Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles
St. John’s is a house of prayer where all people can come to know the compassionate heart of Jesus. These are our core values.
Jesus’ primary mission is the good news of God’s Kingdom or reign to restore all people and the whole world to right relationship with God. As Jesus’ disciples that is our primary mission too. We seek to live according to the principles of God’s Kingdom right now – respect the dignity of every human being, care for other creatures, the earth and its resources. We seek to be a light in the community of Los Angeles sharing the hope of God’s dream for a renewed creation.
We believe all people are invited to be part of this great project God has begun. So no matter who you are, where you have come from, whatever your ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender, age, whether you are rich or poor or middle-class we invite you to be part of our community. We believe our diversity enriches us. Every person God brings to us has gifts and skills to share and we invite everyone to participate in our community life.
We seek to be the heart of Jesus in the heart of our city, to demonstrate Christ’s love and compassion through acts of mercy, justice and beauty and to be a positive presence of renewal in our urban community both individually as disciples and corporately.
We are invited to be followers or disciples of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. We are not yet fully formed as Jesus’ followers, but we are on the path of healing and transformation. We engage in the life of discipleship through disciplines such as daily prayer, gathering weekly with the community to celebrate mass, giving of our time, talents and finances, celebrating the seasons of the liturgical year, fasting, reading the Bible, deeds of mercy and justice making, and other particular practices we may find helpful in our Christian life. All these daily practices help transform us into the people God wants us to become.
The Anglican tradition, of which we are part, has developed certain emphases based on our history. These three elements have some commonality with other Christian traditions as well. At St. John’s, we say our worship is “catholic” meaning that we tap into the ancient traditions of the church using all our senses. We are evangelical in that we proclaim the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. We are progressive on many social issues. We come to these positions through our experience of life in Christ informed by the Scriptures and the reflection of our larger Episcopal Church community.
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