wfn.org | Episcopalians: Urban Caucus joins joins Los Angeles labor demonstration

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

February 15, 2002

2002-043

Episcopalians: Urban Caucus joins joins Los Angeles labor 
demonstration 

by Pat McCaughan

(ENS) Taking to the streets in protest over the firing of 240 
local hotel workers, about 200 Episcopal laity and clergy, in 
Los Angeles for the 22nd annual meeting of the national 
Episcopal Urban Caucus, joined a February 8 demonstration 
outside the Radisson Airport Hotel.

They joined the fired workers, union and religious activists 
on the picket line, singing Spanish and English protest songs 
and carrying signs naming the places from which theyd come and 
to which they would return, to share the story of the workers 
plight. The signs read: Sleepy Hollow, New York; Jackson, 
Mississippi; Vancouver; Compton; Franklin, Tennessee; 
Indianapolis; Atlanta; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Newark; Tacoma; 
Hawaii; Delaware.

We want justice, said Clemente Calloway, a union activist 
and Hyatt Hotel employee. We want equality. We want to live as 
decent human beings. Injustice is the owner of a new hotel 
firing 240 employees, using unfair practices, said Calloway, a 
grandson of famed musician Cab Calloway. If it takes us every 
day of the year, being here in front of this hotel, were going 
to do it, he said.

The fired workers from Local 11 of Hotel Employees and 
Restaurant Employees have picketed the Radisson since its 
purchase last year by Pacifica Host, which refused to honor 
union contracts, leaving hundreds without jobs or benefits. 

We need your support, said Maria Mendez, a fired employee 
whose two children were also on the picket line. She felt 
energized by the solidarity and vowed to continue efforts to be 
rehired, adding:  We know we will win in the end.

Losing our arrogance

A highlight of the four-day conference included a fiesta dinner 
honoring the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, suffragan bishop of 
Massachusetts, whose 1989 consecration made her the first woman 
bishop in the Anglican Communion. Harris has announced plans to 
retire in November.

The Rev. James Lawson, retired Los Angeles area pastor and 
president of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, who 
organized the protest, addressed the caucus theme, The Diverse 
and Multicultural Mission of the Church. Lawson said church 
leaders must re-people churches, disciple people, and rediscover 
Jesus and the Gospel in new ways beyond creedal stances.

The largest growing congregation in the United States is the 
congregation of people who want nothing to do with organized 
religion, Lawson told the gathering. Maybe we in the Christian 
world need to lose our arrogance that Jesus is the only way, he 
said. Again and again, Jesus says to people: Go, your faith 
has made you whole. Jesus is talking about something in that 
person ... that God has planted in themapart from the way we 
want to bring them into the church. If God is a God of 
unconditional grace and love, there is more than one way to 
access God, he said.

Caucus events also included: a youth-organized plenary and 
dialogue; a panel on multicultural ministry during which Luis 
Garibay, a custodian at the Diocese of Los Angeles, described 
the way the church helped him change from gang-banger to 
reliable family man. 

Hands around the lake

At an early morning Episcopal Network for Economic 
Justice-sponsored breakfast, the Gloria Brown Award was bestowed 
upon Atlanta area-based Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministry, 
for its efforts on behalf of the community. Gloria Brown was a 
Los Angeles-area Episcopalian whose efforts led to the 
establishment of the Episcopal Federal Credit Union, which 
assists low-income people and the community.

Caucus-goers also attended the lakeside seating of Los 
Angeles sixth bishop, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, at Echo Park 
near the Cathedral Center. Bruno, joined by L.A. Police Chief 
Bernard Parks and City Councilman Eric Garcetti, unveiled 
initiatives to prevent violence and promote reconciliation. 
Afterwards, over a thousand people linked hands around the lake, 
as a witness against violence.

Caucus board members appointed to new terms were: Bishop 
William Persell of Chicago; the Rev. Charles Lane of Waterloo, 
Iowa; and lay leaders, Dale Rucker, Ohio; Ralph Sibley, Buffalo; 
Maggie Alston Claud of Hartford, Connecticut; and Robert Graham 
of Washington, D.C., and youth member Matthew Brunner, also of 
Buffalo.

The caucus formed in 1980 in response to national hearings 
that determined that the churchs agenda was to stand with 
minorities and the poor. This annual assembly of lay people, 
bishops and clergy led to development of the Jubilee Ministry 
and anti-racism training meets in Chicago in 2003.

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--The Rev. Pat McCaughan is senior correspondent for The 
Episcopal News, the newspaper of the Diocese of Los Angeles