Hispanic Consultation Sets Education Goals
Episcopal News Service. August 2, 1979 [79246]
New York -- A consultation on Hispanic Christian education identified a network of available resources within the Episcopal Church and a strong commitment to the transmission of Hispanic culture as part of the education ministry.
The consultation -- the first such in the Episcopal Church -- was held in June at the Colorado Women's College near Denver. It was sponsored jointly by the Christian education and Hispanic ministries offices of the Episcopal Church Center. Twenty-nine people, representing 16 dioceses and the wide range of Hispanic life and culture within the Church, took part in the three-day exercise.
According to a report of the consultation prepared by Mrs. Nina Soto of the Diocese of Newark, the work was based on a questionnaire that had been sent to all dioceses with Hispanic work. The paper sought out attitudes about culture, the education process, the parish and the local community. It also asked for specific examples of needs to be met in Hispanic Christian education.
As a result, the conference broke into five groups, each of which was to examine the nature of Hispanic community and the definitions, needs and goals of Christian education.
The final report cites 24 characteristics of the Hispanic community which the consultation raised. These emphasize the multi-racial and -national background, the handicaps of urban poverty, the level of religious and cultural understanding within the community and among its ministers. Strongly mentioned are the desire to transmit the Hispanic culture and the conflicts with the dominant culture, and strong sense of family life.
Ten goals raised by the small groups were summarized in the report as: production of Hispanic Christian education resources; programs of lay and clerical training; greater participation in the Church's decision-making and incorporation of the cultural, moral and spiritual values into the teaching task.
Within the groups and through informal exchanges, the participants discovered that there is not only a rich lode of potential leadership and program among Hispanic educators, but that there already exists a network which can support and enhance this leadership.
Much of the work of fulfilling the conference recommendations will consist of coordinating the efforts that are already underway through the Church Center, provincial and diocesan offices and through the Regional Religious Education Coordinators whose services are available throughout the Church. Two of those coordinators, the Rev. Canon James Ottley of Province IX and the Rev. Thomas McElligott of Province VI, were at the consultation.
One participant summed up the value of the sharing and the effort to begin to identify common concerns by stating: "This makes us feel that we are not alone in this work, but that we are working and fighting for the same cause." He called the knowledge "that there are so many resources that have not yet been discovered" the most valued aspect of the gathering.
The recommendations of the consultation and the final report will be transmitted to a Christian education committee of the National Commission on Hispanic Ministries. That committee will meet in September to determine how best to work with the Christian education office and networks to reach toward the goals that were set.