St. Philip’s Church

* I was very disturbed by your article “We Are in the Baby Steps Right Now” (special report, The Next Los Angeles, July 17).

You state that 80% of the parishioners at the Episcopal Church of St. Philip the Evangelist are Latino. Though the neighborhood of South-Central Los Angeles has changed significantly, with a Latino population of approximately 80%, our church is conservatively 65% black. This being the case, it is obvious that the church is not being “taken over” by anyone.

The paragraph here described is not only inaccurate but very destructive. The state of human relations in Los Angeles, as elsewhere in the country, is complex and painful.

The church of St. Philip the Evangelist is a model of what can happen in this city if people come together with a willingness to learn and grow. There have been tensions in the adjustment of becoming a parish that embraces two different cultures. No where does this kind of community building happen without growing pains. Yet where other groups give into frustrations and each retreat into their own corner, after eight years the members of St. Philip’s continue to learn from their history and to build the inclusive community they see themselves called to build.

THE REV. ALTAGRACIA PEREZ

Rector, Episcopal Church of St. Philip

the Evangelist, Los Angeles