CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
Special Report • Bulletin • March 2020
Senior Warden’s 2016 Annual Report
A report on a January 2020 Border Pilgrimage Dear Cathedral Family,
In the Vision Action Plan launched in 2014, we said: “Since September 2013, Christ Church Cathedral has JOHNSON focused onBYaKRISTIN theme spoken by the Prophet surely I know In earlyJeremiah: January, a‘For group of Cathedral members the Reverend Simon the plansand I have for you, to give Bauyou tista Betances travelled to the Rio Grande a future filled with hope.’” Thus, our Valley learn more the situation and enviVisionto Action Plan was named “A ronment on the border between Texas and Future Filled With Hope,” which was Mexico. There, we joined clergy and paadopted by the Vestry in 2014. It was rishioners from other Episcopal parishes in an ambitious plan, and with I amthe proud to the United States affiliated Urbansay that the final two components of Suburban Clergy Conference. The purpose theour plan in 2016: of tripwere was tocompleted educate ourselves onthe the complicated surroundingcenter the border creation ofissues a spirituality for as well as to lend support to those living the Cathedral, and the creation and amongst offeringtheofcrisis. an alternative worship Recent service. policy changes We arrived in McAllen, where we met The Bishop John E. Hines for with the Brownsville BorderCenter Advocacy Spirituality and Prayer had its grand Strategist of the ACLU of Texas, who proopening on January 23, 2016 to cavided a briefing on the humanitarianacrisis in Matamoros, We learned that pacity crowd. Mexico. The realization of the recent changes, particularly the dreamU.S. of policy having the Hines Center Migration Protection Protocols (“M.P.P. ”), was the result of enormously generprohibit asylum-seeking refugees from ous benefactors, great leadership by remaining in the United States. AsylumDean Thompson, and a lot of hard seeking refugees are now required to reworkinbyMexico many.while Sincethey its opening, main await U.S. the imHines Center continued to evolve migration courthas proceedings. and under the leadership of As develop a result, approximately 2,500 refugees are on the other side ofDiour thestranded Hines just Center’s Executive border Mexico. Summers-Perry. While the Mexican The govrector inBrooke ernment is currently tolerating for the prorefupossibilities and potential gees, it is offering little to no aid. Further, gramming and education continue Matamoros, Mexico, is not a safe haven for to grow, as was seen in September refugees. The refugees are in vulnerable poof 2016, when sition, and the city isPittman home baseMcGehee to the Gulf taught a class on Cartel, a notoriously Saturday dangerous and crimethen synpreached participated in the dicate with aand propensity for violence and kidnapping. Matamoros, Mexico, remains Dean’s Hour the next day. I strongly on the U.S. Government’s “Do Not Travel encourage you to become a Hines To” list. Center member. Visit the website to
This fall, “The Well” became the 5 p.m. Sunday service. “The Well” gets its name from the ancient holy wells found throughout Great Britain and Ireland. In the Celtic tradition, such wells were a place of pilgrimage, gathering, and worship. Careful and prayerful thought was given by the alternative worship task force to develop the liturgy, and “The Well” was an instant success. I believe that all who have attended the service have loved it. It is quiet, contemplative, and provides space for meditation. If you haven’t yet attended “The Well,” please do so. You’ll love it too.
Cathedral, organizational changes took place in the office of the Dean. Among the changes was the creation of the position of Minister of Finance and Audit (Controller). This led to the hiring of Patrick Saccomanno, a CPA with vast not-for-profit experience. We are excited about the strengths Patrick brings to our incredible Cathedral staff, and how his expertise assists the daily accounting and financial management needs of the Cathedral. Our “inward looking” has also focused on our responsibility to be faithful stewards of the Cathedral’s physical campus. We have The first quarter of 2016 also saw the been blessed to have Charlie Prioleau conclusion of an incredibly successful as our Junior Warden in 2016. As you 2015 Every Member Canvass (EMC). know, the building and grounds are We set an ambitious 2016 EMC goal the Junior Warden’s responsibility, andBautista, he hasLynn hadHouk, more than his share of a 5% increase in the Cathedral members (from left,dollar Michaelamount Jacobs, Amarilis Kristin Johnson, Father challenges—ranging from Simon Goza,of andthe Sonia of Mascorro-Velasquez) stand on either sidesprinof Sister of theBautista 2015Betances, pledges.Elizabeth Because Norma Pimentel (center), Executive Director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley. systems breaking in the middle generosity of the membership of the kler a wedding to tothebediscovery anin Cathedral, the numbers 2016 ofhow it must feel stuck thereofday whom are children. There for are the no protecvaultadults that did notallowed conand day out where are not tive barriers or fences. areare noopticheck underground EMC look very good There and we to work and children not allowed go to points as therereaching are at U.N.-operated a hidden treasure. Charlieto has mistic about our goal. camps. tain Emblematic of the crisis itself, there is no done school. The inhabitants of the camp a superb job in these and theare The Missiontrack andof Ministry (M&M) one keeping who these people are many mostly,other if not issues exclusively, families lawfully he has handled. Committee headed in 2016 by seeking asylum to the U.S. They traveled and what maywas happen to them. The physical needs of the Cathedral Nylon tents and such as here to escape corruption and violence in Vicki Cawley, andother she supplies did an amazcampus prompted Dean Thompson’s ricejob. andM&M toiletries are being provided ing is responsible for over-by their home countries, with little if nothing wise decision to form the Historic churches other non-profits. The tents seeing soand many aspects and issues re- more than the clothes on their backs. We are not made to withstand long exposure Preservation learned of one woman who fled to the borand Renovation Task lating to the Cathedral’s ministry and to rain and sun, so most are covered with Force. der after a cartel offered to buy her twelveThis task force is truly a “Blue mission. the yearly activities thick blackAmong plastic tarps to protect the in- Ribbon” year-old daughter. We were that the if she group that will told assess of are elements. Rally Day, Vestry refused, the sideM&M from the Thethe temperature cartel would likely burn her needs of our campus and report to Retreat, scheduling was in theand upper eighties in the earlyvarious January, house down and take her daughter anyway. the an Vestry Retreat in the which leads one to out imagine how meethot the theIVestry spoke atwith eleven year-old boy councils to report at Vestry first weekend in February. refugees must be inside. There are a numnamed Jaime who followed me through ings. The chair of M&M is a huge job, ber ofwe port-a-potties and“thank make-shift showthe camp. He told me that he was from and all owe a big you” to Sincerely, ers, also made from the black tarps. There Southern Mexico and was there because Vicki for the job she did this year.
Refugee find out living what conditions is being offered and are scarcely enough of these, so many peo- home was “peligroso,” which means “danin Matamoros, ple wash in thesome river. Some of the women available there. IfMexico you haven’t experi- We began “inward look- gerous.” I thought of my own two boys, ten cooked on homemade stoves or washed and twelve, who were safely at school worThe Matamoros camp sits on the banks enced the Hines Center, you are re- ing” in 2016 as well. In light of the Wayne Clawater rying of nothing laundry, but many sat in front of their tents. of the Rio Grande. It’s made up of tents and ally missing something. many ministries of Christ Church Senior Warden more than an upcoming people as far as the eye can see, many of THE BULLETIN
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I was particularly struck by the boredom,
spelling test or that night’s basketball game.
Some of the parents have become so desperate that they send their children across the border alone. Unaccompanied minors are not subject to M.P.P. The parents will tearfully say goodbye and hope for the best. The thought is unfathomable. Later that same day, we organized to help serve dinner to refugees in Matamoros. Organizations like Team Brownsville work with local Matamoros restaurants to provide meals to those in the camp. When we arrived at the refugee camp, some volunteers put up a few tables and children politely began to form a line while their parents stood near. After waiting, it became clear that something was amiss. A volunteer told us that there had been a mix-up with the restaurant, and no food had been prepared. Many of the volunteers began to mobilize to try to find a solution, but our group was told we had to leave, as it is not safe to be in Matamoros after dark. I saw Jaime again as I was leaving, and he asked me if I knew whether food was coming. To this day, I don’t know whether or not it came. Despite the conditions and circumstances of the camp, the refugees seemed friendly and hopeful, eager to talk about their upcoming court dates. I asked our guide, another volunteer from Team Brownsville, how many of the refugees will be granted asylum and allowed to enter the US. “Less than 1%,” he told me.
A Texas ranching perspective The following day, we visited a cattle ranch located near the border town of Roma, Texas. The fifth-generation owners of the ranch were eager to share their experiences and perspective. Four border patrol agents also joined us, and they graciously took all our questions. The ranchers and border patrol agents spoke at length of the dangers associated with the area and the devastation done by the crisis in Mexico. In 2019, at the height of the crisis, Customs and Border Patrol (C.B.P.) apprehended approximately 1,600 people crossing per day in the Rio Grande Valley Sector (per C.B.P. website). Per the agents, while not all people who travel illegally across the border are “bad guys,” many of them are. The people who aren’t “bad guys” often don’t cross the border without first being extorted by cartels who control the crossings and profit greatly off human trafficking. The ranchers spoke of the devastation done to their business by the uncontrolled migration of Mexican livestock and game, which carry disease and parasites that THE BULLETIN
SPECIAL REPORT
have been eradicated in the United States, thus forcing quarantine and slaughter of their own herds. Like most difficulties on the border, this livestock crisis is largely attributed to the cartels who have pushed Mexican ranchers from their land, which has led to those ranches losing management and proper care.
“The Pope’s Favorite Nun” Our group also had the privilege of meeting Sister Norma Pimental, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Sister Norma has been tabbed by Fortune Magazine as one of the “World’s Great Leaders” and is referred to by some as the “Pope’s favorite nun.” She has worked An asylum seeker in the Matamoros refugee encampment tirelessly as an advocate for im- prepares rice on a makeshift stove. migrants and has established the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, which offers asylum seekers (who have entered the U.S.) placement services and travel assistance to their next destination. In 2019, Sister Norma’s respite center might have seen more than 600 asylum seekers a day. Those numbers have fallen drastically as a result of new immigration policies that keep asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the border. During our visit to the Humanitarian Respite Center, there were approximately 15 people there. One might say that these are the lucky ones; they have been released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol The tents in the Matamoros refugee camp are not made to agents and are allowed to carry on withstand the elements, so residents protect themselves with their asylum process while in and the contents inside with thick plastic tarps. the US. Among those at the respite center was a mother who lay sleeping on the solution?” The situation at our border the floor while her two sons sat next to is obviously complicated, both politically her, lacing their shoes. (The U.S. Customs and philosophically, and I don’t pretend and Border Patrol take the shoe laces of to know how to solve it. A member of our those they capture, and the respite cen- group asked Sister Norma if she could ter had provided the children with new have one thing to help, what would it ones.) There was also a man with his wife be. She responded with the three words and two young children from the Demo- “Come and see.” cratic Republic of Congo. Father Simon I can tell you that I saw that people are spoke with them in French and learned not coming here with a simple wish for a that they had traveled to Brazil by plane better life. They are coming here because and then continued the remainder of they are desperate. They come because their journey, over 2,000 miles through they are in danger. They fear for their South America, Central America, and children’s lives. They are willing to make Mexico on foot. The trip took a year and sacrifices that most of us will never exwas not without peril. perience. They risk everything they have, Upon my return from the border, many and they do this because they feel they people have asked, “What’s the take away, don’t have a choice.