The Lead

The Huffington Post reports on the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and Bishop Jon Bruno helping an adoption agency when the Roman Catholic Church withdrew funding when the agency allowed same sex couples to adopt:

Community-based nonprofit organizations are struggling for their organizational lives these days. ... Maintaining one's donor base is supremely critical for any struggling nonprofit group.

Which is exactly why the recent story of a tiny organization named Holy Family Adoption Services in Los Angeles is pretty courageous.

Holy Family Adoption Services provides adoption, foster care, and family support services for infants and toddlers who are often born into very high-risk situations and require placement into a loving home. Since 1949, they have been helping these children whose mothers have been victimized themselves by family violence, or who suffer from addiction, or who are just ill-prepared for motherhood.
...
In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles made it clear that Holy Family would have to stop placing children with same-sex couples. Instead of giving in, the Holy Family Adoption Services board of directors ultimately decided that nothing was more important than providing loving and supportive homes for at-risk infants and children and that no otherwise qualified home should be closed to these children simply because of the gender and sexual orientation of the family members within it.

The Catholic Archdiocese withdrew their support, as did most Catholic donors. ...

Enter Bishop Jon Bruno of the Episcopal Diocese. When Bishop Bruno learned of Holy Family's courage and fate, he invited the organization to be housed under the auspices of his church.

If you are interested in supporting Holy Family Adoption Services, please contact www.hfs.org or telephone 213 - 202-3900.

Comments (9)

An adoption agency being adopted. How perfectly appropriate. And Holy Family to boot. Guess there was no room for them in the RCC inn. Makes me proud to be an Episcopal Christian!

Posted by Tom Sramek, Jr. | July 13, 2010 10:12 PM

Tom - I wish I had used that as a headline - Adoption agency adopted!

Posted by Ann Fontaine | July 13, 2010 11:46 PM

What a great witness by Bishop Bruno, once again! Praise God.

Posted by Lelanda Lee | July 14, 2010 12:16 AM

TBTG for +Jon and DioLA. I, too, feel proud(er!) to be an Episcopalian.

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux | July 14, 2010 1:11 AM

May I use the title, Tom? I plan to link to this lovely story.

Bravo, Bp. Bruno! He's a mensch.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | July 14, 2010 5:08 PM

Tom, I didn't wait to hear back. I used a slightly edited version for my headline: "HOLY FAMILY ADOPTION AGENCY ADOPTED". I hope it's OK by you.

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | July 14, 2010 6:01 PM

I used it, too ... with attribution ... and am deeply grateful for all the good energy around getting this wonderful story more "air time." (One other note is that Mary Bruno has been a great cheerleader and champion for the work of Holy Family Services ... Mary Rocks!)

Susan Russell

Posted by revsusan | July 14, 2010 8:51 PM

Come on, folks, let's write some checks and click some paypals. These good Christian people deserve our support and $upport. The Episcopal Church has some high dollar members, but these gracious benefactors can't be expected to completely cover every case like this. The GLBT community too needs to $tep it up and $how Holy Family $ome love.

Posted by Clint Davis | July 14, 2010 11:47 PM

With attribution.

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | July 15, 2010 12:07 AM

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