wfn.org | Hispanic pastors needed on both sides of border

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 1, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-32-71B{107}

By United Methodist News Service*

Hispanic pastors are needed on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and
theological education is one key to meeting that demand, according to
Methodist officials from both countries.

Representatives from the Methodist Church in Mexico and the United Methodist
Church in the United States met Feb. 19-20 to discuss recruitment and
training in theological education. The consultation was held at both the
Juan Wesley Seminary in Monterrey, Mexico, and Baez Camargo Seminary in
Mexico City.

The event brought together staff members from the United Methodist Board of
Higher Education and Ministry, two seminaries in Mexico, Perkins School of
Theology in Dallas and Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology, along with six
bishops from the Methodist Church in Mexico. The board, based in Nashville,
Tenn., sponsored the consultation.

The participants discussed the needs and goals within the Mexican Methodist
church and how the U.S. church can assist. The consultation also allowed
denominational staff to begin talking about ways to establish, learn from
and support a relationship that will serve ministries common to the churches
in both countries.

In seven U.S. conferences that have large numbers of Hispanic people and
significant Hispanic ministries, 19.6 percent of the pastors are from
Mexico, and 24.2 percent are of Mexican-American decent, according to a
report prepared by the National Office of Hispanic Ministries in the United
Methodist Church. 

"The constant movement in the Hispanic constituency from Mexico to the
United States and from the United States to Mexico calls for coordination in
training for ministry," said Joaquin Garcia, a director in the board's
division of ordained ministry.

A strong need exists for professors in areas of specialization such as
missiology and pastoral care, said representatives of the Methodist Church
of Mexico. They would like to develop an exchange program of professors and
students between seminaries in Mexico and United Methodist seminaries in the
United States, but they said the exchange would need to be done with
sensitivity to Mexico's cultural realities.

The group agreed there should be an interchange of resources including the
possibility of connecting the seminaries through the Internet.

"This was a very profitable consultation, which gave us a better
understanding about the needs of theological education in the Methodist
Church of Mexico and the implications of Hispanic ministries within the
United States," said the Rev. John F. Harnish, an executive in the
division's section on elders and local pastors. 

"I want to affirm the program of theological education that the two
seminaries of the Methodist Church in Mexico have developed, along with the
future programs they are envisioning for stronger theological formation of
pastors and laity," Harnish said. "This will impact the development of
Hispanic ministries along the long border with the United States."

The Rev. Robert Kohler, another director in the division, pledged to
continue helping people participate in the Course of Study School for Local
Pastors in Spanish at the Claremont and Perkins seminaries, as long as the
bishops authorize students to attend those schools.

The Mexican bishops and the seminary representatives requested that the U.S.
church be sensitive to the needs of the Methodists in Mexico. They also
asked that the bishops in Mexico be contacted when pastors in their country
are recruited or transferred to the United States. 

The National Office of Hispanic Ministries is responsible for assigning and
coordinating the needs and availability of pastors to serve in Hispanic
ministries in the United States. Jose Palos, the coordinator of Hispanic
ministries, will carry this concern to the committee of the Council of
Bishops to determine if a process should be developed for coordinating the
transfer of pastors to and from the church in Mexico and the United States.

"This will ensure that pastors will be treated justly and the proper
officers of the churches will be informed," Palos said.

Representatives of both churches acknowledged the closeness of their two
countries and the connection that exists between families on both sides of
the border.

"We cannot build a solid wall with our structures nor with our minds and
attitudes," Garcia said. "We are dealing with God's children on both sides
of the border, and the scope of the ministry is global."

Other participants at the event included Haracio Aquilar, chairman of the
National Program Committee and meeting facilitator; Karen Dalton and
Fernando Santillana from Claremont School of Theology; and the Rev. Minerva
Carcano from Perkins School of Theology.
# # # 
*Kathy Gilbert, a staff member in the Office of Interpretation at the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, provided information for
this article.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org