As House adjourns, bishops reflect on ‘inspiring’ gathering in the Dominican Republic

[Episcopal News Service — Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic] After visiting several mission sites in the Santo Domingo-based Diocese of the Dominican Republic, engaging in conversations on The Episcopal Church’s role in today’s society and worshiping alongside some 800 Dominican Episcopalians, Episcopal bishops and their spouses are leaving their fall gathering with a “sense of what the expressions of the local church are.”

“We have a lot to learn from dioceses that are part of The Episcopal Church but are outside the context of the United States,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told Episcopal News Service in a Sept. 14 interview. “I think there’s a lot for us to learn from the Dominican Republic, which has a tremendous ministry of schools and churches and hospitals. This is instructive for us. I think it’s been a surprise to people the level to which the church is relevant to the culture of the Dominican Republic.”

This Sept. 10-15 meeting was one of two biannual in-person House of Bishops gatherings. The fall meetings typically occur during non-General Convention years and, as was the case this year, usually include bishops’ spouses

This gathering of 82 bishops and 38 spouses was notably the first time the House of Bishops had gathered in the Province IX diocese, which has about 5,000 members and 67 missions.

Alaska Bishop Mark Lattime told ENS that he always looks forward to the House of Bishops gatherings, and meeting in the Dominican Republic this time provided “another context for the church that many of us have never experienced.”

“When I think about the [Sept. 13] worship service, I didn’t expect to see so much joy for one service,” Lattime said. “The joy that everybody experienced – the music, and the dancing during worship is ubiquitous here. Everybody here’s doing it all the time, and that’s great joy that I really appreciated.”

Some bishops and spouses further experienced Dominican culture and history with a Sept. 13 tour of Santo Domingo, the country’s capital, led by Christy Wallace and Miquea Saintivil, executive director and director of field operations of the Dominican Development Group. The Evans, Georgia-based nonprofit supports the Diocese of the Dominican Republic’s ministries through project planning, fundraising and other development initiatives.

While in Santo Domingo, the bishops and spouses visited the Colonial City, the first permanent European settlement in the Americas that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While in the Colonial City, they toured the Fortaleza Ozama, the oldest colonial fortress in the Americas overlooking the Ozama River, and the Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor, the archiepiscopal see of the Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo and the oldest cathedral in the Americas. Both structures were built in the early 16th century.

Rochester Bishop Kara Wagner Sherer and her husband, John W. W. Sherer, were part of the Santo Domingo tour. Wagner Sherer told ENS that the tour and other times they left the Coral Costa Caribe Beach Resort to explore the Dominican Republic, where most House of Bishops meetings took place, were “invaluable.”

“The worship service and the cultural tour with the Dominican Development Group gave us a taste of the history and the culture and present-day issues,” she said.

The poverty rate in the Dominican Republic, with a population of about 11 million people, is at 22.8%, according to the World Food Programme. Food insecurity affects about 14% of the population. The Dominican Republic, located east of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, also is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with frequent threats of floods, droughts and other natural disasters.

On the first day of the gathering, Rowe gave a report updating bishops on structural changes in The Episcopal Church and the challenges many church leaders say they are facing today, including the polarized political environment; humanitarian crises and conflicts worldwide; the church’s decline in membership, and the troubles facing the U.S. economy and fewer congregational pledges; and difficulty in managing canonical processes, maintaining generative relationships and handling conflict.

Rowe told the bishops, “Our objective is always to ensure that The Episcopal Church can make a strong, sound and effective witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by supporting ministry on the ground.”

In his sermon during the Sept. 13 worship service with local clergy and lay Episcopalians, Rowe said the Diocese of the Dominican Republic is doing just that, with its ministries based on what he and the bishops saw during their Sept. 11 visit to different diocesan missions, calling its members “living examples of the Kingdom of God.”

Wagner Sherer also said that she “appreciated” visiting the diocesan missions and worshiping with local Episcopalians outside the resort.

“It was clear that [Dominican Episcopalians] had been excited and preparing for our arrival for several years,” she said. “It’s also clear that they have a lot to teach all the dioceses about being a community proclaiming the message of Jesus through their worship, through their schools, through their clinic, and that is inspiring and helpful for my own people to hear about and imitate at home.”

Rowe echoed a similar sentiment, noting that Episcopal churches are “not monolithic culturally or otherwise.”

“To come and see [the Diocese of the Dominican Republic], this is a gift of The Episcopal Church,” Rowe said. “To come and see it – not just to hear about it or watch it, but to experience it – it’s been a learning experience for us and, for me, a real inspiration.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.