Conviction and compromise on the ground in the DR...

Conviction and compromise on the ground in the DR...
   There seems to be no rest for clergy in the DR; Father Felix's normal Sunday is a 6:30 am service in Angelina (north of San Pedro de Macoris), 8:30 in Santa Fe (east of San Pedro, 5:00 pm in Los Conucos (west of San Pedro), with him making house visits before the 5:00.
  Today Felix is on vacation, and I'm the fill in priest (I do that a lot in SC too.), so I'm up before 5:00 am, celebrating the Eucharist at the morning services, and preaching and celebrating at 5:00 pm with a Creole speaking congregation.
  I generally don't enjoy listening to the same sermon twice (had a 3x's Sunday at the Cathedral this summer!), but I was grateful for the opportunity to sit and practice, lip reading the Communion service, while a deacon preached. You see, I celebrated in Spanish, and on my best days I speak Spanglish. I did get to use the Prayer Book.
   I had only done this once before in Honduras, and reading a foreign cadence and catching all the right, syllabic accents can be quite tricky. Nevertheless, we made it through, and when I stumbled or botched a word, the people would graciously help me along. And what sweet services we had!
   Angelina was a smaller, quieter group (but what crowd is lively at 6:30?), and the Spirit was sweet. Santa Fe was larger and livelier, and I was right at home with the rhythm and the dancing (I could be a Latin Anglican!)
  For lunch we transported all the leaders of Iglesia Santiago Apostol in Angelina to the retreat center in San Pedro and fed them a grand lunch. Without a doubt it will be their biggest meal of this week and of many others.
  Sitting in the services today, I reflected how we have had two teams in one; our New England & New York liberal friends slept in and attended a later service at a church near our lodging, but everyone from SC was up with me before dawn, not wanting to miss worship with our Dominican family.
  Working with our northern friends has been an enlightening experience - doing medical minimizes the spiritual side for them, while I have been free to minister as I felt led. Still "how can two walk together, lest they be in agreement"?
  The poor really don't care about our theology, but our theology truly shapes what we bring them. And I'm afraid that when the "haves" reach out and lift up the "have nots", the "have nots" generally will embrace the theology of their benefactors.
  The Episcopal Church in the DR has been the recipient of significant financial and human resources from the Episcopal Church in America (It is actually part of the national church), and I know that I am working this week with an organization that has greatly compromised the Gospel. I'm left with the dilemma of how that translates on the ground, knowing the poor in these villages love the Lord, as do their priests.
  So while I believe that the Diocese of the DR has reached a point of irreconcilable compromise and liberal Americans are with me here this week, meeting real medical and physical needs, I have come with the Gospel of my Lord, the ministry of His Spirit and a commitment to His Word.
   I'm pretty sure I will not do this again (The divide between us is glaring.), but it has been a valuable lesson on how American churches can positively or negatively effect the world. Resolving the necessary tension between truth & grace can only be obtained by a total commitment to both, and this is only gained by His Word and Spirit.
At the end of the day, there are people you can and should minister to that you should never try to minister with.