Connecticut Designates Ecuador for $80,000 Grant
Episcopal News Service. February 25, 1981 [81061]
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut's Episcopal Churches have designated $80,000 during 1981 to support the Episcopal Church in Ecuador, a missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church, according to the Rt. Rev. Morgan Porteus, Bishop of Connecticut.
The funds will be used for two purposes: to build a permanent church building in the city of Quito, which is both the headquarters of the diocese and the country's capital; and to provide a project director for the Oriente Province in Eastern Ecuador to coordinate agricultural and evangelistic activities now under development, including the construction of temporary church buildings in farming villages.
The grant to Ecuador is the result of the first phase of a three year effort in the Diocese of Connecticut that is part of the nation-wide Venture in Mission program of the Episcopal Church.
Connecticut's congregations have thus far pledged more than $1. 8 million, 70 percent of which is for diocesan and world missionary efforts. A second phase is scheduled to conclude in March.
Porteus, in commenting on the Venture experience, said, "It bears witness that the embers of the Church's missionary outreach are going to be fanned into flame once more."
Connecticut's interest in Ecuador began when the Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley, bishop coadjutor of Connecticut, visited Ecuador last year on the invitation of Ecuador's Episcopal Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Adrian Caceres, a native South American of Spanish and Inca descent.
In recent years, the Episcopal Church in Ecuador has grown to 60 congregations, most of whom worship in temporary buildings or rented houses. The permanent church building in Quito will be the first of several planned for the diocese.
In addition to providing a project director, Connecticut funds will also be used to construct church buildings in Oriente Province in eastern Ecuador, much of which is in the Amazon jungle and populated by Quechua Indians, Inca descendants whose language is also spoken by Caceres.
The Diocese of Ecuador has established schools and agricultural training centers in this region, around which new villages of young Indian families have formed.
Walmsley, who will become diocesan bishop when Porteus retires later this year, said, "We are really receiving much more than we are giving to the people of Ecuador. We sometimes have a tendency to take the church's presence for granted. The people of Ecuador are affirming the excitement of receiving the Good News that the Church brings to those who have not heard it. "
"We are learning a great deal from our brothers and sisters in Ecuador, " he continued, "who have little of the world's wealth, but are gaining spiritual resources in abundance. It is my hope that we are beginning a long and close association with our friends from whom we have much to learn and with whom we have much to share."
In addition to the $80,000 grant to Ecuador, Connecticut's diocesan leadership has approved $55,000 for other national and world mission work, and $92,000 for projects within Connecticut. Ten additional projects, totalling $670,000 have been approved and await receipt of pledged amounts.