Dominican Episcopal Church listens to the 'shouts of the suffering'
Episcopal News Service, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. January 30, 2009 [013009-01]
Canon Bob Snow, Missionary to the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, Mary Frances Schjonberg and Solange De Santis
An image gallery of the Presiding Bishop's visit to the Diocese of the Dominican Republic is available here.
During her recent pastoral visit to clinics, schools, and churches in the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori saw hope written across the faces of those she encountered.
"Every ministry we visited was an encounter with individuals and communities of faith who heard the voice of God say to them 'follow me and serve me,'" Jefferts Schori told an estimated 3,000 Dominican Episcopalians who gathered January 18 for Eucharist at a volleyball stadium at Olympic Park in Santo Domingo.
The service came near the end of her January 15-19 pastoral visit to the diocese known locally as Iglesia Episcopal Dominicana. The Presiding Bishop made 11 stops, and each site was selected to demonstrate a particular ministry of the diocese. The tour included each of the diocese's four deaneries.
One of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church's 12 overseas dioceses, the Dominican diocese is part of Province IX of the Episcopal Church. The other 11 dioceses and convocations are Colombia, the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, Central Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Litoral Ecuador, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands. (More information about the 12 is available here).
During the service, Jefferts Schori said that Christians are called to bring the message of hope to those people who need to be fed spiritually and physically. During her visit to diocesan institutions and churches, she said, she saw people of faith answering God's call to service.
Diocesan Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin said that in its early history the diocese focused on its spiritual identity in this Roman Catholic country and on building a solid infrastructure. In the last 10 years the focus has been on evangelism and outreach.
From 1998 to the present, Holguin said, the diocese has grown significantly. The number of worshipping communities has increased from 26 to 65, education programs from nine to 24, medical clinics from one to three, children's shelters from one to four, vicarages from 10 to 20, clergy from 21 to 40, and missionaries from four to 10. The diocese has also opened a home for senior citizens and added sleeping accommodations and conference rooms to the diocesan office.
Holguin told the Presiding Bishop that 20 percent of the country's 9.5 million people lives on one dollar a day or less, and 42 percent live in poverty. The Dominican Republic is about double the size of New Hampshire and occupies the island of Hispaniola along with the country of Haiti where there is also a strong Episcopal Church presence.
Holguin compared the diocese to a dove with one wing meant for evangelism and the other for outreach. "A church which focuses just on evangelism or on outreach doesn't meet its Christian responsibility and is grounded," he said. "Our churches are growing because we focus on both evangelism and outreach."
The Presiding Bishop and her party began their visit at Santiago Apostol church and school in Angelina, a small community located among sugar cane fields. The sugar processing plant in Angelina closed several years ago and unemployment is 75 percent. Those who do have jobs work in San Pedro, which is about 20 miles away, or in the tourist areas.
Angelina was selected as an example of how the diocese is working in villages impacted by industrial modernization and the decline of jobs in the sugar cane industry. It was also meant to showcase how the diocese is attempting to obtain additional resources by working with congregations and dioceses in the United States.
"My job is to build a bridge between two different cultures," said missionary Ellen Snow, who is coordinator of visitors and work and medical teams coming into the diocese. "Teams think they are coming here to work. However, our focus is on building relationships between Dominicans and those who come to participate in the ministries of this diocese."
The Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston, South Carolina has joined Santiago Apostol in its mission. The cathedral's first major step was to conduct a survey to determine needs and wants and it now sends work teams and medical teams to the community. The cathedral is developing a community development plan that may include installing a water purification system, one of the priorities listed in the survey.
At least 25 congregations in the diocese have long-term relationships with a church, deanery, or episcopal organization in the United States. Support comes in the form of teams, scholarships for students, school and summer Bible school supplies, funds for construction or community projects, and other special projects.
On her first full day in the diocese, the Presiding Bishop visited Buen Pastor, a ministry of the Sisters of Transfiguration whose mother house is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sisters Gabriela and Priscilla said the Episcopal order came to the DR to provide assistance after Hurricane David slammed into country in 1979. They later returned and established a nutrition program and medical clinic in Barrio los Flores (Neighborhood of the Flowers) in the city of San Pedro.
During the 1980s infants in the barrio were dying from lack of proper nutrition and other consequences of living in poverty, according to the sisters, but the number of infant deaths has decreased thanks to programs they initiated. Though health care is still an important component of their program, they are now committed to providing a quality education to children from poor families. With the help of work teams from the Tampa deanery in the Diocese of Southwest Florida the sisters will soon open a new school.
Education has been a significant ministry of the diocese from its inception in 1897, Holguin said, adding that education is the key to change in developing countries. Dominican public schools are overcrowded and not well-funded. One survey showed that only 56 percent of the students living in poor areas go beyond the eighth grade. Most of the diocese's 24 education programs operate in areas where public schools are often inadequate.
The diocese's schools charge tuition and are self-supporting. Eleven years ago the diocese started a scholarship program for students from poor families and in the 2007-08 school year, 875 students received help from sponsors in the United States. There are more than 5,000 students in diocesan schools.
"The diocesan leadership in the Dominican Republic understands the essential need for education, and puts a great deal of energy and effort into serving this basic need," Jefferts Schori told ENS after she returned from her visit. "Education is key to evangelism, in the fullest sense of sharing the good news of the reign of God as abundant life for all."
Jefferts Schori and Holguin broke ground for a new church in Villa Liberación which is a marginal barrio in the city of Bonao in the center of the country. Linda Watt, the Episcopal Church's chief operating officer who traveled with the Presiding Bishop, noted that several important local politicians attended the groundbreaking. Watt, who served as acting U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic and then deputy chief of mission between 1997 and 1999, said that, in a heavily Roman Catholic country, having political support is very significant.
In the last few years the diocese has consecrated two new church buildings each year. In 2008 three new churches were consecrated and other groundbreaking ceremonies were held. The diocese currently has three churches and two schools in some phase of construction, along with new dormitories at its retreat center in the mountains.
The most ambitious effort in 2008 was the construction of 21 homes in Azua in the southwestern part of the country for families impacted by flooding and hurricanes. Episcopal Relief and Development provided a grant for the "Dios Es Amor" housing project that helped the diocese buy the materials. A neighborhood co-op built the homes. The homes are built out of cement block and the materials cost about $5,000. Owners hold the title to the property but signed an agreement that the home could not be sold without obtaining permission of the diocese. Holguin's goal is to build a total of 100 homes in other communities.
In her January 18 sermon, Jefferts Schori referred to her Azua visit, saying that the voice of God is heard "when men and women of faith listen to the shouts of suffering from their neighbors, and hope the very best for them."
In Santo Domingo Jefferts Schori visited Epiphany Church where the remains of the Rev. Raymond Barnes are entombed under the floor. Barnes was martyred in July of 1938 by the agents of the dictator Rafael Trujillo after they intercepted messages Barnes was sending to the United States in an effort to stop genocide taking place on the Haitian border. Jefferts Schori encouraged the church to take the necessary steps which would allow Barnes to be added to the Episcopal Church's calendar of saints.
Also in Santiago, the Presiding Bishop's group visited Cristo Salvador Church and Children's Care Center where some of the members of the Episcopal Church's United Thank Offering Committee were reviewing the school's application for a grant to expand the school and nutrition program. Watt said that the Rev. Hipolito Fernandez said the children at the school get education, faith formation, and meals, "but the most important thing is love."
Watt said that she was struck during the visit by what she called the "tireless, vigorous expansion of the church in the Dominican Republic."
Also traveling with the Presiding Bishop was the Rev. Christopher Johnson, the church's program officer for Jubilee Ministry. Johnson has spent time in the country improving his Spanish in a language program the diocese offers.
Diocesan representatives, in addition to Holguin, were Assistant Bishop Bill Skilton, diocesan communication committee member Nereyda Feliz, missionary and Canon to the Ordinary Bob Snow, Dominican Development Group President David Morrow, and its executive director, Bob Stevens.
The Dominican Development Group (DDG) is a non-profit organization located in the United States that helps the diocese raise funds to support its project. Holguin said the DDG is also coordinating a program to raise a $5 million dollar endowment fund over the next five years. The endowment would allow the diocese to become self-supporting. The bishop said they are almost halfway to their goal.
Watt suggested after the visit that the diocese's unofficial motto ought to be 'nothing is ever finished here' because, for instance, she said, if a group forms a pre-school, Holguin wants to know "where is the nutrition program; where is the program for mothers."