Missioner for Latino Ministries departing Southern Virginia

Angelica Garcia-Randle, Missioner for Latino Ministries on the Eastern Shore, will be departing for a position on the West Coast early next month. For the past three years, Garcia-Randle has served the Diocese of Southern Virginia as its first Latino Missioner. Her ministry has included advocacy, counseling, fund-raising and missional work with the Latino immigrant and migrant worker population on the Eastern Shore. She has worked in collaboration with a number of parishes on the Shore and throughout the diocese, particularly in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. She will remain in her current role until March 1, 2019.

 

"I've known Angelica for nearly twenty years," says The Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton, Executive Director of the non-profit Jubilee Consortium in Hollywood, CA, where Garcia-Randle will administer a new program (Jubilee Jump!) emphasizing healthy lifestyle choices for Latino youth. "I have experienced her to be passionate about bringing positive change to people's lives. She is friendly, artistic, organized, outgoing, relentless and fearless. These are the leadership qualities we need to transform our humble jump rope clubs in under-resourced neighborhoods of Los Angeles into a vibrant, competitive league that will help young people to become healthier, learn valuable life skills and grow as community leaders."

 

Garcia-Randle has served as Missioner while pursuing a BA in Applied Design, with a concentration in photography, at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, MD. She plans to return to UMES to complete her degree at the end of the Jubilee Jump! Grant administration cycle in 2020. Her husband, The Rev. Cameron Randle, presently serves as Priest-in-Charge at Eastern Shore Chapel in Virginia Beach. Together, the Garcia-Randles founded Dos Santos Community Services, a non-profit created to undertake Latino ministry on the Eastern Shore when no formal diocesan avenue for Latino ministry existed.

 

"We will miss Angelica and her enthusiasm and compassionate activism for and with the Latino people on the Eastern Shore," notes The Rev. Jeunee Godsey, member of the diocesan Latino Ministries Board. "She has been able grow the ministry of Dos Santos, build ecumenical and community partners, and help churches throughout the diocese minister in effective ways on the Eastern shore. The need for Latino Ministries continues, and I, and the rest of the Latino Ministries Board, look forward to working with our Bishop and Executive Board as we look to continue and expand the diocesan work with our Latino brothers and sisters."