Bishop Rusack Eulogized as a Caring Church Leader

The Rt. Rev. Robert C. Rusack, who encouraged changes in religious attitudes toward women and homosexuals while he presided over one of the nation’s largest Episcopal dioceses, was eulogized Saturday as a caring leader willing to help members of a changing society.

About 2,000 people, including 20 Episcopal bishops from around the country and clergy representing at least a dozen religions and other Protestant denominations, crowded into St. John’s Episcopal Church downtown for a memorial service for Rusack, who died of a heart attack Wednesday at age 60.

The Rt. Rev. Wesley Frensdorff, assistant bishop of Arizona and a close friend of Rusack, said the late bishop “never lost a personal touch” when dealing with the approximately 100,000 members of the Los Angeles diocese.

Suffragan (assistant) Bishop Oliver Garver Jr., who was named by a diocese committee to serve as acting bishop of the six-county Los Angeles diocese until Rusack’s successor is chosen, presided at the memorial service.

Rusack had advocated the ordination of women, opposed U.S military aid to El Salvador and urged that Salvadoran refugees be granted political asylum in the United States. He had also started a program in the diocese to welcome an influx of Asian immigrants to Southern California.

Rusack had been involved in the development of the AIDS Interfaith Council of Southern California, and had been scheduled to announce the formation of that ministry last Monday before becoming ill.