Do you want to know how your congregation can connect with your Latino/Hispanic neighbors? Join the diocesan Latino + Immigration Ministries and presenter, Karla Sikaffy duPlantier, Interim Latina Missioner from the Presiding Bishop's Office of The Episcopal Church, on Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17 for a two-day learning event in San Antonio.

New Camino is an Episcopal program for clergy, vestry and lay leaders that explores the changing face, cultural backgrounds, interests and needs of Latino/a communities, while also welcoming, serving, and involving them in our Congregational Life and Ministry.

The seminar challenges the preconceived and incorrect notions, held by many, that Latinos are a homogeneous community, which is largely Spanish-speaking and of immigrant status. Participants will be invited to explore the various Latino ministry models necessary to reach the traditional Spanish-speaking, immigrant and first-generation Latinos, as well as the increasingly English dominant and acculturated Hispanic/Latino population of second, third and later generations.

REGISTER NOW
‍Registration Deadline is September 29.

Location: Bishop Jones Center – Chapel House
111 Torcido Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78209

Start Time: Friday, October 16 – 6:00 p.m.
End Time: Saturday, October 17 – 4:00 p.m.

Hotel Location: Courtyard by Marriot San Antonio Airport
8615 Broadway
San Antonio, TX 78217
(210) 828-7200

Check-In Begins: 3:00 p.m.
Check-Out: 12:00 p.m.

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Featured Speakers

Mrs. Karla Sikaffy duPlantier serves at the Interim Latina Missioner for The Episcopal Church Office of Latino Ministries.

She has over 20 years' experience working as a social justice advocate in the faith, non-profit, public, and private sectors. Her specialty is creating sustainable programs and services that support the rapidly growing Latino community with training and technical assistance to develop measurable and sustainable solutions in a multi-cultural environment. As an advocate and grassroots organizer, Mrs. duPlantier has partnered locally with city, state, and federal agencies to cultivate resilient communities. She brings an understanding of planting and revitalizing ministries to support the holistic and spiritual needs of Latino communities by partnering regionally to leverage resources and provide a range of holistic services.

Mrs. duPlantier is married to The Very Rev. David A. duPlantier, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans and serves as the Disaster and Preparedness Coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.

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The Rev. Leigh Preston is associate university chaplain at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Previously, she served full-time as Instructor of Pastoral Spanish and Latino/Hispanic Ministry at the School of Theology, where she continues to offer electives and mentor seminarians.

Leigh was ordained to the priesthood in 2007 after completing her studies at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Following ordination, she spent a year as a missionary in El Salvador through the Young Adult Service Corps. She returned to Connecticut to serve as priest-in-charge of a bilingual, multicultural parish in Hartford. Later, she served as Associate Rector of St. Stephen’s in Richmond, Virginia, then Associate Rector of St. Paul’s in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In addition to her work in the parish and the academy, she has served in various churchwide leadership positions, including as a chair of the Commission on Ministry in East Tennessee, three-time deputy to General Convention, member of the House of Deputies State of the Church Committee, member of the Council of Advice for Latino/Hispanic Ministries, and co-coordinator of Nuevo Amanecer 2024. She currently serves as Presiding Bishop’s Representative to the Standing Commission on World Mission.

Leigh is married to Andy Thompson, Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at the School of Theology, and they have two children.

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The Rev. Albert R. Rodriguez currently serves as a consultant with the The Episcopal Church Office of Latino Ministries and is co-founder and long-time presenter at the Episcopal Latino Ministry Competency (ELMC) course offered at Sewanee School of Theology and Virginia Theological Seminary.

Aside from presenting on traditional Latino Spanish-speaking ministry topics, the Rev. Al’s teaching specialty is how to reach out evangelistically to bicultural and English-dominant Latinos who have lived in the U.S. for generations. Fr. Al received research grants from the Episcopal Church Foundation and the Episcopal Evangelism Society that enabled him to study more closely the transcultural and multi-generational reality of U.S.-native-born Latinos.

After receiving his MDiv from the Seminary of the Southwest in 1996, he served as Priest in Charge of Trinity Episcopal Church in Longview, Texas. He then was called as Rector to St. John’s in Austin, where he served for 15 years at this Anglo congregation where he helped the parish leadership to build the parish’s new church sanctuary and also planted a Spanish-speaking ministry which still continues. Upon his retirement, Fr. Al was appointed Acting Director of Latino/Hispanic Studies at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. During this three-year assignment, he assisted in transitioning the seminary to a broader form of Latino ministry to include the English-speaking Hispanics. After this seminary teaching experience, he served briefly as Associate Rector at St. James’ Episcopal Church, a historical black church in Austin, where he continues to worship as a parishioner, and occasional preacher at this amazing church that has organically developed into a model of a multicultural, multi-racial congregation.

Service as a lay person: Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Al graduated from St. Mary’s University in 1964 and directly went into the Peace Corps in Venezuela. He and his wife, LaVerne, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer from Staten Island, New York, worked jointly to found and develop the village’s community center and establish a savings and loan cooperative and teaching in the local agricultural school. This community work was followed by his post-graduate studies in social and economic development at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Back in Austin, Texas, He helped establish and directed the Texas Office of Minority Enterprise, a state-government agency promoting minority and women’s small businesses. Al was also instrumental in co-founding the Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, one of the pioneering Latino business organizations in Texas. In 1976, Al accidently discovered the Episcopal Church (a denominational best kept secret) and as a lay person, co-founded El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission, a social needs ministry which now sits on an eleven-acre campus. He also assisted to develop the ministry of San Francisco de Asis, a Latino congregation, now in its 40th year of Spanish-speaking ministry.

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Schedule

Friday, October 16
6:00 p.m. - Session
6:45 p.m. - Dinner (in-house)
8:00 p.m. - END

Saturday, October 17
7:30/8:00 a.m. - Breakfast (in-house)
9:00 a.m. - Sessions
12:00 p.m. - Lunch (in-house)
1:00 p.m. - Sessions
4:00 p.m - END