or welding tools.  Amazing!

With Brian's perspective, knowledge, and passion, we were able to get a good sense of the context in which this coalition of nine Lutheran congregations serve.  The coalition of ELCA congregations called New City Parish formed in the aftermath of the LA Riots of 1992.  These pastors did not envision a rebuilt city like what was just destroyed in the 3,600 fires with 1,100 looted and burned-out buildings.  What was there was not working.  They envisioned a new city of justice and peace and dignity for everybody.  By joining together, they could accomplish much more toward this vision that anything each of these individual congregations could do on their own.  Their main social ministries have four emphases: health and wholeness (food pantries, community meals, parish nursing, and health education), sustainable economic development (micro-loans for small businesses, job training, coops and collectives, and classes in financial responsibility), education (after-school tutoring, summer camps, arts and music programs), and training (leadership development, urban and cultural immersions, Spanish language classes).  They share resources, partner with many non-profits, and are looking to many new endeavors to serve the population of people here in the Metro Los Angeles Area.

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Inglewood.

On Sunday we visited Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, part of New City Parish.  It's an African American Lutheran Church with a white pastor, Pastor James Lobdell, who has served there 33 years and counting.  It was Young Adult Sunday, with young adults leading worship and sharing special music, and a young adult preaching.  It was a good experience!  Interesting to note that Holy Trinity uses the Burgundy book This Far By Faith, just like we do at Peace.  We had a great soul food lunch after worship cooked by a church member Ricky who used to cook meals for Hollywood movie shoots.

At Holy Trinity they had Young Adult Sunday.  These two siblings sang a beautiful song in harmony!

Sunday evening we went to the Mercado la Paloma, a multi-faceted organization started by Esperanza Community Housing Corp offering affordable housing, health promoter training, and a first time small business incubator.  It's a converted building that formerly housed a sweatshop clothing factory.  Now it's a happening place with six start-up restaurants with great food.  Sunday there was a special cultural celebration with hot jazz music and a diverse and energetic crowd.

At Mercado with Brian and his wife Ruth and Esperanza Housing Director Nancy and her husband.

It was a great start to our 1 1/2 week stay in Los Angeles with New City Parish.