First 2018 Missioners Arrive

 

The first missioners in the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic in 2018 arrived on January 6 and are currently in residence as Spanish language students at the Dominican Episcopal seminary in Santo Domingo. From left: The Rev. Katherine Grieb, Professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary; Spanish teacher Ana Victoria Lantigua Zaya, daughter of Rda. Lourdes Zaya; and VTS student Philine Ware Dunn. The first mission team, sponsored by St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Savannah, Diocese of Georgia), arrived on January 20 to conduct an optical clinic in the city of San Pedro de Macorís for the fifth consecutive year and is posting photographs of their activities here.

To schedule a trip for a mission team, contact Missionary Karen Caroll <email: drequipos@gmail.com>. To see the current list of all mission teams scheduled for 2018, click here.

DDG Board Meets February 12, 2018

The Board of Directors of the Dominican Development Group will meet in Santo Domingo on Monday, February 12, 2018. This meeting will follow the annual convention of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic on February 9-10 at Iglesia Episcopal San Andrés. To access an initial schedule of events for the convention and board meeting, click here. All of the Episcopal dioceses with companion relationships with the Dominican Republic have representatives on this board, which meets twice annually to plan for the coordination of the projects of the 40-50 mission teams coming from the United States each year and to develop other programs to support the ministries of the Dominican diocese.

On Sunday, February 11, those DDG board members present will have the opportunity to attend the dedication of the gift of an ambulance donated by the Episcopal Church of the Servant (Wilmington, Diocese of East Carolina) to the Diocese of the Dominican Republic for use in the community of Baní. 

DDG Missionaries Tour Sites with Bishop Quezada

Bill Kunkle, the DDG's Executive Director, along with mission team support coordinator Karen Carroll and construction supervisor Charlie Nakash, visited several construction sites of buildings in progress in the southwest of the Dominican Republic with the Rt. Rev. Moisés Quezada, Bishop of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic. Kunkle, Carroll and Nakash are all Appointed Missionaries of The Episcopal Church. For more on this Appointed Missionary program, click here. 

On left: Bishop Quezada meeting with members of the San Tito congregation in their rented building, where space is extremely tight.

 One of the sites visited was the village of Boca de Cachón, which has a  vacant plot of land set aside by the government of the Dominican Republic for use by the congregation of San Tito, which is currently meeting in members' homes. The site of the former church building for this congregation was flooded by the rising waters of Lake Enriquillo, which may be seen in the center background of the photograph above.  The mountains in the background form part of the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Between 2004 and 2009, the surface area of the Lake Enriquillo doubled in size, flooding several communities along the banks. The government of the Dominican Republic moved the residents of Boca de Cachón to a new, higher location, and built new houses for them. For a Wikipedia article with more information on the flooding of the lake, click here. Religious denominations with churches in the flooded village were provided lots to construct a new building, but the costs of that construction have to be paid by the local congregation or their denominational headquarters. The Diocese of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Development Group are currently working to locate funding for this construction.

The rented building in Boca de Cachón currently in use   by the congregation of San Tito.

January-March 2018 Issue of

Episcopax Published