Description of Chris and Trish Morck’s involvement in the Diocese of Central Ecuador

The Episcopal Diocese of Central Ecuador, one of two dioceses in Ecuador and part of Province IX of the Episcopal Church, includes central and eastern Ecuador - the Andes and the Amazon. The diocese has just elected a new provisional bishop, Bishop Wilfrido Ramos-Orench, who served in the Diocese of Connecticut for 22 years - the last 5 ½ as a Bishop Suffragan. This is a crucial time for the Diocese of Central Ecuador. It has not had a bishop for the last two years since the previous bishop was deposed after several years of financial corruption and his misappropriation of church property and money. This crisis has resulted in much pain and fracture among the parishes and people in the diocese. Additionally, there has been little support for the parishes and clergy in their life, nurture, and development and the diocese is very financially weakened. As Bishop Ramos has said, “It's a rebuilding, a healing ministry, bringing hope, restoring the life of the Diocese."

Chris traveled to Ecuador in November 2005, partially as an observer to a meeting of the Episcopal Church Standing Commission on World Mission. During this time the opportunity of working with the Central Diocese of Ecuador and with the Latin American Council of Churches began to be offered as a possibility.

Chris, as an Appointed Missioner, and Trish, as a Volunteer for Mission, will be sent by ECUSA for a three year term with their daughters, Claire and Isabel. When we go, we will live in Quito, the country’s capital, where the diocesan offices are located. What we seek through mission is life together that promotes relationships built on companionship, dialogue, and partnership. Mission nurtures self understanding, understanding of others, and mutuality among individuals and communities. Through mission we can better understand and love each other and more fully embrace the life and needs of the world in Jesus.

A large focus of our work will be serving alongside Bishop Ramos as the diocese is nurtured back to health and reconciliation is fostered among clergy, laity, and parishes. According to the diocese’s needs and vision, this will primarily take the form of participating in community building. A principal step in this is to become well acquainted with the diocese - its regions, people, parishes, and projects - through listening to its needs and actively learning about its strengths and resources. We hope to help nurture connections within the diocese between its people and parishes, make information and resources better accessible within the diocese, and make diocesan resources more available to the individual parishes. This work can help promote cohesiveness and interdependence within the diocese, be a step towards the creation of a Diocesan Resource Development Center, and help nurture stronger connections between the diocese, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion.

At the same time, we will be involved in reconciliation and education within the diocese. We will be actively engaged in exploring and promoting the ways that healing can come about in the parishes and the diocese as a whole and helping to facilitate healing processes and communication, an example of which could involve running therapeutic groups for clergy and laity. We will also work with others in the diocese to promote theological and pastoral education for clergy and laity, which could include involvement in women’s and children’s groups and facilitating educational groups around issues of reconciliation.

A third aspect of our work in the diocese will be ecumenical in focus, as we work with the diocese in partnership with the wider Church. We hope to help foster a closer and stronger relationship with the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), which is based in Quito. This includes working with those in the diocese already involved with CLAI, working with CLAI to enrich the life of the diocese, and participating in CLAI’s own goals and ecumenism. In collaboration with CLAI, they seek to heighten awareness of and foster involvement in indigenous issues within the diocese, and promote relationship with the Ecuadorian Indigenous Council of Churches (FEINE). They will also help CLAI further its goals of promoting dialogue, interaction, and common vision with groups and churches in North America.


Bio
In many ways Chris and Trish Morck are well suited for this life and work in Ecuador. After graduating from Wheaton College in 1997, they married and moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to teach in a bilingual school for a year. At the end of this year, in order to open up the possibility of further life in a Latin American setting, they returned to the United States to pay off Chris’s college loans and worked in the Boston area for a year before returning to Honduras.

For the next three years, from 1999 to 2003, they lived in the village of Las Mangas, Honduras, after being invited through relationships established during three months Chris had spent there after his junior year in college and during their visits to Las Mangas while they lived in Tegucigalpa. During these three years they participated in the life of the rural community through community development work with neighbors and those in the outlying areas of the village. Through these relationships, they were involved in small-scale agricultural projects, directing a children’s reading program, co-founding a rural savings and loan, and participating in the village government. They also participated in the life of an independent Christian mission dedicated to facilitating the cross-cultural interaction of groups and individuals who desired to be challenged and learn within the context of a rural, two-thirds world setting.

Apart from this international work, they have varied direct service experience. While in college, Trish organized and facilitated summer programs for inner city youth in Minneapolis and worked in Washington, D.C. as an intern at Lutheran Social Services’ Refugee Programs, helping to resettle refugees and maintain a community center. After leaving Tegucigalpa, Trish and Chris both worked in the Boston area in therapeutic programs for children with severe behavioral and emotional difficulties. This last year of his three years at Boston College, in M.A. programs in Counseling Psychology and Religious Education, Chris worked as a Counselor Intern primarily with Latin American populations, offering individual and couples counseling, doing outreach at an afternoon shelter, and participating in the local ministerial association.

Lastly, as pertains to this work in Ecuador, Trish and Chris have deep ecumenical sensitivity and were raised with diverse lived church experience. Before becoming involved in the Episcopal Church in college, Trish had grown up in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Chris had been raised in Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, and Evangelical Protestant traditions. Now, as members of the Episcopal Church, Trish serves on their parish vestry, Chris is a Lay Eucharistic Minister and a member of the parish mission committee, and both are lectors and prayer leaders. They have also helped direct retreats, Chris for the Waltham Ministerial Association and both for their parish vestry and for a Presbyterian camp in New Hampshire.