Floridians Outline Ministry of Service
Episcopal News Service. March 6, 1984 [84042]
LONGBOAT KEY, Fla. (DPS, Mar.6) -- "Service" was the special order of business at the Episcopal Church's Executive Council meeting here, and representatives of the Diocese of Southeast Florida rendered a special service themselves, driving through 50 m.p.h. winds and torrential rain in order to make the presentation.
Presiding Bishop John M. Allin and the General Convention have affirmed the ministry of the church as consisting of service, worship, evangelism, education and pastoral care. While Southeast Florida had been asked to share what they were doing in the first area, in the process they touched on the others, illustrating the wholeness of the church's mission.
The Rt. Rev. Calvin Schofield, Bishop of Southeast Florida, began with a reminiscence about his distress in 1980 when, as a new bishop, he saw the depth of need in his diocese. As an introduction to his staff's description of programs to combat this, Schofield quoted Archbishop William Temple: "The Church is the only institution which exists for the benefit of those who do not belong to it".
The second speaker, James Maultsby of the diocesan stewardship commission, told of a survey done by the long-range planning committee. This discovered great interest in lay ministry and social outreach, and it is upon these that programs have been built.
Southeast Florida was the first diocese to have a Hispanic commission, according to its representative, Manuel Mesa. Among their accomplishments are the production of Sunday School materials in Spanish and the only Spanish-language Cursillo in the Episcopal Church. They have also done extensive work with Cuban boatlift refugees.
Another major refugee population in Southeast Florida is Haitian. Miami's Episcopal Church of St. Paul the Apostle, aided in part by the Presiding Bishop's Fund, etc., ministers to members of the largest single concentration of Haitians in the United States. The Rev. Fritz Bazin described difficulties encountered by his congregation in terms of prejudice, especially in regard to fear of AIDS. Isolated by language difficulties, they are also shunned as disease carriers. The Episcopal Church's non-patronizing acceptance and help and its provision of opportunity for them to worship in their own language has an emotional benefit far beyond that of the material support involved. Bazin also noted that for people used to totalitarian authority, the opportunity to function as leaders within the church is a powerful tool for adjusting to life in a democracy.
The presentation continued with the Rev. Lynn Ramshaw, a vocational deacon who serves as the bishop's assistant for social concerns. She sees her job as one of helping people respond, and one area of major concern has been the attempt to eliminate racism on both the individual and institutional levels.
Racism has also been a concern of the youth of the diocese. The bishop's assistant for youth and education, the Rev. Canon Michael W. Jones, showed slides of a diocesan youth convention which passed an anti-racism resolution a month before the regular diocesan convention.
Assistant for ministry and mission, the Rev. Canon Walter E. Neds, described how the emphasis on servanthood led to a re-examination of the diaconate and a strong program of and for vocational deacons. A diocesan school established for their training has evolved into a program for the laity as well. Neds also said that one of the most useful tools in initiating action within a parish was the "Congregational Guide for Self-Evaluation" available from the Episcopal Church Center.
Schofield, in summation, said that the work of his diocese is the result of the people of the diocese, but added that their work is greatly aided by the national church through both funding and materials. The object, he said, is "Ministry with a sense of mission rather than seeing these as problems for the Church."