SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2017 
VOLUME 11 NO. 24FATHER ROGER WOOD, A TRUE SIERRA 
MADRE TREASURE, PASSES AWAY SACRAMENTO COMES TO THE CITY 
SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2017 
VOLUME 11 NO. 24FATHER ROGER WOOD, A TRUE SIERRA 
MADRE TREASURE, PASSES AWAY SACRAMENTO COMES TO THE CITY 
California State Senator Anthony Portantino met with the Sierra Madre City Council and city staff 
for a special council meeting on Friday morning at Coru Restaurant in Sierra Madre. Among theitems on the agenda was the current status of the 710 Freeway.
Photo courtesy City of Sierra Madre.


The Reverend Canon Roger H. Wood died at home on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Father Wood was bornin Pasadena on November 9, 1923 and was baptized at Church of the Ascension, where he had a strongfamily legacy; his family had donated the land on which the church stands. Father Wood served in the U.S.
Navy during World War II as an officer aboard a landing ship, then earned a bachelor’s degree at StanfordUniversity in 1948. He also earned a law degree from Stanford, and became a member of the California statebar. He worked in Sacramento for the state legislature’s legal bureau, where his former Stanford classmates andcolleagues included future U.S. Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor. Healso did graduate work at the London School of Economics.

Discerning a call to the priesthood, he attended the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, earning a bachelorof divinity degree in 1957. He was ordained to the diaconate June 29, 1957, and to the priesthood on Dec. 21 ofthat year.

He served at St. Francis’ Church in Moab, Utah, then a missionary district, from 1957 to 1960, left for a briefstint at a congregation in Pennsylvania, then returned to Utah as rector of St. Mary’s Church in Provo. He alsoserved the Utah diocese as chair of its Christian education department.

In 1966 he was called as associate priest at Church of the Epiphany, Los Angeles. In 1973, upon the retirementof the Rev. John Luce, he was called as rector, serving until 1982. He returned briefly to law practice with theLegal Aid Society of Los Angeles County before becoming chaplain of The Episcopal Home (later known asThe Kensington, now closed) in 1988. He retired in January 1995 and returned to his home parish of Ascensionwhere he served as an assistant until 2005, continuing thereafter as a member. He also served for many yearson the board of the Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery .

At the time Father Wood served at Epiphany, it was known as the Parish of East Los Angeles and includedthe mission congregations of St. Bartholomew’s in El Serena and The Redeemer in Boyle Heights (both laterunited with Epiphany). Then as now, the congregation carried out an active ministry to the Latino community,
and was a center of the Chicano movement during Father Wood’s tenure. Father Wood was a close associateof Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta. In recognition of Father Wood’s long service to the community, Bishop

J. Jon Bruno named him an honorary canon of the Cathedral Center in 2007.
Over the years, Father Wood wrote several opinion articles for The Episcopal News. In one of these, writtenin 1979, he evoked the tension between St. Peter and St. Paul who, he said, based on Paul’s letter to the Galatians, 
“flirted with schism” over the question of circumcision. However, he noted, the two leaders agreed “that weshould remember to help the poor.” Father Wood wrote:

“Concern for the poor is something worth having a fight about -- even to and beyond the point of schism!
The agreement ‘that we should remember to help the poor’ keeps me in community, figuratively if not literally,
with all sorts of Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Unitarians and Humanists. (I fail to mentionMuslims, Buddhists and Hindus only for lack of experience.) On the other hand, I can feel deep alienation andseparation from a sister or brother Episcopalian for whom ‘the poor’ are at best a casual concern or at worstvaguely defined as to include anyone with a material, psychological or spiritual need. If we are going to have aschism, let’s have one about the right thing. Peter and Paul had their priorities straight: agree to disagree aboutcircumcision, but about the poor ... never!”

Funeral services are scheduled for Wednesday, June 21 at 10 am at the Church of the Ascension. Burial willfollow immediately in the Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery. A reception will be held back at the Church of theAscension.

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to comment on those posts.DEPARTMENT LAUNCHES The Department’s intent is to create a limitedFACEBOOK PAGE forum devoted exclusively to its postings from the

public relevant to the subject matter of the postthey are responding to.

The City of Sierra Madre Police Department

In addition to the new Facebook page the SMPD

is pleased to launch its new Facebook social

also uses Twitter (@SierraMadrePD) and the

media page in an effort to stay connected to the

Department website as media outlets.

community and keep residents informed on

Check back for the Sierra Madre Department of

current issues regarding public safety. Chief of 

Library and Community Services social media

Police Joe Ortiz continues to make community

page launching later this year.

partnerships and technology top priorities.

Please Click Here to visit the Sierra Madre Police 

The new Facebook page will enable the SMPD

Department Facebook Page.

to post matters of public interest concerning the

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com