June 2005: The Rev. Simón Bautista

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By Diane Ney
Washington Window
Vol. 73, No. 7, June 2005

The Rev. Simón Bautista began work as the Diocese of Washington's new Latino Missioner in 2004. A former Roman Catholic priest, he was received into the Episcopal Church in January 2004. Here he speaks with writer Diane Ney about his work in the diocese.

What is your role with the Latino Ministry?

I function as the Latino Missioner for the diocese. My base is at Ascension, Gaithersburg, where I am developing a Latino ministry. Basically, my role is establishing and guiding the diocesan-wide effort to serve the Latino community and to bring more Latinos into the diocese. I do all this in dialogue with the members of the committee, which has the Rev. Luis Leon, the rector of St. John's, Lafayette Square, as its chairman.

What is the best avenue for attracting Latinos - by establishing missions or by bringing Latinos into existing parishes?

The best avenue at this point is what we call the experience of nesting, which is bringing them to well-established parishes that are willing and open to the experience of changing and sharing their facilities.

When Latinos come to an existing church, what kind of changes does the church make to accommodate this new ministry?

Well, let me say it this way: Whenever you receive strangers in your house, you definitely need to make some accommodations. I believe that one of the major changes is to open worship space for the newcomers. You definitely need to work out a schedule and see where the newcomers fit in the life of the church. For instance, the parish would want to start having services in Spanish. That would be one of the accommodations. When we start to have services for Latinos, we definitely need to serve them in their own language. My experience tells me that one prays better when he or she prays in his or her own language. Somebody who is a Spanish speaker, not necessarily Latino clergy, needs to take care of that group of people, with worship and counseling.

What are some of the initiatives the committee is working on?

Our priority continues to be parishes with an ongoing effort to reach out to Latinos, or parishes that are willing to try out programs to reach the Latino community. One of the things that we are working at right now is trying to find a way to start developing leadership among the Latinos. And it's not just to develop leaders to bring people to the Episcopal Church. It's also to develop leaders who will become leaders in their communities for the benefit of that community, even outside the worship experience.

So, this initiative is not just church-centered, it's also community-centered.

Something also we have tried is to teach English as a Second Language to Latinos, to provide them with that basic tool in order to be able to survive here. The Rev. Carolyn Fairless at St. James, Bowie, has started reaching out to other people by going with a group of English speakers from St. James to exchange language with a group of Latinos who live at the Bowie race track. There are quite a few Latinos living there who work with the horses and trainers. I've been helping them to establish this program, which is oriented toward creating a kind of bridge between the two groups. Not only people from St. James, but also people who work at the racetrack. Around 55 people are participating.

That's a large number of people. It shows there's a real interest.

Exactly. And the good thing is that the parish understands that maybe these people won't come to worship now. Maybe in the future - who knows? And the parish's objective is not to bring them into the church, it's just to serve them. There are other programs. Ascension, Silver Spring, is now pulling together the personnel and the resources to develop a summer program for Latino children to help them improve in the areas of math and reading during the summer. Clara Wing, a member of the vestry at Ascension, is coordinating this effort. Another one, Saint Michael and All Angels, Adelphi, just started a once-a-month food program intended primarily for the Latinos in that area.

So, many of these programs are action centered, aimed specifically at the practical needs of living in this area. Does this focus come out of your own experience?

Yes. I came to this country in 1991, to New York. (I've been in the Washington area five years.) And I can tell you about some of the problems. One is definitely the sense of identity. As a Dominican coming to the United States, I found out I wasn't called Dominican anymore - I was Latino. You immediately noticed that you're all grouped together - everybody's the same, is the feeling, even though we have different backgrounds and different cultures. There are other things that everybody has to face - the language barrier, the culture barrier. You need to deal with all of this. This is part of the shock.

The other thing is you lose for a while the sense of community, of belonging. I would say that the majority of people coming from Latin America to this country are coming from places where the people know each other, from small communities. There's something else that we all lose here, is the sense of family. A lot of people come here without their family; they're the first ones here. And family is so integral to the Latino culture, so it's very, very difficult.

And, of course, depending on your status, you will be dealing with the question of legality. People think if you're Latino, automatically you're illegal. People think a Latino may not have a driver's license or insurance. I came here legally, of course, but I still had these other things to deal with. It's very difficult to adjust to the new culture.

And it must be very gratifying to be able to help people who are now going through what you went through.

I really love what I'm doing. I enjoy it. And I really believe that this is the moment of a great opportunity to develop a solid Latino ministry in our diocese. We have so many people from the diocese supporting us. Bishop Chane is at the top of that list. We have a wonderful group on the Latino Committee and more and more people wanting to get involved. We've recently heard from three parishes who have a great desire to become involved. I believe that the Diocese of Washington is starting to be very aware that this is a real need, to reach out to Latinos. And I have a great hope that if we do the work that God has sent us to do, we have a great future with the Latinos in the area.

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