St Luke's is an Episcopal Church in Downtown Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

. A member of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is a community of 85,000 Episcopalians in 147 congregations, 40 schools, and 18 major institutions, spanning all of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties, and part of Riverside County....

, St Luke's has a historic reputation for upholding progressive social ideals and serving the community. The Church is a registered historic building on the corner of 7th Street and Atlantic Avenue. In 2001, Father Gary Commins left Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood

Inglewood, California

Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...

 to serve as St. Luke's Senior Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

. Rev. Anna Olson, a former Community Organizer, has been the Associate Rector since 2008.

Construction and Architecture

Located at 525 E. 7th St. in the City of Long Beach, St. Luke's Episcopal Church has been a center of religious, social and cultural activities in Long Beach since a church was first built on this site in 1917. After being destroyed by the 1933 earthquake

1933 Long Beach earthquake

The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 took place on March 10, 1933 at 17:55 PST , with a magnitude of 6.4, causing widespread damage to buildings throughout Southern California. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach on the Newport-Inglewood Fault. An estimated fifty million dollars worth...

, the rebuilding of the church demonstrated the commitment of church leaders in the face of disaster. The Reverend Perry G.M. Austin, rector of the church during this time, mobilized nationwide support for the rebuilding of the church. Famous donors included Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

, J.P. Morgan, Felix Dupontt, Judge Augustus Hand

Augustus Noble Hand

Augustus Noble Hand was an American judge who served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His most notable rulings restricted the reach of obscenity statutes in the areas of literature and...

 and Senator Walter G. McAdoo. The cornerstone for the rebuilding was laid on March 19, 1934, just a year and nine days after the earthquake.

Homeless Outreach

St Luke's is one of the primary service providers for the homeless community in Long Beach. Every Wednesday St Luke's provides a free food pantry. On Saturdays St Luke's provides a Homeless Showers Program where community members in need receive a shower, new clothing, and a cooked meal.

LGBT Advocacy

St Luke's is a well known advocate of GLBT issues in Southern California. Every year, as a part of Long Beach's pride parade, St Luke's holds a morning worship service to help kick off the event. In October 2010, in the wake of a wave of LGBT suicides brought on by harassment, St Luke's held a community-wide Coming Out Celebration. The event promoted an inclusive theology, meant to reassure the LGBT community that they have Christian support.

Global Outreach

St Luke's actively participates in Heifer International

Heifer International

Heifer International is a global nonprofit with the goal of ending poverty and hunger in a sustainable fashion. Established in 1944, Heifer International gives out gifts of livestock, seeds and trees and extensive training to those in need...

, an AIDS Ministry in Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

, and in the United Thank Offering campaign.

Community Garden

As a part of their commitment to Environmental Justice and Community Outreach, St Luke's rents plots in their community garden and provides Food Justice seminars. St Luke's partners with Long Beach Organic in order to connect the garden to the community at large. The garden has 19 individual plots and a small fruit tree orchard. Excess produce is given to the Church's Homeless Outreach Ministry.

Illegal Immigration Controversy

In 2007 St Luke's made national headlines by providing sanctuary, in the face of strong governmental and outside pressure, to an illegal immigrant hoping to keep her children in America. St Luke's has been a notable face of the New Sanctuary Movement. As a part of this movement, congregations maintain that the immigration system mistreats immigrants and breaks families apart. They seek to end raids of job sites that have led to the arrest of thousands of undocumented workers, and lobby for policies that would help keep the families of illegal immigrants together in the United States.

Bienestar

A social service organization dedicated to positively impacting the health and well-being of the Latino community and other underserved communities in Southern California. Bienestar is an expert voice on emerging health issues. In particular, Bienestar focuses on health education and awareness regarding HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and drug prevention. It primarily targets the Latino gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender segments of the community.

Californians Together

Californians Together is a statewide coalition of 23 parent, education professional, and civil rights organizations committed to securing equal access to quality education for all children.

Community Partners Council (CPC)

The CPC is a collaboration between The Children's Clinic (TCC), the Community Partners Council, Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA), and the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (LBHHS) to improve the health and well-being of residents in the community.

Families Uniting Families

A 501 (c) 3 Federal and State tax-exempt foster family agency (FFA) that is licensed by the State of California (#197804605). Families Uniting Families' Mission is to cultivate nurturing and knowledgeable families to protect and meaningfully enhance the welfare and stability of vulnerable children and their families. Their vision is that children realize their potential while experiencing a joyful reality interlaced in a social milieu of stable, meaningful, and fulfilling relationship

Jubilee Consortium

At St Luke's, the Jubilee Consortium offers 4 weekly aerobics classes and a Youth Boxing Program. Keep It Real, the Youth Boxing programs, seeks to reduce violence among youth, foster understanding and respect across ethnic, linguistic and gender lines, and to develop youth leadership skills.

Unite Here!

Unite Here represents workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, laundry, and airport industries. Unite Here boasts a diverse membership, comprising workers from many immigrant communities as well as high percentages of African-American, Latino, and Asian-American workers. The majority of Unite Here members are women. Through organizing, Unite Here members have made apparel jobs in the South, hotel housekeeping jobs in cities across North America, and hundreds of thousands of other traditionally low-wage jobs into good, family-sustaining, middle class jobs.