the camino newsletter 8 - anglicancentresantiago.org · el camino newsletter: nº8 fall 2018...

A LETTER FROM SPAIN, FALL 2018

Friends, Greetings from a chilly Madrid. We hope this finds you well. There´s been continued activity with the Camino project since last I wrote to you. We´ve had several Caminos. People have come from Colorado, New York, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and seemingly everywhere else. Here above is a photo of the group from Christ Church Westerly, Rhode Island and Pam Runyon (second from the left), the

BOARD FOR THE FRIENDS OF THE CAMINO, AN ANGLICAN CENTER,

SANTIAGO, SPAIN Legal counsel: Bradon McCurrack, Esq., Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, World Financial Center, NY, NY 10281, 212.504.6788 President: Revd. Marek Zabriskie, Chistchurch Greenwich, CT, 1.212.869.6600, x 12 Vice-President: Nancy Hoxsie Mead Naragansett, RI 917.856.0064 (AVAILABLE TO SPÈAK) Treasurer: Edith Morrill, New York City, NY 646.404.3343 (Tax ID for US 31262 FOR DONATIONS) Secretary: Ed Gibson, New York City, NY, 646.361.3041 Edit0r of El Camino Newsletter: Rvdo. Spencer Reece Canon to the Ordinary Bishop of Spain +34.611.465.062

The Vision Statement: The Anglican Center of Santiago will be an Ecumenical Place that

offers hospitality, learning, healing, hope and love and

rejuvenates the episcopal diocese in Spain.

EL CAMINO www. anglicanos.org | [email protected] | Tel: +34.91.445.2560| Facebook

calle de la Beneficencia 18, 28004 Madrid, España IGLESIA ESPAÑOLA REFORMADA EPISCOPAL | COMUNIÓN ANGLICANA

international chair of Daughters of the King. The Daughters have established already two chapters in Spain in the last few years and Runyon tells us some of their work here in this newsletter. We also hear from Canon Greg Foraker, from the Cathedral in Denver, Colorado. He is keen to join our project and we´ll be talking about the ways that might manifest itself. Finally we hear from Rev. Kit McLean, who came on a Camino with us and was immediately engaged by wanting to support this project.

We´ll be meeting with Trinity Wall Street in February, then making our now yearly visit to Yale Berkeley to drum up new recruits for summer internships. I´ve just been sent word there is one waiting for us to interview him when we arrive. Finally making a presentation at the CEEP Conference, the Consortium for Endowed Episcopal Parishes in Boston, Massachusetts. If things fall into place we might see ourselves in our new building by 2020 or 2021. We´ll do that with prayers, some grants and some good old fundraising. Nancy Mead has already made the rounds to several churches and everywhere she goes people are giving because they believe in this project for the future of the Episcopal church and the world. Please check out our newly improved website at: www.anglicancentresantiago.org. We are adding videos and new tabs with information on our team and the priests who are available on the Camino.

On a personal note, I myself went on the Camino in September with 6 pilgrims interested in our Santiago Center. They hailed from Dallas, Philadelphia, New Orleans, New York and Rhode Island. The Bishop and a tour guide led us through breathtaking walks under canopies of verdant whispering leaves. We all talked along the way. We wrote

EL CAMINO NEWSLETTER: nº8 FALL 2018

Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar… — Antonio Machado 3

down little prayers and folded them into tiny packets we left in the trees! I found myself reciting poetry and conducting meditations. It was spontaneous but then again the Holy Spirit is spontaneous so I trusted it.

I´d heard from others that this was a special spiritual walk but I don´t think anything convinces you of that until you´ve actually done it yourself. I was seriously considering bowing out of the trip because of the volume of work in our office, which would have been a giant mistake. Emails are like firecrackers: they can wait to be ignited.

So within two days the most unusual thing happened to me when I met Sergio, the man on above here. I climbed up this mountain of rocks where pilgrims leave their woes behind. Sergio, as you can see, has only one leg and I was worried he´d fall over which Sergio seemed not worried about at all. He was fearless. So I asked him if I could take his picture which he enthusiastically agreed and told me he was from San Antonio and we started yakking away in Spanish and then I asked him a very direct question. “How did you lose your leg?” I asked. He made a gesture of a whiskey bottle going into his mouth. I told him that´s funny because I´d spent most of my life in 12 step groups dealing with and listening to that subject at which point, Sergio, improbably jumped into my arms, with a kind of gratitude and joy I hadn´t experienced since I worked in San Pedro Sula, Honduras where sharing the peace goes on for over an hour. In a time in the world where there



seems so much polarization between cultural groups in America, which disturbs me, this moment of embrace between us two meant a great deal to me. And I imagine if this one accidental moment was happening to me, think of all the many more moments there might be like this in the world if we establish a center in Santiago. I told him we were establishing 12 step groups as part of our project to make a center in Santiago. He was grateful to know there would be a place for him to celebrate his spiritual journey in Santiago. The Gospel of John keeps telling us to look for signs. Surely this was one.

— Reverendo Spencer Reece

BLESSED BY THE DAUGHTERS OF THE KING

A report from Pam Runyon, International Chair

(Here to the far left is Rev. Jessica Coello,

along with members of Daughters of the King. Pam Runyon is the third from the left)



It is a joy to connect with our international sisters. When I was in Spain this year, I was blessed once again to meet with Daughters of the King in Madrid before my husband, Jim, and I walked the Camino de Santiago. But this year´s visit held even more blessings. The Rev. Jessica Coello arranged a meeting with Spanish Daughters on August 27th at the Catedral del Redentor in Madrid. Rev. Jessica is president of the first chapter in Spain which is in Mostoles, where she is the rector. She is a dynamic ambassador for The Order and has been instrumental in introducing The Order in several other churches in Spain, as well as Portugal. She is also forming the first junior chapter in Spain. It meant a lot that Rev. Jessica and eight Daughters from Catedral del Redentor, Buen Pastor and the new chapter in formation in Navalcarnero took time form their busy schedules to meet with me. It was a privilege to pray together and hear about the spiritual journeys of these dedicated women, who are spreading the Kingdom in Spain as they minister to refugees and those in need.

Before the meeting with the Daughters, I also met with the Right Reverend

Carlos Lopez-Lozano, Bishop of the Spanish Episcopal Church, who is very supportive of the Order and believes it is an answer to his prayers for spiritual assistance. I was excited to learn that Bishop Lozano is working to establish a pilgrim center in Santiago de Compostela, which will minster to and offer communion for Protestant pilgrims on the Camino. My husband, Jim, and I were blessed to receive pilgrim shells and pilgrims prayers at the altar from Bishop Lozano, in preparation for beginning our pilgrimage to Santiago later that week. But yet another surprise blessing was awaiting us at the end of our Camino.

We were invited to attend the service, and for the first time in six Caminos, we received Holy Communion after our arrival!



When we walked into Santiago five weeks later we learned that Bishop Lozano had just arrived from Madrid by train and was celebrating Eucharist for a group of US Episcopal pilgrims from Christ Church, Westerly, Rhode Island, in the side St. Andrew´s chapel of the Cathedral. We were invited to attend the service, and for the first time in six Caminos, we received Holy Communion after our arrival. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

AN INTERVIEW WITH REV. GREG FORAKER

The Rev. Canon Greg Foraker, Missioner for Faith Formation, The Episcopal Church in Colorado. A Colorado native, he was ordained in the Diocese of Arizona in 2011, where he served in parish ministry before returning to his native Colorado in 2015. Now serving as Missioner in the office of Bishop of Colorado Robert J. O’Neill, Greg is responsible for providing resources and implementing ministries and programs that effectively equip church leaders across the diocese and the wider church for the work of evangelism, faith formation, and discipleship for people of all ages. A spiritual director, teacher, and

pilgrim, Greg has a passion for leading diverse groups in walking the Camino de Santiago, and for helping parishes across Colorado experience firsthand the transformative spiritual potential of the Camino for individuals and parishes. Contact him at [email protected] or +1 303-837-1173



What do you think of our Santiago pilgrim center project? The Santiago Anglican pilgrim center is an inspiring project. As an Episcopal priest who has led multiple group pilgrimages walking the Camino to Santiago, one of the painful and pervasive aspects of each of these Camino journeys is the lack of a truly safe and welcoming liturgical space for all clergy and pilgrims. While welcomes in Roman Catholic Churches are often warm along the Camino, the ability to welcome male and female Episcopal clergy in celebration or concelebration in the Eucharist and reception of communion by all pilgrims is limited if available at all. The Pilgrim Center could provide this much needed inclusive and welcoming prayer and worship space at the conclusion of a Camino pilgrimage for individuals and groups. The ability to offer opportunities for retreat, study, reflections and Spanish language immersion make this Pilgrim Center an exciting and vitally needed resource for Episcopal, Anglican and ecumenically diverse clergy and pilgrim groups. This February we will take a board vote to name the center after Carolina Dorado, what do you think of this proposal? To name the center after a Spanish lay Episcopal member from the 40s and 50s who was unable to find work in her own country because she was an educated woman? She came to the states and lived in a kind of exile, working in

New York and elsewhere at the college level. We want to create a center that honors ordained women where they can celebrate at the altar which they currently can´t under the Roman Catholic guidelines in any church in Santiago. Naming the Anglican Pilgrim Center after Carolina Dorado is fitting and provides an inspiring identity for the Center. Dorado’s life and work provide a powerful lens through which to reflect on one’s Camino pilgrimage through her spirituality, as well as engaging meaningfully on the realities of Spanish history and culture. Why did you walk the Camino? Would you do it again? At its heart, walking the Camino is a spiritual practice that opens the possibility for spiritual transformation. The Camino is a graced path, a way through which each pilgrim has the opportunity to meet God and other pilgrims in deep and spiritually ways. Experiencing the transforming potential of the Camino first hand several years ago, I now have a passion for leading groups in walking the Camino, realizing the power of the Camino has the potential to change the lives of individuals and transform and mobilize communities who walk the Camino together. What do you think of the Spanish Episcopal Church? The Spanish Episcopal Church is an inspiring branch



of the Body of Christ and the Anglican Communion. The fact the the Spanish Episcopal Church was not borne out of a colonial impulse, makes the history and spirituality of this Church particularly inspiring. For Episcopalians walking the Camino, connecting with the Spanish Episcopal Church provides a deeply welcoming community, support, nature and spiritual care, both in the Cathedral in Madrid and in the San Andres Chapel within the Cathedral in Santiago. What do you think of the American Episcopal Church becoming more involved with the Spanish Episcopal Church? As sister Episcopal Churches within the Anglican Communion and given the fact that countless parishes and groups of the Episcopal Church are making pilgrimages to Spain to walk the Camino to Santiago, the potential for more involvement, greater spiritual and cultural exchange and growing much support is great. Growing and deepening partnership will only enrich the mission and ministries of both Churches.

AN INTERVIEW WITH Rev. Kit McLean

The Rev. Katherine (Kit) Sharp McLean was born in New Orleans and grew up in Hammond. After graduating from Newcomb College of Tulane University, she received an MBA from the University

of Texas at Austin. Upon completing her degree with a concentration in finance and accounting, she and her brother, Sandy, became business partners in a variety of ventures ranging from renovating properties in downtown Hammond to developing and operating washaterias and a convenience store as well as a hunting preserve and a master-planned golf community.

The daughter of an Episcopalian mother and a Roman Catholic father, Kit attended both churches but was formally a Roman Catholic until she was received into the Episcopal Church in 2002 at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston. There she worked virtually full-time as a church volunteer for a couple of years. During this time, she began to sense a vocational call to the ordained ministry. However, Hurricane Katrina and marriage to William (Bill) McLean caused a delay in her discernment (see the two of them on our Camino on the next page!) , and it was not until 2010 that Kit entered seminary. In May 2013, she received a



Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a Diploma in Anglican Studies from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Ordained to the transitional diaconate at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans in April 2013 and to the priesthood at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Hammond in January 2014, Kit was first called to a curacy at the Church of St. Michael and St. George in St. Louis. She served there until March 2015 when she and Bill moved downriver to join the Trinity community. Charged with overseeing Christian Formation “from cradle to grave,” Kit is excited about the opportunity and challenge she has been given. She feels immensely blessed to return to her home diocese and to minister with and among the people of Trinity in this wonderfully colorful, vibrant and culturally rich city. Tell us some about yourself, where you are now, what brought you to the priesthood and the Episcopal Church and how you got involved with the Anglican Centre in Santiago project?

My becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church serving in New Orleans, Louisiana, and my involvement with the Anglican Center in Santiago project are inextricably connected, since it was in part because of first walking the Camino seventeen years ago that I am both an Episcopalian and a priest today. My experience on the Camino was the last thing the Holy Spirit used to nudge me toward being received into the Episcopal Church. This happened on Pentecost Sunday in 2002 at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, and serving there as an active lay person led me toward discerning a call to ordination. During my first position as a curate at the Church of St. Michael and St.

George in St. Louis,

Missouri, my husband, Bill, and I “inherited” a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when another priest was unable to lead

the trip. Shortly thereafter, we

were called to Trinity, where we began a pilgrimage ministry. We now lead two pilgrimages a year, and we spend our



vacation and continuing education time scouting for new opportunities. As we discussed possible destinations, the Camino to Santiago kept popping up (that Holy Spirit again!), and so I began investigating how best to take a group. My cyber research indicated that a website for an Anglican Pilgrim Center in Santiago was “coming soon.” I was excited about this, having been to the Anglican Centers in both Jerusalem and Rome. As God’s grace would have it, for the first time in many years, under the leadership of our new rector, Trinity sent a group to the CEEP conference in San Antonio. When I saw the list of workshops, lunches and booths, I was delighted to see that the Santiago project would be featured. I met Nancy and Marek, and when I returned home, my husband and I signed up for the fall Camino led by Bishop Don Carlos, Spencer, Marek, Nancy and Joanna Wivell. This latest experience reinforced my deep belief in the importance of pilgrimage to our spiritual lives as individuals, but perhaps most importantly, it reinforced my belief in the community-building aspects of pilgrimage. This happens both on a small scale within a particular group, and then hopefully on the largest possible scale, as part of “the great

cloud of witnesses,” known and unknown, moving ever closer to the heart of God with and through each other. Now that you´ve walked the Camino and wound up in Santiago, what to you is the importance of the Episcopal Church making a center there for pilgrims? For me, the Center’s primary mission is to help people understand that God is Love and that what God desires for God’s family—us—and what Jesus desires for his Body—us—is unity in and through God’s Spirit. Our denominational infighting damages our Christian faith, both internally and externally, and my hope would be that the Center would be an example of the welcome and ministry that Jesus offered and lived, meeting people as and where they were. Jesus did not grill the 5,000 on their beliefs before inviting them into community and feeding them, nor do I think, should we. On a personal note, I was a “card-carrying” Roman Catholic when I walked the Camino with my Episcopalian mother for the first time in 2001. Then, the fact that my mother who is one of the most faithful people I have ever known was not invited to receive the Eucharist was extremely hurtful. Rightly or wrongly, we both chose to receive since our view is that the Eucharist is celebrated and offered



at God’s Table, not a table “owned” by any human institution or person(s). On this last Camino in September 2018, although I am now an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, not only was I not able to receive the Eucharist, I was not able to join in the altar party or procession for the large Pilgrim Mass or concelebrate the next day in a cathedral chapel as were the male Episcopal and Anglican clergy. Before going, I knew intellectually that this would be the situation, but I was surprised at how much this saddened me, not just for myself but for the Church and the world. The upside of this experience is that it has strengthened my resolve to assist in making the idea of a pilgrim center in Santiago a reality. What intrigues you about pilgrimage? Pilgrimage is primarily an orientation. One can be a pilgrim, one can make a journey of heart, mind or soul and even body, without ever leaving a particular geographical spot. But in my experience, pilgrimage with

an orientation toward God which involves a physical journey is the most profound way of exploring the entirety of our human being and doing. More can be learned about God, other people, oneself and one’s faith, and one’s relationships with each, in a shorter time traveling in and with a community of fellow pilgrims than in years of other types of faith formation. As St. Augustine of Hippo wrote, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” In our increasingly “virtual” world, pilgrimage offers the opportunity to interact face-to-face with people from other cultures, nations and faiths, fostering greater awareness and understanding of our common humanity and our common existence as God’s wonderfully diverse and dearly and equally beloved family.

As St. Augustine of Hippo wrote, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” In our increasingly “virtual” world, pilgrimage offers the opportunity to interact face-to-face with people from other cultures, nations and faiths, fostering greater awareness and understanding of our common humanity and our common existence as God’s wonderfully diverse and dearly and equally beloved family.



What do you think of our idea to name the center after Carolina Dorado, a Spanish woman from the from 20th Century, who was unable to find work in Spain and came to the US to be a professor and was close to our church? I have serious reservations about naming the Center after any individual. A chapel or rooms, yes, but naming the entire Center in such a manner gives me pause. To me, the purpose of this Center is to model God’s unconditional hospitality and offer a venue where all are invited to experience what it means to be beloved children of God equally. By naming the Center after a single person, we would be elevating that person’s importance or aspects of their identity in a singular way. Whatever that person stood for or represents is also subject to individual interpretation, both positive and negative. How we “brand” the Center will have a tremendous impact on how it is perceived. “Anglican” is a known global “brand name,” and I think that one of our greatest strengths as members of the global Anglican Communion is our position as a “both/and” strand of Christianity. Protestants know they will be welcomed; most Roman Catholics know this, too, and know that they will find our liturgy familiar. Depending on their theological beliefs,

many Roman Catholics as well as Protestants from other denominations feel comfortable sharing the Eucharist with us. One of the things that attracted me to the Center was the notion that whereas Jerusalem and Rome have Anglican Centers, Santiago, with the third highest number of pilgrims, does not. Worldwide there are +/- 2.3 billion Christians. Of these +/- 1.3 billion are Roman Catholics, and over 900 million are considered Protestants, including +/- 85 million Anglicans. By 2050, numerous experts project that there will be more Protestants than Roman Catholics. Providing a place where all Christian denominations as well as seekers and persons of other faiths are invited to share hospitality is, I think, the Center’s primary mission and ministry. By singling out any one individual, I think we will be limiting ourselves from a marketing perspective. On a practical note, while stories are important, when we are trying to raise funds, we might find our conversation diverted to explaining who this person is or was and away from what the Center and its mission and ministry are. One of the things I would hope the Center will be is a place where people can meet safely, on “neutral ground” as



it were, and get to know each other without labels and preconceptions in the hope of minimizing the kind of categorization that is based on often baseless and false assumptions. At the Center, we may each be “more” or “less” something or other to another, but above all, what we will encourage is the recognition that what we are MOST is beloved children of God. What do you think of our seminarian internship program with Yale Berkeley, bringing seminarians over every summer to train and be in a Spanish context? I think it is fabulous and wish it had been in place when I was a student. In addition, I think the internship opportunities could/should be expanded to include other seminaries. What do you think of the Spanish Episcopal Church, an extra-provincial jurisdiction and its importance to the Anglican Communion as a whole? I have tremendous respect and admiration for the work of the Spanish Episcopal Church and value its contribution as an indigenous and extra-provincial church greatly. One of the strengths of the Anglican Communion is that it allows and even encourages local adaptation. For people to celebrate Mass in ways that are culturally relevant makes the experience of the Eucharist more meaningful for those who worship

regularly and also, I believe, for those who are from different cultures. The liturgical similarities connect us and the differences broaden our understanding of each other and of God and God’s creation. What are some of your hopes and dreams for the future of the Episcopal Church? Among my hopes and dreams is that the Episcopal Church becomes more involved in and aware of the global Anglican Communion at the parish and diocesan level. One of the best ways I know to do this is to increase exposure to other ways of worshiping and serving by visiting other places. Pilgrimage is an extremely effective way of expanding our vision beyond our parish churches, dioceses and even the national church. With the abundant resources that we have as a denomination, I hope that we will stop the kind of denominational and parochial rivalries that harm the Body of Christ and diminish us all. I think the Episcopal Church is uniquely positioned to help people find or deepen their relationship with God in life-changing and thus possibly world-changing ways, one person, one pilgrim soul, at a time.

the camino newsletter 8 - anglicancentresantiago.org · el camino newsletter: nº8 fall 2018...

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