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Aug 30, 2013 | Pat McCaughan

ENS: 'Doing Mission and Creating Disciples'

[Episcopal News Service] Without a local formation program like Waiolaihui’ia in the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai’i, potential priests like Malcolm Kealanu Hee could likely never see ordination.

 

Hee, 50, juggles two teaching positions with busy family and other responsibilities. But every other month, he spends an intense 72-hour weekend at a local retreat center, learning the academics and practicalities of ordained church leadership.

 

“Local formation is important for Hawai’i because we need to raise up our own priests,” Hee wrote in an e-mail to ENS.

 

“Currently, there is only one priest of Hawaiian descent. All the other priests have been transplants; many return to their homes, eventually leaving Hawai’i. Raising up our own priests will increase the likelihood of them staying here.”

 

Similarly, in the Diocese of Los Angeles, Carlos Ruvalcaba, 42, says the Spanish language Instituto de Liderazgo, which trains laity, propelled him to local lay leadership and now, onward to discernment for ordination.

 

“The Instituto is very important for our diocese and for the church as a whole, because we serve one of the largest Hispano/Latino populations countrywide, and we have so many people with a huge desire to serve God and their neighbors,” he said. “But, we are a community that needs to be educated and prepared to understand the structure, government, history, beliefs and life of the Episcopal Church.

 

“It’s important that we continue supporting programs like this, since our actual systems fail to identify potential church leaders from poor and immigrant communities,” added Ruvalcaba, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico.

 

Like Los Angeles and Hawai’i, dioceses across the church are increasingly offering alternative programs to overcome the career, family, financial and cultural challenges inherent in more traditional formation of lay and ordained leaders.

 

Hawai’i: a case of local formation

One such alternative is local formation, according to the Rev. Canon Liz Beasley, who is canon to the ordinary in Hawai’i. The diocese launched Waiolaihui’ia in January with three students and another person auditing part of the coursework, she said.

 

Waiolaihui’ia means “the gathering of waters,” according to Hee, who teaches preschoolers with disabilities and also instructs university students preparing for teaching careers.

 

“We chose this because we come from all over the state and together we are intermingling and learning. Water or “wai” is important in our culture as it sustains the taro that we grow. Water is also important in our church as an important part of the baptismal covenant. That’s how we came up with our name.”

 

The curriculum comes from the Iona Initiative, which is based on the Iona School for bivocational priests and deacons in the Diocese of Texas. The three-year local training program for priests and deacons is currently in use in eight rural and remote dioceses, including: Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Texas, Northwest Texas, Northeast Texas and Mississippi, in conjunction with the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.

 

Continue reading at ENS