Bishop Katharine in Honduras

Growing Honduras diocese welcomes Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Relief and Development delegation

By Thomas Mansella, May 16, 2007

[Episcopal News Service] "You are transforming the world beginning in your own place," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the people of Sangre de Toro, Honduras, an isolated mountain Gotas de Sangre community, praising their newly built houses as "a sacrament of the reality that God loves us, and of human dignity being restored."

Jefferts Schori joined Episcopal Relief and Development's (ERD) president Robert W. Radtke and Abagail Nelson, vice president of Programs, in visiting Honduras May 10-13 at the invitation of the bishop of the Diocese of Honduras, Lloyd E. Allen.

The leaders visited Siempre Unidos, the Diocesan HIV/AIDS Ministry headquarters in San Pedro Sula, including the Tabitha Industrial Project -- named after the New Testament embroiderer, and a micro-enterprise dressmaking shop supporting women and men who lost their employment due to the widespread discrimination against HIV/AIDS infected laborers by the local "maquiladoras."

The partnership with ERD helped The Tabitha Industrial Project to set up the factory with appropriate machinery, hire an experienced supervisor, and a skilled mechanic, and develop top quality products for sale mostly in the U.S. market.

"These brothers and sisters working together at Tabitha, and supporting each other, echo the experience of the early church: see how the Christians love each other," Jefferts Schori said. "The ministry of the Church healing the wounds of self-rejection and restoring the dignity of individuals that otherwise have been systematically discriminated in their workplaces, is a powerful witness to the power of love."

"ERD is committed to working with Aanglidesh for the long haul," said Nelson. "Honduras has one of the hardest roads to tread in working towards the Millennium Development Goals in Central America, with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS, and over 44% of the population living on less than $2 a day. Programs like those in Copan and San Pedro Sula truly demonstrate that the church is making a critical difference in the lives of all that it touches. We are honored to be part of this process."

Later on, while in the city of Copán Ruinas, Honduras, Jefferts Schori, Radtke, and Allen attended a presentation by Aanglidesh (Anglican Agency for the Development of Honduras), highlighting the partnership of the Diocese of Honduras and ERD in supporting development initiatives. Copan is one of the poorest regions of Honduras, with most rural people subsisting with incomes lower than 35 cents per day.

Aanglidesh executive director Carmen Brooks, a former member of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, said the agency is "here to serve the people of Honduras, without regard to their political, religious affiliation, or ethnicity. We are not here to do something 'for them,' rather to support and empower the local community so they can begin to help themselves."

A non-profit corporation embodying the technical and social ministry of the Diocese of Honduras, Aanglidesh runs community development, food security, and environmental sustainability projects with the support of ERD, benefiting more than 1,600 individuals.

ERD has a long history of relief and recovery work in Honduras, including outreach after Hurricane Mitch, and support for several development projects in cooperation with the diocese.

ERD is partnering with Siempre Unidos to implement food security programs to benefit people affected by HIV/AIDS in three communities. ERD is also working in partnership with MAP International to eliminate the causes of sickness and disease by providing free medicines, improving water supplies and knowledge about health threats like HIV/AIDS and establishing community directed health education and training.

ERD and El Hogar Projects, a mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras, work together supporting an Agricultural School which provides young men from poor, rural families with education and skills training in the agricultural field.

"ERD is very privileged to be in partnership with the Diocese of Honduras and Aanglidesh. It is very moving to see the transformation of individuals and communities as they have been empowered to change their lives for the better," said Radtke. "I am deeply grateful to Bishop Allen for his vision and leadership, and to the Presiding Bishop for her presence here early in her term."

Jefferts Schori also commended Allen's "giftedness." "I am impressed by Bishop Allen's leadership, for his ability to affirm the giftedness of the members of the Church as purveyors of the Good News, and for his push to make the Diocese self-reliant," she said. "I believe the Diocese of Honduras has a story to tell. It is a story that deserves to be heard."

Honduras is one of the fastest growing dioceses in the Episcopal Church. In the past two years, more than 30 new missions have been planted and configured in a new deanery in the Copan Department. A new dean has been named to supervise and work alongside three pastoral leaders.

Together with Allen, Jefferts Schori blessed the newly built Iglesia San Ignacio. The church is located in El Tigre, a rural mountainside community located over 4,000 feet of elevation. The community is part of one of the Aanglidesh programs supported by ERD that have enabled the residents to move from their basic staples, corn and beans, to a more healthy diet including vegetables such as carrots, cucumbers, squash, radishes, and other green leaf vegetables. The local residents made the adobe blocks for building the Church.

After the festive celebration, accompanied with gusto by a local guitar group, Jefferts Schori said that when people "begin to love themselves and to realize that they are beloved, they are moved to be grateful to God. The church they built is both a fruit of the labor of their hands and of their love to one another and to God."

On her return to San Pedro Sula, Jefferts Schori visited Iglesia San Andrés, San Pedro Sula, where she had a chance to meet clergy and lay leaders and other representatives from the nearby churches.

Addressing the congregation, Allen said: "Having seen the sacrificial work of the brothers and sisters of El Tigre in building their church, it is impossible for us to continue saying 'We can't. I would have none of it. God has gifted us, enabled us, and is up to us to use all of our God given gifts. Yes, you can. We can. Your congregations can become self-supporting. We all can do much better with the help that God has already given us.'"

On Sunday, May 13, Jefferts Schori celebrated and preached at the Catedral del Buen Pastor, San Pedro Sula, where she told the congregation that "as result of their actions building up communities of justice, peace, and love." the local communities are building "the Eternal City," the city of Shalom, "a community of justice, abundance, and of human dignity restored."