By David Gury

On July 23 and 24, the parish community of Ste.

Marie Madeleine in Bondeau, Haiti, celebrated the

July 22 feast day of its patron saint. There was much

to celebrate.

A highlight of the weekend was the dedication of

the village of Nouvo Bidaw: the promise of new lives

for the 40 families — 145 people — from the rock

and mangrove island of Bidaw off the coast near

Bondeau, where they live in shanties constructed of

whatever scrap material they can find. The island is

subject to frequent flooding, and has no fresh water

or soil that will sustain crops; all supplies, including

water and food, must be transported from the main-

land by dugout canoes, taking 40 minutes round trip.

The new village on the Ste. Marie Madeleine

(SMM) campus is constructed around a village square

with porches covered to protect from rain and sun.

The construction is CBS with wood trusses covered in

galvanized steel; each house cost approximately

$3,750. Housing units are built around the village

square with a large raised circle in the middle for

plants and flowers. The plan to build the village and

relocate the residents of Bidaw began with a $50,000

donation last summer to the South Florida Haiti Proj-

ect (SFHP), and additional donations have made it

possible to complete the project.

The highway passing through Bondeau is being

transformed into a major road going west from Port au

Prince. This construction is funded by post-earthquake

donations from the European Union. The top engi-

neers for the building company are using a few rooms

in the Maison d’Amitie (Friendship House), the guest

house at SMM in exchange for some cash payment,

along with professional services in developing the

parish grounds.

An elevated road has been excavated from the

main highway to the Maison d’Amitie. The road com-

pany did the excavation for Nouvo Bidaw, as well as

the grounds of SMM school and the roads and

grounds of both the guest house and teacher/staff

housing. Excavation of the site for a new church

building located on the highway was given top prior-

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHEAST FLORIDAwww.diosef.org

Volume 42 No. 5 August 2011

Trinity Cathedral to mark anniversaryof 9/11 with memorial Eucharist

Trinity Cathedral, Miami, will observe the tenth

anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September

11, 2001, with a multi-media commemoration and

memorial Eucharist at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept.11.

The service will include a candlelight tribute, as

well as singers from throughout South Florida in a

presentation of the Requiem Mass by Gabriel

Fauré, which was the music chosen to substitute for

planned programming on the BBC Promenade

Concerts the evening of 9/11/2001.

The Miami Chapter of the American Guild of

Organists is assembling the choir for the service;

anyone interested in participating should contact

Trinity’s music director, Matthew Steynor, at

music@trinitymiami.org. ■

Residents of BidawIsland will soon moveinto these sturdy newhomes (inset photoabove) in the villageof Nouvo Bidaw, builtby the South FloridaHaiti Project onproperty at Ste. MarieMadeleine parish inBondeau, Haiti.

Parish finds much to celebrate on Feast of Ste. Marie Madeleine

See BONDEAU, Page 2

Photo by David Gury

Progress and Hope in Bondeau

ity, in order to be completed before the feast day.

During the week before the celebration, a group of

five people from Connecticut and New York, includ-

ing two senior seminary students from Yale, built a

playground with swings and a see-saw on the SMM

campus. The children of Bondeau had never seen a

playground and had to learn how to pump a swing

and balance on the see-saw.

A large canvas cover was raised to provide

shade for the many events taking place over the

weekend, and seats for 400 were provided.

On Saturday morning a couple was joined in

marriage before a large crowd from the community

and the parish. Immediately following the wedding,

with the wedding party in attendance, 20 children

and adults were baptized by SMM’s priest in

charge, Fr. Kesner Gracia, with family and friends

filling nearly all the seats in the temporary church.

Late on Saturday afternoon, the SMM school of

couture and sewing held its first graduation, award-

ing diplomas to seven students who had completed

three years of study. The graduates wore matching

hand-made suits, and as part of the graduation exer-

cises, presented a fashion show. Deacon Anita

Thorstad of St. Gregory’s, Boca Raton, who also

has a growing ministry at SMM, is developing a

plan for some of the graduates to begin a business

making school uniforms and fashion outfits.

Morning light comes to Bondeau shortly after

4:30 a.m., and with the first light on Sunday, many

began work on preparations for the celebration of

the Ste. Marie Madeleine Festival. Twelve priests

from around the diocese, along with 10 seminari-

ans, choirs and lay leaders from churches in Jean-

nette and Petit Trou, had arrived Saturday evening,

with many spending the night in the guest house.

Over four hundred participants were expected, and

preparation to feed all with rice, beans, chicken,

turkey and goat were well underway.

By 5:30 a.m., Fr. Kesner and his altar guild were

busy setting up for the mass, putting in place the

processional cross, bishop’s chair, torches, holy

water container and censers that had been borrowed

from other parishes. Coffee and breakfast were pre-

pared for the many visitors.

Shortly before 9 a.m., Bishop Jean Zaché Du-

racin and his wife arrived, signaling time for all to

vest for the service. Despite the heat and primitive

conditions of the outdoor worship space, all were

vested with well-pressed white cassocks.

The mass began with a procession of clergy,

seminarians, Archdeacons Kesner Gracia, Kesner

Ajax and Noe Bernier and the bishop, led by

torches and thurifers. There were many more peo-

ple present than the 400 seats could accommodate.

Special guests included local heads of government

and national dignitaries, including two senators and

the Minister of Education.

Choirs from several neighboring parishes joined

the SMM choir to sing portions of the service, with

SMM’s music director providing rousing accompa-

niment on a simple keyboard. Bishop Duracin con-

firmed 19 people, including children and adults.

The service lasted nearly two and a half hours.

Once the mass was completed, there was a pro-

cession from the tent to the main highway, about a

third of a mile down the hill on the road that is part

of the SMM campus. The corner property owned by

SMM had been cleared by the road company and

designated as the site for a new church building.

Bishop Duracin laid a cornerstone in concrete,

marking the spot and beginning the process toward

having the “real” church building that the commu-

nity is eager to have for its worship.

Fr. Kesner Gracia and the architect presented

plans for the church building to introduce the com-

munity and the dignitaries to the project and en-

courage them to contribute to a fund to build the

church. Despite meager resources, the parish has

established a building fund, which already has

raised $500.

From the building site the procession went back

up the road to Nouvo Bidaw. Bishop Duracin

blessed and toured the village, which is a model for

future housing in Haiti. As soon as the latrines are

completed, the village will be ready for families to

move in. Although the new homes will be rent-free,

the residents of Nouvo Bidaw will have the kinds of

responsibilities required of paying tenants any-

where. Before they move into their new homes, the

residents will be asked to agree to regulations for

the village concerning sanitation, care for the build-

ings and grounds, and responsibility for damage to

village property, as well as any other regulations

that may be established by the village leadership.

Because Nouvo Bidaw is a church community, resi-

dents will also be asked to abide by standards of

Christian behavior. The village will be governed by

leadership that will include representatives of the

residents and a member of SMM’s vestry.

The procession continued up the hill past the

school buildings and other housing units on the

campus to the Maison d’Amitie. Completed in early

2010 with funding from SFHP, the guest house is

large and comfortable, with 14 guest rooms, a

kitchen, dining room gallery halls across the front

of the building on two floors and a covered second

floor veranda for meetings and relaxing. Bishop

Duracin dedicated this building and blessed it.

The bishop last visited SMM in 2007 for the

dedication of the first building, SMM elementary

school. In the four years since then, Bondeau has

grown spiritually as the infrastructure has ex-

panded. The variety of worship services and the

size of the congregations, which include many visi-

tors and members of the community, mark signifi-

cant growth in the mission work of Christian

formation taking place in this part of Haiti. The

Holy Spirit is doing powerful work in Bondeau. ■

David Gury, a member of St. Gregory’s, BocaRaton, is chair of the diocesan Haiti Task Force andpresident of the South Florida Haiti Project.

2 The Net, August 2011

THENET www.diosef.org News

Above: Bishop JeanZaché Duracin blessesthe new homes inNouvo Bidaw.

Left: Children enjoythe new see-saw onthe campus of Ste.Marie Madeleine.Children in Bondeauhad never seen a see-saw or a swing beforethe new playgroundequipment was installed,but quickly learned howto use it.

Photos byDavid Gury

BONDEAU from Page 1

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA AND HAITI

See p. 15 for stories about two other ways thatparishioners from Southeast Florida are explor-ing partnership with ministries in our companionDiocese of Haiti.

The South Florida Haiti Project began in 2003 asa partnership between St. Gregory’s, BocaRaton, and Ste Marie Madeleine in Bondeau,and now includes three other Southeast Floridacongregations — St. Paul’s, Delray Beach; HolySpirit, West Palm Beach; and Good Shepherd,Tequesta — as well as St. David’s EpiscopalChurch in Wayne, Pa. For more information onthe ministries in Bondeau and how to help, visitthe SFHP website,www.southfloridahaitiproject.org.

Playground

House blessing

The Net, August 2011 3THENETNews www.diosef.org

By Pamela Sahdev

Thirty-one young — and not-so-young — adults

from the North Palm Beach, Broward and North and

South Dade Deaneries gathered at the Chapel of the

Venerable Bede on the University of Miami Campus

on July 10 for the first annual diocesan Young Adult

Summit, a first step in developing a Diocesan Young

Adult Ministry.

The day began prayerfully with the Eucharist cele-

brated by Fr. Frank Corbishley, Episcopal campus

chaplain at the university and priest-in-charge at Ven-

erable Bede.

After opening remarks by Summit leader Michael

Sahdev, Bishop Leo Frade greeted Summit partici-

pants and joined them for lunch in the Chapel’s court-

yard.

The featured speaker for the day was Lauren Cald-

well, Province IV Young Adult Coordinator. She

spoke of the challenges of forming a Young Adult

Ministry, highlighting the need for this to be separate

and distinct from Youth Ministry, since the two age

groups have very different expectations, talents and

needs.

She went on to express her delight that the Sum-

mit had attracted such a large number of participants,

adding that many young adult ministries begin with

only a handful of people. Caldwell urged the group to

attend the Province IV Young Adult Summit to be

held Oct. 29-31 in Atlanta, Ga. Both Sahdev and the

Rev. Christina Encinosa, priest-in-charge of Holy Re-

deemer, Lake Worth, serve on the Provincial Design

Team for this event.

Sahdev addressed the Summit, saying that they

have come of age and are called to take their place in

moving the church forward into the next generation of

leadership. Their time has come to unite, he said, to

evangelize and to grow a strong church for the future.

In the round table discussion, ideas were focused

on ways to attract young adults to the church, as well

as to involve currently inactive young adult members.

Plans were discussed for fund raising; attending

events such as the Provincial Summit and General

Convention; and setting a calendar for the remainder

of the year.

Recognizing that the term “Young Adult” includes

people in various stages of life, Sahdev proposed that

the Summit adopt a two-track structure for the Young

Adult Ministry: Campus Ministry, which would unite

and minister to our college students wherever they at-

tend college; and Local Young Adult Ministry, which

would be a ministry for those in their 20’s and 30’s

living locally in a variety of life stages, married or

unmarried; with or without children; young profes-

sionals, those beginning careers and those seeking

work.

The two tracks will work together to keep both

groups connected, using Facebook and Skype in addi-

tion to some in-person meetings, and will sponsor

events that can be held either together or separately,

focusing on major events in the summer and holidays

when our college students become “local” again. This

structure was adopted by the Summit participants.

The group elected officers: Director of Campus

Ministry, Michael Sahdev; Directors of Local Young

Adult Ministry, Daniel Ledo and Hunter Ruffin; and

Communication Directors, Douglas Dozier and

Melanie Veizega.

Meetings will be held every third Saturday of the

month. The Advent Summit is scheduled for Dec. 17.

Meeting locations will be announced soon.

All young adults are encouraged to become in-

volved in this new ministry. For more information

contact: Michael Sahdev, sahdemc0@sewanee.edu;

Hunter Ruffin, RuffinH@mac.com; or Daniel Ledo,

daniel@lynchsales.com. ■

Pamela Sahdev, a member of St. Benedict’s, Plan-tation, is the Broward Deanery Youth Coordinatorand a Broward Deanery lay representative to Execu-tive Board.

By Mary W. Cox, editor

The Rev. Angela Cortiñas, associate priest for

children, youth and young adult ministry at All

Saints, Ft. Lauderdale, remembers her post-college

years as “such a formational time,” when she found a

faith community in the Episcopal Church that

changed her life. Now an important element of her

ministry is to make sure All Saints is offering young

adults that sense of community.

One place that community is evolving is in con-

versation over drinks or coffee and appetizers at a

local pub or restaurant on the third Friday night of

each month.

“Sometimes we talk about Jesus — sometimes we

don’t,” said All Saints parishioner Hunter Ruffin, one

of the leaders of a handful of young adults — four or

five people — who had begun this kind of gathering

about a year before Cortiñas came to the parish last

summer.

Now Cortiñas calls Ruffin “my right-hand man” in

the ministry that’s recently been named SEEYA!

(Southeast Episcopal Young Adults).

On All Saints’ website SEEYA! is described “as a

COMMUNITY of young adults dedicated to exploring

life together.” The description continues:

“We are single, married, married with children, and

partnered. We are young professionals, undergraduate

students, graduate students, unemployed or underem-

ployed. We are serious about faith and seriously fun.

We are 21 to 40. We are seeking a faith home, ques-

tioning faith and what it means, and seeking others to

explore faith and fun. Above all, we are committed to

building a stronger faith community for young adults

in South Florida!”

“Young adults” can be a broad age group, Cortiñas

says, but the core group involved in SEEYA! is mid-

20s to mid-30s. She is adamant that it’s “not a singles

group,” but adds that although a number of married or

partnered couples participate, none of those in the

group at present have children. Couples with children

tend to be “in a different part of their lives,” she said.

It’s not a campus ministry either, Ruffin said.

“There’s a need for that, but we don’t fill that need.”

This was an issue addressed at the diocesan Young

Adult Summit last month, at which Ruffin was elected

as one of the directors for “Local Young Adult Min-

istry.” (See story below.)Both Cortiñas and Ruffin emphasize that SEEYA!

is designed to reach out to young adults who have

drifted away from church, or have never had a faith

community, but who want that sense of connection and

want their lives to make a difference in the world.

But often these are people who find the idea of

church threatening — or boring — and who just don’t

get up that early on Sundays, so, “We’re going back to

our roots,” says Cortiñas, “going out to where the peo-

ple are.”

“It’s not that we’re taking God out into the commu-

nity,” said Ruffin. “God is already there.”

The monthly Friday night gatherings were origi-

nally called “Theology on Tap” till Ruffin discovered

that a Roman Catholic young adult ministry had copy-

righted that name. Now SEEYA!’s Friday nights are

“Theological Brew,” with a Twitter feed, @Theologi-

calBrew, for announcing times and locations of events.

Topics of conversation come from the group, and

can range from jobs and taxes, to addressing issues of

injustice in the community and the world, to “talking

about Jesus.” Some members of the group are from

other faiths — or no faith — but they want a non-judg-

mental community in which they can explore the ques-

tions of spirituality and how to live a good and

meaningful life.

Cortiñas says that she continues to listen, to learn

from the group and to incorporate their ideas into the

ministry.

In addition to Theological Brew, SEEYA! also of-

fers a quarterly “Reel-2-Real” series of varied (“not

necessarily a deep movie”) films, with theological dis-

cussion following the viewing.

There have also been volunteer outreach events and

intergenerational “Sunday Fun Days,” with activities

like paddleboarding on the New River. More of these

kinds of events are planned.

Young adults aren’t necessarily people who will

give their money, Cortiñas says, but “they’ll give their

time…they show up for outreach. They show up for

community and fellowship.”

Offering opportunities to make a difference, meet-

ing people where they are, authenticity are all vital for

ministry with young adults, say both Cortiñas and Ruf-

fin, but it always comes back to that sense of commu-

nity.

“Communion is more than a worship service in

church,” Ruffin reflected. “It’s bringing a community

together…and literally breaking bread together. Com-

ing to church isn’t even part of the conversation — it’s

about that community, at that time, in that place.”

To make that happen, Cortiñas said, “It’s a matter

of reaching out — there’s nothing to hold you back but

yourself.” ■

For more information about SEEYA!, go towww.allsaintsfl.org/young-adults, or follow @Theo-logicalBrew on Twitter, or emailologicalBrew@gmail.com.

“Summit” launches a new diocesan ministry with young adults

Young adult ministry at All Saints: “serious about faith and seriously fun”Theological brew

Photo by Victoria Fletcher

Liesel Winchester, Teppei Kono and RebeccaWallace enjoy conversation at one of SEEYA!’s Fri-day night Theological Brew gatherings.

Bishop Leo Frade has named Fr. William Stomski

as the new director of the Diocesan School for Chris-

tian Studies, filling the vacancy left by the death of

Fr. Perry Fuller last month.(See obituary, p. 13.)Fuller’s wife, Pamela,

continues to serve as

Diocesan School Admin-

istrator.

A former Lutheran

pastor, Stomski was or-

dained to the priesthood in

2005. He is the chaplain

and sacred studies teacher

at St. Joseph’s School in

Boynton Beach, and is

also well known to many

Diocesan School students,

past and present, having

taught a variety of classes

in the past eight years, including Church History,

Homiletics and Liturgics.

He has completed three years of course work in

the Doctor of Ministry program at Virginia Theologi-

cal Seminary in Educational Leadership and is in the

process of writing his dissertation, which will be sub-

mitted in 2012.

Registration for the Diocesan School’s fall semes-

ter is available on the registration page at

www.diosef.org, or through the school’s website,

www.dioschool.org, and continues through Aug. 31.

Classes, which begin Sept. 10, are held on alter-

nate Saturdays at St. Mark’s School, Ft. Lauderdale.

The cost per course is $125 for eight class sessions.

The Diocesan School was founded to reflect the

Episcopal Church’s focus on “mutual ministry” as the

responsibility of all Christians under the one Baptism

each of us shares in Christ. In keeping with this pur-

pose, the School not only provides the academic

preparation for persons aspiring to the diaconate, but

is placing increasing emphasis on Christian formation

and training for the whole range of ministries in the

church and in society to which laypersons may be

called. Complete curriculum information is on the

Diocesan School website.

For the first time this fall there will be a limited

amount of tuition assistance available specifically for

non-ordination students. Contact the Diocesan School

Administrator at dioschool@aol.com for information.

4 The Net, August 2011

THENET www.diosef.org News

Magness will be preacher for42nd Diocesan Convention

The Rt. Rev. James B. “Jay” Magness, bishop suf-

fragan for Federal Ministries of the Episcopal Church,

will preach at the Eucharist at our 42nd Diocesan Con-

vention, hosted by the South Palm Beach Deanery,

Nov. 11-12 at St. Joseph’s, Boynton Beach.

Because the convention begins on Nov. 11, the tra-

ditional date of Veterans’

Day, and because that date

is exactly two months

after the tenth anniversary

of the 9/11 attacks, the

convention planning com-

mittee felt that Magness,

whose office oversees mil-

itary and prison chaplain-

cies, would be a

particularly appropriate

choice as preacher. Local

first responders will also be

invited to participate in the convention.

Prior to his June 2010 consecration as bishop, Mag-

ness served as Canon for Mission and Diocesan Ad-

ministration in the Diocese of Southern Virginia and

Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Kentucky.

He retired from the U.S. Navy in 2003 with the

rank of captain, serving as command chaplain of U.S.

Joint Forces Command and fleet chaplain for the U.S.

Fleet Forces Command. Prior to those assignments,

from 1997 to 2000 he was on the Navy Chief of Chap-

lains’ staff working as personnel manager of the Navy

Chaplain Corps. He also served as an enlisted person

in the Navy in the 1960s.

Again this year the Convention Banquet will be a

multi-course Italian feast prepared by “Chef Marty,”

South Palm Beach Dean Marty Zlatic. Proceeds from

the banquet will benefit the ministries of the Diocese

of Dominican Republic, one of our four companion

dioceses.

Lodging for convention delegates and guests will

be at the Hampton Inn and Suites, 1475 West Gateway

Boulevard, Boynton Beach. (Hotel reservations can be

made at 561-369-0018; to receive the convention rate,

be sure mention the Diocese of Southeast Florida.)

Some pre-convention deadlines to note are: Aug. 18

— Proposed changes to Canons submitted to Constitu-

tion and Canons Committee; Sept. 27 — Resolutions

submitted to Secretary of Convention (Canon Richard

Miller, email: rmillerxxx@aol.com); Oct. 12 — Pro-

posed changes to Canons presented to delegates; Oct.

27 — Nominations (with biographies of the candi-

dates) submitted to Secretary of Convention. Copies of

resolutions and nominations should also be sent to

Diocesan Coordinator Gail McShane, gail@diosef.org.

Nominations are needed for the following positions

to be filled by elections at convention: One lay and two

clergy members of the Standing Committee; one

clergy member of the Disciplinary Board; one lay

member of the Trustees of the University of the South;

and one lay member of the Cathedral Chapter.

The following Executive Board positions must be

filled by election at Fall Convocations of the deaneries:

North Palm Beach — dean and lay representative;

South Palm Beach — clergy and lay representatives;

Broward — clergy representative; North Dade —

clergy and lay representatives; South Dade — lay rep-

resentative; Keys — lay representative.

Fall convocation dates (all in October) are posted

on the diocesan calendar at www.diosef.org; times

and locations, as well as additional details about con-

vention, will be added as that information becomes

available. ■

Magness Stomski

Stomski to head Diocesan School; fall registration continues

On July 7 The Episcopal Church announced that it

is joining other denominations and faith-based organ-

izations in supporting the DREAM Act, and is asking

churches to participate in a Dream Sabbath between

Sept. 18 to Oct. 9.

DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Edu-

cation for Alien Minors. The DREAM Act 2011 is bi-

partisan legislation that would grant legalized status

to undocumented young people with good moral

character who have lived in the U.S. for at least five

years and graduated from high school. Permanent res-

ident status would be available upon completion of

two years of higher education or military service.

The Dream Sabbath Campaign is an interreligious

effort, coordinated by the Interfaith Immigration

Coalition, to enlist churches to dedicate a Sabbath for

dialogue on the Dream Act.

According to the National Immigration Law Cen-

ter, approximately 65,000 undocumented students

graduate from U.S. high schools each year.

In December 2010, the U.S. House of Representa-

tives passed a version of the DREAM Act, but it died

before it reached the U.S. Senate floor. The current

bill was introduced in the Senate on May 11 by

Durbin and Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada), and in

the House by Representatives Howard Berman (D-

California), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), and Lu-

cille Roybal-Allard (D-California).

The earliest version of the DREAM Act was intro-

duced in the U.S. Senate in 2001.

“The Episcopal Church supports the DREAM Act

through the approval of General Convention 2009

Resolution B006,” noted Alex Baumgarten, Episcopal

Church Director of Government Relations and Inter-

national Policy Analyst. “The DREAM Act would

help thousands of youth who came to our country as

undocumented to receive legal status, thereby grant-

ing untold opportunities on their way to becoming

United States citizens.”

For additional information contact Ana White, the

Episcopal Church’s immigration and refugee policy

analyst, awhite@episcopalchurch.org, or go to

www.interfaithimmigration.org and click on the link

for Dream Sabbath. ■

Episcopal Church joins “Dream Sabbath” Campaign

Frade, Cutié to lead Holy Land pilgrimage in early 2012

Fr. Albert Cutié and his wife, Ruhama, will join Bishop Leo Frade and his wife, Diana, in

leading a Holy Land pilgrimage, Jan. 30-Feb. 11, 2012.

The pilgrimage will include visits to such New Testament sites as Nazareth, the Sea of

Galilee, Capernaum, Cana and Emmaus, as well as Jericho, Qumran and Megiddo. Pilgrims will

spend five days in and around Jerusalem, and will worship at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral

on Sunday, Feb. 5.

There will also be opportunities to meet with local residents, both Israeli and Palestinian, as

well as leaders of the Episcopal Church in the Holy Land.

The cost of the trip is $4,225 per person, double occupancy (single occupancy costs an addi-

tional $775); this includes a $300 tax-deductible donation to Our Little Roses Ministries.

Space is limited, so reservations should be made as soon as possible.

A complete itinerary and other details, including a reservation form, are posted at

www.diosef.org. Reservations may also be made through Globe Travel, 305-823-3939. ■

By Canon Richard E. Miller

About 200 deputies, delegates, friends and guests

gathered June 8-10 at Kanuga Conference Center in

Hendersonville, NC, for the 2011 Province IV Con-

vocational Synod. This was my first time presiding

over a synod since being elected province president

in 2009.

The purpose of the synod was to provide the

province’s deputies and other leaders with updates on

the work of the province a year before the 77th Gen-

eral Convention in 2012

The two-and-a-half-day program highlighted the

ongoing ministries of some 14 funded provincial net-

works, ranging from the youth, young adults and

companion dioceses, to disaster preparedness, His-

panic ministries and anti-racism.

This was the first opportunity for participants to

hear of the newest ministry effort in Province IV:

Young Adult Ministries. The newly formed Province

IV Young Adult Network is the only such network in

The Episcopal Church. (See p. 3 for stories on YoungAdult Ministries in the Diocese of Southeast Florida.)

Synod delegates also heard reports on immigra-

tion issues, the Denominational Health Plan, Congre-

gational Development strategies and the pros and

cons of the proposed Anglican Covenant. One of our

deputies, Tom O’Brien, took part in the forum on the

Covenant, presenting arguments against it.

Archdeacon Bryan Hobbs presented a report from

the Congregational Development and Evangelism

Task Force, which I appointed. Another of our

deputies, Karen Philips Smith, chaired the task force.

Another presenter from Southeast Florida was

Randy McGrorty of Catholic Charities Legal Services

in Miami, who frequently works with our diocesan

Office of Immigration and Social Justice on immigra-

tion issues.

June 6-8, just prior to the synod, the Province IV

Episcopal Church Women and Altar Guild members

also held their annual meeting at Kanuga. As

province president, I had an opportunity to address

the women in session, as well as to hold individual

conversations with them during meals Monday

through Wednesday noon and during their receptions.

I found these encounters useful and meaningful.

Feedback from those attending the synod was very

positive and encouraging. Many said they appreciated

the chance to hear about work of Province IV Net-

works and the ministry opportunities available at the

provincial level. They also welcomed the sense of

community formed through the worship and social

time together.

The next synod will be held June 4-8, 2012, one

month before the 77th General Convention.

Canon Richard E. Miller, a member of Holy Fam-ily, Miami Gardens, is president of Province IV secre-tary of Diocesan Convention, treasurer of the Unionof Black Episcopalians, a member of the NehemiahSteering Committee and an eight-time deputy to Gen-eral Convention.

The Net, August 2011 5THENETNews www.diosef.org

Coalition of Episcopal Latinos will meetSept. 8-11 at Duncan Center

The Coalición de Episcopales Latinos — Coali-

tion of Episcopal Latinos (CEL) — will hold its sec-

ond annual conference Sept. 8-11 at the Duncan

Center.

Bishop Leo Frade and Hispanic leaders from

Southeast Florida were among those who participated

in the Coalition’s inaugural meeting last September in

Scottsdale, Ariz. Frade, who is a member of the CEL

board, invited the group to hold its second gathering

in our diocese.

The conference will begin with registration at 3

p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8. The opening speaker that

evening will be Canon Anthony Guillen, Episcopal

Church missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministry.

Friday’s keynote speaker will be Fr. Albert Cutié,

priest-in-charge of Church of the Resurrection, Bis-

cayne Park, whose topic is “The Latino Gospel in the

Episcopal Church.”

Workshops topics include justice and immigration,

Anglican identity, women’s leadership and local CEL

groups. There will be separate workshops for youth,

as well as workshops for clergy with representatives

of the Church Pension Group.

Friday’s session will end with dinner and a “fiesta

Cubana,” with music and dancing.

Saturday’s agenda will include a business session,

Eucharist, an afternoon of tours and free time, and in

the evening a time to share the conference experi-

ence.

The conference ends with breakfast on Sunday.

The cost is $300 per person, double occupancy,

and $400 for a single room. There is a small amount

of scholarship funding available for the conference.

For more information contact Canon CarmenGuerrero, CEL president, at Carmen@trinitycahte-dral.com or cbg41127@yahoo.com. ■

SD Deanery and Vitas Hospice to offerEnd of Life Care Conference, Sept. 17

When faced with a terminal diagnosis, many pa-

tients and their families look to clergy and other faith

leaders for guidance in dealing with the emotional

and spiritual stresses of the situation. Yet many clergy

and lay leaders feel they are unprepared to minister to

the terminally ill and their families.

The South Dade Deanery and Vitas Hospice Care

will offer a conference on Sept. 17 at St. Thomas,

Coral Gables, that will provide information and train-

ing for clergy, lay leaders and health professionals in

end of life ministry, as well as ways to care for their

own emotional and spiritual needs as caregivers.

The 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. conference will include

six presentations: Elements of End of Life Care; Ad-

vance Care Planning; Cultural Considerations in End

of Life Care; Common Psychological Issues; Spiritu-

ality in End of Life Care; and Grief, Bereavement and

Self Care.

A $10 registration fee will be charged to help

cover printed materials, lunch and refreshments. At-

tendance is limited to 100 people.

Diocesan clergy can receive six continuing educa-

tion hours for attending the conference, and 4-6

CEUs will be offered by Vitas Hospice for nurses and

social workers.

Additonal information and a registration form are

linked to the announcement of this event in

Grapevine on the diocesan website, www.diosef.org,

or you may contact the diocesan Canon for Health,

the Rev. Canon Carlos Sandoval, M.D., at cjsan-

doval@bellsouth.net. ■

Task force report

Photo by Bill Monk/Province IV

Archdeacon Bryan Hobbs presents the report of the Congregational Development and Evangelism TaskForce at the Province IV Synod.At front table, second from right, is Task Force Chair Karen Philips Smith.

What’s Province IV?

The Episcopal Church is made up of nine

provinces; within the United States, these re-

flect geographic regions, just as our deaneries

are groupings of congregations in different

areas of the diocese. Province IV, also known as

the Province of Sewanee, is the largest of the

provinces. Twenty dioceses in nine Southeast-

ern states comprise Province IV, which is

named for our seminary, the School of Theol-

ogy of the University of the South, located in

Sewanee, Tenn. Included in the province are

dioceses located in Alabama, Georgia, Florida,

Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi, South

Carolina, Tennessee, and part of Louisiana. For

more information on what’s happening in our

province, go to www.provinceiv.org. ■

Synod participants learn about Province IVministries, prepare for GC 2012

6 The Net, August 2011

THENET www.diosef.org News

Tom Ehrich to speak at Clergy Conference

The speaker for this year’s diocesan Clergy Con-

ference, scheduled for Sept. 6-8 at the Duncan Cen-

ter, is writer and church consultant Tom Ehrich,

whose topic will be “Ministry in the 21st Century:

Outside the Walls.”

An Episcopal priest, Ehrich served congregations

in Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina and New York

before moving into fulltime ministry as a writer and

consultant with judicatories, congregations and

church leaders around the country. His recent work

focuses on "turnaround strategies" for mainline

churches, with special emphasis on membership de-

velopment, leadership development, leveraging tech-

nology, and diversifying beyond Sunday worship.

Through his company, Morning Walk Media,

Ehrich publishes three church-development newslet-

ters, daily writings on faith and ethics, and two na-

tionally syndicated newspaper columns.

Registration and a complete conference agenda

are now available on the diocesan website,

www.diosef.org; click on “registration” for the form

and information.

To subscribe to any of Ehrich’s newsletters or

daily writings, go to www.morningwalkmedia.com.■

ECSEFL offers outreach grants through EC Messengers

Episcopal Charities has announced a $20,000 fund

to support outreach work initiated by the leadership

of its EC Messengers in their respective congrega-

tions.

Five grants of up to $4,000 each will be available

for programs that address a significant basic human

need--feeding, clothing, shelter and healthcare--for

youth and elderly populations in their immediate

communities.

Special consideration will be given to new youth

and elderly programs that work in partnership with

other churches and/or community organizations. The

addition of a new program component to an existing

EC-funded program that moves services from trans-

actional support to transformational support for

clients is also welcome. Service to families and

homeless populations will be considered.

Application must be made by the EC Messengers

on behalf of their respective congregations; the appli-

cations deadline is Friday, Sept. 23. Applicants must

have attended at least one of Episcopal Charities Out-

reach University workshops.

For more information visit www.ecsefl.org. ■

By Canon Thomas O’Brien

During the last half of June, Rabbi Howard

Shapiro and I were privileged to lead an Interfaith

Tour of Central Europe for 33 Christians and Jews.

Howard is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel in West

Palm Beach. For the last three years he and I have en-

gaged in lively dialogues about Judaism and Christi-

anity for the more than 500 seniors who attend our

classes at Florida Atlantic University’s Lifelong

Learning Programs in Jupiter and Boca Raton.

The focus of this trip was to explore the often dif-

ficult relationships between Christianity and Judaism

in Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the pres-

ent. Starting in Budapest, we visited the largest syna-

gogue in Europe, the Jewish Quarter, St. Stephen’s

Basilica and discussed the ways the architecture of

sacred spaces affects and reinforces beliefs.

We were aboard the luxurious MS Amadolce for

eight days, sailing on the (nearly) Blue Danube, visit-

ing and touring Bratislava, Vienna, Salzburg, other

medieval towns. We ended our cruise in Nuremberg,

and our tour concluded with two days in the magnifi-

cent city of Prague.

There were some surprises. We encountered a pa-

rade in Durnstein celebrating the Feast of Corpus

Christi (a national holiday in Austria). The cobble-

stone streets of this little town were strewn with

fresh-mowed grass, and the parade featured an “oom-

pah” marching band and the Eucharist displayed in a

monstrance. All the residents of the town were out

parading in costume. We visited Jewish Quarters in

Vienna and in other cities, monasteries, synagogues,

palaces, cathedrals and medieval walled cities.

Onboard the ship, we worshiped together in a

Shabbat Service on Friday and a Christian Service on

Sunday. (My wife, Alison, and I also worshiped on a

Sunday with the small Anglican community in Bu-

dapest.) Howard and I gave lectures and led discus-

sions on the Crusades and their impact on Jews in

Central Europe. We all learned from the reactions of

each member of the group to coming to Austria, Ger-

many and the Czech Republic (most for the first time)

where so many Jews were killed by Nazis who were

assisted actively and passively by others; the differ-

ences among religious orders (we saw lots of monas-

teries, including some that were really palaces); and

the challenges facing the lawyers who prosecuted the

Nuremberg Trials.

On the day before our trip ended, we visited the

concentration camp at Theresienstadt outside of

Prague. Although Theresienstadt was not a death

camp as such, nearly half of the persons sent there

(Jews and political prisoners) died from the de-

plorable conditions. Unknown until the 1980s, a tiny

secret synagogue was under one of the buildings in

the town during WWII. The walls of the synagogue

were inscribed with phrases from the Book of

Lamentations.

Rabbi Shapiro led us in the Mourner’s Kaddish.

There wasn’t a dry eye, and we lit candles in memory

of the millions who lost their lives in the unspeakable

horrors of the Holocaust.

Howard and I strongly believe that as persons of

different faith traditions better understand their own

faiths and the faith traditions of others, they will be

deepened in their spirituality and their own faith. In

our courses and in conducting Interfaith Trips, we con-

sistently find that Jews learn more about both Judaism

and Christianity, and Christians have the same experi-

ence. Howard and I feel very blessed to be able to

share our spirituality, insights, knowledge of theology

and scripture – and our friendship – with others. ■

Thomas O’Brien, a member of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Palm Beach, is an honorary canon of TrinityCathedral, a diocesan deputy to General Conventionand chair of the Diocesan School Board.

Honoring the dead

Photo by Thomas O’Brien

Both the cross andthe Star of David (left,closer to the wall) riseover a cemetery inTheresienstadt, CzechRepublic, where bothJews and Christianpolitical prisoners diedin brutal conditions in aconcentration camp.

Interfaith journey explores Jewish-Christian history

The Net, August 2011 7THENETNews www.diosef.org

Two Southeast Florida congregations, St. Mar-

garet’s and San Francisco de Asis, Miami Lakes, and

St. George’s, Riviera Beach, have accepted an invita-

tion to be part of a small group of congregations from

around the Episcopal Church that are beginning a new

two-year “ministry adventure” called “missio:engage.”

Developed by Fr. Tom Brackett, the Episcopal

Church’s missioner for Church Planting and Ministry

Redevelopment, missio:engage is described as a part-

nership with the goal of “assist[ing] communities of

faith in the process of re-rooting their ministries in

the communities they are called to serve.” The new

venture is and led by Brackett and Canon Anthony

Guillen, missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministry.

The first group of congregations invited to partici-

pate is multicultural, but Brackett said, “Anyone is

welcome to join…. Our goal is that every ministry in-

volved in this will become intercultural, because

that’s what our society is.”

According to Brackett, this partnership is designed

to become an “intentional” Community of Practice

that learns publicly from what works in renewing

congregations, as well as what doesn’t.”

Each participating congregation will enter into a

covenant with each other, with its vestry, with its rec-

tor/priest in charge and with Brackett to learn to-

gether and practice what has been proven to work.

Each congregation will commit to sharing its learn-

ings and discoveries with the church at large through

a dedicated website.

Each congregation has been asked to select a team

of five, led by a layperson, to be a core group dedi-

cated to this ministry alone. This group of leaders,

along with the rector/priest in charge, is beginning an

intensive two-month training, much of it through

video or web conference.

Over the next two years the group will learn how

to offer radical welcome to newcomers in their com-

munity, move visitors from being newcomers to

fully-formed leaders, reconnect with the realities

emerging in the communities they are called to serve

and offer relevant outreach that offers God’s grace in

ways meaningful to their communities.

By the end of the two-year period, each of the

members of the group is expected to have identified,

trained and nurtured her/his replacement.

Participating congregations will work toward

these measurable outcomes: transformed and out-

wardly-turned faith community; multiple streams of

newcomers and visitors from the surrounding com-

munities; a developed and refined process of incorpo-

ration leading to a strengths-based approach to

ministry formation for all; core leadership develop-

ment on multiple levels; the critical mass necessary to

engage in sustainable missional ministries; and a real-

time, on the ground reconnection (or “re-rooting”) in

the ministry context. ■

For more information contact Brackett at tbrack-ett@episcopalchurch.org.

Two SE Florida congregations to be part of “missio:engage”

By Mary W. Cox, editor

The final session of Episcopal Charities’ “Out-

reach University” workshops focused on transforma-

tive ministries.

Episcopal Charities messengers (parish represen-

tatives) and outreach ministry leaders came to St.

Mark the Evangelist, Ft. Lauderdale, on July 23 to

learn how three varied ministries are “Moving from

Transactional to Transformational Programming.”

Fr. Horace Ward and Janice Lovett from Holy

Family, Miami Gardens, gave a presentation on the

parish’s Second Chance Ministry, a partnership with

schools, students and families in the community.

Ward said the ministry grew out of the Nehemiah

Process, as the parish began to feel called to reach

out to the children and families in Miami Gardens.

“The children in our schools are in serious, serious

trouble,” he said, citing poor test scores and gradua-

tion rates and incidents of violence.

“This is our mission — to transform these lives.”

The first event sponsored by Second Chance was

a distribution of backpacks at the beginning of the

2010 school year. The event was scheduled to take

place in the parish hall, but due to a large funeral that

day, the hall wasn’t available. The parish set up a

tent on the grounds and handed out backpacks filled

with school supplies to 250 children and families,

most of whom were coming to the church for the

first time.

The ministry continued through the year with a

tutoring program for Norland Senior High students,

staffed by volunteers who are all certified teachers.

That program is planned to continue this fall, with

in-school tutoring, an expanded computer lab at the

church and a curriculum focused on skills needed

for success on the FCAT.

This summer Second Chance has offered a three-

week program for 30 children ages five to 14. There

was tutoring, focused on each child’s strengths and

weaknesses, but there were also cultural activities,

field trips and “just plain fun.”

Ward said he was happy to see that the summer

program had multigenerational support from the

parish, with volunteers of all ages, and added that he

“heard a greater sense of excitement and commit-

ment to the Miami Gardens community.”

When Ward was asked if the summer curriculum

included any religious instruction, his answer was a

firm, “No.”

The mission of Second Chance is “life transfor-

mation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said,

but by doing the Gospel, not preaching it.

The second presenter was Kokie Dinnan, director

of Family Promise of South Palm Beach County, a

branch of a nationwide ministry that brings together

faith communities to house and feed families that

are “situationally homeless” and to help them be-

come sustainably independent.

The program began in Palm Beach County in

2008 with eight congregations; 24 are now involved,

either as locations where families can be housed, or

by providing volunteers and other support—or both.

Family Promises serves a maximum of four families

(no more than 14 people) at a time, providing hous-

ing and meals at churches and temples, as well as

such services as assistance with job searches and

legal matters, help with financial planning and

budgeting, play therapy for children and parenting

skills training for parents.

The average stay for a family is three to four

months.

Last year Family Promise began a follow-up

mentoring program for families that have “gradu-

ated.” This keeps them connected, Dinnan said, and

provides an ongoing support system.

Like Ward, she said that this ministry does not

include proselytizing or preaching. “We don’t have

to speak it,” she said. “We’re acting God’s love in

the world.”

“We get more than we give,” she added, saying

that volunteers and client families form close and

lasting relationships. “The families inspire me.”

Fr. Sherod Mallow, rector of All Saints, Ft.

Lauderdale, spoke about Centro Hispano de Todos

los Santos, part of the New River Regional Ministry,

which also includes All Saints and St. Ambrose.

Unlike Second Chance and Family Promise, the

Centro began with worship services. Mallow said

that his wife, the Rev. Rosa Lindhal-Mallow “felt

called out into the Hispanic community that had no

interface with the Episcopal Church,” and in 2005

started holding “Mass in the Grass” in a local park.

The presence of drug dealers and prostitution

quickly forced Lindahl-Mallow and her fledgling

Hispanic congregation to look for a new venue, and

All Saints parishioners donated $50,000 to rent a

storefront.

The Centro has moved four or five times, but last

year found a more permanent home at St. Ambrose,

when that congregation became part of the New

River Regional Ministry.

The Centro ministers to “first-wave immigrants

with varying degrees of documentation,” Mallow

said, helping them to deal with such issues as do-

mestic abuse, rent, documentation and citizenship,

and inability to access the “Anglo” social service

system.

A primary part of the ministry is a reading pro-

gram, one day a week during the school year and

four days a week during the summer, with volunteer

tutors who are teachers or retired teachers.

And there is still worship — Lindahl-Mallow

celebrates Mass in Spanish on Sundays at noon at

St. Ambrose.

“What we are doing is…the witness of pres-

ence,” Mallow says. “God will do the work if we

put ourselves in the space.”

Money is always a challenge, he said. The Epis-

copal Church is held back by a “budget-based phi-

losophy… that makes the budget the limit of God’s

grace.” The church needs to put “what we’re called

to do” first, he said; begin doing the ministry and

then find ways to continue to fund it. The Centro is

now a separate 501-3C corporation and is actively

seeking grants.

“We don’t know what we’re doing,” he laughed.

“We make it up every day.

“All of this has changed All Saints,” he added.

Transformative ministry works both ways. ■

Workshop highlights transformative ministries

“What we are doingis… the witness

of presence.”

8 The Net, August 2011 www.diosef.org

THENET www.diosef.org The Net, August 2011 9 Parishes in Progress

■ Fr. Sam Thomas, priest-in-charge of St. Martin’s, Clewiston, hasbeen appointed Emergency Coordinator for ARES/RACES (Amateur

Radio Emergency Services/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency

Services) in Hendry County. He meets quarterly with the Emergency

Services Council for the county, has helped to obtain equipment for the

new Emergency Operations Center for the county, and also seeks to re-

cruit volunteer “ham” operators for communications during a hurricane

or other disaster. St. Martin’s recently received a donation of hurricane

shutters for all of its buildings, including the rectory, and has a prepared-

ness committee; so the church is ready for emergencies, too. “Hams” can

contact Thomas at W3ALE.

■ St. Christopher’s, West Palm Beach, is planning an Oktoberfeston Oct. 8 with food, clowns, face-painting and family fun, in addition to

craft displays for early Christmas shopping.

■ On Aug. 28 St. Andrew’s, Lake Worth, will offer “Imagining Ar-gentina,” an evening of Argentine wines and cuisine — with, of course, a

tango performance. The cost is $25 per person. For information and tick-

ets call 561-582-6609.

■ Fr. Alberto Cutié will be at Saint Benedict’s, Plantation, onWednesday, Sept. 14 to celebrate Mass at 7 p.m. and to speak afterward

on his book, Dilemma. There will be copies of the book available for sale

and signing. Admission is free and open to the public.

■ Every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon, St. Andrew’s, Hollywood,now offers a service of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Eucharistic

adoration is the devotional practice in which worshipers contemplate the

Blessed Sacrament and worship the presence of Jesus Christ in the con-

secrated host.

■ The Fifth Annual “Not So Square Dance” will be held at All

Soul’s, Miami Beach, on Saturday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. There will be a

professional caller and a country western dinner. Western dress is encour-

aged. This event, formerly held at St. Stephen’s, Coconut Grove, is a

benefit for the new AIDS Healing Ministry at All Soul’s, begun with a

grant from Episcopal Charities; the event has been moved from St.

Stephen’s to give a boost to this new ministry on the beach. The cost is

$25 per person, $40 per couple, and there’s free parking. For additional

information contact Deacon Charles Humphries,

anglicansmoker@aol.com.

■ On Sunday, July 31, Trinity Cathedral, Miami, gave a farewellblessing to two of its members who are beginning seminary studies, Jean

Beniste, who’s attending Virginia Theological Seminary, and Lorenzo

Lebrija, who will study at General Seminary in New York. The cathedral

also had to say goodbye to Jean’s wife, Monica, who has been Trinity’s

administrator, and to the couple’s two young daughters, Annelise and

Solange, who have had as many honorary godparents as there are cathe-

dral parishioners.

■ Aug. 11-14, Church of the Ascension, Miami, held a ChurchChoir Workshop, led by Marques L. A. Garrett, Director of Choral Activ-

ities, Cheyney University, Cheyney, Penn. The workshop focused on

basic choral singing techniques, using Afro-American sacred music that

embraces all genres relative to the black worship experience (hymns, an-

thems, gospel and Negro spirituals), and concluded with a concert on

Sunday afternoon, featuring a choir made up of conference participants.

■ On Sunday, July 24, St. Philip’s, Coral Gables, held its third an-nual “Christmas in July Celebration” to commemorate being half way

through the year from one Christmas to the next. Parishioners put up a

Christmas tree and brought gifts of diapers and toiletries for use by the

residents of the New Life Family Center, which is one of the parish’s out-

reach ministries.

■ This summer Fr. Frank Corbishley, priest-in-charge of Chapel of

the Venerable Bede, Coral Gables, and Episcopal campus chaplain at

the University of Miami, has been meeting weekly for informal conver-

sation with Brazilian, Chinese, and Arab students in the university’s In-

tensive English Program to help them develop their comprehension and

speaking skills of English as a foreign language.

■ On Aug. 13, from 1-9 p.m., St. Thomas, Coral Gables, is invitingdiocesan middle school and high school youth — whether they’ve at-

tended a youth conference at Kanuga Conference Center or not — to

sample a little of Kanuga at “Kanugacita.” The event offers youth a

chance to sing, dance, play, share their talents in a “Coffee House” and

worship together “Kanuga style.”

■ On June 5 the Sunday School children at St. Paul’s, Key West, setup a lemonade stand and raised $84 for tornado victims in Missouri. Co-

incidentally, one of their customers was a visitor from Joplin, Mo.

Stocking shelves

Photo by Emilie Adams

Celebrating the spirit

Fr. Rafael Garcia leads prayers in front of Holy Comforter, Miami, as the congrega-tion prepares to celebrate Pentecost by releasing red balloons.

Photo by Rene Loredo

Youth from St. Mary Magdalene,Coral Springs, responded to aJune request for volunteer help atSt. Laurence Chapel. Stockingshelves in the food pantry are (leftto right) Brooks Reed, SophiePacelko, Sophie Pacelko andSarah Glynn.

Beard going...

going...

gone

Fr. Frisby Hendricks, rector of AllSaints’, Jensen Beach, goes (in stages)from hirsute to clean-shaven in just overa week. Hendricks returned from vaca-tion with a beard and challenged his con-gregation to vote—with donations forHabitat for Humanity—on whether heshould keep it or shave it. The vote wastwo-to-one for shaving, so he did, butteased everyone by keeping the mus-tache for a few days before going backto his familiar look. The beard’s depar-ture raised $130 for Habitat.

Talent Show

Photo by Mireya Medina

Students in the My Backyard program at St. Margaret’s and San Francisco de Asis,Miami Lakes, dance in a talent show that was part of the festivities on the final day ofsummer camp on July 22. As the school year begins, the My Backyard after-school pro-gram is expanding to include grades 2-8. For information go to www.mybackyard.org.

Eagle project

Brady Harrington (left) gives instructions to his brother Cory as they work on Brady’s Eagle Scout project: renovat-ing the gazebo at All Angels, Miami Springs. The Scout wants to make the gazebo a place where parishioners andneighbors can come for quiet contemplation, as well as a site for weddings or baptisms. The congregation is helpingwith financial and in-kind donations--and additional willing hands.

Photo by Ann Harrington

Dreamcoats

Children in VacationBible School at St.George’s, Riviera Beach,model their versions ofJoseph’s “coat of manycolors.” Volunteers fromBethesda-by-the-Sea,Palm Beach, made the fa-miliar Old Testament sto-ries of Noah, Joseph,Moses and Jonah hands-on fun for the children.(See p. 16 for more on theministries at St. George’s.)

Photo by Laura Warner

Photos by Pat Kharimanian

Official publication of the

Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida

The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, Bishop

The Rt. Rev. Calvin O. Schofield, Jr.

S.T.D., Retired Bishop

The Rt. Rev. John L. Said

Retired Bishop Suffragan

Kathryn Blanton

Convener of Communications Ministry

Mary W. Cox

Editor

Catherine Kohn/PSPress

Layout Editor

John T. Cox

Proofreader

Letters to the Editor

The Net welcomes letters to the editor. All letters

must include the name, address, phone number, and if

available, email address, of the writer. Parish affiliation is

also requested, when applicable.

The Net reserves the right to refuse publication, and

to edit letters for length, spelling and grammar.

News & Information

The Net invites news of parish ministries and activi-

ties, as well as commentary on church-related issues and

events. Whenever possible, all material should be submit-

ted electronically or on a disk or CD. Documents sent as

attachments or on disk should be in Word, or in a format

that can be opened in Word. Printed material should be

an original document or a clean photocopy that can be

scanned — no faxes.

Please include with all material the name, address,

phone number and if available, email address, of the con-

tributor. Parish affiliation is also requested, when applica-

ble. The Net reserves the right to refuse publication and

to edit all contributions. Photographs should be high-res-

olution digital files or clear prints of film photographs,

preferably on glossy paper. Photographs sized for a web-

site are generally too small for print. Do not send hard

prints made from digital photographs.

All material – letters, articles or photos – should be

submitted electronically to: EpiscoRat@aol.com, or by

mail to: Mary W. Cox, Diocese of Southeast Florida, 525

NE 15 St., Miami, FL 33132-1411.

Net Deadline

The next Net deadline is Sept. 15. If you have an an-

nouncement or calendar item for events in late October,

November or December please have the information to

The Net by Jan. 10. E-mail to EpiscoRat@ aol.com or

mail to Mary W. Cox, DoSEF, 525 NE 15th St., Miami,

FL 33132-1411.

THE NET (USPS 787-340) is published bi-monthly,

six times a year, in February, April, June, August, Octo-

ber and December by the Diocese of Southeast Florida.

Subscription, $5 annually. Periodicals postage paid at

Miami, Fla., and additional offices.

POSTMASTER: Address changes to The Net, 525 N.E. 15th Street, Miami, FL 33132-1411.

Freedom Fries

10 The Net, August 2011

THENET www.diosef.org From Our Bishop

Freedom Fries — do you remember them? It was

only eight years ago when two “patriotic” representa-

tives from Ohio and North Carolina declared that all

references to the French fries and French toast on the

menus of the restaurants

and snack bars run by the

House of Representatives

would remove any refer-

ence to the French.

This action by Con-

gressman Robert W. Ney

(R-Ohio), who was in

charge of overseeing

restaurant operations for

the chamber, and Robert

B. Jones (R-North Car-

olina), never came up for a

vote in Congress, but re-

ceived plenty of publicity. It was intended to express

displeasure with France’s “continued refusal to stand

with the U.S. allies” — in other words, for refusing to

go to war against Iraq due to doubts about the validity

of claims of weapons of mass destruction.

The French Embassy in Washington, D.C, made

no comment beyond pointing out that what we call

“French fries” come from Belgium. Nathalie Loisau,

an embassy spokeswoman said: “We are at a very se-

rious moment dealing with very serious issues, and

we are not focusing on the name you give to pota-

toes.”

As we come to the end of a decade since Septem-

ber 11, 2001, I want to remind everyone our Diocese

of Southeast Florida to take a moment to consider

first the sacrifice of our Armed Forces around the

world in responding to the treachery of the fanatical

attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

It didn’t take long to realize that Osama Bin

Laden and the Taliban were in cahoots with each

other in Afghanistan, so we proceeded to respond to

their destructive challenge. Unfortunately for us, we

lost our focus and decided to look elsewhere for non-

existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and be-

fore we knew it we were involved in war there,

weakening our efforts in Afghanistan. The end result

we now know: There were no weapons of mass de-

struction, and the cost of our Iraq intervention was

thousands of lives lost, as well as the expansion of the

influence of Iran in that area, to the detriment of our

security and of all the moderate regimes of the Mid-

dle East.

In May 2005 Rep. Jones, having arrived at the be-

lief that the United States went to war “with no justi-

fication,” said of the “Freedom Fries” episode, “I

wish it had never happened.” By July 2006, the

House of Representatives had quietly changed the

name of the two foods in all of its restaurants back to

“French fries” and “French toast.”

Unfortunately the backlash of hate after Septem-

ber 11, 2001, went much further than changing the

names of a couple of our favorite foods. There were

victims who didn’t die due to the hatred of the terror-

ists, but due to the hatred of so-called “patriotic

Americans.” No attention, no funding and no public

support has been given to these victims, who were

killed because they were either Arab or Muslim or

simply looked like “Middle Eastern types.“

One of them was Baldir Singh Soldin, a Sikh from

India who was gunned down on Sept. 15, 2001, in

Mesa, Ariz. — the same state that is passing anti-im-

migrant laws that could persecute minorities.

The Arizona killer of the “turban-wearing Sikh”

killed him outside his gas station. His killer spent

hours before the murder in a bar, bragging of his in-

tention to “kill the ragheads” responsible for Septem-

ber 11, 2001.

Waqar Hasan of Dallas, Texas, was also killed the

same day. He was a 46 year old from Pakistan, mur-

dered in the convenience store he owned by a fellow

Texan named Mark Stroman.

Stroman was also convicted of murdering another

“Arab-looking” person in nearby Mesquite, Texas,

and admitted to authorities that he had injured a third

victim, a Bangladeshi, between the two murders. He

bragged that, “I did what every American wanted to

do after September 11, but didn’t have the nerve.”

Stroman was executed last month for the murders.

It is interesting to note that even on the day of the ex-

ecution the only surviving victim, Rais Bhuiyan, who

was blinded in one eye by Stroman’s attack on him,

continued to plead for his attacker’s life to be spared,

saying that his Muslim faith required him to forgive.

Then we have Adel Karas, 48, a grocer from

Egypt who happened to be a Coptic Christian, killed

on September 15 in San Gabriel, California.

I could go on and on with these sad and violent

examples of our hate and overreaction against those

who are our neighbors — often our fellow citizens of

this country — but simply don’t look exactly like us.

Suffice it to say that according to the Human Rights

Watch, assault and vandalism against Arab Muslim

and Christian Americans have increased by 1,700

percent in the past ten years.

How will you respond as we approach the tenth

anniversary of that fateful and murderous day, Sep-

tember 11, 2001?

I call you first of all to pray for our troops around

the world who risk and sacrifice to defend our free-

dom against those who would destroy us. But I also

call on you to remember that our freedom is equally

threatened when we forget that this nation was

founded with the astonishing provision that “Con-

gress shall make no law respecting an establishment

of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”

— that from the beginning we intended to be differ-

ent from regimes past and present that dictate to their

citizens what to believe and how to pray.

Perhaps it seems unfair to us that Muslims can

have in this country the freedom to practice their faith

that we, as Christians, would not be allowed in Mus-

lim countries like Saudi Arabia or the newly formed

nation of North Sudan; but we are called as Ameri-

cans to preserve our commitment to a freedom that

includes the right to worship and pray to God as we

understand the Deity to be, to practice any religion —

or none.

We dishonor both this commitment to liberty and

our call as Christians to love our neighbor when we

fan the flames of hatred and fear with asinine ideas

like banning mosques from our communities, or out-

lawing the practice of the Muslim code of Sharia law.

As a Christian I rejoice to proclaim the Good

News that our Lord Christ loves and cares for all hu-

manity, and that he will indeed draw the whole world

to himself. But as an American I am also proud to say

that America belongs to all who swear allegiance “to

the flag of the United States of America and to the

Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God

Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all.”

This unity, my dearly beloved — this welcome for

all who love liberty — is our weapon of mass de-

struction against all hatred and dictatorships that may

threaten our country and “this fragile earth, our island

home.”

+Leo Frade

By Miguel Angel Escobar

Last month Fr. Albert Cutié, priest-in-charge ofChurch of the Resurrection, Biscayne Park, debuted anew English-language talk show on Fox-owned tele-vision stations in several markets around the country,a “sneak peek” for a daily program projected to beavailable nationwide in September 2012. This reflec-tion on the impact of Cutié’s TV ministry was postedon Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices onJuly 12, and is reprinted here by permission.

Fr. Alberto Cutié’s new daytime talk show pre-

miered yesterday. Did you watch?

The premiere of “Father Albert” generated a bit of

conversation on the Episcopal Café’s Facebook

page with comments ranging from hopefulness to cu-

riosity to disdain. “And we should care...why?” wrote

one Episcopal priest.

I briefly met Fr. Cutié two years ago and I must

confess that I did so with that last question very much

in mind. First off, I’m not a big television watcher,

much less a fan of daytime television. I’d heard of Fa-

ther Oprah, had seen his books in Barnes and Noble,

but didn’t connect with the idea of a celibate priest

dispensing relationship advice.

Secondly, Fr. Cutié’s entry into the Episcopal

Church came at a particularly difficult time in my life.

Having just been rejected from the ordination process

in the Diocese of New York, I was hurt by how swiftly

Fr. Cutié became an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of

Southeast Florida. I recall joking that perhaps things

would have turned out differently for me had I been a

television star, better looking, with millions of fans.

A year or so later my attitude has changed. I’m a

fan and I strongly believe we should care. Here’s why:

The face of the Episcopal Church is rapidly chang-

ing. Latinos presently constitute one of — if not the

— fastest growing segments of the Episcopal Church.

This parallels broader shifts in U.S. demographics. As

noted in “A (Uni)Vision for Life After A Mass Mar-

ket,” demographers at the Census Bureau predict

that by the year 2042 racial and ethnic minorities will

make up more than half of the U.S. population, with

more than 30 percent considering themselves His-

panic.

In this context, Alberto Cutié’s story — that of a

Latino struggling to live within the confines of the

Roman Catholic Church and finding a new life and

home in the Episcopal Church — is a powerful one

that may resonate with millions of people. This was

very apparent in a Spanish-language radio

interview he gave with another Episcopal priest, the

Rev. Anna Lange-Soto. In it, he speaks about many

of the people he encountered as a Roman Catholic

priest: women who stayed within abusive relation-

ships rather than getting divorced; divorced individu-

als denied communion; couples struggling with the

church’s teaching on contraceptives, etc. He goes on

to say that he’s a member of the Episcopal Church

because we do not treat communion “like a prize”

but as the body of Christ offered to all.

While some may cringe over the scandalous ele-

ments of Alberto Cutié’s personal story, I happen to

hear in it an echo of the scandalous nature of love.

Love happens, we as a Church seem to be saying,

and Cutié is skillfully connecting his own story to

the experiences of those whose love of God and one

another is regularly denigrated: women who are

being called into the priesthood and LGBT people

who wish to marry.

In this same radio interview, a caller laments the

Roman Catholic’s view of LGBT people and asks

what the Episcopal Church’s position on this matter

is. The precision of [Cutié’s] response is remarkable.

He first lays out the Episcopal Church’s ability to

hold differing viewpoints on this matter in tension

and then articulates his own belief that we should be

fighting for LGBT equality. He provides a biblical

basis, noting how Paul’s description of pederasty dif-

fers from relationships between consenting adults,

talks about the Episcopal Church’s welcome to all,

and concludes with a particular call to Latino fathers

to love their LGBT children.

It’s in moments like these that Fr. Cutié’s skill as

communicator comes through — honed, undoubt-

edly, from his years as a TV personality. My sincere

hope is that we as a Church will be able to find a

way to welcome and use these many gifts to continue

to proclaim this Good News.

Why should we care about Alberto Cutié? As an

Episcopalian, I care because he is a member of my

Church, because his personal journey led him to this

spiritual home, because I hear aspects of my own

story in that journey, and because he’s a skillful com-

municator of what has brought me and so many oth-

ers into the Episcopal Church. And while I might

never be the biggest fan of his talk show (though

who knows?), I am a fan of his ability to meld the

unlikely worlds of a daytime talk show and genuine

faith. ■

Miguel Angel Escobar is associate program direc-tor for leadership and training at the EpiscopalChurch Foundation.

The Net, August 2011 11THENETPoints of View www.diosef.org

Why Alberto Cutié matters — “Father Oprah” and the Good News

Photo by David Steele/ Debmar-Mercury

On his new talk show “Father Albert” engages in a passionate discussion with a group of mothers aboutthe verdict in the Casey Anthony case.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Carson’s Silent Spring a “seriously uninformed” example

The Rev. Canon William “Chip” Stokes (TheNet, June 2011) states that “voices like that of

Rachel Carson in Silent Spring…tell the truth in

the face of power”…His use of Silent Spring as

truth and an avatar of environmental wisdom is

ludicrous, flawed, seriously uninformed and bot-

tom line ignorant.

Carson’s book has been scientifically shown

to be without foundation and is no more than

pseudo science at best. The book is now held in

very low regard by serious scientists.

Carson’s chief villain is the pesticide DDT.

During WWII, DDT was used in stopping a

major epidemic in Naples, Italy, in its tracks.

Didn’t cause harmful effects to anyone. The

World Health Organization credits DDT with

saving 50 to 100 million lives by preventing

malaria. Carson, trying to spotlight harm (in her

mind) to wildlife, painted emotional unscientific

scenarios in which all the birds had been poi-

soned by DDT, resulting in “silent spring in

which no birds sing.”

Carson’s disciples have managed to persuade

many poor countries to stop using DDT against

mosquitoes. The result, millions of people sick

and dying each year from malaria [and] between

300 and 500 million infected annually, killing

about 2.7 million. DDT activists have now had to

step back. However, after 40+ years and tens of

billions of dollars wasted phasing out DDT with-

out any measurable benefits, the consequences of

this book (and ignorance) are still causing misery

and killing hundreds of thousands each year…

The misuse of errant writing, as is the misuse

of Scripture, to make a point is, at least for me,

unacceptable.

— Robert P. Gallaher, Jr., North Miami Beach

(Note: Mr. Gallaher’s letter included a 1992article by entomologist J. Gordon Edwards that isseverely critical of Silent Spring.)

12 The Net, August 2011

THENET www.diosef.org Our Diocese

Ordination season:11 days,

three priests, two deacons

In less than two weeks in June the dio-

cese gained three new priests and two

new deacons.

The “ordination marathon” began with

the ordination to the priesthood of Charles

Cannon on June 19 at St. James the Fisher-

man, Islamorada, where he began his min-

istry as rector one week earlier.

On June 21 Matthew Koslowski was or-

dained to the priesthood at St. Mary’s, Stu-

art, where he is serving as assistant rector.

The following evening, June 22, two dea-

cons, Susan Beebe and Todd Hoover, were

ordained at All Saints, Ft. Lauderdale. Beebe

is assisting at St. Gregory’s, Boca Raton, and

Hoover at St. Mary Magdalene, Coral

Springs.

William Walker, who is now assisting

priest at St. Luke the Physician, Miami, was

ordained to the priesthood on June 24 at St.

Thomas, Coral Gables.

On June 29 Charles Browning was or-

dained to the priesthood at Holy Trinity,

West Palm Beach, where he serves as associ-

ate priest.

Bishop Leo Frade presents Deacons Todd Hoover andSusan Beebe to the congregation at All Saints, Ft. Laud-erdale. At left, serving as bishop’s chaplain, is Chuck Ebert.

Fr. Matthew Kozlowski’s wife, Danielle, vests him withhis stole.

With his daughter, Chelsea, son, Matthew,and father, the Rev. A. Charles Cannon,Jr.,and Bishop Leo Frade sharing the joyfulmoment, the newly ordained Fr. CharlesCannon greets his congregation.

Fr. William Walker gives his priestly blessing to Bishop Leo Frade, whoordained him minutes before. Fr. Charles Cannon (left) and retiredBishop Calvin O. Schofield, Jr., took part in the service.

Taking part in the ordination service for Fr. Charles Browning(center) were (left to right) Holy Trinity’s verger, Jeff Lewis,Canon Hap Lewis, Bishop Leo Frade and Holy Trinity’s rector,Fr. David Wilt.

Photo by Charles Lippincott

Photo by Jane Ferguson

Photo by Bob McCammon

Photo by Jeff McGregor

Photo by Steve Vinik

By Mary W. Cox, editor

Fr. Perry Fuller was an Episcopal priest for only

six-and-a-half years and never served as rector of a

parish, but his death on July 7 after a five-month bat-

tle with cancer is mourned across the diocese.

Born in Scranton, Pa., Aug. 30, 1935, Fuller began

his ministry in the Presbyterian Church, where he

served for 25 years as a pastor in churches in western

New York. In 1984 he received a doctorate in family

therapy from Colgate Rochester Divinity School and

began a new ministry in private practice, working

first with clients with eating disorders and then in in-

patient and outpatient treatment of addiction to alco-

hol and other drugs.

In 1996 Fuller and his wife, Pamela, were re-

ceived into the Episcopal Church. When they retired

to Delray Beach three years later, they became mem-

bers of St. Paul’s, where the rector, Canon William

“Chip” Stokes, soon began urging Fuller to consider

ordination as an Episcopal priest.

At age 68, Fuller was ordained to the diaconate on

July 11, 2004, at St. Paul’s, and began yet another

new ministry. He was ordained to the priesthood at

Grace, West Palm Beach, on Jan. 23, 2005, where he

served as deacon and continued to serve briefly as a

priest. But at the request of Bishop Leo Frade, he had

trained specifically for interim ministry, and in Au-

gust 2005 he began his first interim in the diocese at

St. Matthew the Apostle, Miami.

He subsequently served as interim at Holy Trinity,

West Palm Beach; Holy Sacrament, Pembroke Pines;

and most recently, from October 2009 till he became

ill in February of this year, at Bethesda-by-the-Sea,

Palm Beach.

He was also known by many diocesan clergy and

those in the process toward ordination as a member of

the Commission on Ministry and since 2007, director

of the Diocesan School for Christian Studies. He led

retreats and workshops on Benedictine spirituality

and contemplative prayer, and was often sought as a

spiritual director.

In a message to his congregation announcing

Fuller’s death, Fr. Tony Holder, rector of Holy Sacra-

ment, said, “Holy Sacrament will be forever richer

because of his influence on our faith community.”

On May 15 Fuller, who was then undergoing can-

cer treatment, was able to return to Bethesda-by-the-

Sea for one last service to conclude his interim

ministry there. During the service and at the reception

afterward there were many words of thanks from the

congregation, and the junior warden presented the

Fullers with a print of the church as seen from the

rectory. Parishioners had added their signatures and

messages to the mat around the print.

Fuller is survived by his wife of 50 years, Pam,

who continues as administrator of the Diocesan

School (see p. 4), two children and four grandchil-

dren.

The family suggests that any memorial donations

be made to one of the four parishes where he served

as interim, St. Matthew the Apostle, Holy Sacrament,

Holy Trinity and Bethesda by the Sea; Grace, where

he served as deacon and priest; Hospice by the Sea in

Boca Raton; or the Diocesan School Scholarship

Fund. ■

The Net, August 2011 13THENETOur Diocese www.diosef.org

By Kathleen Walker

The “African-Americans and Blacks of the

African Diaspora” forum, co-sponsored by the

Theodore R. Gibson chapter of the Union of Black

Episcopalians and the diocesan office of Immigration

and Social Justice on June 11 at Trinity Cathedral,

Miami, was a conversation long in the making.

A dynamic group of panelists shared stories and

stereotypes that had been handed down to them by

family members, and the discussion provided a plat-

form for honest dialogue about the perceptions —

and sometimes misunderstandings — that exist be-

tween African-Americans and blacks from other

countries. The panelists included Haitian-American

attorney, Beatrice Cazeau; Brenda Degraff, native of

Central America and human resources professional

in the hospitality industry; and Adrian Walker, who

is African-American and a local columnist for the

Boston Globe. Canon Richard Miller served as one

of the moderators for the occasion.

The lead moderator, Haitian-American attorney

Karen Andre, guided much of the conversation, and

panelists each had an opportunity to discuss how

their community perceives other black groups.

Cazeau, for instance, spent part of her childhood in

New York and shared vivid memories of an uncle

who strongly discouraged any fraternization with

African American children, warning that their par-

ents were dangerous or shiftless. She admits that

these admonitions prevented her making friends with

kids in the neighborhood. As she got older, she dis-

covered that many of these stereotypes were shared

by others who had emigrated from her homeland of

Haiti.

Brenda Degraff had a different experience, be-

cause when her family arrived from Guatemala they

moved into the predominantly black area of Liberty

City. She attended Orchard Villa Elementary

School, which was almost completely African-

American. According to Degraff, the kids in her

school were curious about her and her sisters be-

cause of the language difference, and welcomed her

easily. She was able to make friends quickly, and

found assimilation not so difficult.

Adrian Walker described a childhood in which he

attended predominantly black schools and racial is-

sues were not discussed a great deal at home. He

credited his parents with shielding him and his sib-

lings from many of the racial tensions of the late 60s

and the 70s.

The conversation took a different tone when

Andre asked for reflections on the current relations

between various ethnic groups. Some of the forum

participants from other cultures recalled that there

were many stereotypes related to African-Ameri-

cans that they heard at home. There was a percep-

tion among many from the West Indies that their

children were eager to learn and study in school,

while black children born in this country squan-

dered their time.

The panelists also talked about the large role the

media played in shaping perceptions about African-

Americans in their native lands. The whole portrayal

of American blacks, according to some, was always

negative.

Everyone agreed that more dialogue was needed

to dispel many of the notions each group had about

the other, and agreed to continue to explore mutu-

ally beneficial opportunities to bridge the varying

segments of the African Diaspora. ■

Kathleen Walker, a member of Church of the In-carnation, Miami, is president of the Theodore R.Gibson Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopaliansand serves on the Standing Committee of the diocese.

Forum focuses on honest dialogue, shared experiences

Diocese mourns pastor and spiritual guide Perry Fuller

Photo by Nick Kindred

Fr. Perry Fuller gives his blessing to the congrega-tion of Bethesda-by-the-Sea at the end of his finalservice there on May 15. Following him in the proces-sion is assisting priest Fr. Rick Effinger.

By Archdeacon Fritz Bazin

Following the June 11 forum at Trinity Cathedral

on “Black Americans and Other Blacks of the Dias-

pora,” two gatherings in the wider church also ad-

dressed the issue of relations between the various

black ethnic groups in the US.

The annual Caribbean Clergy Consultation, June

14-16 in Washington, D.C., which included even a

delegation from the Diocese of Toronto, Canada,

reaffirmed the imperative to bring together all per-

sons of African ancestry into greater cooperation as

black Episcopalians /Anglicans.

At the 43rd annual Union of Black Episcopalians

(UBE) Meeting and Conference, June 27-July 1 in

Norfolk, Va., there was also an emphasis on making

the organization more inclusive of all black Episco-

palians. Many speakers underlined the fact that

throughout the US, black congregations include large

numbers of people from the West Indies, the

Caribbean, Latin America and Africa.

It is important to emphasize that such gatherings

are pro-black, not anti-white, which is a fear ex-

pressed by some who see the name Union of Black

Episcopalians as expressive of a separatist movement.

In fact, people of all ethnicities are welcome to join

UBE.

Our church is definitely headed toward helping

build a stronger black America by initiating a healthy

conversation between our various black ethnic

groups. The more we hear each other’s stories the

healthier will be our relations and the more we will

be able to celebrate our diversities. “Vive la differ-

ence.” ■

“Vive la difference” — hearing the stories of all black ethnic groups

Diocesan Youth Convention will beSept. 30-Oct. 1 at St. Benedict’s

The Diocesan Youth Convention will be held

Sept. 30-Oct 1 at St. Benedict’s, Plantation, begin-

ning with registration on Friday, from 6 –7 p.m.,

and ending with the Eucharist at 5:30 p.m. on Sat-

urday. The cost is $35.

The annual event offers youth of the diocese an

opportunity for fellowship, worship, learning and

discussion of the work of the diocese, as well as

the election of Youth Commission cabinet mem-

bers (president, vice-president, secretary and ad-

ministrative assistant).

Anyone who wishes to be a candidate for one of

the cabinet positions must submit the Officer Bal-

lot Application and Parental Responsibility form,

signed by a parent or guardian, no later than Sept. 2

to Mary Cobiella, diocesan administrative assistant

for Youth Ministry, by email at mary@diosef.org

or by fax at 305-375-8054. These forms have been

sent to all parish youth ministers and leaders and

are available to download from the youth ministry

pages at www.diosef.org.

Each congregation is encouraged to send up to

10 youth, two of whom will be voting delegates.

Workshops planned for this year include missions,

relationships and writing your own music. ■

Youth and Young Adult Calendar 2011-2012

Sept. 30 –Oct. 1, 2011 — Youth Convention,St. Benedict’s, Plantation; cost: $35Nov. 11-12, 2011 — Diocesan Convention, St.Joseph, Boynton BeachDec. 17, 2011 — Young Adult Advent Summit,location TBADec. 17, 2011 — Christmas Ball, St. Bene-dict’s, Plantation; cost: $15Feb. 17-19, 2012 — New Beginnings #3, loca-tion TBA; cost: $35Apr. 28, 2012 — Acolyte Festival, TrinityCathedral, Miami; cost: $15

From June 22-26 over 700 youth, along with 300

adult advisors and 50 bishops, gathered on the cam-

pus of Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., for the

Episcopal Youth Event, a comprehensive program de-

signed to enrich and empower the next generation of

leaders in the Episcopal Church.

More than 50 workshops shared knowledge, sto-

ries and skills on subjects such as prayer and spiritu-

ality, effective Bible study, youth ministry and

mission trip planning. Presenters included church

leaders like Maryland Bishop Eugene Sutton; the

Rev. Angela Ifill, Episcopal Church black ministries

officer; the Rev. Winfred Vergara, Episcopal Church

Asian American ministries officer; and the Rev. Bob

Honeychurch, Episcopal Church officer for congrega-

tional vitality.

During the three days of the event participants

also worked to build a Habitat for Humanity house on

the Bethel campus.

Southeast Florida was represented by Youth Com-

mission President Emily Gonzalez-Holland of St

Benedict’s, Plantation; Vice-president Krista Lam-

berti and Secretary Sophia Faiella, both of St.

Stephen’s, Miami; Gillian Newman, St. Benedict’s;

and Nora Vinas, Holy Cross, Miami; and adult advi-

sors Krisan Lamberti from St. Stephen’s, and Deacon

Ken Sims from Holy Family, Miami Gardens.

Two others from our diocese, Michael Sahdev and

Gladys Rodriguez, served on Residential Care Team

for EYE, and Sahdev, a sophomore at the University

of the South (Sewanee) also represented the univer-

sity.

Krisan Lamberti reported that at one point the SE

Florida youth helped to lead “an impromptu work-

shop” on Happening.

Gonzalez-Holland said that the most important as-

pect of EYE was “the building of friendships and

bonds with other youth who share the same passion

and faith as you do.”

“There seemed to be such a comfortable sense about

EYE,” she continued. “The fact that everyone was so

connected was truly beautiful. The theme of this year’s

EYE was, ‘Come Together,’ and not only did we do

that, but we did that on such a different level — not just

a national level, but (also) a spiritual level.”

Following EYE, our diocesan youth moved on to

the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota for PYE,

the Province IV Youth Event. From July 26-29 they

stained and painted two churches, worked on crafts

with the local children, took a tour of the area and

had the opportunity to learn from two Ojibwe Episco-

pal priests and to have worship and fellowship with

the people of the community on “the rez.”

“One of the most memorable things the Native

American priest told the group was that he was glad

we came, although no one wanted us initially, be-

cause they thought we were no use,” recalled Nora

Vinas. “By the end of our two day mission we

changed their perspective on what they thought youth

were capable of accomplishing, and they now have

faith in youth because they know there are genuinely

good hearts wanting to serve.”

“EYE and PYE gave something to each and every

person involved, a sense of community and building

in the faith,” said Gonzalez-Holland.

This article was based upon reports from ourdiocesan EYE/PYE representatives, as well as a storyfor ENS by Joe Bjordal.

SE Florida at PYE

Photo provided by Krista Lamberti

Above: Our EYE/PYE representatives pause in a tour of the Red Lake Nation. Left to right, front row, areGillian Newman, Krista Lamberti, Nora Vinas and Sophia Faiella; back row, Gladys Rodriguez, Deacon KenSims, Emily Gonzalez-Holland and Krisan Lamberti. At right: Standing on a ladder provided by a member ofthe Red Lake Nation, Krita Lamberti helps paint St. John’s Church.

Youth “come together” in spirit and service at EYE/PYE

Painting a church

Photo by Gladys Rodriguez

14 The Net, August 2011www.diosef.org YouthTHE

NET

By Steve Rowland, Don Weed

and Linda Pinder

Over Memorial Day weekend (May 28-31), Fr.

Spencer Potter, along with four parishioners (Steve

Rowland, Don Weed, Linda Pinder and Erika Parker)

from St. Andrew’s, Palmetto Bay, traveled to Haiti.

This brief trip was the beginning of a discernment

process to identify a mission project or projects that

our parish can be involved in for the next 15-20 years.

Fr. Potter organized the trip with the assistance of

Archdeacon Fritz Bazin, the South Florida Haiti Proj-

ect (SFHP) team, and the office of Pere Kesner Ajax,

coordinator of the Partnership Program for the Diocese

of Haiti.

The team arrived early Saturday morning at Port au

Prince (PAP) Airport, where we were met by our driver

and guide, Claudell, whose services had been arranged

for us by Angela Galbreath, assistant to Pere Ajax.

After a quick stop at our hotel, we were off to visit our

first mission site.

We know Dorothy Pearce, the founder and director

of Faith-Hope-Love Infant Rescue (FHLIR), in PAP

because her brother, Robert Smith, is a St. Andrew’s

parishioner. Dorothy established the children’s home

where she, the staff and volunteers look after children

who are either orphans, or whose poor families cannot

afford to care for them. While some of the children at

FHLIR are healthy and help in the care of the other

children, many have significant medical needs includ-

ing severe malnourishment, HIV, TB and other special

needs.

We spent a wonderful few hours playing with, eat-

ing with — and often just holding — the children at

FHLIR. It was clear that this ministry needs our

prayers, donations of goods and money, and volunteers

who share a calling to this essential effort.

Late Saturday afternoon we toured PAP. One of the

strongest memories of the tour was a visit to the ruins

of Trinity Cathedral, which was leveled by the 7.0-

magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010. Early this year

the Episcopal Church began a churchwide appeal

called Rebuild Our Church in Haiti, which focuses on

helping the Diocese of Haiti rebuild the cathedral and

its ministries.

On Sunday morning, we were off to meet Bishop

Jean Zaché Duracin. He was visiting Notre Dame de

l’Annonciation in Carrefour for Confirmation Sunday.

The service was held under a temporary shelter, since

the church building itself had severe structural damage

from the earthquake and was not safe for use. Never-

theless, the young ladies wore beautiful white dresses

and bows in their hair and the young men wore white

shirts, ties and black pants for their Confirmation.

This wonderful celebration, although in French and

Creole, was familiar to the team as we followed the

order of the Book of Common Prayer. After the serv-

ice, we were warmly welcomed and treated to a deli-

cious coffee hour and introduced to Bishop Duracin

and his wife, Edithe. Then we were back in the van

and off to our next stop.

Sunday afternoon we traveled two and a half hours

west of PAP along the northern coast of the mountain-

ous south peninsula of Haiti to the rural village com-

munity of Bondeau, just west of the port city of

Miragoane. Bondeau is the home of Ste. Marie

Madeleine Parish and School, which has flourished

through an eight-year partnership with the South

Florida Haiti Project (SFHP).

We were greeted by Pere Kesner Gracia, priest-in-

charge and regional archdeacon, and Deacon Anita

Thorstad from St. Gregory’s, Boca Raton. Once we

got settled into the Maison D’Amitie guesthouse, we

were given a walking tour of the school

facility and were able to participate in

the community celebration of Bonne

Fete Mama (Haitian Mother’s Day).

The next morning we were trans-

ported by dugout canoe and then motor

skiff to nearby Bidaw. Bidaw is a small

mangrove island populated by approxi-

mately 145 people whose primary

means of subsistence is fishing. The

community consists of many families, with the

youngest resident being a beautiful nine-day-old girl.

The poverty on Bidaw is profound, and words fail in

any description of the living conditions there. A proj-

ect is currently underway to relocate the families from

Bidaw later this year into newly built housing within

the Bondeau community. (See story p. 1.)Later Monday afternoon, Deacon Anita and our

guide, Junior, took us for a walk-about throughout the

community along the highway and then up into the

foothills to visit and provide whatever advice and care

we could to those we met. Our digital cameras were a

big hit with everyone and we could not take enough

pictures to satisfy all. The SFHP has accomplished a

tremendous amount in the past eight years with its

work in Bondeau. This partnership has built class-

rooms and an administrative building for the school,

initiated a feeding program for students and staff, in-

stalled a diesel powered electrical generator, built

housing for staff and teachers, built a guesthouse for

visitors, supported a small clinic within the school and

is now helping relocate the residents of Bidaw into per-

manent housing on the mainland. An incredible

amount has been accomplished but so much more

needs to be done with this worthy effort.

The last stop on our trip was at Ecole le Bon Samar-

itain (School of the Good Samaritan) in Carrefour. In

one of the poorest neighborhoods of PAP, Fr. Jean-Elie

Millien and his wife, Mona, founded this school in

1996. Fr. Millien had served as an assistant at St. An-

drew’s many years ago, and several parishioners main-

tained contact with the Milliens. St. Andrew’s has

supported the school financially for many years, but

this was our first visit to the school. The pink-uni-

formed students welcomed us with an enthusiastic sere-

nade followed by an impromptu recess with the

visitors. The school was severely damaged in the quake

and is classes are currently being held in temporary

shelters. The Milliens shared with us the plans to re-

build the school facility and to continue to provide edu-

cational and health care opportunities to their students.

Even though we only spent a few days in Haiti, all

team members came away with an appreciation of the

tremendous needs in this poorest country in the west-

ern hemisphere. We came home with a strong sense of

the need for action.

We found that the people of Haiti want to be in

long-term relationship with us, not just materially and

monetarily, but spiritually within the Christian commu-

nity. These imperatives for action have been brought

back to the St. Andrew’s community, and plans for our

next steps in Haiti are well underway. ■

THENET The Net, August 2011 15 xCommitted to Mission

Miami nursing instructorsshare skills in LeoganeIn early May a group of nurses from Miami went to

Haiti — not to treat patients, but to spend a few days

teaching at the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de l’U-

niversité Episcopale d’Haïti (FSIL), the Episcopal

nursing school in Leogane.

Dr. Helen Bhagwandin of Church of the Ascension,

Miami, a faculty member in the School of Nursing at

Miami-Dade College, was one of that first team sent

by the Haitian American Nurses Association (HANA)

to teach classes at FSIL. The team included three oth-

ers from the nursing faculty at Miami-Dade and a

nurse/educator of Haitian heritage who works for Mt.

Sinai Hospital.

Since the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, HANA

has sent a number of teams to Haiti to respond to ur-

gent healthcare needs there. The group became aware

See SHARING SKILLS, Page 16

Trip to Haiti plants seeds for St. Andrew’s long-term mission partnershipTO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE MIN-

ISTRIES:

■ Faith-Hope-Love Infant Rescue(FHLIR): http://www.dorothypearce-haiti.blogspot.com■ Rebuild Our Church in Haiti:http://www.episcopalchurch.org/HaitiAppeal/■ South Florida Haiti Project:http://www.southfloridahaitiproject.org)■ Ecole le Bon Samaritain:http://www.ecolelbs.com

“It’s you...”

Photo by Steve Rowland

Don Weed from St. Andrew’s shows the pictures he took of newfriends on the road near Bondeau.

Dr. Helen Bhagwandin from Miami talks withstudents at Faculté des Sciences Infirmières del’Université Episcopale d’Haïti (FSIL) in Leogane,Haiti, where she and other nursing instructors fromMiami taught classes for several days in May.

Visiting instructor

Photo by Marie Etienne

By Tony Magana

(The combined outreach ministry of St. Mark’s,Palm Beach Gardens, and St. George’s, RivieraBeach, in the community around St. George’s was oneof 14 ministries awarded a Bishop’s Ministry Grant inMay. The grants are part of a diocesan Strategy forGrowing a Healthier Ministry introduced by BishopLeo Frade at last November’s Diocesan Convention,and will provide $900,000 over a four-year period tostrengthen the leadership and infrastructure withinour congregations. This is the second in a series ofstories about ministries that are receiving this grantfunding.)

The varied ministries of St. George’s Episcopal

Church and Center provide in many ways for the bod-

ies, minds and spirits of those in need in Riviera

Beach and northern Palm Beach County.

This summer the weak economy and government

deficits resulted in a severe cutback in summer pro-

grams for youth in Riviera Beach. Hundreds of poor

families in our immediate area who normally rely

upon school breakfast/lunch programs during the

school year for the first time faced loss of meals as

well as summer enrichment programs.

St. George’s has become the main refuge and

sanctuary for hundreds of poor families with young

children. To help provide assistance to these families

we have created alliances with many government

agencies, non-profits and religious institutions.

Our after-school program, which was started in

2001, becomes an out-of- school program during the

summer, providing a Monday through Friday pro-

gram that includes nutrition, art, academic reinforce-

ment, discovery, character building and physical

education.

This year-round approach allows parents to work

during the summer knowing that their children will

be well cared for, and has also resulted in high scores

for many of these children on the fourth grade FCAT.

Five paid staff members certified by the Palm

Beach County Department of Health in child growth

and development training, as well as many volunteers

from collaborating institutions, are involved in the

care of children from the first to sixth grades. Older

children who have been through the program also

serve as volunteers.

The Executive Director of St. George’s Center,

Ms. Hyacinthia Becton who holds a Master’s Degree

in Education, came to St. George’s after more than 20

years experience with Palm Beach County School

Board. The director of the After-School/Out of

School Program, Everett Mitchell, grew up in Riviera

Beach and was a college football star who returned to

serve his community. He provides a wonderful male

role model, which is often lacking in the lives of

many poor children.

This summer volunteers from Holy Trinity, West

Palm Beach, and Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Palm Beach,

came to St. George’s Center every Monday to lead

Vacation Bible School, providing a day of Bible study

and fun, with two meals and a snack included. The

children enjoyed the Bible stories of Noah, Moses,

Joseph and Jonah, as well as field trips to movies,

bowling, Lion Country Safari, Calypso Bay water

park, the Palm Beach Science Museum and the zoo.

A little over a year ago, Eagle Scout candidates

from St. Mark’s began to locate their projects at St.

George’s, the result of which has been thousands of

man hours and capital being spent on a new play-

ground, basketball court, internal church renovations,

and a new memorial garden. During the projects, es-

pecially the building of the basketball court, many

neighborhood children began to show up and ask to

be involved.

The Boy Scouts’ presence at St. George’s began in

the 1940s, but it had faded until the beginning of

these projects. Subsequent to this new community ex-

posure, a new ministry of Scouting was reborn as

Cub Scout Pack 779.

Thanks in part to an inner city Scout Reach grant,

the new scouts have camped at Tanakeeta in

Tequesta, participated in the regional Pinewood

Derby at St. Mark’s, and are planning new projects to

help their community. In the works is the develop-

ment of Scouting for older boys that may involve co-

operation with a marine industry charity.

A major focus of St. George’s ministry has always

been our feeding program. According to the Food Re-

search and Action Center one in seven Americans

now is on some type of food assistance program.

Florida has one of the fastest growing needs with an

18% increase in demand just over the past year.

Although the capacity in the summer program is

limited to about 50, the Center can actually seat 80

people at a time in the Parish Hall and often feeds

180 people or more at least twice a day during the

week and once on Saturday.

St. George’s is a recognized open site for any

neighborhood child to receive a nutritious free lunch.

This summer during the day and evening feedings we

have seen many new faces of families including re-

cent Central American immigrants, Haitian refugees,

and working poor African-American families, all of

whom are struggling.

Everyday we have walk-ins asking for help for a

myriad of situations. With the recent shutdown of

non-profits that were providing food stamp assis-

tance, we have begun to provide food stamp applica-

tion services. Thanks to volunteers, St. George’s is

also providing job search assistance, homeless decla-

ration, mail services for the poor, free everyday cloth-

ing, and acts as a liaison with government agencies

including the Palm Beach County Health

Department, Human Services and the Vet-

eran’s Administration.

Recently a new coalition has been cre-

ated with the Riviera Beach Police Depart-

ment to promote the peace in the

community by identifying and facilitating

placement of those families and individu-

als in need of human services.

Part of our partnership with St. Mark’s,

Palm Beach Gardens, has included moving

St. Mark’s Thrift Shop to within a few

blocks of St. George’s. The thrift shop pro-

vides low cost clothes for sale, and also

provides work or interview clothes for

clients of the job assistance program at St.

George’s.

St George’s also partners with Housing

Services of Palm Beach County, Inc., to

provide housing, blankets, infant clothes

and supplies, food stamp applications,

homeless declaration services, pantry

food, kitchen utensils and many other ne-

cessities for the recently homeless with

minor children. In the future we look for

further development and cooperation between St.

Mark’s Thrift Shop, St. George’s Episcopal Church

and Center, Housing Services of Palm Beach County,

and the new Family Promise Program beginning at

Holy Spirit, West Palm Beach. ■

Tony Magana, a member of St. Mark’s, PalmBeach Gardens, is a lay missionary at St. George’s,Riviera Beach, Florida.

16 The Net, August 2011

THENET Committed to Mission

that there is not only a shortage of nurses, but also a

critical need for nursing instructors.

Bhagwandin said the team members were specifi-

cally invited by HANA to participate. Bringing back-

grounds in a wide range of specialties, they were able

to teach classes in such subjects as physical assess-

ments, pharmacology math, advanced medical surgical

nursing, oncology and research.

FSIL Dean Hilda Alcindor, who formerly lived and

worked in Miami, “was most delighted to have some-

one come from the Episcopal Church and made sure

that all the students knew that they had an Episco-

palian faculty member,” Bhagwandin said.

“The students were eager to learn and very enthusi-

astic about their nursing careers, and were most grate-

ful for our contribution to their learning process,” she

added.

“I plan to return.”

One of Bhagwandin’s ministries is parish nursing,

and she hopes to teach a class at FSIL for students in-

terested in that work.

The only four-year university baccalaureate nursing

program in Haiti is FSIL, which has an enrollment of

120 nursing students with 30 in each class. Although

the town of Leogane, east of Port-au-Prince, was 95

percent destroyed in the earthquake, the buildings at

FSIL escaped severe damage, and nursing students and

faculty began treating the injured immediately after the

quake. Because Ste. Croix Hospital in Leogane did

suffer severe damage, the university facilities served as

a hospital for three months after the quake. ■

SHARING SKILLS from Page 15

Bishop’s Ministry Grants:St. George’s feeds bodies and spirits of children, homeless families

Scouts in training

Photo by Tony Magana

Eagle Scout candidate Rafael Magana gives instructions tosome of St. George’s future Boy Scouts as the children help buildtheir own basketball court at St. George’s Church and Center.