Synergy has starring role as St. Stephen’s Parish starts second century in Hollywood

It’s rarely quiet on the set at St. Stephen’s Church in Hollywood, where the parish is entering its second century with a lively line-up of current ministries and coming attractions.

      Central to the action is spiritual growth, Christian discipleship, bilingual worship, community outreach, social justice, and the arts—and the process of fusing these areas into creative synergy is a passion of the Rev. Jamie Edwards-Acton, rector of St. Stephen’s since 1999.

“We experience God in our lives in many ways, obviously more so in day-to-day life than only on Sundays,” Edwards-Acton, 39, said in a recent interview. “This is what we’re about at St. Stephen’s, helping each other to connect with God and to deepen our faith in unexpected ways.”

Recent years of ministry at St. Stephen’s reflect a willingness on the part of both clergy and laity to experiment, to become entrepreneurial, to embrace one another with friendship and hospitality that welcomes people “as they are,” whether homeless, young 20-something hipsters, graffiti artists, families, singles of all ages, hip-hop rappers, neighbors dealing daily with addiction and recovery. Some speak English; some speak Spanish; some speak both.

In this mix, liturgy and music have moved to an informal style, accessible especially to first-time church-goers or new Christians. Creativity and depth is applied regularly to preaching, to Centering Prayer gatherings, and to scripture study groups like the popular homegrown “Chics with Bibles.”

Music ranges from rock bands to jazz services, and the organ is still played regularly by veteran parishioner Wayne Behlendorf, a teacher at Campbell Hall school. Recorder music is also part of the St. Stephen’s repertoire as another longtime parishioner, Virginia Koehrer, hosts a group for weekly practice.

“This is God’s house,” active parishioner and frequent warden Oneida Flores often tells newcomers, pointing to the white-stucco church located at 6128 Yucca St, with its copper-capped tower visible from the Hollywood Freeway. “This is also my spiritual home. I feel at home here, and I hope others do, too.”

Flores, whose service to the parish ranges from church-school teacher to sexton, shares this same welcome in Spanish with those attending the 11.30am weekly Eucharist, popular with many Latinos from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and other native lands.

One parish contingent from Oaxaca, Mexico, regularly hosts a local celebration of the traditional late-July Guelaguetza festival, begun in Oaxaca and rooted in emphases on sharing and betterment of community. Before Christmas, the Dec. 12 feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose icon hands in the parish side chapel, together with the Advent-season posadas processions are popular observances within the parish.

Community advancement and resource-sharing is also the mission of two on-site parish partnerships, the Hollywood Interfaith Sponsoring Committee (HISC) and the Jubilee Consortium, a partnership established by four neighboring Episcopal parishes to promote health issues in their local communities.

Directed by St. Stephen’s parishioner Robert Untiedt, HISC is an association of seven Hollywood-area congregations involved in community organizing with PICO (Pacific Institute for Community Organizing), a national organization dedicated “to assisting community organizations with the power to improve the quality of life of families and neighborhoods.”

It was through HISC and the office of L.A. City Council Member Eric Garcetti that St. Stephen’s was recently able to develop a community garden and green space by converting an alley that is part of Hollywood’s historic “Gower Gulch” filming zone.

Maximizing partnerships and resources at St. Stephen’s is a priority for clergy and vestry officers, currently led by senior warden Cameron Randle, especially amid current challenges of widening the base of parishioners who pledge financially to the parish. A small parish with strong lay leadership for the past 30 years, St. Stephen’s often struggles to meet its annual budget, approaching $170,000, which was in recent years assisted by a devolving mission grant from the diocese. Now almost completely self-supporting once again, the parish especially welcomes contributions from donors across the church.

Notable friend-raising and fund-raising is helped at St. Stephen’s by its partnership with the Write Act Repertory Theater, which has converted the parish hall into a first-rate stage for local productions. With playwright Gene Franklin Smith as founding artistic director, Write Act is now led by producing artistic director John Lant. (Further information about Write Act is on-line at www.writeactrep.org)

Write Act members have shared in parish activities from leading church school classes to annual Easter egg hunts. Their enthusiasm and wit is contagious, say parishioners, who are known from time to time to swap stories with the actors about a ghost, possibly that of a former caretaker, thought to manifest occasionally in the parish hall.

The actors and parishioners are giving thought to marking the parish centennial by collaborating to stage an original play, long a tradition in St.  Stephen’s history—where ministry through the performing arts has ranged from a richly costumed rendering of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” to the “Good Friday Project” and “Hip Hop Monday Nights” of more recent years.

St. Stephen’s parish also has a long-standing commitment to making space available to be rented by various meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. Other organizations that rent space from the parish include a Head Start program.

These groups say they enjoy the garden setting of St. Stephen’s with its several patios and tree-shaded back lawn, near where parishioners tend an annual vegetable garden. Recent plantings also include gardenias that bloom in honor of former parishioner Elizabeth Donohoe, salmon roses in memory of Peggy Smith, yellow tabebuia in memory of Dorothy Johnson, and bromeliad-like “friendship flowers” honoring Virginia Anderson.

The variety of people and ministries of St. Stephen’s is reflected in a song sometimes sung in services that equates the faith community to a “wonderful bouquet.” The current spirit at St. Stephen’s resonates with one line of these lyrics: “ Jump in the vase ’cause we’ve got room for more.”

—Bob Williams

Williams attended St. Stephen’s Church from 1999 to 2003.