About 75 people from around the Diocese of Upper South Carolina diocese attended the annual World Mission Symposium held at Trinity Cathedral in Columbia on March 29. The World Missions Committee of the diocese has convened the gathering for over 20 years, with a break due to the Covid pandemic.
The all-day conference focused on the longstanding work of the parishes and the diocese in Haiti and Ecuador. Two localities in Haiti were highlighted: Cange in the Central Plateau, where EDUSC has been active for 44 years, and Les Cayes in the Southwest, where it has been active for over 20 years. The diocese has been active in Ecuador for about 20 years.
The World Missions Committee fields three or four trips to Ecuador every year by youth and adults. It has been unable to send mission trips to Haiti since the country’s current turmoil commenced in 2018, so stateside missioners work with their Haitian companions virtually. In addition, the 2024 symposium was canceled because Haitians were not able to exit their country to attend.
Bishop Daniel Richards
Bishop Daniel Richards opened the symposium with prayer and an address about the mission activity of the diocese. Also offering prayer was Haitian priest Marie Carmel Chery, chaplain at Voorhees University.
Jean Roy Gracia, director of Zanmi Lasante, the Partners in Health affiliate in Cange, Dr. Harry Morse of Holy Nativity in Clemson, and Dr. Reg Brooker of Christ Church in Greenville told the story of the 44-year mission in the Central Plateau. They updated attendees on the current status of providing scholarships, assisting with health care, and assuring safe and clean water in Cange. Gracia and Morse shared information about the current status of Cange Hospital.
Jean Gracia of Zanmi and Harry Morse
Celeste Bundy of Education = Hope, a freestanding mission agency with work in seven countries, and Joyce Pipkin of St. Mary’s in Columbia spoke about progress supporting the education of about 400 students in the villages of Les Cayes and Cavallion in southwestern Haiti.
Missionary Laura Estevez
The gathering heard from missionaries Cameron Graham Vivanco and Laura Estevez in Ecuador, where the diocese and Education = Hope support several hundred students in 17 different communities.
David Vaughn of Holy Trinity in Clemson, faculty program director of Clemson Engineers for Developing Communities, and Olivia Spencer, student program director, shared progress on CEDC projects in Haiti and Ecuador.
Reginald Cean of Zanmi Agricol
Reginald Cean, director of Zanmi Agricol (Partners in Agriculture) shared progress being made in supporting 4,500 farmers in the Central Plateau, and the latest from the Centre de Formation Fritz Lafontant (the trade school in Corporant), both of which the diocese supports.
World Missions Committee chair Chris Klasing notes that the committee is part of the diocesan Commission on Missions. The committee has 25 members, with each participating parish allowed two voting members. Currently there are 17 voting members and eight advisory members. Twelve of the 63 congregations in the diocese are represented.
Clemson student Olivia Spencer
Considerable funding for the mission work is raised annually. Klasing reports that for the work on the Central Plateau, the diocese provides about $40,000 a year, plus a draw from an endowment of about $60,000, with parishes contributing about $25,000. The work in Les Cayes is supported by about $160,000 a year, and the work in Ecuador is supported by about $175,000 a year, most of it raised by Education = Hope.
In May, Bishop Richards and chairperson Klasing launched a special fundraising appeal, detailing deteriorating conditions on the ground in Cange in Haiti due to gang violence and incursions in Port Au Prince and Mirebalais. “Refugees, escaping this violence have moved north into Cange, where many of our ministry partners are providing relief and aid of a variety of sorts,” they wrote. Over $20,000 has been raised from parishes and individuals so far.
Chaplain Marie Carmel Chery
Comments from GEMN executive director Titus Presler: The event in South Carolina is notable for its two-decade history, the high attendance, the extensive nature of the work carried out by the diocese and its parishes, and the high level of funding. Upper South Carolina’s symposium can be a model for other dioceses in organizing an annual gathering to highlight global mission. Among numerous other groups, the Upper South Carolina committee presented at GEMN’s April 24 Mission Thursday on “Mission amid Crisis in Haiti.”
In October 2023 GEMN organized a Mission Thursday featuring two other dioceses and their ongoing practice of annual conferences: the Diocese of New York, as presented by Global Mission Commission chair Patrick Kidd, and the Diocese of North Carolina, as presented by Chartered Global Mission Committee member the Rev. Dr. Leon Spencer. In the past, the Jubilee Global Mission Commission of the Diocese of Massachusetts sponsored a “Global Mission Summit” periodically.