Leading His Flock

After spending the night on a low-slung cot in a church gymnasium with dozens of teenagers, the Episcopal Bishop Frederick H. Borsch was pumped up for his 47-mile pilgrimage. Borsch stretched his arms and paced the church courtyard, gearing up for a three-day walk from Huntington Beach to Pacific Palisades, accompanied by about 100 young people and a handful of adults.

“As we walk along and feel tired, remember we’re also filled with God’s grace,” Borsch told the sleepy-eyed teens gathered at 7:30 a.m. in the cold sanctuary at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church in Huntington Beach, the starting line for the coastal journey.

Borsch, following the model of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, wanted to spend time with area teenagers who volunteered from throughout the six-county diocese to join him for doses of fellowship, liturgy, exercise and prayer.

“They were kind to my old bones,” said Borsch about the cot, the only luxury that distinguished the 63-year-old bishop from the gaggles of teenagers who sprawled out on plush sleeping bags.

Kids of all stripes--those with ripped T-shirts, dyed red hair and tattooed necks to preppy kids with button-down oxford shorts and strings of pearls--grabbed water bottles and fell in line behind Borsch, the highest-ranking Episcopal in the region.

Although he has taken teenagers on camping trips before, leading a three-day pilgrimage and crashing on cramped cots is new for Borsch, who was recruited for the task by diocese organizers.

Borsch is well-known for taking his ministry to the streets of Los Angeles and courting multicultural parishioners. He’s often spotted wearing Dodgers caps and even keeps a Foosball game in his office, near his kneeler.

On Monday, he readied his fellow walkers at St. Wilfrid as vans were packed with cases of bottled water, sacks of granola and cut-up oranges and apples. Volunteers will drive the vans to scheduled stops and load the long-distance pedestrians with carbohydrates and attend to blisters with sheets of moleskin.

“This is just about being together,” said the Rev. Ernesto Medina, who works promoting Christian education in the diocese. The walk was his idea. He recruited the kids from 10 different youth groups and will walk behind to help stragglers. “There’ll be a lot of kids deep in prayer.”

Full of adrenaline for the trek along Pacific Coast Highway, some teenagers woke up at 5:30 a.m. Borsch allowed as how he might have liked to sleep in longer, but he was nonetheless delighted to hear the kids bustling around the gym, crooning Christian songs and gabbing about God.

Leaving high-minded theology and his miter back in Los Angeles, Borsch tucked a baseball cap in his back pocket and wore a bright pink Anglican rosary over a frayed gray sweatshirt.

Borsch, who plays tennis every week and jogs around his Echo Park neighborhood every other day, started the pilgrimage at a brisk pace. The pack thinned out after a few blocks and broke up into clumps with Borsch out front talking with a cluster of girls.

“We’re doing something in the name of Christ, and that’s what it’s all about,” said 13-year-old Guinevere Johnston of Newhall, who scampered to keep up with the bishop and carried a rosary he gave to all the participants. “Being a Christian helps me deal with a lot of stuff in my life.”

Borsch knows what teenagers are about, having raised his own. Married with three grown sons, Borsch is familiar with teen angst.

“Kids live in a very challenging world,” he said.

Despite Borsch’s erudite background and distinguished position--he holds degrees from Princeton and Oxford among other universities--the teenagers seemed comfortable with the casual cleric and chatted candidly with him about school, peer pressure and the challenges of being a Christian.

“He spends a lot of time with kids,” said Brian Russell, 14, of San Pedro, who weaved among the walkers on his in-line skates. “He’s cool. He doesn’t get mad.”

On Monday night, the group planned to crash at All Saints’ Church in Long Beach after a 15-mile leg. Today, the group will walk 15 miles to the St. Cross-by-the-Sea Church in Hermosa Beach, where it will stay the night. The pilgrimage will conclude Wednesday after 17 more miles to St. Matthew’s Church in Pacific Palisades.

“Here’s someone willing to literally walk the talk about building relationship with teenagers,” said Brian’s mother, the Rev. Susan Russell of San Pedro, who also walked with the group. “He’s done wonderful things in this diocese. My son even calls the bishop his friend.”

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Spiritual Journey

Flanked by up to 100 teenagers, the Episcopal Bishop Frederick H. Borsch is leading a three-day pilgrimage from Huntington Beach to Pacific Palisades--a stretch of 47-miles where he will walk, pray, meditate and gossip with teenagers from his six-county diocese.