Thursday, January 1, 2026

Two Women Pastors United by Faith, Mentorship Navigate Eaton Fire Crisis

Rev. Susan Russell and Rev. Carri Patterson Grindon

Episcopal priests mentored by civil rights icon Rev. George Regas share vestments, sisterhood after Altadena church burns

When the text arrived at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 22, Rev. Susan Russell understood immediately what her friend needed. 

Rev. Carri Patterson Grindon had lost everything in the Eaton fire. Her church, St. Mark’s Episcopal in Altadena, was gone. So was the school. And all her vestments. 

Christmas services were days away. Patterson Grindon needed a chasuble, the outer garment priests wear during Eucharist. 

Russell’s answer was an immediate yes. 

“I thought what it must be like to be the leader of a church that’s gone through the fire to be awake at 4 a.m. and realizing you don’t have what you need for Christmas worship,” Russell said. 

The two women share more than friendship. Both worked under Rev. George Regas, the civil rights advocate who led All Saints Church in Pasadena from 1967 to 1995. 

Regas championed women’s ordination, civil rights and LGBTQ marriage equality. Patterson Grindon served as youth director at All Saints. Russell was ordained in 1996 and served as deacon and day school chaplain there. 

The borrowed vestment carries that history. It dates back to Regas’s tenure when Patterson Grindon was still on staff. 

St. Mark’s congregation now worships at St. Barnabas in Eagle Rock. They’ve found a long-term home there while awaiting their eventual return to Altadena. 

The churches’ bond runs deep. St. Mark’s began as a mission outreach of All Saints in 1906. The connection is now 119 years old. 

Russell posted a photo of the two clergy with the chasuble. The simple act meant everything. 

“We are honored to have a little bit of (All Saints Church) present with our St. Mark’s siblings on this year’s ‘O Holy Night,'” Russell said.

She called the exchange “part of that interconnected web of life, love and relationship” which is “not only the Diocese of Los Angeles but the Church as the Body of Christ.”