Episcopal Church Women

Aleluya, le daré gracias al Señor con todo mi corazón…grandes son los prodigios del Señor. Su trabajo esta lleno de majestuosidad y esplendor, y su justicia dura por siempre. El Señor obra sus prodigios para que sean recordados para siempre; El Señor esta lleno de gracia y compasión. Salmo 111

“Nuestras pequeñas rosas” es un lugar como ninguno en San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “Nuestras pequeñas rosas” es un lugar abusado, abandonado, olvidado y donde pululan las niñas huérfanas, que fue fundado por Diana Frade en el ano de 1988. No ha sido coincidencia que Diana haya estado visitando un lugar similar para niños en Tegucigalpa, Honduras por el ano 1986 y se haya preguntado: ¿Quién está haciendo lo más mínimo por las niñas pequeñas de Honduras? Nadie.

Por medio de los esfuerzos de muchas personas, especialmente de Diana y el Obispo Leo Frade, el amor de Dios ha quebrado el ciclo de pobreza y abuso para muchas niñas hondureñas. Estas niñas tienen ahora un ambiente seguro, un chance para aprender, el sueño de un futuro y una fundación en la fe.

La mayoría de las niñas reciben una educación secundaria en el lugar llamado “Nuestras pequeñas rosas” y luego de ello, muchas de las jovencitas asisten a la Universidad o Instituciones técnicas, lo cual les permite ejercer profesiones como dentista, abogados, enfermeras registradas, chef, y carreras militares.

Las niñas de los grupos hogareños de “Nuestras pequeñas rosas” tienen una familia como ninguna otra. Tienen hermanas…Muchas hermanas…alrededor de setenta y ochenta todos los anos. Ellas tienen un lugar donde crecer y ser amadas. Ellas están aprendiendo maneras y vías de escapar de las garras de la pobreza a través de la educación. Ellas has aprendido del amor de Dios y saben que jamás serán abandonadas otra vez.

Con cada visita, muchos de nosotros sentimos una especie de remordimiento divino para retornar y hacer más por ellas. Escuchamos un sonido tan cautivante que queremos descifrar su origen. Y luego descubrimos lo que buscamos. El sonido es el amor de Dios. El amor de nuestro Señor cobija a cada una de estas niñas y nos cobija a nosotros también. La buena nueva es que hemos sostenidos por él, cobijados por él, todo este tiempo.

No existe diferencia alguna el hecho de que hablemos español, o no. Lo que si importa es donde venimos y nuestro bagaje, porque todos estamos unidos en la presencia de Dios.

Estamos Unidos a través de nuestra fe en un Dios en el que se puede confiar y que es verdadero. Este es el Dios único que esta con nosotros por los parajes de nuestras vidas. La verdad es que nuestras vidas son un paraje. Esta en movimiento. Y aunque debatamos que queramos cambiarla o no, la realidad es que cambia constantemente. La vida de cada una de estas niñas en el lugar que lleva por nombre “Nuestras Pequeñas rosas” ha cambiado porque el amor que compartimos con ellas es el amor de Dios.

Sin duda alguna, Dios no los ha abandonado. Dios no las ha olvidado. En nuestras horas mas oscuras, Dios no nos abandona. En los momentos de mayor confusión, Dios no nos abandonara. Dios desea que de un mal aparente surja un bien. Dios puede ser confiado para obre su obra salvífica de cada experiencia humana. El amor Divino, que se auto sacrifica, está siempre presente. Jamás termina.

En el 2015, el Rev. Dee Ann deMontmollin, quien es también enfermera registrada, y que también ha realizado innumerables visitas a “Nuestras pequeñas rosas”, fue llevado a dejar a un lado su labor a tiempo completo de ministerio parroquial, confiando en que Dios continuaría guiándola a su próxima tarea ministerial. Parte de esa próxima tarea ministerial ha sido una expansión de su ministerio médico. Acto seguido a uno de nuestros viajes a “nuestras pequeñas rosas” La Reverenda Dee y yo fuimos invitadas a retornar y conducir exámenes físicos a las niñas de “nuestras pequeñas rosas’ y a darles charlas sobre la salud y el crecimiento y desarrollo de las niñas y jóvenes adolescentes.

La visita que nos llevo al desarrollo de un equipo para la misión medica que se avocaría solo a servir a los niños en la comunidad de San Pedro Sula. La doctora Martha Vázquez, una pediatra, se unió al equipo y presta servicios cada ano junto a otros profesionales de la medicina. Entre los niños que servimos se encuentran los niños de la “personas de Levee”, lo cual se traduce en los barrios mas pobres de la comunidad San pedro Sula.

En nuestra primera misión, durante el otoño del año 2016, no sabíamos que esperar. Nos sentimos bien ansiosas y nos preguntábamos si alguien iba siquiera a apersonarse en nuestras clínicas donde prestábamos servicios médicos gratis. Y de repente, en nuestra primera mañana, nos sorprendimos de la fila inmensa de madres esperando con sus niños para recibir atención médica. Algunas de ellas habían caminado millas y otras esperaron de sol a sol por largas horas hasta que pudimos examinar y tratarlas medicamente a todas. Al día siguiente, experimentamos el mismo volumen de personas y las filas continuaron. Curamos a los niños de parásitos estomacales, infecciones, enfermedades respiratorias, y otro tipo de dolencias y enfermedades. También distribuimos muchas vitaminas para niños y otros suministros médicos. Nos dimos cuenta de que descomposición dental es la causa principal de muchas infecciones infantiles. Durante la última misión, nos suministraron con un tratamiento de fluoride para usarlo con los niños. Por primera vez, los niños fueron instruidos en como cepillarse los dientes.

Si, ellos son los “más pobres de los pobres.” Pero cada una de las madres ama a su hijo de la misma manera que nosotros amamos a los nuestros y siempre quiere lo mejor para ellos. Con la ayuda de Dios, nuestra misión medica continuará y seguirá creciendo. Recientemente, en septiembre del año 2019, fuimos bendecidos con voluntarios médicos adicionales y con otro doctor más, quien se comprometió a poner sus dones médicos.

Afortunadamente, a través de nuestras plegarias y diligencias, estas madres y sus hijos sabrán lo que las niñas en “Nuestras Pequeñas Rosas” saben: Que Dios no los ha abandonado. Y a pesar de que sus vidas son oscuras, a luz divina las sostendrá con amor y esperanza. Nuestro grupo de doctores y enfermeras añoran con iluminarlas con el amor de divino a través de nuestra labor.

Al pasar de los anos, nuestras perspectivas se han expandido. Ahora, no solo le agradecemos a Dios por cada uno de los niños de “Nuestras pequeñas rosas” sino que le agradecemos a Dios por cada uno de los niños que vienen a nuestras clínicas. Le agradecemos a Dios por este amor.

¡Aleluya! Le daré gracias a Dios con todo mi corazón. Gracias, Señor.

Escrito por Sherre Henley, Enfermera registrada y Esposa de un clérigo

The climate crisis is a hot topic; talking about food can become visceral. Think about combining the two and it becomes a frightening prospect. Having grown up under the auspice of not bringing up religion in polite conversation adds its own challenges. Even so, the importance of bringing up all possibilities, inviting the conversation, cannot be over emphasized.

Perhaps you’ve never considered the topic of food as visceral. If you have any food sensitivities or preferences that don’t align with social norms, you’ve experienced such reactions. Consider all the messages sent and received regarding food, family connections, rewards and celebrations — at home, with friends and at church. Many of these subliminal messages are destructive to our health, yet we become oblivious to them and our society demonizes any who question the traditions, norms or consumptions of these special treats. Food is used as a way to show love. If this offering of love is turned away because the food is unhealthy for us, have we rejected that love? How do we unlock the tightly held beliefs and constraints that keep us in such dark places? It starts with intention, faith and conviction.

Each and every person is different with different needs. Years ago, we struggled to find solutions for one of our children’s health issues. We were willing to unlock our tightly held beliefs, for health. Being open to possibilities, truly becoming lifelong learners, became an ongoing process. A vital part of this process was the ability to listen — to listen to our bodies, our faith and our environment. Kay Lindhal offered a workshop at our last Triennial in Austin, “The Sacred Art of Listening.” In this practice we were called to pause: pause and listen. It takes time for our bodies to get the message through to us, how habits, or food choices, impact our heath, just as there is cumulative response to what is happening to Creation, and to our planet. Pause and listen. Practice this sacred art, going beyond the spoken word.

A choice many are making to address the climate crisis, their health and faith is moving toward a plant-based diet. This makes a difference in our carbon footprint, as individuals and collectively. Pause and listen. There are vegan and gluten-free products that are not any healthier or better for the planet. Consider choices. Be open, take personal responsibility and research. That goes a long way toward affecting change in habits and hope for the future. Start slowly, incorporate daily meatless meals, consume less processed food, and purchase meat or animal products from humanely treated sources. With all the options offered today, consider what is regenerative, what is more than sustainable. It is about new life. This is a social and spirit-filled response to our faith, food and all of Creation.

We are in a climate crisis. Different approaches are being lifted up as solutions, all starting with the individual. Now is the time to work together in all aspects of our lives, to share our concerns, to listen, learn and grow together, to do better. Choices about what we consume, the foods we eat and the products used in daily life top the list. Just as we share out corporate prayers on Sunday mornings, collectively we are all held responsible and accountable. We are many members, yet one body, all different yet one body in Christ. What we choose to consume needs to be what works for our health and the health of the planet. Our personal choices affect the whole, today and into the future.

Written by: Evita Krislock

Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, it now includes events coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network in more than 193 countries.

OUR MISSION: Our mission? To build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and planet.

Earth Day Network’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 75,000 partners in over 190 countries to drive positive action for our planet.

Study group readings

Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the women, save the world, by Jean Shinoda Bolen
This book was written during the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill – thought to be the biggest disaster in the history of the oil industry. The message resonates even more today – because the warnings that this disaster gave us were not heeded…

A Prayerbook for Peace, by John Philip Newell

Morning and evening prayers for the peace of the whole world. Following the pattern of his popular Celtic Benediction, Philip Newell provides lyrical and theologically profound prayers for morning and evening each day of the week. These devotions celebrate the spiritual legacy shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims and articulate the longings for peace that are closer to the heart of these spiritual traditions than their divisions. Ideal for personal devotions, this book also provides a versatile liturgical resource appropriate for Christian or interfaith use. Each devotion features:

• A Beatitude
• A Prayer of Awareness
• Meditative Readings from the Psalms, the Gospel of Matthew, and the Qu’ran
• A Prayer for the Life of the World
• A Prayer of Blessing
• Rich full-color illustrations drawn from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic art

A Celtic Mass for Peace, Songs for the Earth

This recording of A Celtic Mass for Peace, Songs for the Earth with musicians and singers from both Scotland and the United States, of many diverse heritages, was made in the Vermont landscape where both words and music were written, and is a reflection and expression of the theology/spirituality of liberation and inclusiveness far beyond the confines of any single tradition. It includes a poignant prayer for the Earth:

Heaven and earth are full of your glory, O God.Your presence fills all things.
Yet what have we done?
Creation marred by neglect and abuse of life-forms torn forever out of the fabric of the universe nature ravaged, wealth wasted, earth’s community divided, nations at war, communities fractured, families broken, the human soul sick and far from home.
Great creating Spirit, hear our plea for mercy, hear our prayers for the earth.

March 19, 2019 by Michele Roberts

I was in New York City at the United Nations, representing Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of The Episcopal Church. As a third generation Episcopalian, this gives me great joy. My grandmother would be so proud, and I feel her spirit every day. Her name was Alma B. Roberts. She considered it a blessing that she found a church in Wilmington, Delaware, that provided a safe space for her children and family to worship during the height of racial segregation. She was the epitome of love. My grandmother was a virtuous woman. She was grounded in her spirituality, and along with my parents, taught me the meaning of faith and service.

I have spent a great deal of time visiting groups that address gender violence. As I listened, I thought about the women and girls I serve living on the fence line to our nation’s most egregious polluting facilities and industrial operations. These women are bombarded by chemical assaults daily. Many of these polluting facilities assault the reproductive systems of women and men. According to our Native indigenous sisters from the International Indian Treaty Council, this is chemical violence. There are many hazards to the health from exposure to toxic chemicals including:

• Early puberty, abnormal breast development
• Sterility, miscarriages, birth defects, and low birth weight babies
• Reproductive systems cancer and breast cancers
• Uterine fibroids
• Toxics in breast milk, tissues, and cord blood
• Premature ovarian failure
• Damage to fetal reproductive organs, overall development
• Premature menopause

While engaged in this experience, I couldn’t help but think about my own personal environment racism story and stories of others. Being in this space of committed, faith-filled, vibrant women, I thought about my aunt, Loreda White, grandmother, Paulyne Dickerson, and their sisters.

Opening day of the United Nations 63rd Commission on the Status of Women would have been my aunt Loreda’s 99th birthday. However, due to the strains of racism and patriarchy, she died from a very painful cancer after also living with no pension. Aunt Loreda was a domestic worker and later worked in a segregated bomb-making facility where the majority of the workers were women. All of her sisters, including my grandmother, were also domestic workers with no pensions.

My grandmother, Paulyne, died in a state-operated, separate, and unequal tuberculosis facility. My aunt, Loreda, and grandmother lived along the Route 9 industrial corridor in Wilmington, Delaware, which got started as an answer to separate and unequal housing. Thanks be to God, my aunt Loreda, was able to raise my mother along with her husband, Charles White, after the death, of my grandmother. She eventually died from urethral cancer as well at age 86.

“I live in the center of a toxic donut,” said Mrs. Hazel Johnson, a keynote speaker at a legal conference in Washington, D.C., where I was in attendance about 30 years ago. Mrs. Johnson was a wife, mother, and grandmother who struggled to raise her family in Altgeld Gardens, a public housing project on the south side of Chicago.

Her story went on to describe the years of caregiving she provided to her family and herself. Hazel’s husband suffered and eventually died from cancer; her children had asthma, a daughter miscarried, and she herself had diabetes and high blood pressure. Mrs. Johnson was not alone. Her neighbors also lived through the same experiences. In essence, their lives were compromised daily due to what Mrs. Johnson considered to be the hundreds of hazardous waste and industrial facilities that surrounded her community.

The proliferation of these facilities was the result of policies that allowed their concentration to be low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Mrs. Johnson learned about the impact toxins had on the human body, water, soil, and air and how communities like hers did not have the right “complexion for protection.”

She became a fighter for environmental justice. She became an organizer and activist grandmother who, on more than one occasion, would deny authorities by putting her body in front of a truck to stop it from unloading hazardous materials.

As I sat reflecting on these various stories, I gave thanks for the women who came before me. Women who were brave and courageous enough to create their own resistance. We must have a “do no harm” approach to creating and regulating chemicals. Too many of our sisters of color and the poor have been traumatized by chemical violence. This is indeed a reflection of man’s inhumanity to humanity.

As we call for an end to gender-based violence, I hope that the UNCSW will also see the need to include the narrative of chemical violence as well for the sake of Mother Earth and her children. Now is the time.

About the Author:

Michele Roberts (Diocese of Delaware, Province III) is a scientist, advocate and 3rd generation Episcopalian. She is one of several founding members of Delaware Concerned Residents for Environmental Justice (DCR4EJ), an environmental justice ministry at the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew (Wilmington, DE).

She is national Co-Coordinator of a National Coalition known as the Environmental Justice and health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) and Director of Outreach for Coming Clean, which DCR4EJ is an affiliate of. She has participated in several UN COP meetings on Environmental Justice issues and Climate Change. Roberts has co-authored reports on environmental justice issues. She is also the environmental justice producer for a weekly radio program the On the Ground Show: Voices of Resistance From the nation’s Capital.

Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart…great are the deeds of the Lord. His work is full of majesty and splendor, and his righteousness endures forever. He makes his marvelous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Psalm 111

Our Little Roses is a place like none other in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Our Little Roses is a place for abused, abandoned, neglected and orphaned girls that was founded by Diana Frade in 1988. It was no coincidence that Diana was visiting a similar home for boys in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1986 and began asking: “Who is doing this for the little girls of Honduras?” No one.

Through the efforts of many people, especially Diana and Bishop Leo Frade, the love of God has broken the cycle of poverty and abuse for many girls in Honduras. These girls now have a safe environment, a chance to learn, the dream of a future and a foundation in faith.

Most of the girls receive high school educations while at Our Little Roses and many even attend university and technical schools, leading to professions such as dentist, attorney, registered nurse, chef, and careers in the military.

The girls of Our Little Roses group home have a family like no other. They have sisters . . . lots of sisters . . . between sixty and eighty in any given year. They have a place to grow up and know that they are loved. They are learning ways to escape the binds of poverty through education. They have learned about God’s love and know that they will never be abandoned again.

With each visit, many of us feel a tug from God to return and do more. We hear a sound that is so captivating that we want to know its source. And then we discover what we seek. The sound is the love of God. The love of our Lord embraces each of these little girls and it embraces us as well. The good news is that we’ve been held by it, embraced by it, all along.

It makes no difference if we know Spanish or not, it makes no difference what our background or where we are from, because we all are united in God’s presence.

We are united together through our faith in a God who is trustworthy and true. This God is with us through the passages of life. The truth is that all of life is a passage. It is movement. And even though we sometimes debate whether we want change or not, the reality is that change is constant. The life of each of the girls at OLR is changed because the love we share with them is God’s love.

Indeed, God has not abandoned them. God has not forsaken them. In our darkest times, God will not abandon us. In the most confused times, God will not forsake us. God wills that good come from bad. God can be trusted to be at work salvaging good from every human experience. Divine love, self-sacrificing love is at work. It never ends.

In 2015, The Rev. Dee Ann deMontmollin, also an R.N., who had made numerous visits to OLR, was led to leave full-time parish ministry, trusting that God would continue to guide her in her next ministry. Part of that next ministry has been an expansion of her medical mission work. Following one of our trips to Our Little Roses, Rev. Dee and I were invited to return and conduct physical assessments of the girls at Our Little Roses and to give them presentations on health and the growth and development of girls and young women.

That visit led to the development of a medical mission team just for serving the children in the San Pedro Sula community itself. Dr. Martha Vasquez, a pediatrician, joined the team and gives of her service each year along with several other medical professionals. Among the children we serve are some of the children of the “people of the Levee,” which means the people of the slums of San Pedro Sula.

On our first mission, in the fall of 2016, we did not know what to expect. We felt a bit anxious and wondered if anyone would even show up at our free medical clinic for children. And then, on our very first morning, we were amazed at the long line of mothers waiting with their children needing medical help. Some of them had walked miles and others waited in the sun for hours until we could examine and treat all of them. The next day was a repeat of the first day and the lines continued. We treated the children for parasites, infections, respiratory illnesses and other sicknesses. And distributed many bottles of children’s vitamins and other medical supplies. We have become aware that tooth decay is leading to many infections of the children. During the last mission trip, we were given fluoride treatments to use with the children. For the first time ever, the children were shown how to brush their teeth.

Yes, they are the “poorest of the poor.” But each mother loves her child as we love our children and wants the best for her child. With God’s help, our medical mission will continue to grow. Recently, in September 2019, we were blessed with additional medical volunteers and a second doctor who committed to give of their gifts that God has freely given to them. This latest trip was even more successful than the first; nearly 500 children and babies were examined and treated in a five-day period.

Hopefully, through our diligence and prayer, these mothers and their children will know what the girls at Our Little Roses know: that God has not abandoned them. And even though their lives are dark, that the light of God will sustain them with love and hope. Our group of doctors and nurses hopes to shed some of the light of God through our love for them.

Over the past years, our worlds have expanded. Now, we not only thank God for each child at Our Little Roses but we also thank God for each child who comes to our clinic. We thank God for this Love.

Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. Thank you, Lord.

By Sherre Henley, R.N, and Clergy Spouse

Pray—Plan an Earth Day-themed worship service. Find a wealth of Earth Day Sunday worship resources at www.creationjustice.org/educational-resources.

Educate—Have bulletin inserts or handouts for congregation members. Most of Creation Justice Ministries’ Earth Day Sunday worship resources have bulletin insert handouts included, but you can also opt for something your congregation is currently working on. For instance, “Ten Steps to Green Your Home” or “Products to Green Your Home” – include energy-efficient light bulbs, environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, low-flow faucets and showerheads, information on energy-efficient appliances, 100% post-consumer waste recycled printer paper and more.

Invite a guest speaker to your church for after worship to talk about your Earth Day theme with a local focus.

Lead by Example—Host a special “Creation Justice Fellowship Time.” Serve organic, fair-trade coffee and treats from a local organic bakery; use re-usable plates, cups, silverware and napkins, or if that isn’t possible, recycled or biodegradable disposables; and post big, easy-to-read signs to educate people about what makes your fellowship oriented toward “Creation Justice.”

• Have a Creation Justice Church workday to set up rain barrels, install faucet aerators, do native landscaping on church grounds and replace incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.
  Examine your church’s energy use by per-forming an energy audit and present your findings on Earth Day Sunday.
• Hold a “town hall” discussion about how your church can reduce energy use.
• Plan to officially join your denomination, fellowship or communion’s ecological ministry and announce/celebrate it on Earth Day Sunday.

Serve Your Community—Plan a community service project like a cleanup in a local park, along a local body of water or near a highway.

Revel in – and Celebrate – God’s Good Creation—Organize a hike at a local trail, park or natural area. Make sure you organize carpools for transportation to and from the site. If you’re not sure where to go, check www.findyourpark.com for ideas.

Plan an Earth Day Festival—Ask local environmental groups to set up informational booths. Invite local growers/food producers and artisans to set up booths to showcase and/or sell their products. Arrange for a variety of brief informational or practical workshops where people can to go learn about Eco-Justice issues (especially your Earth Day theme) or learn how to do something (like make an effective call to an elected official, adopt sustainable office practices or start a compost pile at home).