Colombian Hospitality: The Gift of a New Community

A year before the pandemic, I was invited by the Episcopal bishop of Colombia, the Rt. Rev. Francisco Duque, to spend some time in his diocese, and to live alongside his clergy and people. It was a wonderful experience, above all because I was received with such hospitality. “Mi casa es su casa” is a phrase I heard everywhere I went: “My home is your home.” 

As I have reflected on my time in Colombia, and prayed with these beautiful words of welcome, I have come to see how hospitality lies at the very heart of the Christian Gospel. In the letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul proclaims that because of Christ, we are “no longer strangers and aliens, but members of God’s household.” That word “household” really means God’s “family” or God’s “home.” It promises that we who were once strangers have now been welcomed to live in God’s home forever. For St. Paul, Christ’s dying on the Cross for us is the most wonderful expression of God’s love for us, and the most radical expression of God’s extraordinary hospitality.

I experienced such radical hospitality in every household I entered in Colombia – a welcome all the more stunning for its contrast with the experience that many Colombians have had in their own country. Colombia is filled with many people who have lost their homes: strangers and aliens, longing for a home, longing to belong. The people of Colombia have lived through decades of violence; terrorized by guerilla groups like the FARC, and suffering through the murderous days of Pablo Escobar and narco-terrorism. What is less well known is that Colombia has the world’s highest number of internally displaced people – more even than Syria. These are Colombian men, women, and children who over the past thirty years have been forcibly driven from their homes by armed groups, and who have become refugees in their own land: eight million of them. Many now live in poverty in the outlying barrios which cling to the mountain sides of the great cities. During my time staying with clergy in Bogotá and Medellín, I was able to see the wonderful work done by the churches, welcoming in the most vulnerable and assuring them that they have a place, a home, in the heart of God.

In the face of such challenges, I am particularly inspired to have witnessed one recent development within the Episcopal church in Colombia, the founding this year of a new religious community called the “Orden Misionera Episcopal de la Epifanía” (OMEE). While members do not live in a monastery like at SSJE, they live by a common Rule of Life and support each other by prayer and regular meetings either by Zoom or in person. They are men and women, married and single, clergy and lay. The spiritual center of the Order is in Colombia, but there are also members in Ecuador and the United States. On March 21, 2021, the first eleven members made their religious vows in the cathedral of Bogotá. This moment was the culmination of several years of planning and praying together. It has been a privilege for me to act as spiritual ‘consultant’ for them, helping in the formation of this new community, and sharing wisdom from my experience in SSJE. What a beautiful thing to witness their goal to embody the radical hospitality of Jesus by dedicating themselves to working with the most needy and vulnerable. In Colombia, members of the community work in parishes within the barrios, with young people living on the streets, with people effected by violence and drug trafficking, and now, increasingly, ministering to the nearly two million refugees who have poured into Colombia from Venezuela, seeking a refuge and a place to feel safe and at home.

Such work is very hard, very demanding, and members of the Order find strength and sustenance in belonging to each other as members of God’s household, and holding each other up through a daily rhythm of prayer. In August they held their first General Chapter meeting in Medellín, and although I was not able to attend in person, I was, thanks to technology, able to join them, give an address, and share and pray with them for the next steps of their journey. This growing relationship between SSJE and OMEE has been a real blessing, and we hope that, as the pandemic allows, we can develop closer ties. In particular, we hope to be able to eventually welcome members of the Order to come for times of retreat with us here at the Monastery in Cambridge. 

Do please remember the members of the Orden Misionera Episcopal de la Epifanía in your prayers. Pray for their mission and their Superior, Padre Narciso Diaz. Pray also for the people of Colombia, that they may be held in the heart of God.