{"id":197735,"date":"2025-09-03T20:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T20:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/197735\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T20:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T20:35:09","slug":"la-churches-continue-supporting-each-other-months-after-southern-california-wildfires-episcopal-news-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/197735\/","title":{"rendered":"LA churches continue supporting each other months after Southern California wildfires \u2013 Episcopal News Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Melvin<\/a><\/p>\n

Debris from the Altadena home of the Rev. Melvin \u201cMel\u201d Soriano, priest associate for faith, formation and finance at St. John\u2019s Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles and chaplain of Canterbury USC, after it was destroyed by wildfires in January 2025. Photo: Mel Soriano\/Facebook<\/p>\n

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians in the Diocese of Los Angeles<\/a> are continuing to support each other and their communities more than seven months after the deadly Southern California wildfires destroyed tens of thousands of homes and buildings.<\/p>\n

The Jan. 7-31 wildfires destroyed St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church<\/a> and School in Altadena, a parish with some 450 members. The congregation continues to gather for Sunday worship services at nearby St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Eagle Rock<\/a> for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe generosity of St. Barnabas is just remarkable,\u201d Frank Malinowski, a lay leader at St. Mark\u2019s, told Episcopal News Service. \u201cSt. Mark\u2019s altar guild has to rebuild the altar every Sunday and we\u2019re trying to get people together for [Education for Ministry classes], but we really couldn\u2019t have made it this far without the immediate and long-term support St. Barnabas has been giving us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malinowski and his wife, Susan Malinowski, both serve as virtual missioners for St. Mark\u2019s worship services, which are livestreamed via Zoom. They said that St. Mark\u2019s is still working with its insurance company to recover funds before setting a timeline to rebuild. In the meantime, some of its ministries, including its music ministry, remain active at St. Barnabas.<\/p>\n

The wildfires killed at least 31 people and destroyed over 18,000 homes and buildings \u2013 across over 57,000 acres in Southern California \u2013 including 40 homes belonging to members of St. Mark\u2019s. The wildfires also destroyed the homes of 72 families who are members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena<\/a>. The church was spared<\/a> despite being in an evacuation zone.<\/p>\n

Many people, like the Rev. Melvin \u201cMel\u201d Soriano, priest associate for faith, formation and finance at St. John\u2019s Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles<\/a> and chaplain of Canterbury USC<\/a>, lost his home in Altadena and has had to move several times before finding stable housing 20 miles from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us personally, we\u2019re in a wait-and-see period with the difficulties we and many other people are having with insurance,\u201d Soriano told ENS.<\/p>\n

Back in April, the University of California Davis School of Medicine published a study<\/a> in identifying wildfire victims\u2019 greatest needs. Most of the highlighted needs were immediate, like money and access to food, clean air, shelter, cell phone service and other supplies.<\/p>\n

The survey participants also reported<\/a> the need for long-term access to physical and mental health care, which was the case for Soriano after he realized \u201cthat the grieving was beginning to get to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cathedral has made it very clear that they want me to see a therapist as needed, and I am so grateful for that kind of grief support,\u201d Soriano said. \u201cI think I\u2019m in a far better place now than I was before, and I am now better able to deal with all the emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Los Angeles is accepting donations<\/a> to support its fire relief fund. On Sept. 25, the diocese will host a golf tournament<\/a> in Corona with proceeds benefiting the fire relief fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe generosity and support from St. Barnabas and the Diocese of Los Angeles and the wider community has occurred organically,\u201d Susan Malinowski told ENS. \u201cPeople don\u2019t hesitate to help each other, and we\u2019re so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though St. Mark\u2019s is no longer able to staff its monthly food pantry, participate in packing sack lunches for Union Station Homeless Services or provide a monthly dinner for unhoused families through the nonprofit Door of Hope, parishioners are still encouraged to make donations to those organizations despite being unable to support them through St. Mark\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, our congregation is much more intimate now; we\u2019re much closer now. \u2026Everybody is working together, and St. Mark\u2019s has become much more than a building,\u201d Susan Malinowski said. \u201cThe hard times have brought people together in certain ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Debris from the Altadena home of the Rev. Melvin \u201cMel\u201d Soriano, priest associate for faith, formation and finance…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-197735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115142284545585466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}