Communique Magazine Archives - Page 17 of 21 - National Episcopal Church Women

Girls’ Friendly Society and Covid-19

by Catherine Sopko, GFSUSA Junior Delegate

The outbreak of the coronavirus worldwide has had a massive effect on the church and the Girls’ Friendly Society (GFS). Though these times have been hard and there has been a major adjustment period, with the help of Zoom and other online tools, we have been able to connect in ways never thought possible before.

The Girls’ Friendly Society World Council, which was set to be held in South Africa in July 2020, has now been moved to the summer of 2021. Holly Shafer, a GFS ambassador and member from California, said, “The coronavirus is something that is still being researched and in trial phases of how to fight it, therefore I feel confident that GFS World is doing what is in the best interest of its members and attendees by postponing World Council and rescheduling for a later date.” Though all members were looking forward to spending 10 days in such a culturally rich country this summer, we understand that it is for our best interest and safety and are looking forward to next year. Once we get there, we will be even more excited since we had to wait so long.

Our GFS USA national spring board meeting and weekend retreat, which would have been held at our GFS Holiday House in Cape May, New Jersey, was also canceled. The board meeting took place as a Zoom call instead. The meeting went well, and since Zoom is so accessible, there were even more friendly, smiling faces on the call, which was nice to see. Many GFS diocesan activities also had to be cancelled this spring – anniversary services, Creative Arts Days, Rally Days and Holiday House Camp Weeks. However, using Zoom, GFS dioceses have created new events. The GFS of the Diocese of Los Angeles used Zoom to host a series of meetings for its members – “Fly Away With GFS,” a trip away from the land of COVID-19 to the land of self-care to explore spiritual, social and professional self-care.

GFS parish branches have also begun to hold Zoom meetings with a wide range of activities – an Earth Day Celebration with learning about plants and compost, a Q & A with a parish priest, chair yoga, a magic show, and discussions about mental and emotional health. The success of our Board meeting, diocesan activities and Branch meetings really shows how capable Zoom is at bringing people together.

Lydia Kugler, a branch leader in New Jersey, remarked that “Zoom has allowed us to meet, plan and ‘see’ each other in the comfort of our own homes and even in our PJs if desired. What could be better!” Though our members may be physically apart, the internet and all of its tools has brought us even closer together.

Because of the coronavirus and the social distancing guidelines that have been put in place, diocesan activities were cancelled. In New Jersey, our Diocesan Convention was cancelled, which was quite disappointing. This event is not only a social gathering, but it is an important day to go over the policies and procedures used in our diocese. Personally, I looked forward to the convention every year. I was able to see members of the church whom I did not get to see that often, and to attend a service led by Bishop William Stokes (the best kind of service) and to stroll the convention center floor learning about and looking at all the different organizations that, when put together, make up a great diocese.

This is a strange time that we’re living through and lots of people are suffering. Besides those who are sick and/or recovering, whom we pray for every day, there are also the high school and college seniors who are missing their graduation ceremonies, as well as brides who have to reschedule their big day. There are many support systems in place, and Holly Shafer, who is a professional in the mental health field, and a marriage and family therapist, would like everyone to know that “I have been working throughout the pandemic and have seen the effects that social isolation is having on my clients and the community as a whole. I would like to remind people that what they are experiencing is real and to reach out and ask for help as needed.”

For anyone who is in need or wants additional support, your GFS sisters will always be there to help or to be a shoulder to cry on. Please reach out to others if you are struggling, and we can get through these times together.

Ms. Sopko is a member of the Diocese of New Jersey. She become involved in The Girls’ Friendly Society when she was five years old. “I found GFS as a place where I could be myself, a place where I developed friendships, I learned confidence and the meaning of the GFS motto – Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens.”

Episcopal Church Women2020-08-17T19:26:15+00:00July 21st, 2020|

Dr. Catherine Meeks by The Rev. Ema Rosero-Nordalm

Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing

Questions for a life dedicated to inspiring communities to commit to the sacred work of dismantling racism and to embark in the personal journey and in communities for racial healing, justice and reconciliation.

What is fundamental to your work dedicated to teaching, organizing and inviting diverse communities to gather committedly to understand and defeat racism in all its forms and power dynamics?

I grew up in Arkansas. This is in the South in the United States and my father was a poor, illiterate sharecropper. My mother was a schoolteacher who graduated from college in 1964, the same year that I graduated from high school. My mother had attended college all of my life. It took her 18 years to finish her degree because she had to go to school in the summer and at night because of her role as teacher and helping to work in the fields that my father had as a sharecropper.

Sharecropping was closer to slavery than any work that I can think about. The sharecropping farmers worked until the crop harvest each year, having lived the entire time on the resources provided by the owner of the land, and when it was time for the harvest, they owed all of their money to the landowner. They could never get ahead. My father never got ahead and died a very poor man because the system of sharecropping was designed to make sure that the workers didn’t get beyond living on credit and started each new year with nothing but the credit that the landowner was willing to give them.

In addition to be shaped by watching my father suffer year after year because he had such high hopes that one year would bring him economic freedom, which never happened, my life was deeply impacted also by the death of my brother. My brother took ill and after several days, when my father sought medical care for him from the local hospital, he was refused because they were black and poor. They were told to go to the charity hospital in another city, which was about seventy-five miles from our home.

It took a bit of time for my father to find someone to take them to that hospital, and by the time they arrived, my brother had gotten into a major crisis. His condition had deteriorated to the point that he was not able to respond to treatment. He died. He was 12 years old.

My father never recovered from my brother’s death. He grieved about him until his passing many years later. I was deeply affected by my father’s grief and rage, which was often turned toward us. Though as a youngster, I could barely understand what my father was experiencing, I have come to see it now and I am deeply grateful for the grace that was extended to me, which has helped me to use this experience to support my determination to help in creating a world where little 12-year-old black and brown boys do not have to die because of racism or poverty.

Along with this, I set out to be a free person. A person who would not be at the mercy of this force of evil that manifests itself in the racist structures that have been put into place in our world. It is out of my effort to respond to the call to be free and I work tirelessly to use my power in all of the ways that will help others and to help make sure that others do not use their power to abuse.

How the idea of creating the Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing came about?

The Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing grew out of the work that was being done by the Beloved Community: Commission for Dismantling Racism, which I chaired for five years. As chair of the Commission, I led the effort to reimagine the work that was being done in the Diocese of Atlanta in regards to the one-day dismantling-racism workshops and in moving the work beyond the training day into the larger arena of organizing book studies, film screenings, pilgrimages, conversations on race days and several one-day conferences on a variety of topics. The work that the Commission planned, implemented and encouraged the parishes to engage in began a process of transformation in the Diocese of Atlanta, and it began to be known throughout the Episcopal Church.

The revisioning of dismantling-racism workshops as a part of ongoing spiritual formation that supports a lifetime of working for racial healing instead of a one-day activity that ends when the workshop is finished had the most profound effect upon the way in which attitudes toward dismantling racism shifted in the Diocese of Atlanta. This shift led others from across the wider church to begin seeking us out. We had inquiries from several dioceses regarding our willingness to engage in conversation with them about their work.

This came as a surprise to us because we were simply searching for the most effective way to do our work and never imagined that the changes we were making would catch the attention of many others in the wider church. But the interest in our work and request for assistance continued to grow. Finally, we had to conclude that we had outgrown being a commission, and that led us to inquire of the presiding bishop whether or not he would have any interest in pursuing the idea of starting a center that would offer us a more organized way to share the work with the wider church. We needed to expand our resources as well in order to continue to share with so many others. Afterall, as a commission, we were all volunteers and our workloads were increasing every day.

Logo Artwork by Melise Fathi Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing

I am grateful that Bishop Michael Curry said “yes” to us. So, we moved forward with creating the Absalom Jones Episcopal Center, which is a collaboration between the Diocese of Atlanta and the presiding bishop. It is mandated to offer as much support and guidance possible to all who request it across the wider church. This is a large task, but we have been stepping up to the challenge for almost two years. The Center opened in October 2017, and we have worked with over 50 dioceses. We have served as a coach, mentor, consultant, supporter, listener, program developer, prophetic witness and collaborative visionary with many across the wider church in the United States and a few places in Latin America. This work continues to grow every day.

What are its goals?

The Center’s primary goal is to offer a brave space where the truth about race can be told. We are committed to offering support to any and everyone who wishes to engage in reimagining or expanding their current work and, in many cases, who are beginning to address the issues of racism in a systematic way for the first time. In addition to assisting others, the Center offers many opportunities for teaching and learning.

But, the primary goal of the Center is to assist parishes in becoming more fully mobilized in doing the ongoing work of racial healing in a spiritually grounded manner.

What can you share about your activities at the Absalom Center for Racial Healing that will inspire Episcopal Church Women in USA and Latin America in their desire to enter in a dialogue to dismantling racism at the personal level and in communities?

The work that I am leading at the Center is focused upon healing. Every person has to decide whether or not being well is important to her. Every activity, class, conversation, pilgrimage, worship service or meeting that we have is a part of the healing process that we have committed ourselves to working to achieve at the Center.

In a few weeks we will be hosting an International Women of Color and Wellness Conference, which will bring women from Africa, Latin America, Native Indigenous in the U.S., Latina in the U.S. and any other women of color together for a couple days to explore power and its relationship to wellness in women of color. Along with this we hosted a Justice Pilgrimage for clergy in May, which brought together a clergy person from every diocese in Province IV. which covers the entire Southeast. They will work together in their respective dioceses doing intentional racial healing work and gather again in January to share how their work has progressed over the past six months.

Also, there is a lot of other challenging work at the Center such as book studies, film screenings, conversation on race small group meetings, intergenerational oral history work, pilgrimages, memorials to the lynched and the work of remembering the children at the Southern Border and the beginning of slavery in the U.S. 400 years ago in 1619. All of these programs and opportunities to interact with people from across the Episcopal Church and the local community is inspiring to us, and while these are activities that we are hosting at the Center, hopefully women who read this piece might find themselves inspired by our courage to keep taking one step at a time to move the work of racial healing forward a bit each day. There is not anything more uplifting and inspiring than taking a stand for healing and justice and living into it each day with all of the energy that can be found. Our work energies us.

Can you share a prayer that we can use at our National ECW Board meetings?

Dear God of Light and Grace, as we gather as women to conduct the sacred business of the ECW Board that You have put before us, give us Your wisdom and grace. Teach us what it is like to be truly grounded in the power that You give to us when we turn ourselves over to You without reservation. Help us to be brave enough to tell the truth to ourselves and to others. Help us to be compassionate. Help us to hear the words from You that will fill us with wisdom, peace and courage. Help us to be faithful and filled with faith—Amen.

Books that may lead to discussion and/or action.

Living Into God’s Dream Edited by Catherine Meeks, Morehouse Publishing
Standing on Their Shoulders: A Celebration of the Wisdom of African American Women

Entrevista a la Dra. Catherine Meeks

Directora Ejecutiva del Centro Episcopal Absalón Jones a Sanación Racial

Preguntas cuyas respuestas nos describen una vida dedicada a inspirar a las comunidades a comprometerse con el trabajo sagrado de desmantelar el racismo y embarcarse en el viaje personal y de las comunidades para la sanación racial, la justicia y la reconciliación.

Es un honor para nosotras leer sobre loue es importante para usted compartir acerca de su propia historia personal, la cual considera fundamental para su trabajo dedicado a enseñar, organizar e invitar a diversas comunidades a unirse para comprender y vencer el racismo en todas sus formas y dinámicas de poder.

Crecí en Arkansas. Arkanas está al sur de los Estados Unidos. Mi padre era un aparcero analfabeto pobre. Mi madre era maestra de escuela. Ella se graduó de la universidad en 1964, el mismo año en que me gradué de la escuela secundaria. Mi madre asistió a la universidad durante muchos años de mi vida. Tardó dieciocho años en terminar su carrera universitaria porque tenía que ir a la escuela en verano y de noche debido a su trabajo de maestra y ayudar a trabajar en los campos que mi padre tenía a su cargo como aparcero. En esos años, la aparcería más que cualquier otro trabajo, era lo más cercano a la esclavitud. Los agricultores de la aparcería trabajaban hasta la cosecha de cada año. Vivían y se sostenían todo ese tiempo con los recursos proporcionados por el propietario de la tierra. Cuando llegaba el momento de la cosecha, le debían todo su dinero al propietario. Nunca podían salir adelante. Mi padre nunca pudo tener nada y murió como un hombre muy pobre. El sistema de aparcería fue diseñado para asegurarse de que los trabajadores no pudieran vivir más allá del crédito y comenzaban cada año sin nada más que el crédito que el propietario estaba dispuesto a ofrecerles.

Además de ser moldeada por el sufrimiento de mi padre quien año tras año tenía tantas esperanzas de que llegaría un año que le brindaría libertad económica, algo que nunca sucedió, mi vida también se vio profundamente afectada por la muerte de mi hermano. Mi hermano se enfermó y después de varios días, cuando mi padre fue en busca de atención médica en el hospital local, fue rechazado porque eran negros y pobres. Les dijeron que fueran al hospital de caridad a otra ciudad que estaba a unas setenta y cinco millas de nuestra casa. Tomó tiempo para que mi padre encontrara a alguien que los llevara a ese hospital y, para cuando llegaron, mi hermano se puso grave. Su condición se había deteriorado hasta el punto de que no podía responder al tratamiento. Mi hermano murió. Tenía doce años.

Mi padre nunca se recuperó de la muerte de mi hermano. Lamentó su partida hasta su muerte muchos años después. Me sentí profundamente afectada por el dolor y la rabia de mi padre, la cual y a menudo, iba dirigida hacia nosotros. Aunque de joven, apenas si podía entender lo que estaba experimentando mi padre, ahora lo entiendo claramente. Estoy profundamente agradecida por la gracia que recibí, porque me ha ayudado a utilizar esa experiencia para apoyar mi determinación de ayudar a crear un mundo en el que los niños negros y de color de doce años no tengan que morir a causa del racismo o la pobreza.

Junto con esto, me propuse ser una persona libre. Una persona que no estaría a merced de la fuerza del mal que se manifiesta en las estructuras racistas que se han establecido en nuestro mundo. Es un esfuerzo que responde al llamado a ser libre, por lo cual trabajo incansablemente para usar mi poder en todas las maneras en que ayuden a otros y para asegurar que otros no usen su poder para abusar.

Cómo surgió la idea de crear el Centro Episcopal Absalón Jones para la Sanación Racial?

l Centro Absalón Jones para la Sanación Racial surgió del trabajo que estaba realizando la Comunidad Amada: Comisión para el Desmantelamiento del Racismo, la cual presidí durante cinco años. Como Presidente de la Comisión, dirigí el esfuerzo para volver a imaginar el trabajo que se estaba realizando en la Diócesis de Atlanta en lo que respecta a los talleres de desmantelamiento del racismo que duraban un solo día y el traslado de ese trabajo más allá del día de capacitación, a un ámbito más amplio de la organización y que incluyera estudio de libros, películas, proyecciones, peregrinaciones, conversaciones en días de la raza y varias conferencias de un día sobre diversos temas. El trabajo que la Comisión planificó implementó y alentó a las iglesias a participar, y comenzó así un proceso de transformación en la Diócesis de Atlanta, que como resultado hizo que la Diócesis de Atlanta se diera a conocer en toda la Iglesia Episcopal.

La revisión de los talleres de desmantelamiento del racismo como parte de la continua formación espiritual que respalda una vida de trabajo para la sanación racial en lugar de una actividad de un día que termina cuando finaliza el taller, tuvo el efecto más profundo en la forma en que las actitudes hacia el desmantelamiento del racismo han cambiado en la Diócesis de Atlanta. Este cambio llevó a que comenzaran a buscarnos líderes de toda la Iglesia. Recibimos consultas de varias diócesis sobre nuestra disposición a conversar con ellos sobre su trabajo.

Esto nos sorprendió porque simplemente estábamos buscando la forma más eficaz de hacer nuestro trabajo y nunca imaginamos que los cambios que estábamos haciendo llamarían la atención 2de muchos otros líderes en la Iglesia en general. El interés en nuestro trabajo y solicitud de asistencia siguió creciendo. Finalmente, tuvimos que llegar a la conclusión de que habíamos superado el hecho de ser una comisión y eso nos llevó a preguntarle al Obispo Presidente si tendría o no interés en la idea de comenzar un centro que nos ofreciera una forma más organizada de compartir la información. Para trabajar con la Iglesia en general, también necesitábamos ampliar nuestros recursos para continuar compartiendo con tantos otros. Después de todo, como comisión, todos éramos voluntarios y nuestra carga de trabajo aumentaba cada día.

Estoy muy agradecida porque el obispo Michael Curry nos dijo “sí” a nosotros. Así que avanzamos con la creación del Centro Episcopal Absalón Jones, una colaboración entre la Diócesis de Atlanta y el Obispo Presidente. El Centro tiene el mandato de ofrecer todo el apoyo y la orientación posibles a todos los que lo soliciten en toda la Iglesia. Esta es una gran tarea. Hemos estado asumiendo este reto durante casi dos años.

El Centro abrió sus puertas en octubre de 2017 y hemos trabajado con más de cincuenta diócesis; hemos servido como entrenadores, mentores, consultores, partidarios, oyentes, desarrolladores de programas, testigos proféticos y visionarios colaborativos para toda la Iglesia en los Estados Unidos y en algunos lugares América Latina. Este trabajo cada día crece más.

¿Cuáles son sus objetivos?

El objetivo principal del Centro es ofrecer un espacio lleno de valentía donde se pueda decir la verdad sobre la raza. Estamos comprometidos a ofrecer apoyo a cualquier persona que desee participar en “reimaginar” o en expandir su trabajo actual y también a quienes están comenzando a abordar los problemas del racismo de manera sistemática por primera vez. Además de ayudar a otros, el Centro ofrece muchas oportunidades para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Sin embargo, el objetivo principal del Centro es ayudar a las parroquias a movilizarse más en su totalidad para realizar el trabajo continuo y constante de sanación racial con una base espiritual.

¿Qué puede compartir sobre sus actividades en el Centro Absalón para la Curación Racial que inspirará a las mujeres de la Iglesia Episcopal en Estados Unidos y América Latina en su deseo de participar en un diálogo para desmantelar el racismo a nivel personal y en las comunidades?

El trabajo que estoy liderando en el Centro se centra en la sanación. Cada persona tiene que decidir si estar bien o no es importante para ella. Cada actividad, clase, conversación, peregrinación, servicio de adoración o reunión que tenemos es parte del proceso de sanación al que nos hemos comprometido a trabajar para lograrlo en el Centro.

En unas pocas semanas organizaremos una Conferencia Internacional de Mujeres de Color y su Bienestar, la cual reunirá a mujeres de África, América Latina, indígenas nativas de los Estados Unidos, latinas de los Estados Unidos y otras mujeres de color para estando juntas un par de días exploremos el poder y su relación con el bienestar de las mujeres de color.

Junto con esto, en mayo pasado organizamos una Peregrinación de Justicia para clérigos la cual reunió a una persona del clero de cada diócesis de la IV Provincia que cubre todo el sureste de los EE. UU. Cada uno de ellos trabajará en sus respectivas diócesis haciendo un trabajo de sanación racial intencional y se reunirán nuevamente en enero para compartir cómo su trabajo ha progresado durante los últimos seis meses.

Además, hay muchos otros trabajos desafiantes en el Centro, como estudios de libros, películas. proyecciones, conversaciones sobre la raza en grupos pequeños, reuniones intergeneracionales para trabajar la historia oral, peregrinaciones, memoriales a los linchados, el trabajo de recordar a los niños en la frontera sur y el comienzo de la esclavitud en los Estados Unidos hace cuatrocientos años en 1619.

Todos estos programas y oportunidades para interactuar con personas de toda la Iglesia Episcopal y la comunidad local son inspiradores para nosotros y, si bien estas son actividades que estamos organizando en el Centro, esperamos que las mujeres que lean este artículo se sientan inspiradas por nuestro valor para seguir dando un paso a la vez para hacer avanzar el trabajo de sanación racial cada día un poco más. No hay nada más gratificante e intrépido que tomar una posición por la sanación y la justicia y vivir cada día con toda la energía que se pueda encontrar. Nuestro trabajo nos energiza.

¿Puede compartir una oración que podamos usar en nuestras reuniones de la Junta Nacional de ECW?

Dios de Luz y de Gracia, Mientras nos reunimos como mujeres para dirigir los asuntos sagrados de la Junta de ECW que nos han presentado, danos tu sabiduría y tu gracia. Enséñanos cómo es el estar verdaderamente enraizadas en el poder que nos das cuando nos entregamos a ti sin reservas. Ayúdanos a ser lo suficientemente valientes para decirnos la verdad a nosotras mismos y a los demás. Ayúdanos a ser compasivos. Ayúdanos a escuchar las palabras tuyas que nos llenarán de sabiduría, de paz y de valor. Ayúdanos a ser fieles y llenos de fe. – Amén.

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-16T19:07:47+00:00April 16th, 2020|

Path to Citizenship

The Rev. Anna B Lange Soto The Reverend Anna B. Lange-Soto

I serve as the vicar of El Buen Pastor in Redwood City, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Francisco, both congregations in the Diocese of California. I thank God for the opportunity to walk with parishioners and families in their daily life and spiritual journey. We try to form a community that accompanies its participants, and the community in general, in its battles, triumphs and failures. As a Church, we try to share the source and nourishment of our life, Jesus.

We see the Church as the source and nourishment of our lives, which gives us the strength and courage to use each day to support our sisters and brothers, and in the faith and all around us. We see Baptism and Communion as manifestations of the abundant life that Jesus offers us, and that is what we try to learn and to live.

The parishioners of the Church are mostly immigrants, just like a large part of the community. Therefore, immigration is often a major concern, especially for those in the U.S. without authorization. Our social ministry focuses on the problems and barriers that arise.

The immigration system contains quite a bit of discretion at all levels. Previously, we sought mercy and humane decisions in their use of discretion. In today’s reality, we find ourselves confronted by a cruel capriciousness, which causes a great deal of suffering. Having the risk of being picked up and detained at any moment, which may also happen to your relatives or acquaintances, is to live in anxiety.

The most important questions to answer are: Why worry about immigration issues? What can be done in these times so full of division and rejection?

Why? Jesus told us clearly: Love your neighbor as yourself. But for Jesus, it was not enough. At the last supper, he doubled down and gave a stronger command: Love your neighbor as I love you. Really?!

In Mt 25, he tells us that what we do for the little ones – that is, the most marginalized and those who live in the greatest danger – we do for him.
Wow! In the Old Testament, the most frequent commandments are for us to love God and love our neighbor, act with loving kindness, and care for the foreigner, the widow and the orphan – again, marginalized people, the unappreciated, those with no one to be concerned about them. With the Word of God so clear, how can we ignore this situation in which people are abused and persecuted by the immigration system?

We have tried to remain faithful to the Lord’s call. When we hit the wall, we look for a way to dig underneath it.

With the continuing quagmire in immigration policy at the national level, my focus has become local – city, county, region and state. Maintaining campaigns and promising projects, we can live in a more humane environment.

The most important blessing has been collaboration with other groups and communities of faith. In collaboration, we have managed to recognize needs faster and to make a greater impact. We continue local campaigns and projects: to accompany immigrants to their court, form rapid response teams (to witness raids or arrests), offer sanctuary to people with orders of deportation, advocate for detainees and more.

The collaboration has been Episcopal, ecclesial, inter-faith and statewide. At the national level, it has been mostly to advocate for relief, e.g. in the separation of families on the border. Also, we try to maintain DACA and the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform on a front burner. And we continue to dedicate ourselves to local and regional work with our partners, some of whom are:

Episcopal Public Policy Network of California (EPPN of CA): grouping of the six dioceses in California, under the umbrella of the Office of Government Relations of the Episcopal Church.

Image courtesy of Reason Magazine – Reason.com

The Rev. Anna B. Lange-Soto

Missioner, Diocese of California Episcopal Churches of El Buen Pastor Redwood City NS de Guadalupe – San Francisco 650-245-7759 – ABLange@aol.com

Facebook:
El Buen Pastor RWC or NS de Guadalupe SF
Immigration Issues:
Facebook Group:
PathToCitizenship

Entrevista a la Reverenda Anna B. Lange-Soto Soy la Vicaria a cargo de El Buen Pastor en Redwood City, y de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en San Francisco, ambas congregaciones en California.

Mi gran alegría es caminar junto a mis feligreses y familias de las congregaciones en su vida y jornada espiritual. Me refiero a caminar junto a ellos en sus vidas cotidianas, sus batallas, triunfos y fracasos a la luz del Evangelio. Me parece que el Bautismo y la Comunión son manifestaciones de la vida plena que Jesús nos ofrece, y eso es lo que tratamos de aprender y de vivir.

Vemos a la Iglesia como nuestra comunidad y también como la fuente y por medio de Cristo el alimento que nos da la fuerza y valentía para apoyar a los demás. Ese apoyo lo compartimos con nuestros hermanos y nuestras hermanas en la fe y con las personas que nos rodean.

Mi ministerio de justicia social se ha enfocado principalmente en el área de la inmigración o cualquier tipo de visa. Bastantes feligreses sufren bajo el sistema, especialmente en estos tiempos que se ha deformado. De hecho, el sistema se ha quebrantado y empeora para toda persona que lo enfrenta – sea indocumentada, inmigrando, inmigrante, ciudadano o ciudadana – lo que sea.

Las pregunta más difíciles de contestar son: ¿Qué se puede hacer en estos tiempos tan llenos de división y rechazo? ¿Por qué preocuparnos por asuntos migratorios?

Las respuestas las encontramos en las palabras de Jesús quien nos lo dijo claramente: Ama a tu prójimo como a ti mismo. En la última cena, dio un mandamiento hasta más fuerte: Ama a tu prójimo como yo te amo a ti. ¡¿De verdad?! En Mt 25, nos dice que lo que hacemos para los más pequeños lo hacemos para él. ¡Wow! En el antiguo testamento, los mandamientos más frecuentes nos mandan amar a Dios y amar al prójimo, actuar con bondad amorosa, y cuidar al extranjero, a la viuda y al huérfano – a las personas marginadas, venidas a menos y consideradas inferiores. Con la Palabra de Dios tan clara, cómo podemos ignorar la situación en que se encuentran las personas maltratadas y perseguidas por el sistema migratorio.

Mi enfoque se ha vuelto local – ciudad, condado, región, y estado. Manteniendo luchas y proyectos fuertes, hemos logrado un ambiente algo más humano.

Nosotros trabajamos en colaboración con EPPN en California, con la Migration & Immigration Task Force (MITF) de la diósesis de California, Grupos interreligiosos (bilingües), con el Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI), con Faith and Action Bay Area, con Peninsula Solidarity Cohort (de clero, pastores, monjes, otr@s líderes), con San Mateo County Coalition for Immigrant Rights (SMCCIR– grupo principalmente de abogados y con otros grupos según las necesidades.

La decisión de enfocarnos en lo local empezó después del ataque a las torres gemelas en Nueva York. ¡Llegamos tan cerca de una reforma integral! Pero con tiempo pudimos ver que la situación se había endurecido. Hubo áreas en que pudimos trabajar al nivel nacional, e.g. DACA, pero esas oportunidades no han sido permanentes. Al mismo tiempo, nuestra gente estaba sufriendo por castigos e indignidades por residir en los Estados Unidos sin autorización.

Para mí, empezó en el año 2000, en Redwood City. El alguacil del condado, al encontrar a alguien sin licencia, llamaba a una grúa inmediatamente. Que les quitaran el carro era un grave problema, una ruptura inmensa para la familia. Los que no podían pagar, se hacían a deudas imposibles de pagar. Ir al trabajo o al mercado, llevar los niños y las niñas a la escuela, participar en la iglesia – todo se hacía más difícil. Por lo regular, perdían el auto más el dinero que se había invertido.

Los miembros de Fe en Acción – mayormente comunidades de fe – se reunieron para convencer al alguacil de darle tiempo a personas sin licencia de manejar para que consiguieran a alguien con licencia de conducir que podía recoger el auto. Este fue el primer gran logro, la primera victoria.

The Rev. Anna B. Lange-Soto Missioner, Diocese of California Episcopal Churches of El Buen Pastor, Redwood City
NS de Guadalupe – San Francisco 650-245-7759 – ABLange@aol.com

FACEBOOK:
El Buen Pastor RWC NS de Guadalupe SF

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-17T16:19:41+00:00April 16th, 2020|

Gateway of Grace

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:11-13)

Crossing the Rio Grande is one of the scariest things I have ever done. It happened about 20 years ago, a day after learning that the Iranian embassy in Mexico discovered we were in Mexico City. We rose early the next morning and set out to cross the border to apply for asylum in the U.S. In desperation, we found two Mexican men who said they could get us across the border. They told us that we could only carry a backpack and water.

When we arrived at the river, I was nearly paralyzed by fear of the high and swift-moving water. I don’t swim, and just looking at the river made me dizzy. But, turning back was not an option. One of the Mexican men carried my younger son on his shoulder and was moving through the river very fast. My then-husband had my older son while at the same time trying to hold onto me. The dizziness increased and I became even more unstable. As the man carrying my younger son got farther and farther away, my parental fears turned into panic. I was terrified that we would get separated from him or worse – lose him to the river. I started screaming at my husband to just let me go and catch up with the man carrying my younger son. As a parent, I was willing to drown so that my sons could make it safely across.

When we finally made it across the river, our guides left us in the middle of the desert. They told us that we were in the U.S. We walked for hours and hours. We were exhausted, starving and running out of water. Eventually, we saw in the distance the bridge into the U.S. and a few buildings. We walked into the immigration post, told them our story and asked for asylum. They were convinced we were Mexicans and wanted to send us back. As I listened to that rejection, I was filled with fear. My mouth was dry and my heart was pounding. I did something I had never done before – I begged.

I did not beg for myself, but as a mother. The only thing that truly mattered, as I faced the border officers, was the well-being of my children. A part of me recognized that a once middle-class, college-educated Iranian woman is now a dirty, dusty mother who is only concerned about getting her children to safety.

The experience of becoming a refugee, then asylum seeker strips you of your pride and dignity. It reduces you to survival instincts, and often to feeling that you are nothing. There are wounds so deep that even today I choose not to discuss them. But, God is merciful! In God’s indescribable way, God uses those wounds for Kingdom purposes – if we will allow him. Common belief is that life’s wounds heal. But, that is not always true. And, some wounds are better left unhealed lest we forget and harden our hearts to the suffering of others. Lest we forget that we are mere humans and in the blink of an eye, our lives can turn upside down and be in need of mercy, as mine did.

I was born and raised in Iran as a Muslim. My Christian journey started at the age of 6 when I had a vision of the Virgin Mary. God planted a seed of love in my heart, and God continued to grow the seed in the form of a deep love for the Church; however, as a young Muslim girl growing up in an Islamic theocratic country, I knew little about the Church, and even less about Jesus. I married a Sunni Muslim when I was very young. My husband was persecuted as part of the discrimination against religious minorities in Iran. We escaped Iran 18 years ago with no resources or documentation. God miraculously brought us to Mexico, and eventually to the United States. On the first day of our arrival in Dallas, God connected us with a Baptist church through the ministry of an unlikely person who invited us to church. I was baptized there six months after our first visit. The ministry of that church, to a Middle Eastern family that looked nothing like them, was absolutely incredible.

With the help and support of the church, we started building a new life of faith. With the guidance of the pastor, I was admitted into seminary, all without transcripts or record of my prior education. Next, God moved me to the Episcopal Church even though, at the time, I did not understand why. My Baptist church, however, remained my loving family. I was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church, and toward the end of my curacy, I started praying about what the next stage of ministry would look like for me. The answer came quickly, even though I did not feel ready for what seemed like an immense task with few resources. I left parish ministry and started a church mobilization ministry, called Gateway of Grace, which has become the largest refugee ministry in Dallas.

It presently has fifty partner churches and organizations, spanning various denominations, and is continuing to grow. As my husband and I were praying for a name to give this new ministry, I remembered what my Baptist church had done for us and how its ministry had changed my life.

The church’s seemingly unending flow of grace toward us stood out to me, and I was reminded of the truth that the main difference between Christianity and other religions was God’s grace made manifest in the world through God’s people. I knew the Church, as the instrument of God in the world, was the gateway of God’s grace. I chose the name Gateway of Grace because it reflected the nature of the Christian ministry my family and I experienced from the Baptist church. I cannot imagine what turns the course of my life would have taken without that church. Perhaps God would have used another church to reach out to me. Regardless, the faithfulness of that Baptist church, the Christian community and the Body of Christ transformed our lives. I am forever grateful to God!

I see the tribulations, losses and pains that my family and I experienced, and in contrast, I also recognize the way that God used my Baptist church to prepare me for the ministry of church mobilization. Since childhood, God had given me a heart of deep and unconditional love for the Church, and through my experience as a refugee, God also gave me a heart of compassion for refugees. Since starting Gateway of Grace in 2010, as a church mobilization ministry, I have learned a substantial amount about the obstacles that women face in ministry, about parachurch ministries and about ministry to refugees and immigrants.

At Gateway of Grace, we emphasize that we belong to the human family. What hurts people across the world pains us. From the same dust, we are all created, and from the same breath, we all are given the breath of life. Christ’s death was for everyone in the human family, and God’s desire for all is healing, restoration and eternal life.

We celebrate the courage and resilience of our refugee families who are striving, even toiling to make a new home in a new land. Try to comprehend what it is like to leave behind, with a few hours’ notice, everything you have, to journey at someone else’s direction, to eat only when someone feels compassion for you, all the while not knowing if there is a future and a hope.

We provide a loving community to those fortunate enough to arrive in a new country yet are not welcomed. Nevertheless, their determination to survive and provide for their families is proven by their willingness to take the most menial jobs and thrive at them.

We pray for the 70.8 million displaced people who are forced to abandon their home because of war, persecution, famine and evil governments. For some, there was no time to sell their homes or cars or businesses. For most, this was not a problem because all their possessions had been destroyed or taken. Regardless, they took only what they could carry on their backs. The value of their college degrees and their respected reputations have been reduced to memories that often feel like a dream.

We remember those who are imprisoned, persecuted, relegated to unsafe refugee camps and languish in lands where there is no hope of escape. We grieve for persecuted Christians and other persecuted religious minorities, political prisoners, abused women and victims of human trafficking. Their physical scars often pale in comparison to the severe trauma that will be with them for the rest of their days.

We acknowledge that we too were at one time spiritual refugees, roaming through life apart from God and controlled by governance of the evil one. Yet, in God’s amazing grace, God poured out his mercies on us, rescuing us from the wastelands of life, bringing us into his family, giving us a home, a future and a hope. In filling us with the Spirit, God simultaneously called us into the serving; to strive for justice and peace for the least, the lost and those hoping for a new life.

We are intentional about discerning opportunities to be a part of God’s Kingdom work in bringing hope, peace and dignity to the marginalized of the world.

We respond by meeting the practical, emotional and spiritual needs of our refugee families no matter what they might be. Gateway of Grace partners with over 100 churches across denominations nationwide to serve refugees and has served thousands of refugees. One of the hallmarks of Gateway of Grace is our holiday celebrations with our refugee families. When my family and I came to the U.S., holidays were so difficult and lonely. When I started Gateway of Grace, I wanted to make sure refugee families had holiday parties to attend. Our Thanksgiving Dinner with Refugees on Thanksgiving Day draws about 400 people. This is a very nice event where we serve our refugee families in a beautiful setting, decorated tables, music band, beautiful food and lots of fellowship, laughter and friendship.

At our Christmas party, over 300 refugees experience the joy of the season and all children receive Christmas gifts. Santa Claus shows up and everybody sings fun carols, something my children did not experience during our first few years in the United States. At our Easter Egg Hunt and Family Day, over 600 refugees and Americans spend the day eating, building friendship, playing bingo and doing other activities, and children enjoy a great and fun egg hunt. Our refugee families know that they are loved and they don’t have to believe what we believe in order to be a part of the community and participate.

Gateway of Grace has a school that provides English as a Second Language classes, citizenship classes and other programs. We have about 150 adults and children attending, gaining language skills and growing in confidence.

Through years of experience and close relationships with our families, Gateway of Grace has come to know the deeper needs of refugee families, particularly refugee women. Our newest ministry is called Family Enrichment Ministries.

What is Family Enrichment Ministries?

FEM is a new initiative of Gateway of Grace Ministries that provides healing, restoration and a practical pathway forward for refugee families to flourish. While the ministry serves the entire family, there is a specific emphasis on encouraging and empowering refugee women and young mothers who are often ill-equipped to successfully adjust to the vast opportunities and rights within American society. FEM also comes alongside refugee men through building relationships and mentoring to help them find their new identity, strengthen their marriages and successfully lead their families.

What are the needs of refugee families?

Depending on their region of the world, refugee families arrive in America having experienced everything from war trauma, illegal imprisonment, political and religious persecution, torture, abandonment, and loss of all their earthly possessions. The emotional and psychological wounds are deep and varied. The immediate need to learn how to survive in our competitive and capitalistic society is overwhelming and frequently is a source for depression. The pressures can lead to marital discord and challenges with parenting in a vastly different culture. Refugee families do not have the support system of extended families or a church community. Lack of the English language further isolates the family, especially the mother since she often had little opportunity for education while in her country of origin. The few programs in the North Texas area that exist to support refugees are not designed to address the deep struggles refugee families face in ways that are culturally sensitive and holistic. Meanwhile, thousands of refugee families strive daily to survive while many of them fail in various ways. Like every family, refugee families need a support system and community to share their journey. Unlike the average family, they need support to unravel months and, in many cases, years of horrific conditions in their country of origin and refugee camps in order to flourish in their new, permanent home.

What are Family Enrichment Ministries’ solutions?

FEM is the response to years of experience and working with refugee families, listening to hundreds of stories of struggles and serving thousands of refugees through Gateway of Grace Ministries. The ministry’s founder and executive director, Dr. Samira Izadi Page, knows firsthand many of the struggles since she too was a refugee from Iran more than twenty years ago as well as a Muslim background believer. Samira understands the fear and trauma of being a refugee. She also understands what refugee women face as well as the challenges of learning a new culture. Many years ago, Samira dedicated her life’s work to bringing awareness to the needs among refugees and serving their communities. Part of her effort is the successful mobilization of about one hundred churches that faithfully serve alongside Gateway of Grace in a variety of ways. Samira’s theological education, background, personal experience and commitment to serving refugee families combine to become the driving force for Family Enrichment Ministries. The core areas of ministry are:

Leadership Development Initiative

LDI is a track within GOG’s ESL program, with an emphasis on women, in which students who demonstrate either leadership qualities or a desire to learn to become a leader are selected, then encouraged, mentored and challenged to develop as leaders. Guest speakers from a variety of high-profile sectors within the community share core leadership principles that are designed to be discussed, studied and implemented immediately. Students are tasked to develop a service-learning project in which many of the leadership principles shared throughout the term are applied in real-life situations.

Pastoral Care and Counseling

As staff and volunteers develop deeper relationships with refugee families, a wide range of counseling and pastoral care needs are discovered. From doctor and ER visits and hospital stays to loss of a loved one back in their home country to loneliness and depression, the ministry is there to provide care and comfort as well as a safe place. Domestic violence is a harsh reality many women and children face. Serving abused refugee women who have no support system, do not speak English, do not know about resources available to them or their rights has become a growing area of ministry. Providing pastoral care to them in their own language by someone who knows their culture is a huge first step in bringing them into a loving community and healing.

Marriage Enrichment

A healthy marriage is hard work. It can be the hardest work ever when a couple is trying to cope with the dramatic life changes of being refugees in a new country with a completely different culture. Refugee couples need to adopt to a new way of seeing marriage and one another. The ministry provides teachings, instructions and question/answer sessions to address head on the problems common to all marriages, those unique to refugee families and the unique circumstances surrounding the family. Sermons and audio teachings are also made available for Christian refugees.

Refugee Men Support

Developing relationships with refugee men is one of the most important among all relationships with the ministry. Refugee men prove to be at the center of what does and does not happen in the family. Unfortunately, they can be some of the most challenging to reach because of work commitments. The ministry has created two platforms for reaching them. First, there is a men’s fellowship within Grace Community, our Christian worshipping community. This is a Bible-based fellowship that encourages men to prioritize the Biblical perspective on leadership and developing accountable relationships with other Christian men, especially those who share similar journeys as refugees. The other men’s group is an outreach to Muslim refugee men, mainly husbands of our female students who, because of work and other commitments, do not often have access to healthy communities to foster the kind of leadership that will lead to successful living in America.

We are humbled and grateful that the Lord allows us to be a part of building a future for our refugee families. I am reminded every day of the amazing privilege of serving refugees. I also know that I cannot do it alone.

I need your help and support. If you would like to learn more about the significance of reaching refugees, you can take a look at my book, Who Is My Neighbor?
To learn more about the ministry, to partner with us or to financially support the ministry, please visit our website at gatewayofgrace.org, friend me on Facebook or follow our Facebook page. I would love to connect with your church and share what God is doing among refugees. — The Rev. Samira Izadi

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-17T16:16:21+00:00April 16th, 2020|

Two stories from our Education Equals Hope students in Ecuador

From the Episcopal Church Buen Pastor:

A family from the church was home when their home was broken into by armed robbers. The parents were able to hide their children and no harm came to them. However, the parents were badly injured and the father is now paralyzed. He lost his job and only through Education = Hope have they been able to keep their kids in school. In their own words the help and hope that they receive from our community, E=H, this has given them a reason to live and move forward.

From the Episcopal Church of Emaus:

Carla has grown up in the Episcopal Church, serving as an acolyte as well as fulfilling her current responsibilities for running all the sound and audio-visuals for the service (they do not have prayer books, thus the service is projected on the wall). She is a senior and hoping to graduate with the highest grades possible to win a scholarship to continue to study in the public university or the police academy. Like most of the families in her area, she has very few resources including no access to a computer, so she studies at the church, using the church’s computer and printer.
Carla is one of the main young leaders in the youth group and is always eager to participate. E=H funds provide for Carla’s school supplies and books, helping to give her a hope and a future.

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-16T16:01:15+00:00April 16th, 2020|

Education=Hope Where will God take you?

By Cameron Graham Vivanco

Not many women on the mission field have made their social debut. I bring this up only to say that you never know where God is going to take you or what is going to become of your life when you hand it back over to God. You may think that you are headed in a particular direction, but then, well, it changes!
Handing life over to God for me has meant that a native North Carolinian has lived in South America for 18 years, and that my children do not eat grits (insert a heavy sigh). It has meant that I have been witness to the whole spectrum, from appreciated privilege to the beauty and pain of those living in extreme poverty. As a cradle Episcopalian, it has meant that I have seen the richness of our tradition in two languages on three continents, and have seen God moving in all sorts of churches and denominations with or without prayer books. It has been a wonderful and challenging ride!

I grew up in the Diocese of NC (a quick hello to the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill), and then served in the Diocese of Upper SC (here’s looking at you, Church of the Advent in Spartanburg) as a youth minister for five years. It was there that God started calling me into full-time mission work, or to become a missionary. I did not like that word growing up, nor did I understand it. It is another example of God’s humor as this is the work to which He has called me.
I came to Latin America in 2002 for what I thought was going to be a two-year stint, and here I am today. As I started work on the mission field, I came across children and teenagers alike who were not in school due to the lack of money. I became friends with students who were on the streets because they couldn’t afford a school uniform or the school supply list. My roommate at the time here in Ecuador and I decided to support one young girl we knew who wasn’t in school; her name is Laura. She was 15 years old but in third grade. Her mom, a mother of nine children, did not have the $22 a month that Laura needed to enroll in school. So by pledging $11 each, we willingly and happily got her back in school.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the decision to help Laura get back into school was the start of a 501c3 called Education = Hope (E=H). E=H is a micro-scholarship/micro-sponsorship program that exists to provide for the education of those living in desperate and difficult situations. Those situations include things like poverty, young women coming out of prostitution, human trafficking and young men who formerly lived on the streets, as well as job loss, orphaned students and situations of the like. When most people hear “scholarship” they think of hundreds or thousands of dollars a semester. Our average award is $19/month! That is all it takes to help keep a student in school in Ecuador.

Today E=H has grown and helps to educate 2,300 students in five countries: Ecuador, Haiti, Costa Rica, Kenya and Rwanda. God used that small investment of $22 a month in 2003 to change my life, Laura’s life and now thousands of young people’s lives.

One of the things I have learned over the years since starting E=H is the value of prevention. While we do support the education of those who have lived through traumas, for example the young women coming out of prostitution and young men coming off the streets, the majority of our effort is focused through local churches on the prevention of those traumas happening in the first place. I have learned that the key to that prevention is through helping facilitate an education. By keeping a student in school with E=H, it keeps him or her nestled in the support system of a church and in the support system of a school.
Through God’s grace, we are able to help protect students who are vulnerable to gangs, drug addiction, violence and human trafficking, because someone is tracking with them. Someone in their church knows them as a person and knows their reality. And we are also a part of giving them a bright future because they understand themselves and the world better. All through the simple blessing of education!

I, we, have been at this for 17 years now and have seen students from homes with no running water graduate as valedictorians of their class. We have seen students turn from being the most disruptive students in school to the example of best behavior. We have seen students whose future seemed to be locked into the cycle of poverty break that cycle for themselves and their families. And all thanks to a tiny amount of money, and the value and love that is imparted with it.
We would love to share more about Education=Hope with you.

Would you consider supporting a student, or inviting your ECW chapter to support one?

To learn more about this work that God has called us to, please visit educationequalshope.org, or call 704.309.5597 to talk to our one and only Stateside employee staff member, Celeste Bundy, for more information. You can also come visit Ecuador and see what we do firsthand; we host vision teams that come and meet the students whose lives are being transformed through education. We even have a program that connects schools in the U.S. to schools and students around the world called One School. One Hope. oneschoolonehope.org

Help us spread the word and pour into students’ lives. You never know where God will take them or the impact they will have on our world!
Cameron Graham Vivanco is the cofounder of Education Equals Hope (E=H), a micro-scholarship program that exists to provide for the education of those in desperate and difficult situations (educationequalshope.org).

She has been in full-time lay ministry since 1995, focusing on the voids that come with poverty, especially in the areas of education and leadership development. E=H started in Quito, Ecuador, where Cameron and her husband and three children serve as SAMS missionaries. She is a graduate of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, and holds a certificate in youth ministry from the Institute for Professional Youth Ministry. Cameron’s passion for her work comes from a desire to live out her faith so that students know that Jesus makes life better and makes us better at life.

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-17T16:11:48+00:00April 16th, 2020|

El Amor de Dios

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

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-02T16:40:06+00:00April 2nd, 2020|

Food, Glorious Food

Grapes 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

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-02T16:40:16+00:00April 2nd, 2020|

Earth Day April 22 – 2020

Earth Day Hands World Map 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.

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-02T16:40:25+00:00April 2nd, 2020|

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.

Episcopal Church Women2020-04-02T16:40:36+00:00April 2nd, 2020|

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