Mission geometry:
Hermeneutical circle becomes triangle of transformation
by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen

"César Moya (foreground) helps install the church sign at Iglesia Cristiana Menonita in Quito, Ecuador.

No ivory tower in Ecuador for Latin American theologians César Moya and Patricia Urueña. Dust, fear, exhaustion, illness and conflict swirl through their lives.

Theological reflection informs action for many Latin American theologians. They study theology with a specific goal in mind — to understand what God is calling them to do. As they put into practice what they are studying, experience lends new light and nuanced learnings. Practitioner-scholars return to theological texts to find answers to the dilemmas they encounter in real-life ministry. Seminarians call this the hermeneutical circle.

“Theological thought from the Latin American Bible University through the Ecuador Indigenous Development Foundation and also from the Latin American Christian University in Quito has led us to keep in constant action as pastors,” Urueña said. “Theological reflection and meeting people’s needs, or is it the other way around — meeting people’s needs and theological reflection? At any rate, these two are inseparable in our ministry.”

Since 2000, Colombian Mennonites, Moya and Urueña, have modeled active theology from lecturing in the university halls in Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, to squatting among indigenous school children in the remote Andean highlands of Riobamba. This husband-wife team also minister in Colombia and the United States during regular visits to report on the work in Ecuador.

Although Moya and Urueña went to Ecuador responding to a call for theological education among indigenous groups, active theology led Moya and Urueña to begin a Mennonite church in Quito. They speak of “bringing people to the table.” However, the table must first exist before the call can be issued. “We can’t just be teaching without having a place to put our theology into practice,” Moya said.

A chasm separates the Catholic and evangelical churches of Ecuador — a rift so deep that if a Catholic desires to marry an evangelical, neither church will administer the wedding ceremony. Anabaptism provides a bridge across this great divide. Moya and Urueña mediate interchurch dialogue in a variety of settings. Five indigenous congregations have expressed interest in identifying themselves as Anabaptist congregations.

Traffic Lights & Culture Shock The Moya-Urueña family, Colombians by birth, followed God’s call to Ecuador. Though these two countries share a border, differences in cultural perspectives and language patterns can be shocking. “We are experiencing another culture in Ecuador,” Patricia Urueña said. “If we don’t talk, people on the street might think we are Ecuadorian. However, as soon as we open our mouths, people know we are Colombian.” According to César Moya, the people of Ecuador have calmer temperaments. “What is a normal statement in Colombia may be seen as abrasive in Ecuador, and while Colombians run red lights without a second thought, Ecuadorians will not go 50 miles per hour in a 40-mile-per-hour speed zone.”

Moya and Urueña live with their three teenagers in Quito where, in addition to being advocates for indigenous causes, they both teach courses and lead workshops on conflict resolution, peacebuilding and human rights. A recent and risk-taking challenge to the 35 regular participants of the Mennonite church in Quito has been providing refuge to several families who are part of the massive influx of Colombians displaced through violence.

A three-way partnership supports the Moya-Urueña family. Mennonite Mission Network, the Central Plains Conference of Mennonite Church USA and Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia (the Colombian Mennonite Church) share a ministry that seeks holistic development in Ecuador.

In the seven years preceding his departure for Ecuador, Moya had been either president or executive secretary of the Colombian Mennonite Church. This church continues to send both long-term and short-term workers to minister alongside Ecuadorian Christians. The Central Plains Conference provides support and encouragement visits to the Moya-Urueña family and the people of Ecuador. Mennonite Mission Network offers more than a century of expertise in mission and cross-cultural relationships, as well as administrative services.

The Ecuador mission triangle has significance for each of the partners in this era of God’s call to people from every tongue and nation to minister to all parts of the world, according to Dean Heisey, Mennonite Mission Network’s director for Church Relations and Partnership Formation.

Heisey indicated that the sending of mission workers from Colombia to Ecuador marked a sign of the maturation of the Colombian Mennonite Church from a mission-planted church to a missionary church. This movement from dependence to becoming a contributing partner in world mission is significant for Mennonite Mission Network because “we are helping to expand their mission capacity, and they are helping to expand ours,” he said.

Contact with the church in Ecuador transforms the lives of people in the Central Plains Mennonite Conference. “Jesus calls us to identify with the poor and persecuted, but in my small world, I never saw them,” said Grant Nebel, a church leader who had only once ventured beyond the borders of Iowa before leaving home for college.

As Nebel set off on his first trip to Ecuador, he said he held a magnifying glass to observe the problems of the Ecuadorian people. The problems loomed large, and he felt he had to solve them. Years of involvement in Ecuador have taught Nebel to hold a mirror instead of a magnifying glass.

“As I see the poverty and injustice, I have to look at myself. Is it an oxymoron to be North American and Christian?” Nebel asked. He repeated the question as he observed the joyful worship of people who live in material poverty and compared it to the lack of exuberance found in a typical North American Mennonite church setting.

In the mission triangle connecting Colombia, Ecuador and the United States, God’s people in these countries engage in calling their sisters and brothers in all three countries to greater faithfulness in theological reflection and to untiringly translating that faith into action.