A joint news release of Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Education Agency.
(Mennonite Mission Network/Mennonite Education Agency) — The boards of Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Education Agency found common ground in an unexpected place—Puerto Rico.
The boards met together October 18-20—the first time the boards have gathered for an extended conversation—to find ways that their missional and educational goals intersect, and to learn about their shared history in Puerto Rico.
According to Paula Killough, Mission Network senior executive for advancement, the purpose of the learning tour was to strengthen relations between the two agency boards and with the Puerto Rico Mennonite Conference, which chose not to join Mennonite Church USA when the denomination formed in 2001. The 400-member Conference became an associate member of Atlantic Coast Conference in 2011.
“Relationships were broken during the merger process in 2001,” Killough said. “Our presence in Puerto Rico was an experience of trust-building and reconciliation between the two agencies and with our sisters and brothers in Puerto Rico.”
Reconciliation took the form of shared worship; a hog roast; and visits to two schools, a hospital, and three Mennonite congregations—all institutions with roots in Mennonite Education Agency and Mennonite Mission Network predecessor agencies.
José Luis Vargas and Linette Colón, the pastoral couple at Iglesia Menonita Betania (Bethany Mennonite Church) in Aibonito, told the history of the Mennonite mission presence in Puerto Rico, and gave thanks to God for the legacy that the Puerto Rican church hopes to carry on. The 11 Puerto Rican congregations are active in planting churches in Puerto Rico and nearby Dominican Republic.
Mennonite mission workers first arrived in Puerto Rico in 1943, when Mennonite Central Committee helped establish a medical and social service program in the La Plata Valley as part of a Civilian Public Service site. The Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network, began evangelistic work in Pulguillas in 1945, and assumed administration of the MCC program in 1950.
By 1958, according to an article in GAMEO (Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online), mission workers and Puerto Rican Mennonites had helped establish a 32-bed hospital in Aibonito; numerous medical clinics in rural communities; a community agriculture program; and Escuela Menonita Betania (Bethany Mennonite School), then a 165-student school serving children in grades 1-9.
Today, the hospital started by Mennonites in the 1940s is Sistema de Salud Menonita (Mennonite Health System), a five-hospital healthcare system—the largest member of Mennonite Health Services Alliance, serving 300,000 patients annually.
The island’s two Mennonite schools—Academia Menonita Betania (Bethany Mennonite Academy) in Aibonito and Academia Menonita (Mennonite Academy) in San Juan—belong to the Mennonite Schools Council, which relates to Mennonite Education Agency, and together serve more than 600 students from preschool through 12th grade.
“The local setting and schedule provided a special opportunity to learn from each other and from our shared history,” said Carlos Romero, MEA executive director, who grew up in Puerto Rico and served as school administrator of Academia Menonita in San Juan. “Most importantly, it provided an opportunity to explore and dream with our brothers and sisters from Puerto Rico about new possibilities on how we can partner in responding to God’s call.”
Juan Carlos Colón, the Puerto Rican conference moderator, and Brenda Hernandez, a conference leader, emphasized the Puerto Rican church’s desire to not dwell in the past but to look forward and strengthen its relationship with Mennonite Church USA. “You are part of our history,” Colón said. “Why are we walking separately?”
Many Puerto Rican Mennonites expressed gratitude for Mennonite Education Agency’s Instituto Bíblico Anabautista (Anabaptist Biblical Institute) and Seminario Bíblico Anabautista Hispano (Hispanic Anabaptist Biblical Seminary) programs that provide the only Anabaptist theological training for pastors and congregational leaders in Puerto Rico.
James Krabill, Mission Network senior executive for global ministries, and Elaine Moyer, Mennonite Education Agency senior director, helped the board members discern how they might enter into more intentional collaboration and cooperation.
Krabill reminded board members of Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:16-20 to make disciples in two ways—through baptizing and teaching, the primary calling of the two agencies. Puerto Rican Mennonites, like the mission workers before them, are doing exactly what Jesus did—“healing, teaching and preaching,” he said.
The boards concluded their time in shared worship at Iglesia Menonita de Summit Hills (Summit Hills Mennonite Church) in San Juan with a sermon given by Carlos Romero. “We are now in a time of strengthening and enlarging our tent,” he told those in attendance. “Looking toward the future together will overshadow the hurts of the past, for God never abandons God’s people.”
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For immediate release.
Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
