The Episcopal Church does not want "second-class" priests. Priests are expected to have a good secondary school preparation, a degree from a college or university, and a degree from a theological seminary. We like it when our clergy have post-graduate education. I have all that, plus more than 30 years of varied experience in parochial ministry. Nonetheless, I am a second-class priest -- in Hispanic ministry, in which I have labored for more than 15 years.

My second-class status is not unique. It is also true of other clergy who are engaged in any ethnic ministry when they are not from that same ethnic background. Such a statement is not meant to be critical, nor is it intended to discourage these trans-cultural ministries. It is merely the truth that when one is not native in a language, and was not raised in the culture, one is not "first class" in the complex aspects of communication, personal relationships and pastoral care.

Many of those involved in Hispanic ministry think we need to prepare more people for ordination, and that the church's long-prevalent expectations are not working. We need an additional, new and more flexible method of preparing for the ordination of Hispanic clergy. Perhaps the same is true with respect to other ethnic ministries in the United States. Our canons permit bishops and dioceses great flexibility. Though that flexibility was widely used in years past, there now seems to be a tacit agreement to be inflexible because of the fear of "second-class" priests emerging from any alternative educational programs.

We have a sad history with regard to institutions educating Hispanic clergy. The seminary in Puerto Rico died. New York's Instituto Pastoral no longer functions. The same for the house of study in Costa Rica. California's School for Deacons is no longer providing Spanish-language education. The Spanish-language program of the Diocese of Los Angeles no longer exists.

We have found one way to provide first-class priests for our Hispanic congregations -- we call priests from Latin American countries. We are happy to have the church in other nations invest its resources in clergy training, then rob them of the ordinands they have prepared. In this way, we do not have to bear the responsibility for solving our own problems.

There are numerous problems in the preparation of Hispanic clergy. There seem to be many late vocations, so that potential candidates have families to maintain. They must work. Interested persons are not all in the same area, so it is difficult to maintain a program in any one place. Existing institutions lack curricular materials which address the peculiarities and particularities of Hispanic ministry.

Jose Lana, an Episcopal priest born in Spain, once said that within the same basic creeds and theology, various parts of the catholic church have different emphases. The "Anglo" church (predominantly northern European in heritage), he said, has a nodding acquaintance with the suffering Christ, and an intimate knowledge of the resurrected Christ.

Empty crosses in their churches demonstrate that emphasis. On the other hand, the Hispanic church has an intimate knowledge of the suffering Christ, and a nodding acquaintance with the resurrected Christ. Crucifixes in the churches show that emphasis. This is a minor example of the truth that within catholic Christianity there are important and powerful cultural differences and emphases.

Hispanic ordinands need to know the history of the church in Latin America, culturally appropriate educational methods and subjects, the special pastoral issues of the Hispanic community, Hispanic music, and how to incorporate Hispanic aesthetics into the worship life of the congregation.

Episcopal seminaries provide a good education in English and German theology and history. They lack the breadth and depth of resources needed to teach from a Hispanic perspective. Nonetheless, clergy in Hispanic congregations should be familiar with the theologies of Latin America, and the dynamics between those theologies and the social and cultural formation of the people of Latin America. It is not that we need to be attentive to issues of translating languages, but of being rooted in histories and cultures. There are differences, and those clergy who are not profoundly knowledgeable of those differences, and who have not been personally formed by them, are second-class clergy. If we really want no second-class clergy, we need to be able to prepare clergy for Hispanic ministry by an alternate method which will equip them to be first class. We need to cast aside the assumption that Anglo clergy are always first class.

I read a brief article about a small group of diaconal candidates in the Diocese of Connecticut who are pursuing a preparation program by means of the Internet. Material from an English theological school is being translated in Spain to be available to Latin American students in the United States. It is certainly a circuitious route. However, that involved path ignores the fact that there are cultural differences between England and Spain. Similarly, there are differences between Spain and Latin America and the United States. Just as British English has diferences from American English, so the Castellano of Spain is not the Spanish of Latin America. Then one must be attentive to the cultural differences. A system filled with all these cultural and linguistic differences is necessary now.

Let us use the Internet as the vehicle for providing a quality education for Hispanic candidates. In this way, the resources of the whole Anglican Hispanic world would be available to students anywhere. We could provide such students with diverse materials, skilled teachers, and culturally appropriate materials, while giving them a greater appreciation of the international and catholic nature of the Anglican Communion.

A curriculum would need to be created. In addition to a list of basic courses, we would need an agreement on those courses of special need and interest to Hispanic clergy. Then it would be the time to find persons to prepare those courses. The universal materials should be prepared first -- Bible content and interpretation, early church history, the theology of the creeds, liturgical basics. With basic materials and support at hand, it would be appropriate to begin the preparation of uniquely Hispanic materials in history, theology, music and pastoral care.

Somewhere in the process it would be important to have sufficient episcopal support to indicate that the effort of preparing courses, and taking courses, would have a positive result. Ideally that would involve a nationwide education campaign among our bishops. They would need to have confidence in the process and the individuals who would be authorized to create the materials. They would also have to be willing to risk designating this program as suitable for their Hispanic candidates for ordination. The bishops would also have to help make local mentoring available, to complete the whole educational process.

The essence of this proposal is simple. Its implementation would be complex. At present there is no vehicle for furthering this proposal. There is no institution, or office, to serve as the focal point -- the organizer. There are no available funds. There is no coordinator. There is a need, but no organized and obvious support. Such a program could be pursued only after considerable consultation, the formation of careful ageements, initial and general indications of episcopal willingness and commitment, and some funding. None of those factors now exists. We merely have the need, and we continue to struggle to begin and use programs which are insufficient to the task. Each new program consumes money but has no long-term positive results. We still need a program to prepare first-class clergy for Hispanic ministry.

I believe the approach presented here could produce first-class ordinands for Hispanic ministry in a way which is not now happening. We would no longer have substantial reliance on second-class, seminary-educated Anglo clergy.

The Rev. John Rawlinson is the pastor of St. James/Santiago Church, Oakland, Calif.