Bishop Quezada prepares to enter Iglesia Episcopal Monte de Sión. For a complete set of photographs from this event, click this image.

 

A long-held dream of the Altagracia neighborhood in Boca Chica came true on Saturday, November 10, 2018 at the consecration of Iglesia Episcopal Monte de Sión. After a parade through the main street, the Right Reverend Moisés Quezada Mota led a group of about 15 clergy and 175 lay people into the new church after the beautiful wooden doors were opened in response to his knock with his crozier. 

Among the attendees were the Reverend Marshall Huey, rector of Old Saint Andrews Parish Church (Charleston, SC); and the Reverends Christian Wood and Mario Castro from the Church of the Redeemer (Sarasota, FL). Old St. Andrews and Redeemer worked together with the Diocese of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Development Group in a partnership to provide the necessary financial support and construction expertise for this project. Five construction workers from Redeemer along with Bill Kunkle, the Executive Director of the DDG, were on the site the week before the consecration working with volunteers from the congregation and the community to build 22 wooden pews, the pulpit, the lectern, the baptismal font, the Bishop's chair and other altar chairs, and to clean and prepare the building for the consecration service. The Redeemer team remained for the consecration, and were invited to stand up and be introduced at the end of the service.  Also present at the service were Karen Hotte, Executive Director of the Global Episcopal Mission Network, and the Reverend Sarah Smith, curate of St. Andrews On-the-Sound Episcopal Church (Wilmington, NC), both of whom were in-country as part of the DDG-sponsored Fall 2018 Exploration trip.

 

After the ceremony, the congregation of Monte de Sión hosted a luncheon prepared by the women of the church at Eco Village, a nearby resort facility.  The Reverend Augusto Sandino Sánchez Pujols serves as the vicar of this new church and two nearby congregations, Santo Tómas and San José.  Monte de Sión is the third new Episcopal church consecrated this year in the Diocese of the Dominican Republic.

For an album of photographs from this event, click here.

Children at Colegio Episcopal San José in Boca Chica at their morning assembly.

Ongoing Professional Development in the Dominican Episcopal Schools

 

 

Editor's Note: Educational Missionary Tom McGowan contributed this article about his forthcoming trip, which will include an overnight professional development retreat for Episcopal schoolteachers and administrators. Tom will be posting frequent updates during his trip on his lively blog available here.

Excitement builds among the members of our Educational Mission Team as we anticipate our fourth trip to the Dominican Republic to offer professional development opportunities to educators in the Episcopal school system. More and more, the Dominican Diocese's 26 colegios can be described as a "system", with regular professional development opportunities, the establishment of an education office (with coordinator) at the Diocesan level, official start- and end-of-the-year activities, data gathering/collecting and a growing emphasis on transformation prompting instructional and curricular changes in many schools.

 

We arrive in Santo Domingo on December 3rd and return home on the 8th. We will drive north to the Episcopal "Campamento" in the mountains near Jarabacoa on the 4th, present a workshop series over the 5th and 6th, return to Santo Domingo on the 7th (with school visits in-and-around Santiago along the way) and fly home that next day. Our usual hectic schedule, but as several team members say (borrowing from an old rock song): "That's the way, aha, aha, we like it, aha, aha".

 

This professional development activity is a major departure from past efforts and demonstrates a growing scope and impact. Our workshops will provide the foundation for a 2-day leadership retreat for rectors, principals and administrators across the country. The title of the retreat, "Leadership and Management of the Motivated School," offers general information and targeted strategies for school improvement in areas that include curriculum, finances, parent-school relations and school climate. 

 

We welcome your thoughts and prayers as we prepare for and conduct this leadership retreat. And, as always, thank you for your continuing support.

-- Tom McGowan, Educational Missionary

On the right, the Rev. Deacon Alex Romero, a professional banker and DDG board member from the Dominican Republic, presents the report on the status of the Dominican diocesan endowment fund. To access this report, the draft minutes and all other reports distributed at this meeting, click this image.

Draft Minutes and Reports from the October 2018 Meeting of the DDG's Board of Directors

 

Four deacons and one priest were ordained on November 24, 2018.  Photograph by Alexander Carmona.

Five Ordinations in the 

Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic