By: The Rev. Canon Monique Ellison (Christ Church Cathedral) and the Rev. Dr. Amy Slaughters (St. Francis Episcopal Parish and Community Center)
Photo from: IDIAM Instituto de Español de la Iglesia Anglicana de México
In June, eleven travelers from the Dioceses of Indianapolis, Lexington, Maryland, and the Susquehanna headed to Cuernavaca, Mexico. The Diocese of Cuernavaca offers a Spanish language immersion program four times a year at their Instituto de la Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico. The group included The Rev. Dr. Hillary Cook, the Rev. Canon Monique Ellison, the Rev. Allan Wallace, and Betty and Steve Whaley. For two weeks, participants spend mornings in vocabulary and grammar classes and the afternoons exploring Mexican culture, including learning to make sopes – a fresh, homemade tortilla topped with cheese, salsa, and crema. Two of the churches of the diocese welcomed us for worship on the two Sundays we were there. All of the people we encountered exuded a spirit of generosity and love. Love, put into action everywhere we turned.
Several of us heard the same question before we left, “Why would you want to go all that way and spend all that time to learn Spanish?” Some of us received the question as an expression of curiosity. Some of us heard the question as a questioning of our stability in the current political and social climate in the United States. On our first day of class, we each answered the question in English with a translator. Some of us serve in congregations with Spanish language worship. Some of us are just starting communities of worship, prayer, and service with English and Spanish speakers together. Others of us live in neighborhoods with significant numbers of Spanish-speaking people. All of us want to be better able to communicate with our neighbors. With anti immigrant action constantly in the news and Indiana’s putting anti-immigrant SEA 76 into effect starting July 1 – we were aware that our coming to Mexico, learning the language, and engaging the culture was an act of resistance.
This resistance is grounded in growing love and respect. At lunch with the clergy of the diocese, leaders their shared stories of their ministries. They serve children, women, people who are incarcerated, and seniors. Their why is love. They shared a meal with us, stayed patient while we practiced Spanish, they prayed with us, expressed gratitude for our presence – all for the sake of love. We felt surrounded by joy.
At every meal, in every class, in the market, at museums, while watching World Cup Soccer, we saw the face of Christ. Christ is the one who came to be with us as one of us – a radical act of welcome for all of humanity. There are powers at work in the United States that would have us believe that humility and welcome are wrong. These powers are hard at work developing systems and enacting laws to force us all to deny the Christ in our neighbors. The people of the Diocese of Cuernavaca modeled to us how to resist. We did not simply learn Spanish or experience another people’s culture. We refined the tools Christ gives us – generosity, compassion, joy, and steadfast love.
