The well liked leader of the large Anglican Diocese of Western Mexico made an emotional plea to parishioners at St. Mark’s church in Guadalajara, asking them to recognize and rise to the crisis represented by severely shrinking congregations.
“We have church buildings, we have properties, we have people who love the church, we have 30 congregations,” explained Bishop Ricardo Gómez in Spanish. He added that the diocese, which comprises 11 states including Jalisco, principally lacks money and growing membership. The financial crisis has become severe since support from the U.S. Episcopal Church, according to a plan that came as a shock to Mexican clergy, has been winding down from generous to, in recent years, zero.
Bishop Ricardo’s remarks came during his sermon during the ordination of a deacon, Trino Palomera, at St. Mark’s – a happy event but one that nevertheless found the bishop’s eyes brimming at times.
Gómez’s obvious emotion may be traceable to the fact that, appointed as bishop in 2017, he has very strong ties to the Anglican Church – his grandparents, parents, older brother “and my children, I hope,” are or were clergy or deeply involved in the Church. Indeed, his grandfather, after leaving an Anglican Mass in Tlajomulco, a town just outside Guadalajara, was knifed to death by a zealot during the Cristero War (1926-29). He is considered an Anglican martyr.
“I’m very proud of my heritage,” Bishop Gómez explained. “I feel I’m continuing the work of my ancestors.
“But the new element is that we have no support from the United States. We aren’t comfortable any more. Now I want to open the church, so that people know we are welcoming. We have to open to both marginalized people and those with money. We must evangelize, and speak with love in a genuine way.”
“Bishop Ricardo was obviously moved” agreed Manuel Sonora, former rector at St. Mark’s, who attended the ordination. “Unlike the last bishop, he wants to move forward. Unfortunately, we’re almost unknown in Mexico, even though in the middle of the 19th century, the Anglican Church was considered to form a national Catholic Church independent of Rome. So now we need to let people know what we are about. And the bishop is reaching out.”
Bishop Ricardo explained one way he has been doing this. “A group of young people from San Diego, California, especially from the Hispanic ministry, are coming to build the Capilla de La Nueva Palma in the sierra (mountains) of San Luis Potosi next summer.”
“Even though we’re not getting support from the Episcopal Church as a whole, we can still reach out to individual dioceses,” Sonora noted. “So he’s forming links with Episcopalians in San Diego.”
Bishop Gómez explained that, as an adjunct to the outreach, he is trying to make current, local members aware of the uniqueness of Anglicanism. “We can’t invite others if we don’t understand our role,” he said, explaining that he has held several workshops, attended by over 30 clergy and lay people.
“Ernest Buchanan, an Anglican from Canada, spoke for three days at the cathedral about the bible. Another workshop presented the Anglican hymn tradition – our congregations often don’t have organs, so they’ve adopted songs from other churches. We had a workshop on communication and journalism too.”
“The bishop understands that we need publicity and to use the media,” Sonora observed.
Obviously feeling excitement about these plans, Bishop Gómez underscored that it is necessary “to think about what we have, not what we don’t have. We must look to our own resources.”
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