Adapted from The Episcopal News
Diocese of Los Angeles
The Very Rev. Canon Melissa J. McCarthy will serve Bishop Coadjutor-elect John Harvey Taylor as canon to the ordinary. McCarthy is vicar of Epiphany, Oak Park, and dean of the diocese’s El Norte deanery encompassing Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
McCarthy, who is a past two-term president of the diocesan standing committee, will join the diocesan staff on Nov. 1 to begin orientation to the ministries of the bishop’s office working with Canon David Tumilty, diocesan chief of staff and executive for operations, before his retirement in 2018.
McCarthy, 44, said she began discerning her call to ministry at St. George’s Church, Riverside, in 2001. She was ordained to the transitional diaconate in June 2005 and to the priesthood in January 2006. In her first 18 months of ordination she served at St. Mark’s Church, in Berkeley, Calif., in a non-stipendiary position while pursuing a master’s degree in homiletics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, from which she also received her master of divinity degree.
Bishop J. Jon Bruno has named three people to an “Order of Angels,” which honors long-term service:
- The Rev. Canon Kelli Grace Kurtz, vicar of St. John’s Church, La Verne, chair of the Program Group on Missions, and longtime leader in diocesan youth ministries
- Canon David Tumilty, bishop’s executive for operations and chief of staff throughout Bruno’s episcopate
- Canon Robert Williams, longtime communication staff member, former director of communication for the Episcopal Church, and current canon for community relations
And he designated 16 people as honorary canons:
- Clare Zabala Bangao, coordinator for missions, who has served in many other capacities at the Cathedral Center
- Anilin Collado, human resources director, who also has filled several roles for many years
- Stephen Bruce, lay leader, spiritual director, and husband of Bishop Suffragan Diane Jardine Bruce
- The Rev. Charleen Crean, deacon for vocations
- The Rev. John Crean, priest-in-charge of St. Andrew’s Church, Ojai, who has shepherded several congregations through interim periods
- The Rev. Michael Cunningham, rector of St. Mary’s Church, Lompoc, former administrator for the diocese, and leader of the Red Shirt Project
- The Rev. William Dunn, vicar of St. Stephen’s Church, Beaumont
- Hank Gatlin, member of St. Francis’ Church, Palos Verdes Estates, member of the deacons council and longtime lay leader in the diocese
- The Rev. Mark Hallahan, rector of St. Paul’s, Church, Pomona
- Janet Kawamoto, editor of The Episcopal News
- The Ven. Joanne Leslie, archdeacon of the diocese
- The Rev. Robert Martinez, vicar of Church of the Magdalene, Glendale
- The Very Rev. Melissa McCarthy, vicar of Church of the Epiphany, Oak Park, deputy to General Convention, and former chair of the standing committee
- Kathleen Hannigan O’Connor, lay leader at St. John Chrysostom Church, Rancho Santa Margarita, and wife of the Rev. Canon John H. Taylor, bishop coadjutor-elect
- The Rev. Mary Trainor, rector of St. Joseph’s Church, Buena Park, and a former managing editor of The Episcopal News
- Abigail Urquidi, executive assistant to Bishop Bruno
