Bloy House

at the Lutheran Center in Glendale

Since 1970 Bloy House has been located on the campus of Claremont School of Theology, an esteemed United Methodist seminary. In July of 2020 we moved our campus to the Lutheran Center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Southwest Synod on Colorado Street in Glendale, California. The Lutheran Center will be sharing office space, classrooms, a kitchen and dining area, and large meeting facilities with Bloy House. Worship in the Episcopal tradition will be conducted in the center’s chapel and sanctuary spaces.

A New Era

In October of 2019, Bishop John Harvey Taylor, Dean Sylvia Sweeney and members of the Bloy House board of trustees joined Bishop Guy Erwin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southwest California Synod to sign a lease agreement for the Episcopal seminary — formally known as Episcopal School of Theology at Claremont or ETSC — to move into offices at ELCA’s Lutheran Center in Glendale.

The two bishops began discussing the collaboration last spring. Canon to the Ordinary Melissa McCarthy, Dean Sweeney, and Bloy House vice chair Steve Nishibayashi soon joined in the planning process.

“From the very beginning, from the warm hospitality evinced by Bishop Erwin and all his colleagues, we knew the Holy Spirit was guiding us,” Taylor said. “Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Episcopal-Lutheran concordat. I can think of no better way to celebrate than to join hands in helping form the lay and ordained leaders whom both our denominations will need if we are to embrace our pluralistic destiny in the 21st century.”

The concordat, “Called to Common Mission,” adopted in 1999, established The Episcopal Church and ELCA as full-communion partners.

“[Bloy House] will be welcome partners in theological education,” Erwin wrote on Facebook, “and I hope their presence will be a stimulus for the development of a multicultural, inter-denominational theological education center in our synod that benefits our church and our partner churches.”

“This agreement marks the beginning of what Bishop John, the Board of Trustees, and I believe will be an exciting and enriching next chapter for Bloy House,” Sweeney said. “We pray that many Episcopalians and Lutherans will find a spiritual home on our new shared campus. In an age when relationships and partnerships stand at the heart of our hope for the future of our world, this is a partnership of passionate Christians committed to lifelong formation for Christian people. I know this partnership will bear much fruit for years to come.”