The Anglican Alliance were delighted to mark the graduation of the Resilience Course in Latin America and the Caribbean with an online ceremony for participants from across the region. Partners in Resilience and Response (PiRR) is an initiative run by the Anglican Alliance and Episcopal Relief & Development. The vision of PiRR is for every Anglican Church to have the capacity to prepare for and respond effectively to emergencies.
The online graduation ceremony on 17th July provided an opportunity to reflect on the past year of learning and achievement. Participants commented on the course: ‘It was a great experience because … we learnt a lot about how to cope with [life’s] challenges with resilience…. we now need to disseminate the learning and inspire others to become more resilient…. Thank you for the enriching time to learn and to increase our spirituality.”
Participants emphasised how inspirational and empowering they had found the course, particularly being connected with a cohort of others from their region, learning and sharing their experiences as a community.
The ceremony included a commissioning message from Archbishop Anthony Poggo, General Secretary of the Anglican Communion, who said ‘I have been so encouraged and inspired as I have followed the development of the Resilience Course over the last year. As a cohort of Anglican leaders in your region, you have journeyed together over the last year, learning and sharing best practices on a range of important resilience themes.’
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby shared a message and benediction encouraging graduates to ‘go out into the world in confidence, play your part in God’s mission, build resilient communities and never lose heart.’ Bishops from across the region also joined the ceremony to share their prayers and congratulations.
The Partners in Resilience and Response initiative is designed to complement the existing responses of the local church by providing additional capacity sharing and accompaniment as locally as possible.
Following the original global Resilience Course, the Anglican Alliance and Episcopal Relief & Development are delivering a series of regional courses bringing together church members, leaders and staff, equipping them with essential skills in disaster resilience and response.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, participants have attended 10 monthly online sessions, each focused on a particular aspect of disaster response, learning through case studies and sharing in discussion and biblical reflection. Key areas included contextual bible study, prioritising marginalised populations, servant ministries, climate resilience, women and girls in humanitarian responses, safeguarding, caring for the caregiver, mental health, and networking. Participants were also invited to develop a Capstone project to present to their church leadership which includes a plan to enhance resilience over the next three to five years.
In addition to the course, the initiative equips regional Teams of Accompaniers, managed by Regional Steering Groups, with guidance from a Global Steering Committee and supported by a small Global Secretariat. Accompaniers are individuals who have completed the Resilience course and have developed skills to walk alongside churches in building their capacity to disaster response. We look forward to continuing to work with participants through the accompaniment initiative.
Nagulan Nesiah, Senior Programme Officer for Episcopal Relief & Development explains ‘PiRR is an initiative to facilitate South to South regional Anglican support to local churches to both build disaster resilience and during times of emergency, through visits and support at a distance.’
Please join us as we congratulate all the graduates of the Resilience Course for their commitment and dedication over the past year. We pray for the impact their learning will have across the Latin America and Caribbean region.
In closing the graduation ceremony, Nicholas Pande, Resilience and Disaster Response Lead for the Anglican Alliance, shared a prayer ‘Loving God. We are thankful for the last 14 months when this gathering of friends across the Anglican Communion in Latin America & the Caribbean have met online to learn more about Resilience.’
Please also pray for the next regional courses, beginning this month for participants in Africa and the Pacific.
To learn more about the Resilience Course, please visit the Anglican Alliance website: https://anglicanalliance.org/relief/resilience-course/
