Ministries & Outreach
Anglican Bishop from Uganda Speaks Out About Genocide
Dorcas Kids Excel in School
Steven Velez-Confer reports our Dorcas House boys and girls were among award winners at their respective schools this year.
1er lugar Alejandro Perez Cordova en aprobechamiento durante todo el año escolar
(1st place, Alejandro Perez Cordova for achievement during the entire school year)
3er. lugar Alexis Mariscal Jaureguy en aprobechamiento durante todo el año escolar
(3rd place, Alexis Mariscal Jaureguy for achievement during the entire school year)
3er lugar Alma Arely Mariscal Jaureguy aprobechamiento durante el año escolar (3rd place, Alma Arely Mariscal Jaureguy for achievement during the school year)
3er lugar Gabriela Yahaira Hernandez Garcia aprobechamiento durante el año escolar en baile folklorico (3rd place, Gabriela Yahaira Hernandez Garcia for achievement during the school year in folkloric dance)
1er lugar Gabriela Yahaira Hernandez Garcia y Alma Arely Mariscal Jaureguy 2do (1st place, Gabriela Yahaira Hernandez Garcia and Alma Arely Mariscal Jaureguy secondary school)
Peace and Justice Report
by Marion Gaston, chair
With our support, Chapter passed a resolution asking that gays and lesbians be accepted into the full life of the church, in accordance with 30 years of policy recognizing that we're all sons and daughters of God. The resolution was distributed throughout Convention, and on the internet.
Gay Pride is July 28 to 29. We will again have a group marching in the parade, another group offering Cathedral 4 the City bottled water, and homemade treats at our tables on 6th Avenue. A third group will work in an interfatith booth in the park. Did you know last year more than 700 people visited our tables on Sixth Avenue! Here's what you can do:
a. Attend the rally on Friday the 28th, from 6 to 9 at Marston Point, 6th and Juniper
b. Bring refreshments to the church office on Friday, or Saturday morning
c. Walk in the parade Saturday from 11 to 2
d. Help staff our popular hospitality tables on 6th Avenue
e. Make decorations for/ or hang out at the interfaith booth complete with chaplains.
This is going to take a lot of work and, like every year, should be a lot of fun. For details and to volunteer, please email Bill Cassidy at moose81625@aol.com.
Alexandra Alberts reported a very successful trip to El Salvador and they plan to hold forums throughout the diocese. Another trip to El Salvador is on the boards for next spring, and a relief effort to the Gulf Coast region is also in the works. For details, contact Alex Alberts. (alexandra_alberts3@yahoo.com)
The Cathedral Chapter voted to take responsibility for Dorcas House, through fundraising and by staffing a board of directors, including Terri Mathes. It is hoped that in time Dorcas House will be on the forefront throughout the diocese. There are numerous outreach opportunities. Joan Ford and Stephanie Pierce are in charge of organizing the outreach projects. Website: www.DorcasHouseFriends.org
Expect a forum in the near future on the situation in Northern Uganda. Robert May, our Amnesty International liaison has an article below in this issue of the eClarion.
Plans are under way for our fall Saturday event on immigration. We anticipate having four speakers and small break-out groups to address the theology, politics, and economics of immigration, along with someone to speak about the reality at our border. We may show a movie the Friday night of that weekend, and we are hopeful that we'll have a preacher Sunday at all three services who can address the issues.
Special thanks to Teresa Castro for being willing to spearhead an environmental ministry. Go Teresa! And thanks to Robert May for being so willingly dragged into being our point person for international issues. Yea Robert! Our next meeting, Monday, August 7. We'll hit the ground running. Peace -- Marian
Anglican Bishop from Uganda Speaks Out About Genocide
by Robert May
Bishop Macleord Baker Ochola II by the ruins of a car blownup by a land-mine; his wife Winifred died in the explosion. (Photo: The Rev Christopher Carey/CMS)
Retired Anglican Bishop Maceleord Baker Ochola II of Kitgum, Uganda addressed the diocese of San Diego and the community at large on Sunday afternoon, June 25th. The presentation was hosted by the Cathedral’s Peace and Justice Committee and CEGUN (Campaign to End the Genocide in Uganda, NOW!). Sixty two people attended, which was really a good turnout for such a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It was also very encouraging to see that almost half the people who attended were teenagers and early twenty year olds. Thank you again to everyone who was there.
Bishop Ochola lost both his wife and his daughter to the violence in Northern Uganda. He has traveled around the world in an effort to bring attention to the horrors being committed in his country. He has had little or no help from the Anglican Church in Africa or from the UN. He has traveled across the US for the past 6 months speaking to Episcopal dioceses in an effort to raise awareness and put pressure on the US government to stop funding the Ugandan government or at least threaten to do so if things don’t change. His travels have not been in vain. Bishop Lipscomb of the diocese of Southwest Florida drew up a resolution (B013) presented in Columbus at the 75th Annual General Convention. Bishop Lipscomb also took Bishop Ochola with him to speak before the House of Bishops. They were not alone in their efforts. Bishop Curry of North Carolina, Bishop Chane of Washington D.C., and our very own Bishop Mathes were also supporting the resolution. Unfortunately, the resolution was left “pending”, floating in convention limbo at least until the next Executive Council meeting.
A Brief History:
For twenty years the Acholi people in Northern Uganda have been caught in the middle between a rebel army and bad governmental policies. The LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) has abducted between 20 and 30 thousand children over the past twenty years, forcing them to fight against their own people or using them as sex slaves. In 1996 President Musevini forced 1.6 million of the Acholi people into camps, stating that it was for their own protection; that is 95% of the population. Doctors Without Borders is reporting between 1,000 and 1,500 people are dying per week inside the camps due to poor sanitation and little to no access to medical care.
The situation in Uganda has received little to no media attention partly because of the nature of words. Genocide is the “intentional” destruction of a people or a culture. While Musevini has referred to the Acholi as “insects”, he has not sanctioned the killing of them directly, but it is happening indirectly. Living in unsanitary conditions of the camps kill them. The setting provides opportunities for the LRA to kill, rape, and abduct them. So the question is “If the end result is the extermination of a culture, a people or a way of life but it isn’t intentional, does that make it OK?” No one wanted to call Rwanda genocide and nothing was done about it as the whole world watched. It is too bad that we could not learn from our past mistakes.
