by Herb Gunn

In March, a seven-person delegation from Michigan to the Dominican Republic opened a door to deeper partnerships for mission—both in Michigan and perhaps in the Caribbean nation of nearly 10 million.

As part of that exploratory trip, I was touched by the commitment of Episcopalians in La Iglesia Episcopal Dominicana as well as the likelihood that Episcopalians in Michigan will discover ways to more closely work together.

One revelation in the Dominican Republic is how responsive the Episcopal Church is to community needs and concerns. They don’t fret when figuring out what is urgently necessary.

All churches are missions in the D.R. and in the past 10 years, their number of missions has grown from 26 to 65.

Remarkably, the commitment to education in the D.R.’s relatively poor communities has resulted not in just two or three Episcopal schools scattered throughout the country. The Episcopal Church in the Dominican Republic has increased the number of schools and educational programs throughout the country from seven to 24 since 1995. More than one-third of their churches choose to be tethered to their communities through education and schools.

Our first stops directly from the Santo Domingo airport were the communities of San Pedro de Marcorís and Santa Fe. This southeast sugar cane region was where the English-speaking Anglican Church established its foothold in the 1890s, and it’s an area not forgotten now by the D.R.’s Episcopal Church. The region’s oldest church, Santa Cruz serves a community in which the sugar cane processing plant has closed, the so-called free trade agreements continue to export jobs to Mexico, unemployment hovers above 60 percent, and youth gangs vie for the attention of young people.

The church response: double the size of the school and increase enrollment from 340 students to over 500.

Nearby, two Sisters of the Transfiguration—a Cincinnati-based Episcopal Church order—arrived 35 years ago in the hurricane- and economically-ravaged shanty town of Barrio Los Flores where children were dying of malnutrition. They turned a funeral home into a health clinic and now see patients for 20 pesos (60 cents) per visit, if patients have it. Their ministries at Centro Buen Pastor include feeding 55 children a day, overseeing a school for 274 students, and advocacy for the poor. The sisters hold church services in the clinic, but at Centro Buen Pastor construction is underway for a new church building and school.

The largest Episcopal school is located at San Marcos church in Haina, along the Caribbean coast west of Santo Domingo. With 850 students, the school serves another the port city where the sugar mill closed and unemployment is high.

“We are big into education and I am glad we are,” said Bob Snow, a deacon from Nebraska who has been in the D.R. for 13 years. “That’s the salvation of this country.”

Not far away, in the poor neighborhood of La Bombita in Azua, the small Episcopal Church was dying only two years ago. Under the leadership of priest Alvaro Yepez Lopez and his wife Angela Lopez—who is the senior warden—La Reconciliación has rebounded to a congregation of over 100. The key to their church growth, the couple from Colombia explained, is that without a car, they walk from their home to the church and along the way knock on doors to invite people to come to church. La Reconciliación now enjoys the contagious affection of the village children who flock to the church.

Another key to that church’s investment in the community is a housing project. With the assistance of Episcopal Relief and Development, the diocese has constructed 21 single-family houses. By addressing a fundamental need of the community, they are confident church growth is inevitable.

Whether or not we choose to enter into a companion relationship with the Episcopal Church in the Dominican Republic has little to do with what we can do for them or what they can do for us: there is plenty on all sides of that equation. At the heart of our choice is whether we, as the Episcopal Church in Michigan, have the tenacity to live boldly and exercise ministry with infectious abandon.

It’s a choice that has less to do with the Dominican Republic and more to do with a D.R.-like perspective on ministry. Do we have the will to turn funeral homes into health clinics?

Dominican Republic photos

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