Executive Council, diocese celebrate mission at Ecuadorian cathedral
Episcopal News Service. February 14, 2008 [021408-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, Church Center staff and guests spent the evening February 13 at the Diocese of Ecuador Central's Catedral de El Senor worshipping and celebrating with members of the diocese.
The celebration began with a mostly Spanish Evening Prayer honoring the feast day of Absalom Jones. In the Gospel lesson appointed for the day (John 15:12-15), read by House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, Jesus says people who lay down their lives for their friends become his friends.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in her homily the example of friendship in Jesus shown in the community Jones and others started brought many people to Christ. Jefferts Schori, preaching alternately in Spanish and English, said the diocese's "ministry of giving hope, of healing" epitomized that friendship rooted in Christ.
"May God continue to bless this work of friendship," she said.
Before the Lord's Prayer, the Rev. Angel Sigueucio, dean of the cathedral, invited all clergy present to form a circle on behind the altar and join hands while they and the rest of the congregation sang the prayer.
During the announcements, Ecuador Central Provisional Bishop Wilfrido Ramos-Orench introduced clergy and lay missioners of the diocese, along with cathedral and diocesan staff, and the members of the Standing Committee.
Prior to the blessing by the Presiding Bishop, two groups of young people from Cristo Liberador Episcopal Mission in Quito performed. Three young men offered two hip hop songs in Spanish about loving God and a group of youngsters danced out two more songs, with two of the members finishing in a quick flurry of break dancing in front of the altar.
A 20-minute video describing the history, mission and ministry of Ecuador Central, a diocese which ranges from the Atlantic Coast through the mountains to Quito and the Amazon, was projected on a wall of the cathedral. The narrator described the diocese's roots in the Anglican tradition of Scripture, tradition and reason, and its work among migrants, indigenous people, and people at all socio-economic levels.
In the video, Ramos-Orench said he felt a call from God to help rebuild the diocese and expressed the hope that Ecuador Central can become a reconciling and transforming presence in Ecuador.
"Our doors are open to all," the narrator said. "The potential is great but our needs are greater."
At the end, a young girl who is helping to build a church turns to the camera and says "Let's walk together. We are waiting for you."
Standing at the cathedral's pulpit, the Rev. Moise Quezada, Province IX coordinator, told the gathering that most of the seven dioceses in the province are experiencing growth. For example, he said, the Diocese of Ecuador Litoral has grown 12.2% in the last year and the Dominican Republic has grown 21.8%.
The provincial leadership is developing a Christian education curriculum which will soon be used in three dioceses as a pilot program. The leadership, headed by president Honduras Bishop Lloyd Allen, is trying to help the dioceses move towards self-sufficiency, Quezada said.
The words of the liturgy and presentations occasionally came close to being drowned out by the thunder of airplanes taking off and landing at the nearby Quito airport.
Council typically spends part of each meeting hearing about the mission and ministry of the hosting diocese and province. Council members, Church Center staff and guests also spent five hours on February 12 at various venues in and around Quito, working with diocesan members in their ministries and learning about their lives and briefly engaging in the ministry of the diocese.
The congregation ate dinner under a large tent set up on land adjoining the church. The cathedral's guests shopped at a small market set up for them and were entertained by dancers in traditional Ecuadorian dress. Soon Council members, staffers and guests were joining in the dancing.
As one bus left to take people back to the Hotel Hilton Colon in downtown Quito, Ramos-Orench, Puerto Rico Bishop David Alvarez, and Dominican Republic Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin could be heard singing to the remaining guests.
The Quito gathering fulfills the council's pledge to meet in Province IX of the Episcopal Church during the current triennium. Alvarez, Holguin and Ramos-Orench are all members of Council.
Ramos-Orench has been provisional bishop of the diocese since June 1, 2006. Formerly the bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Connecticut and native of Puerto Rico, he succeeded Neptali Larrea Moreno who was deposed in 2004. Moreno was found to have abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church amid complaints of financial irregularities.
Ecuador Central consists of 28 missions, 16 priests including four women, a retired priest and four missioners.
During Council's opening session February 11, Ramos-Orench told the members that "the transformation" of the diocese is starting.
"I'm learning how to become a Third World bishop from a First World bishop," he said "What a joy."