REACHING PEACE FOR YOUTH AND CITIES

	REACHING PEACE FOR YOUTH AND CITIES
TRAVELERS ARRIVE HOME SAFELY Forty-seven days after they left Los Angeles, the Hands in Healing Travelers returned home at about 3.15 pm today to a curbside full of friends and family at the Cathedral Center in Echo Park. A special liturgy--created by those on the road--was held, and a reception followed. The Hands in Healing team will be recognized at Los Angeles City Hall on Friday morning.
	L.A. City Council will salute participants on Friday, June 7, at City Hall; Trek sponsored by Bishop Jon Bruno, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, June 4, 2002) -- Energized by seven weeks of teaching violence prevention and sharing in theological reflection at sites of national tragedy including Ground Zero and Oklahoma City, the young-adult participants in the Hands in Healing initiative of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles will be welcomed home tomorrow at the Cathedral Center and on Friday morning at L.A. City Hall. Friends, family members and colleagues will gather at the Cathedral Center, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, tomorrow afternoon in anticipation of the travelers' return, which will, ideally, be in time for a 3pm service of prayer and thanksgiving. Given potential challenges of uncertain traffic on the travelers' drive into Los Angeles from Kingman, Ariz., flexibility with regard to their arrival time is requested of those planning to join in welcoming the group to the Cathedral Center. A light meal for those in attendance will follow the prayer service.
All Southland Episcopalians interested in attending the City Hall presentation are invited to participate in that event on Friday, June 7, in the Council chambers at City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. Participants are encouraged to arrive in the Council chambers no later than 10am for the presentation, which is currently scheduled to occur sometime between 10am and 10.30am under the sponsorship of Council Member Eric Garcetti with the support of Council Member Ed Reyes.
PHOTO: RICK FLYNN PHOTO: RICK FLYNN LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL HONORS HANDS IN HEALING TOUR GROUP Mayor James Hahn and the Los Angeles City Council welcomed Bishop Jon Bruno and the Hands in Healing tour group to the council's chambers at City Hall on Friday, June 7.	In sites reaching from Las Vegas to New York City, the Hands in Healing travelers have led community forums and small-group discussions on violence prevention, using an original guidebook addressing domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, gang activity, gun safety, elder abuse and terrorism. During their talks, most of the travelers also offered anecdotes from their own first-hand experiences with violence, which range from one participant's loss of two brothers to gun violence to the aggression and injustices two participants experienced while growing up under apartheid in South Africa. Fourteen young adults ranging in age from 15 to 27, plus two diocesan youth advisors, were among the Hands in Healing travelers, each of whom was personally selected for participation by Bishop Jon Bruno, who also shared in much of the journey and the public forums from coast to coast. A highlight of the itinerary was the sermon preached by the bishop, three travelers, and three young singers from St. Timothy's Episcopal School, Compton, in the Washington National Cathedral on May 26 in observance of Memorial Day. The Hands in Healing travelers are: -- Lisa Jardine Bruce of St. Clement's by-the-Sea, San Clemente -- Sara Clinehens (youth advisor), St. Stephen's Church, Hollywood -- Michael Cooper (youth advisor), Church of the Angels, Pasadena -- Shawn Evelyn, St. John's Church, Los Angeles -- Caitlyn Ferguson, St. Cross Church, Hermosa Beach -- Luis Garibay Jr., Cathedral Center Congregation, Los Angeles -- Frances Moodie, St. John's, Los Angeles -- Jorge Moodie, St. John's, Los Angeles -- Lester Mackenzie, Church of the Advent, Los Angeles -- Lynn Mackenzie, St. Mark's Church, Glendale -- Jason Nagata, St. Thomas' Church, Hacienda Heights -- Luke Jan Perido, Holy Trinity & St. Benedict's, Alhambra -- Heather Roberts, St. Cross Church, Hermosa Beach -- Joel Vanderveen, St. Stephen's, Hollywood -- Anne Warnock, All Saints' Church, Long Beach -- Mark Wills, St. Andrew's Church, Fullerton
Following their April 19 departure from the Cathedral Center, the travelers' itinerary included official stops and programs in Las Vegas, Laramie, Wyoming, Omaha, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York City, Newark, Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Oklahoma City. Points of interest, prayer and education visited by delegations of the Hands in Healing travelers along the itinerary included the sites of all four plane crashes during the Sept. 11 terror attacks; the rural residential area where college student Matthew Shepard was left to die; the United Nations; the Pentagon; the Supreme Court; the Civil Rights Museum surrounding the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot; and the memorials to those who died in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.