Encounter in Mission
Posted May 23, 2013
Bishop Holguin addressed the Encounter in Mission participants in Epiphany Cathedral in Santo Domingo. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
An album of photographs from this event is available here.
“Together We Can!” was the motto of the Encounter in Mission, sponsored by the Diocese of the Dominican Republic and held in Santo Domingo from April 12-14, 2013. Over sixty mission team veterans from the United States attended, as did many of the clergy and lay leaders of the Dominican Episcopal Church.
Two days of meetings on topics such as mission team leadership, the work of the Dominican Development Group, the spirituality of the Dominican church, and organizing construction, medical and Vacation Bible School mission teams were held on the grounds of Epiphany Cathedral and the Episcopal seminary. Two highlights of the event took place in the Cathedral, where Bishop Holguín presented a history of the Dominican Episcopal Church and several groups representing Dominican churches entertained the attendees with singing and dancing.
Bob Stevens, the Executive Director of the Dominican Development Group, during a presentation on the programs and history of the DDG. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
One of the Dominican singing groups that entertained the Encounter participants on Saturday night. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
The event concluded with a magnificent worship service held in the Olympic Volleyball Stadium in Santo Domingo on Sunday, April 14th, that was attended by thousands of Dominican Episcopalians and the Encounter participants from overseas. Several Dominican Episcopal schools sent their uniformed flag and drum corps to march in the procession with the vested clergy.
The concluding worship service of the Encounter in Mission in the Olympic Volleyball Stadium in Santo Domingo. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
A major purpose of the Encounter meetings and the closing worship service was to give participants a view of the wider Dominican Episcopal Church. Mission team veterans who might have worked in only one or two sites in the past were overheard commenting that now they understood more completely how their work in a particular church, school or local community fits into the overall goals of the Dominican church as a whole. The event was so successful that plans are underway to hold another Encounter in 2015.