Heart of the City
By Joanne Leslie (Board member)
The Heart of Jesus in the Heart of the City. This is the vision of St. John’s ProCathedral in downtown Los Angeles. In November 2007, St. John’s added a new ministry whose goal is to make the hearts of people living in its urban neighborhood healthier. For the last six months, enthusiastic aerobics classes have been meeting in the parish hall at 5:30 pm and 6:50 pm Tuesday and Friday evenings, providing the community with a much needed, low-cost opportunity for health promoting exercise.
Last fall, when an unexpected problem forced the Jubilee Consortium to cancel its hugely popular aerobics classes at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, community members were disappointed and angry. Almost 150 women had come to count on these classes, both for the exercise opportunity and for fellowship. St. John’s, which is located just over a mile away, came to the community’s rescue. As Dean Mark Kowalewski of St. John’s said, “We saw a need, we had the space, we responded. This is an outgrowth of the church’s theology of hospitality. Why wouldn’t the church care for the whole person?”
Norma Palencia, Jubilee Consortium Health Program Coordinator, reports that the classes at St. John’s started small. Only about 20 women from the St. Philip’s classes were able to switch to the new location. But Norma and site co-coordinator, Antonieta Tunchez hustled. They passed out flyers at schools, to people on the street and even put flyers on cars. Soon more women joined the core group and the classes began to grow. Norma says, “We have people living with diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and other problems. Our participants are very committed to their health. The people who come to the classes at St. John’s want a healthier life-style. They love exercise. They love to know about nutrition and they want more classes.”
Norma also explains that Jubilee’s exercise classes at St. John’s meet a real need. “Our people are very low-income. Women work in factories. The people are living in real poverty. They don’t have another way to get exercise classes.” Another draw of the aerobics classes at St. John’s is that the instructors, Lorena Gutierrez and Leo Ramirez, are known to be among the best aerobics teachers in Los Angeles. Lisa Palencia comes all the way from Hollywood to participate in the Tuesday evening class at St. John’s. Lisa says, “I come here because the instructors are so good.”
Soon we hope that people from the congregation of St. John’s, people who work in the neighborhood, and perhaps some USC students will begin participating in these low-cost dynamic aerobics classes. This way, in addition to helping everyone get healthier, St. John’s can be a place where community members from all walks of life come together for exercise and fellowship.