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Urban Bishops' Coalition Holds Hearing in Panama

Episcopal News Service. March 2, 1978 [78051]

Bishop Robert L. DeWitt

Colon, Panama -- In the teeth of the mounting debate, both in the United States and in Panama, over the new Canal Treaty, the Urban Bishops' Coalition held in Colon, Panama, on February 14, the fourth of its public hearings on the urban mission of the Church.

The host bishop for the hearing was the Rt. Rev. Lemuel B. Shirley, Episcopal Bishop of Panama and the Canal Zone. The local support group which made arrangements for the hearing was chaired by the Rev. Floyd Naters Gamarra of Christ Church-by-the-Sea, in Colon, assisted by Mr. Byron Rushing of Boston, one of the hearings coordinators for the Urban Bishops' Coalition.

The panel consisted of Bishops Wesley Frensdorff of Nevada and John Spong of Newark, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Panama, a Roman Catholic priest, a newspaper reporter and a businessman, both from Colon, and a young woman teacher.

Colon is a city of 85,000 people, located at the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal. It is a Third World example of urban problems in an industrialized world. It is a city which is multi-racial, depressed by inadequate tax revenues, marked by high unemployment, poor housing and poverty. Both the panelists and the testifiers were representative of the rich diversity which marks this tropical city in a beautiful setting blighted by the problems which beset so many urban areas around the world.

Twenty-one people in sequence testified during the all-day session, giving their views of the problems of the city, and making suggestions as to how they felt the Church could minister to those needs. Most of the testimony was given in Spanish, requiring simultaneous translation for those who were not bi-lingual.

This was the fourth of such public hearings, previous ones having been held in Chicago, Newark and Birmingham. By the end of February hearings will also have been held in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and a national hearing in Washington.

The Urban Bishops' Coalition will meet at the end of March to sift the findings which will emerge from the data collected at the hearings. Their intention is to formulate a plan that will suggest the most effective ways for the Episcopal Church to carry out its urban mission. The plan will suggest action for the local, diocesan and national levels of the Church, and also suggestions as to how this Church can cooperate with other Christian denominations in this urban mission.