‘My heart breaks with yours’: In Pasadena, divergent faiths pray for strength amid deadly wildfires
In various languages, from divergent faiths and denominations, about 100 people, including 23 pastors from local church and ministries in Pasadena and Altadena, held a citywide prayer service for healing and restoration Sunday night amid Los Angeles County’s deadly wildfires.
The Clergy Community Coalition, founded 20 years ago in response to Pasadena’s high crime rate, found itself responding this week to the Eaton Fires. It organized the prayer service that featured prayers, chants and songs from several faith traditions. Mental health professionals and shaman healers also offered their services.
Pastor Mayra Macedo-Nolan, executive director of the coalition of 200 local churches and ministries, said the gathering was a show of unity among faiths and groups, secular and otherwise, that partners with the group. Together, the church leaders pastor 186,000 people.
“It matters when we’re with one another. This fire will change the trajectory of so many stories. What happens next is partly up to us,” she said.
Related: Across LA County, faithful jolted by wildfires’ wrath gather to seek spiritual comfort
Sen. Adam Schiff acknowledged the heavy weight carried by the people gathered at Vintage Church in Pasadena.
“There’s so much sadness and loss and at the same time so much resilience,” he said. “I want to make sure we rebuild and rebuild with urgency when this is over. We have difficult times to get through before we see the end of this. My heart breaks with yours.”
At the same time, he said Californians are consistently optimistic, and “at times like these more than ever we need each other.” It was a sentiment Pastor Jean Burch of Community Bible Church of Greater Pasadena agreed with. Burch’s congregation is in Altadena, and while it did not burn, its members cannot meet there.
“There is confusion and chaos and discomfort, so we pray for our community and our firefighters as we wait for a better day,” said Burch, one of the coalitions founding members.
About 20 pastors laid hands and blessed Schiff, calling him a true public servant and praying for the new senator’s work “to strengthen his hand and his vision to serve the least of these.”
Fuller Seminary organized an eight-member band from other churches to lead the congregation in chanting “shalom,” especially for Altadena, where there is no formal tally of churches lost. The coalition did share a list of churches lost, including the pastors who also lost their homes in the fire. Among the churches lost in Altadena: Hillside Tabernacle City of Faith; Abounding Grace Ministries; Altadena Community Church; St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; Church of Christ- Pasadena/Expression Church; Lifeline Fellowship Christian Center; the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center; Altadena United Methodist Church; Altadena Fountain of Life Church; and Masjid Al-Taqwa.
Amara Ononiwu, acting director of fire aid and relief for the coalition, said the group is handling an unprecedented coordination among faith communities.
Ononiwu, a member of the pastoral team at Cathedral, a nondenominational church in Highland Park, said the nonprofit’s members are tending to the practical, socio-emotional and spiritual needs of people in Altadena and Pasadena.
Ononiwu said the coalition’s partner World Vision dispatched trucks with pallets of supplies throughout the area and they were able to coordinate with Cathedral Church, Calvary CME Pasadena, Victory Bible Church, and Westminster Presbyterian Church to support families and others affected by the fires.
The shipments include water, food, masks and gloves, bedding, diapers and clothing, hygiene kits, and toys for displaced children, according to Reed Slattery, national director for World Vision’s U.S. programs.
Related: ‘We’re with them in prayer’: A Santa Monica church welcomes worshipers who saw theirs destroyed
Members of the clergy coalition have worked in shifts at the Pasadena Convention Center, from prayer to sending iPads for FEMA applications.
Ononiwu said she’s worked at the convention center.
“A lot is happening behind the scenes, and I can attest to the majority of volunteers who weren’t city staff being members of a faith community,” she said. “My church served over a 1,000 people in our drive-thru fire relief event in partnership with Operation Blessing.”
Operation Blessing is a faith-based humanitarian nonprofit in Virginia.
Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena is coordinating home shares. Faith communities have been staffing relief efforts at Pasadena Unified School District, Pasadena City College, Parsons in Pasadena and Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.
Pastor David Oh of Harvest Rock Church said he has seen many examples of people willing to help those in need. Many people at the prayer service also networked, asking after each other’s congregations, schools or groups, and updating each other on available resources.
Eric Johnson, associate director of the nonprofit Star, serving youth and families in trauma, said 300 staff from Pasadena Unified School District have lost their homes. The district works with the coalition.Homes, churches, temples, mosques, stores, and pillars of neighborhoods are gone, he said, “but with unimaginable destruction, there will be unimaginable provision.”
The service ended with a hymn and prayer, but Macedo-Nolan said the work of restoration and reconstruction is only just beginning.
“Keep on praying,” Burch said. “Keep on hoping.”