Venezuela Episcopalians’ earthquake response includes long-term emotional, spiritual recovery

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians in the Diocese of Venezuela are still physically and emotionally recovering from back-to-back earthquakes that devastated the northern state of La Guaira and Caracas, the nation’s capital, nearly a month ago.

The recovery process, according to Litoral Ecuador Bishop Cristóbal Olmedo León Lozano, who serves as provisional bishop of Venezuela, will take “a long time.”

“There is uncertainty regarding Venezuelans’ emotional and spiritual well-being – uncertainty stemming from the pain of losing a family member and from not receiving immediate aid or the specific type of aid they need. …They are living in a state of despair,” Lozano told Episcopal News Service in a July 15 in-person interview in Spanish. He was chaperoning a delegation of young Episcopalians from his diocese at Evento de Jóvenes Episcopales in Rionegro, Colombia. He has been regularly communicating with clergy and lay leaders in the Diocese of Venezuela. 

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Venezuela near Caracas, the capital, 39 seconds apart on June 24. At least 5,200 people have died, and at least 16,740 people were injured, according to the latest government reports.

Most Episcopalians in Venezuela are accounted for and safe, according to Lozano and the latest written report by Pragedes Coromoto Jiménez de Salazar, the diocese’s communications director and a member of the diocesan standing committee and diocesan convention. One married couple died and another member died from a heart attack shortly after the earthquakes. Some parishioners at Iglesia Anglicana Episcopal La Reconciliación in Caracas have relatives who died or remain missing.

La Reconciliación, the diocesan center, which is also in Caracas, and Iglesia de San Andrés in Catia sustained minor structural damage. The Rev. Ana Graciela Anthony, president of the diocesan standing committee, is in the process of inspecting the damaged buildings’ structural integrity.

The diocesan center is now open as a collection center with supplies for rescue personnel and anyone in need. Episcopalians have volunteered to drive around the city on motorcycles to distribute some of the supplies.

Episcopal Relief & Development also launched a disaster fund to support on-the-ground immediate and long-term recovery support led by partners in Venezuela.

The biggest immediate physical need, according to Lozano, is medicine, which is financially inaccessible to most Venezuelans.

“It would be ideal for someone to purchase the medicine directly from a laboratory that distributes it to Venezuela so someone in the diocese can pick it up and hand it out,” Lozano said. However, “sending money to Venezuela is difficult because of time delays, exchange rate differences and other restrictions.”

Due to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, the diocese’s bank account is closed and unable to receive direct funds from donors in the United States.

“We are waiting for a new account to be opened so we can begin moving the funds that are currently pending,” Lozano said.

Venezuela’s borders are open to neighboring countries, including Colombia. The Bogotá-based Diocese of Colombia has been collecting money, medicine and other goods. Some church leaders from Colombia will meet soon with leaders in Venezuela to deliver the aid in person at the Venezuela-Colombia border.

Locally, Lozano and church leaders in Venezuela organized a diocesan earthquake response team, which is now being led by the Rev. Jose Francisco Salazar.

The Rev. Rodolfo Albarran, a deacon who leads the Misión Santos Ángeles Custodios, is coordinating pastoral, medical and community responses with public and private organizations.

Albarran, Salazar and Jiménez de Salazar launched a project called Emotional and Spiritual Support in collaboration with the London, England-based Anglican Alliance. The project, according to Lozano, has mobilized a team of psychologists to provide psychological support to people who’ve lost loved ones in the earthquakes. The Anglican Alliance is funding the project.

Rebuilding people’s livelihoods, Lozano said, will take “much longer” than rebuilding their houses.

“You can build houses and people can live in them, but rebuilding the lives of those who lost their entire families is different,” Lozano said. “You can build a house and furnish it with a refrigerator, a stove and everything else, but that won’t replace the pain the people feel over not just the loss of their loved ones, but rather the way they lost them.

“Nothing compares to the pain of losing a mother, a father, children, siblings, friends or other loved ones. That pain is far deeper and more intense than anything else,” he said.

Venezuelan Episcopalians have joined Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Orthodox and other Christians in ecumenical prayer gatherings that meet three times a week via Zoom. About 50 people participate in these gatherings at a time.

Lozano has also been regularly communicating with Archbishop Raúl Biord Castillo of the Catholic Archdiocese of Caracas and leaders of other Christian denominations in Venezuela. As soon as he’s able, Lozano will visit Venezuela to meet with clergy and laity.

When praying for Venezuela’s recovery, Lozana said it would be best to focus on spiritual and emotional healing.

“The best kind of constant prayer right now is one that asks God for spiritual and emotional stability and rebuilding,” Lozano said. “It means so much to the people of Venezuela.”

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