On March 4, 2024, Southwest hosted the annual Harvey Lecture featuring the Rev. Daniel Robayo, Vicar of St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Manor, Texas. The student-led Harvey Lectures were conceived at Seminary of the Southwest as a way of honoring the late Dean Hudnall Harvey, who died unexpectedly in 1972, after serving as the seminary’s dean for just five years. The seminary community established the Harvey Lectures, an annual series that would be overseen by student leaders and that would address the relationship between pastoral leadership and contemporary issues confronting the church.
“One of the topics that our Harvey Lecture survey revealed was that there is great interest in the topic of multicultural ministries,” the Rev. Teri Calinao, Southwest student Harvey committee member, shares. Father Robayo was formerly the Missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministries in the Diocese of North Carolina and now serves as the Vicar of St. Mary Magdalene/Sta. Maria Magdalena, a bilingual, multicultural parish in Manor, Texas. He has a passion for community organizing and we feel that he brought an important lens of the work being done in multicultural ministries in furthering the mission of Christ.”
Beyond his lecture, Rev. Robayo preached in the chapel and joined students and sat in a couple classes. During the lecture in the evening, Rev. Robayo shared his experience being a Missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministries as well as working in multicultural settings as a priest.
“Rev. Daniel Robayo’s humor, humility, and heartfelt insights sparked profound conversation and introspection about the growing edges of multicultural ministry within the Episcopal Church,” shares Tina Francis Mutungu, Southwest student Harvey committee member. “I’m grateful to be formed in a seminary committed to creating a culture where dialogue, debate, and discovery are not merely encouraged but celebrated, emphasizing the pivotal role of multicultural perspectives in enriching our collective spiritual journey.”St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church is a recent plant of the Diocese of Texas, intentionally established as a bilingual, multiethnic and multigenerational church. His dream is to see St. Mary Magdalene flourish as a church that not only represents the wide variety of people who live in Manor but one that rejoices in the particular cultures that form it, highlighting their diversity to enrich their unity as a community of faith that shares Christ’s transforming love with the larger communities of Manor.
Watch the 2024 Harvey Lecture here.
