wfn.org | People of color harmonize on issue

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June 6, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1760
People of color harmonize on issue of ordination

     (ENS) Malcolm Chun, a Native Hawaiian from Honolulu,
sounded the dominant theme at a consultation on ordination issues in Los
Angeles when he said, "A person of wisdom is the one who knows
another person's culture."
     The chorus--75 representatives from seminaries, diocesan
commission and national boards dealing with theological training--
responded that it was important to know other cultures but also to respect
and honor the diversity of people of color.
     For the first time, the Episcopal Church's four offices of ethnic
ministry harmonized, with each still singing its own distinctive song
under the direction of Pua Hopkins of Hawaii, chair of the multi-cultural
committee created three years ago as advisers to Asian, Black, Hispanic
and Native American staff.
     Growing out of a broad concern that the number of persons of
color seeking ordination is diminishing at a time when more leaders are
needed, the "Diversity and Inclusivity with Equality" consultation drew
representatives from 20 dioceses and 10 ministry development groups at
the national level.

Storytellers cite community needs
     Five storytellers recounted tales of community need and how
those needs were met--or not met. Moderated by the Rev. Allen Shin,
representing Asiamerican Ministries, the session produced stories of
diverse communities struggling to provide leaders and seeking creative
ways to surmount barriers.
     "My mentors prepared me for ministry, not seminaries," said the
Rev. Martini Shaw, rector of St. Thomas in Chicago, representing Black
Ministries.  He said that seminary had prepared him for a curacy at a
wealthy suburban parish more than for the church he now serves.
     Several storytellers contended that "the wider church talks about
the need for diversity, but their actions speak more to exclusivity,
monoculturalism and inequality."
     The Rev. Mark MacDonald, canon mission for Indian leadership
training in Minnesota and now bishop-elect of Alaska, said that there are
some stories that cannot be told because it would jeopardize someone's
place in the church. "Clearly, for some people the church is not a
hospitable place," he said.
     "Our church has sociological barriers which are invisible to those
who erected them, but clearly visible to those communities they are
destroying," MacDonald added. As the church moved to conform to
European standards for theological education in the 1930s, and away
from diverse ways of "reading for orders," the number of American
Indian clergy has steadily declined, he observed.
     "We feel like the gentile church in Paul's time, with the dominant
Episcopal Church as the church in Jerusalem, the Jewish church," argued
the Rev. Al Rodriguez of the Diocese of Texas. "So the Episcopal
Church is English, but the gentiles were there to stay, and so are
Hispanic Episcopalians.
     "If we can have Anglos ministering to Hispanics, why can't we
have Hispanics ministering to Anglos?" he asked. "We need racial-ethnic
missionary priests for the rest of the church."

Revisioning the ordination process
     Suffragan Bishop Chester Talton of the Diocese of Los Angeles
welcomed the consultation, saying, "We all have stories to tell, as people
of color in the church. Some are hard to tell but they are important, even
when they are painful and frightening."
     A young priest who was born in Singapore and educated at
Princeton and Harvard Universities, called the Episcopal Church "a
Jurassic church." He charged that the church has two hatreds--a hatred of
the physical body, symbolically acted out in areas of race and sexuality.
And a hatred of other religions, acted out in suppression of other
cultures, primarily Asian, Native American, Latino and African.
     The Rev. Anthony Guillen, representing Hispanic Ministries, held
up an alternate training model created by the Rev. Carmen Guerrero,
archdeacon for multi-cultural ministries in the Diocese of Los Angeles.
He spoke of community involvement in a four-year discernment process,
one that requires two weekends monthly for four years, leading to a
certificate, not a Master of Divinity.
     Bishop Steve Charleston, representing Native American
Ministries, spoke of the separateness of marginalized peoples. "The
church lacks a coherent national policy, clarity and commitment to
persons of color. We need a central vision although the diocese is the
heart of the ordination process," he said.
     Charleston challenged participants in the consultation to engage
the spiritual strength, vision and commitment "to transform the church,"
commissioning them "to be committed to a vision of change of our
church so that our children and grandchildren will not know the struggle
that we have known for fulfilling God's call and the call of the people."
     In calling the various ethnic groups to work together, Charleston
admitted that he understood "the need, even the necessity, of maintaining
our separate identities. After all, I belong to a tribe that has fought for
500 years and in many different ways to preserve its identity," he said.
Just as the body is made of many parts, "we are many members of the
one body."
     The Rev. Leng Lim, a Chinese-American who serves a Japanese-
American parish in Los Angeles, pointed out that "many of us have had
to build our own communities. Blood is important," he said, "partly
because racism is visceral. We are connected, however, in other ways as
well as blood--we are connected by heart and by choice."

Process of theological education
     The Rev. John Robertson of Minnesota, canon missioner for the
committee on Indian work, led off a lively discussion of the current
process of theological education, warning participants not to "politicize
the spiritual or spiritualize the political."
     The Rev. Anna Frank, archdeacon for 21 native villages in Alaska
described deployment obstacles stemming from funding cuts, lack of
pensions for locally ordained clergy and formidable distances. Simon
Carino, a young Filipino deacon from Anchorage, said that he would be
ordained to the priesthood on Pentecost Sunday but lamented that there is
"no paid position, no place to go in Alaska" to offer his training and
talents.
     The Rev. Michael Harris of the Diocese of Long Island said that
he would "like to be a partner to develop strategies for raising up
vocations and to recognize gifts each person holds, especially
minorities."
     Immediately following the consultation, the Rev. John Docker,
coordinator for Professional Ministry Development, wrote to the groups
represented, asking them to share their responses and their
recommendations for addressing the issues raised. He said that the groups
stand "ready to work with the multicultural committee so that action can
be taken in partnership."

--based on reports by Carol Hampton, officer for Multi-cultural
Ministries, and Owanah Anderson, officer for Native American
Ministries.