Guardian Angel: A Place for Everyone

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Music

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Jon: Welcome to Good News, brought

to you by Listening for Clues.

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Lauren: We are Lauren Welch and

Jon Shematek, deacons in the

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Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

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Jon: We sure are, and today we have a

very special guest, Father Steve Holt.

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Steve is currently Rector of the Church

of the Guardian Angel in Baltimore

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City, where he serves a community

focused parish that is very active

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in their Remington neighborhood.

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He is also the Associate for Mission

for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland,

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helping churches across the diocese.

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to become more involved in sharing

the love of Jesus in public.

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His prior experience includes

community organizing in Los

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Angeles, regional planning in

greater Baltimore, and homelessness

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services for the state of Maryland.

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He lives in the Ednor Gardens Lakeside

neighborhood with his wife, Heather,

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and their three children, where he

enjoys running and tabletop gaming.

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Welcome, Steve.

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It's so good to have you with us today.

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Steve: Great to be with you all.

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Lauren: We're really happy to

have you with us today, Steve.

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So, Guardian Angel has always

been a community based parish.

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With your community organizing,

I'm excited to hear what

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you all are doing now.

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So tell us a little bit.

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Steve: Sure.

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Yeah.

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For those who aren't familiar with

Guardian Angel, it has been active in

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the Remington neighborhood for decades.

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That goes back to George Kromer

who helped build what's now called

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Kromer Hall a hundred years ago where

we host a lot of our ministries.

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And of course my predecessor,

Pastor Alice incredibly involved

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in the Remington community.

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And yeah, so when the opportunity came

to be able to to be a part of this

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parish and to become the new rector.

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In 2020 I already knew the neighborhood

already loved Remington already

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knew about the parish and the work

that it had done in the community.

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And it was in talking with the vestry

and, you know thinking about what Guardian

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Angel would do next it was such an

amazing space to be in to see that they

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had already Done a lot of the things

that I was passionate and interested in.

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So yeah It's and of course it would

it would have to be a great fit to be

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able to jump in in June 2020 30 months

into a pandemic It was quite the time

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to be making a career change and to be

jumping into a new situation I don't

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have any regrets about that at all, but

it was definitely Yeah, quite, quite a

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moment in time to be, to be doing that.

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Jon: So Steve you were a newly ordained

Episcopal priest at that point.

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Is that so?

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Steve: Yes.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah I was ordained into the

Episcopal church in April,: 2020

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So as a, priest.

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So I had about two months to be an

Episcopal priest before I was, You

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know, called called right into ministry.

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And of course yeah, April, 2020,

that was, that was, I think the

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first post pandemic ordination.

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So we had to keep it to under

10 people in the cathedral.

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Very very interesting service, you

know, trying to figure out how to

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do live streaming and all of that.

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Jon: Yeah, that was brand new then, so I

think there were probably a glitch or two.

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Let me ask you this though, Steve.

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A lot of our viewers are clearly Baltimore

based folks, but we have actually a

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fairly broad audience throughout the

country and even internationally.

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Can you talk a little

bit more about the...

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Remington neighborhood that you

serve in and about your parish,

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kind of the makeup, what, what

kind of folk are we talking about?

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Steve: Sure.

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So Remington is a neighborhood in

Baltimore city that historically has

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been a white working class community.

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So it is where a lot of, going back

to the days of mills along the Jones

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falls, you know, it's a lot of.

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A lot of mill workers, for a long time.

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It's, you know, you can still see lots

of the, the auto body repair shops

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and kind of the light industrial.

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And it's a neighborhood that has

in the last 10 years changed a lot.

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wHere there are still a lot of the

legacy residents, people who have been

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there because their, their parents

and their grandparents, and in some

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cases, even their great grandparents

grew up in that neighborhood.

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And then we've also seen a lot of

new people move in because it's also

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located right next to Johns Hopkins

University, which is a world class

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institution of higher education.

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And so what's attracted a lot of

people young professionals, people

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who are involved in the non profit

sector people who are involved in

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government and higher education roles

in the, you know, in the eds and meds.

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The Baltimore City you

know, major growth sectors.

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So we have a lot of those people who

have moved into the neighborhood too.

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And so it's what makes it an interesting

place though is where we've seen a

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lot of that happen in Baltimore city

in white working class neighborhoods.

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But I think there's really been

a commitment by the community

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to not just make this about

displacement, that it's not just.

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Here's the new people we're taking

over from the legacy residents.

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We've been able to work really closely

with the Greater Remington Improvement

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Association, which is a lot of the

leadership or newer people, people that

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are, connected with these nonprofits

and with these These universities

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but they have really been focused

on not just pushing out people, but

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really thinking about what does it

mean to be a neighborhood where we are

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coexisting where we are figuring out

ways to maintain community services

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like the ones that Guardian Angel

offers, where we're figuring out

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how to keep housing affordable even

as new development is coming in.

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And and I think that that's been

One of the things that's great

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about the community as a whole, and

a place where Guardian Angel has

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had a specific role, of being the

place where everyone feels welcome.

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It's a place where a lot of the legacy

residents are ones who are coming, to us

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for the food pantry, but also just using

the space for events and for birthdays

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and for for funerals and things like that.

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And the community association meets there,

and we've brought in yoga classes, we've

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brought in like kickboxing classes and

things like that, we've partnered with a

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local synagogue so we've found ways to be

the connecting place that as the community

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has changed, that Guardian Angel is

still a place that is there for everyone.

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Lauren: Steve, what has surprised you

as in your, I mean, I know it's been

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a short time really, but what has

surprised you about the people and about

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the ministry that's happening there?

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Steve: The question I never got

asked before I started at Guardian

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Angel was, do you speak Spanish?

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Okay.

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Nobody I talked to knew

that that was important.

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I didn't know it was important.

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I had worked in that

neighborhood in the past.

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I had been involved there in a lot of

different ways and it just never came up.

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And the first few times that I was

at the food pantry, I noticed that

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we had a few Spanish speakers and

I haven't used it, hadn't at that

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point used it extensively since

moving to Baltimore from Los Angeles.

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Which is now, you know, over 10 years

ago and but I just started having some

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conversations and kind of like, okay, like

getting to know people a little bit and

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what's happened, what's developed over

the last three years is that we actually

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have a lot of Central American immigrants

that have moved into the neighborhood as

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well, that within the last three to five

years, there's been a lot of people who

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have come that as, As new development

has happened in Remington, there's a lot

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of construction jobs and a lot of food

service jobs at the restaurants and people

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have come into the neighborhood because

some of it has retained affordability,

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and because it's convenient to where

they're trying to go so they've come

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into the neighborhood and they're part

of the Remington community now too,

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and I had to Spent a lot of time just

getting back up to speed with, okay,

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we've, we've got Spanish speakers here.

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There were a few people always

coming in with the food pantry.

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It really hit me about a year

into it when we were doing

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one of our backpack giveaways.

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Every year we, we help, we work with St.

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Mark's and St.

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Andrew's two churches in Howard County.

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We put together school supplies

for children to help them get

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ready for the school year.

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Backpacks loaded with calculators

and paper and pencils.

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And I noticed, Most of the families

that were coming were Spanish speaking.

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And you know, kind of that community

organizer, regional planner background,

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I wanted to dig a little deeper

because it was like, okay, this is

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anecdotally, I see a lot of families

with children speaking Spanish.

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And then I looked more closely

at the demographics for the local

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elementary school and realized

that it was 25 percent Latino.

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And it was like this is something

that has truly changed in this

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community where there are in fact, a

lot of immigrant families and a lot

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of the people with young children

in this community, I'll say like the

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parents usually do not speak English.

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The children are bilingual.

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So it's kind of an interesting mix there.

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bUt

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of, that is something that has

shaped a lot of our efforts

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over the last few years.

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As we've shifted to.

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We're now a bilingual food pantry.

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We now think about how are we offering

everything in Spanish and English.

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Most of the families for the

back to school giveaway and for

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the Christmas toy drive that are

coming primarily Spanish speaking.

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And we've kind of become a liaison

with the community association as

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they have also tried to figure out

how to welcome in Spanish speakers.

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They, they decided in part because

of the conversations we had with

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them to, when they hired a part time

volunteer coordinator, they made sure

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to get somebody who was bilingual.

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And I think, I think one of the things

that's exciting for us too as a church

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is we've had the ability to partner

with Reverend Margarita Santana.

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Who is the you know, the canon for

Latino mission for the diocese.

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And she has helped us.

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Leading a second service.

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So we do now have a Spanish

Mass at Guardian Angel.

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And there's a lot of young families

from the neighborhood who are

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now participating in that Mass.

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I I led it myself for a little while,

but quickly ran into the I, I can

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preach and I can celebrate a Mass,

but when you're having pastoral

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conversations with people, they really

want to know that you are fluent.

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And Reverend Margarita has been

just fantastic to work with

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and has done such a great job.

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And we've, we've been so blessed

to have that partnership as we've

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been doing this work to welcome

in the immigrant community within

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Remington to be a part of la Iglesia.

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Jon: Yeah, you're right.

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Reverend Margarita is an amazing

an amazing person for sure.

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When you think about I think you point

out something really important too,

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is being fluent in language doesn't

necessarily mean you're fluent culturally

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with folks that they can, you know,

at that level, the deep level of the

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heart the communication is, it's.

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Completely you know,

just a different level.

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No question about it.

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So Steve it sounds like just you've

ticked off a number of important

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kinds of ministries that you and,

and Guardian Angel have done.

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I mean, you talked about the food pantry,

which I understand is just, that's, that's

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a huge operation if I'm not mistaken.

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Steve: Yeah, so prior to the

pandemic, the Food Pantry was

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serving about 70 households a week.

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During the pandemic, we got up

to around 100 households a week.

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Right now we're actually serving pretty

close to double that 70 households number.

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We're right around, we're right

around 130 households every week.

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There's a couple of things

that have happened there.

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One is one is just the increase in demand.

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Which I think everyone realizes,

you know, the pandemic, of

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course, increased the demands.

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A lot of people were out of work,

did not have access to food in

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the same way that they had before.

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And that absolutely contributed.

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bUt I think there might still be a

misperception that the pandemic's over.

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And so the demand went down.

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The demand went up because what

happened was post pandemic as of this

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March, all of the additional food

assistance that was being provided as

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part of that emergency authorization,

they cut that and we immediately saw.

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Our numbers go like from 100

up to 120 and slowly rising.

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So there's been an increased demand which

has led to us getting more households.

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I will say though, it's also partly

been, we have had an increased capacity.

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We were able through a through a

Community Development Blocks grant,

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we've been able to have a food pantry

director so we have a part time

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staff person, Michael Brown who's

responsible for helping manage things.

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One of the services that started as a

result of the pandemic was delivery,

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so we do, we deliver our food.

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to about 30 households each week.

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It wasn't something that, that had

been done prior to the pandemic.

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It became a necessity for people

who are medically vulnerable.

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But what we realized that even

as the pandemic ended, that there

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are a lot of people who need food

that because of disabilities or

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other things that are ongoing the

delivery distribution couldn't stop.

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That there were people that

still were not going to be able

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to make it to the food pantry.

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So there's that increase in our capacity

and then of course you know, really

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becoming a bilingual food pantry has

led to more people from the neighborhood

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coming in, realizing that this is a place

where they can get food, not be judged.

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We're not gonna, we're not

here to ask a lot of questions.

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We're not here to sort of you

know, make your life hard.

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We're here to.

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give you food if you need food

and work with you on anything

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else that you might need to.

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And I think having, having that

relationships, having people know,

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I, little things just like our signs

are in English and Spanish now.

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So they know that if there's an

expectation and it's a, and we meet

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the expectation that if they show

up and they speak Spanish, we're

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going to be able to serve them.

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And they don't have to worry about

whether or not they can actually

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talk to anybody at the church.

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Lauren: So Steve, along with

the food pantry, Guardian

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Angel has the thrift shop.

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And it's still serving the community?

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Steve: Yeah, it's open on the first

and second Saturday of each month.

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It is run entirely by

a team of volunteers.

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They have kept that going.

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They figured out ways to make it work

in the pandemic, which was hard for

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everybody, but they, they did it.

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And that continues to be

available and that's a service.

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And it's also, it's something that is

making items available at low cost.

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Makes a huge difference

from the community.

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And it's also something that

we use as a church resource for

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people who can't afford anything.

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We're still able to kind of help them

out I've gone down there to help people

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get clothes for job interviews, for

example, that they needed something to

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look professional in order to get hired.

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And we were, you know, able to help

out with those kinds of things.

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So it's.

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Yeah, that continues to be a resource

that we have for the neighborhood.

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Jon: Oh, that's, that's great.

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At the beginning you said this has

been, this call to serve in this

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particular place, in this particular

time, it's is a perfect fit for you.

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And it really sounds like that's true.

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Can, can you talk a little bit about

how this has changed you in any way?

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informed your faith

journey in any way at all?

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Steve: Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out

if there's a short version of this, but I

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don't think there is I was ordained as a

iest the first time around in: 2013

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in the Anglican church in North America.

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tHat's all, that's a whole

long story in and of itself

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I spent the first five years that I

was here in Baltimore in bi vocational

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ministry, really working on regional

planning, you know, helping do homeless

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services for the state of Maryland

and those kinds of things, and kind of

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being a priest on the side and And I,

I know coming into it three years ago

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that was one of my own apprehensions

was that it was like, you know, I, sure

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I had trained for this, but seminary

had been eight years at that point.

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You know, it's, I had, I had graduated

from Fuller in LA back in: 2012

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had been, there was an eight year gap.

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And I had really come to

think of myself as sort of.

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Like, like being a priest

was a hobby that I had

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so kind of, coming into a space

where it was, you know, I was the

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rector of a congregation and it

was, this was what I was doing.

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I was, I was nervous.

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Like I was not sure how I

was going to feel about that,

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how that fit was going to be.

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So having a church where

kind of all of the.

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All the prior experience was

relevant, you know having done a

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lot of community organizing and

things like that was a big part of

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what Guardian Angel was looking for.

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I think maybe the, the biggest blessing

I've received in my faith journey over

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the last three years is it, as it turns

out, I really like being a priest.

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I, I enjoy.

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doing the work and ministering alongside

a congregation and really being a part

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of what they are doing and participating

in the liturgy every week and welcoming

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people, uh, welcoming people both to the

meal table of the food pantry But also

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the, the Eucharistic table on Sunday

mornings and making the connections

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between those two things and, and really

helping that be a reality and helping

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people make those connections and

understand, understand themselves as a

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as a meal community, a group of people

that eat with one another because we

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have been brought together by Christ.

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And I think that's, yeah, I really

like being a priest and I don't

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know that I could have said that.

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prior to coming to Guardian Angel.

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Jon: Your your joy as you say

that is palpable, not only

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visible, but that's that's great.

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It's good to hear that.

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Thank you.

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Lauren: Being the priest at Guardian

Angel, you, in addition, have another,

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job that you have just begun with

the diocese as a priest, which is

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bringing congregations, together.

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So tell us, tell us a little bit about

being the associate, for mission.

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Is it?

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Steve: Yes.

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Yeah.

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It's it's interesting.

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I am, I, I think I'm still figuring

out what my job is just because.

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You know, mission includes so much.

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I mean, really, it kind of includes

everything the church does, really.

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But it's so far I've enjoyed

being able to help make connections

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between congregations, especially

here in Baltimore City and what's

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happening in the community.

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And some of that's happened in sort of

some surprising and unexpected ways and,

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and really started to just get a feel

for sort of how do we get more involved.

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And a lot of the things that I've had

prior experience in and kind of thinking

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about public policy around things like

affordable housing public transportation.

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And then sometimes it's just

things that just sort of come up.

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You know, I think you all are

familiar with the Sutton Scholars.

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It's a high school enrichment program for

Baltimore city students that, you know,

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covers a lot of things over the summer.

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bUt one of the things that they

were trying to think about was

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how to, you know, how do we

teach kids about Legislative

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advocacy and how to have a voice.

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And I was able to work with Ken and Chris

McCloud and set up a visit to city hall.

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We brought these high school

students into city hall.

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They were able to meet the appointee for

the city solicitor role who talked to

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them about what it hurt to be the first

woman to be appointed to that role.

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And to hear the kids clap, you know,

realizing how important that actually

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was in the rotunda of the city

hall where it echoes was amazing.

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And then met a few other people

and just, I think, kind of got the

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sense of like, oh, my city officials

are approachable, real people.

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Councilman John Bullock from the 9th

District here in West Baltimore was

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the one who was leading this tour,

but he had a conversation with them

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in the city council chambers where he

was explaining to them that these were

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the same city council chambers that

had passed the nation's first racially

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restrictive zoning ordinance in 1911,

and that for him as a Black man who grew

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up in West Philadelphia, representing

neighborhoods in West Baltimore that

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have experienced so much disinvestment

because of racism and segregation.

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For, for him to be in the same room where

his voice would not have been allowed,

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his voice was absolutely excluded.

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But to be there as a city councilman,

representing his district, representing

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people who were not included in

those conversations, for sure.

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Just the, the, how meaningful that

was, and to see these high school

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students realize like, oh, this is...

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This is actually important like this

matters and the lights going on With kind

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of like being in that space and realizing

like oh, yeah, this is This is important.

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So that's, you know, that's, I think

that's probably been the most fun I've

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had so far in the, in the new role.

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Jon: Yeah, and it is, uh, the Sutton

Scholars clearly is one of the key

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important programs that are making a

difference in the city here and that

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the diocese provides and supports.

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So Steve if any of our viewers or

listeners would like to get in contact

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with you to find more about your

ministry or the work that Guardian

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Angel is doing and any of these amazing

things that are happening in Remington.

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How can they reach you?

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Steve: So the best way to reach me

is my email address which is the it's

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the rectoratguardianangelremington.

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org.

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That is the thing that I most

consistently am able to respond to.

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My kids are six, four

and almost a year old.

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So in the course of a day, anything

could be happening at any moment.

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But I am, I'm pretty consistent

about getting to my email

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and trying to respond to.

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You know, to people who are interested in

what we're doing, who want to volunteer

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with the food pantry, who want to be

involved in our other ministries that's

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a fantastic way to get in touch with me.

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Jon: Perfect.

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So contacting you directly through

your emails is the best way.

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Sounds great.

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Steve, this has been a pleasure having

you today and just a real inspiration

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and a wonderful, wonderful story.

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And I can't tell you how much I personally

have learned and how much I appreciate

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your spending time with us today.

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Lauren: But before we go is there

anything else you'd like to share

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any words of wisdom that you want to leave

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with us?

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Steve: I think, you know, just

kind of like coming, coming back

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to the Spanish speaking ministry.

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But there's, there's been a whole lot

of other things that have happened

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in my time at Guardian Angel.

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And I feel like the one thing

that has mattered the most has

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just been a willingness to...

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Listen to what is happening in the

neighborhood to partner with what is

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going on and just see what happens God

is Already at work in our neighborhoods

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in our communities and as often just

waiting for us to wait Listen find

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out what's happening and join in in

with it and then see where that leads

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because it it's not usually where

we expect but it is a Always good.

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: 00:24:47

Jon: That's great.

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: 00:24:48

Yeah.

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: 00:24:49

Thanks, Steve.

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Thanks.

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Thanks for being here.

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Steve: My pleasure.

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Lauren: And Jon and I want to

thank everyone who is viewing

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this or listening to it.

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We cannot do this without

your participation.

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: 00:25:03

So please take a moment to

comment, like, or share on all

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your social media platforms.

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: 00:25:11

And again, thank you for the

gift of your time with us today.

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Until next time, peace and blessings.

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Jon: Good news is being brought

to you by Listening for Clues.

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You can find us on our

website, listeningforclues.

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: 00:25:28

com, our YouTube channel, our

Vimeo channel, and just about every

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: 00:25:33

podcast platform that there is.

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: 00:25:35

Hope to see you soon.