The Cuba Partnership

All are one, united in Christ.

Unidos a Christo todos somos uno solo.

Galations 3:28

Missionero

Attention, open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Written by John Walter Wednesday, 16 June 2010 15:00

Reflection on “Missionary”
Matanzas, Cuba, 1.29.2010


During the January 2010 Synod Assembly meeting of the Presbyterian Reformed
Church of Cuba (IPRC) held at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas,
Cuba I heard someone ask General Secretary, Francisco (Pancho) Marrero, who
I was, and without hesitation he answered, “misionero”.

Surprised at his answer, it set me thinking and asking myself questions: What did
Pancho meanwhen he used the term “missionary”?  What is a North American’s
reaction to hearing him / herself be called missionary?  The word seems hopelessly
antiquated.

I confess the term also carries for me strong negative connotations: spiritual arrogance,
cultural ignorance, and misplaced superiority top the list. Our North American – European
history is blighted by “missionary do-gooders” who often depreciated and sometimes
literally destroyed the cultures they were attempting interact with through the “Good News
of the Bible”.  The very last thing in the world I’d want to be associated with is that type
of missionary, so it must mean something else, something readjusted to the 21st Century,
since I noticed the person addressing Pancho didn’t pick up his things and run for his life.

Sitting in the assembly I began by tying to imagine what Pancho meant when he used the
term; clearly he does not associate me with either the 19th or 20th Century “evangelist” type
a denomination such as the IPRC would strenuously discourage from acting among their
congregations.  Maybe for him - as well as me - it’s just a catch-all term, a relic that few  people
have given any attention to recently.

Whoops! I notice I now have two words to rework for myself: Missionary and Evangelism.
For the purposes of this reflection I will limit myself to a reflection on the word missionary.

I confess I didn’t have time to ask Pancho while at the Synod assembly meeting –his being
busy and my being rather caught up in other questions - but it occurred to me later that it
might be worth sharing if we can get our hands on a new sense of what a missionary
is in today’s world. A new definition is needed, one suitable for us both in the Twenty First
Century as we go forward in the relationship between the Presbyterian Churches in each
of our countries.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), our General Assembly’s World Mission Division calls its
mission outreach personnel “Mission Co-Workers”.  While overall a more “modern” sounding
term, to me its modernity derives from the same semantic inventiveness that we hear in
words such as “missional”, like a missional church.

What is a “missional church?” 

Still, we should consider the title: Mission Co-Worker to see what it yields.

I’d suggest that we forget the word: “Worker”; to me it modifies “mission” in a
way that makes it seem less tied to its regrettable historical past, as though said
person was simply a mere laborer in God’s mission field. It also seems to connote
a lack of leadership quality that clearly should be present in any person who is
attempting to communicate and integrate with a different culture while representing
one’s own in an intelligent and informed way. 

How about the “Co”?: It seems to suggest a sense of the idea: “bilateral”; a relationship
approved by both sides, which is a good beginning since I doubt – for example - that
the indigenous tribes in Brazil would have welcomed the Portuguese if they’d known
in advance the type of disaster that would rain down on them at the hands of their Catholic
“missionaries”. 

“Co“ seems to denote approval, a mutual exchange of ideas and goals which both
parties have labored together to identify and agree upon. I can live with “mutual / mutuality”
and Co since it connotes a sense of being together and experiencing life together, creating
a new horizon for our personal and trans-cultural experience of faith.

I remember the first visit I made to the rural IPRC church in Taguasco, Cuba in 2007.
A small group from Baltimore Presbytery had split off from the larger group celebrating
the centennial of the Cabaiguán church to visit with Pastor Miriam Naranjo, now Moderator
of El Centro Presbytery.

During the service that night our group was asked to stand, identify ourselves, and say a brief
little something in Spanish regarding our visit.  These opportunities can be either wholly
intimidating or offer  a real opening for (self) illumination. That night I got stuck on trying
to identify in Spanish the one word that would define my role in Cuba, but instead of choosing
one, I considered four or five that came to mind, wrestling aloud with each to either approve
or cast it aside for another more appropriate to my thinking and as to my real goal there.

Representante: OK, but too obvious; Delegado: that too was too superficial and also carries
for me a sense of political affiliation; Presbitereo Gobernante or Elder: well yes, but so…?;
Enviado: Hmm, here’s some promise.

Perhaps a missionary is an envoy, someone sent not only by the church he or she represents,
rather by the Spirit who sends us humans outward to look, listen, and testify to the work
of God in our midst, no matter where that is or what language its conceived in. Perhaps
from that vantage point we have a chance of merging and healing, coming together, joining
not fighting, laughing not hitting, breathing not gripping.

So, where are we with our quest to redefine missionary?

As far as I’m concerned he and she must have been transformed by the zeitgeist of our times.
He and she must have learned to listen and appreciate the flavors of other cultures, no matter
how disparate; and we are "Co-Envoys" because all the nations that formerly were
spoken down to are now raising their voices at a world level, and they are here with
us in our midst as invited friends and guests, they are with us on Facebook,
sharing life’s dreams, challenges and ironies.

We have begun to celebrate this change by the assuredly risky phenomenon of Short Term
Mission, which if carried out with integrity and forethought can become a beacon of hope
and a solid foundation for reconciliation, not to mention the wonderfully rich experience
of learning and sharing new ideas and creating mutual goals.

Maybe we should just consider ourselves to be something like exchange students.

John Walter
The Cuba Partnership
Baltimore and El Centro Presbyteries











 

Browse Ten Years of Cuba Photos

Attention, open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Written by John Walter Friday, 05 March 2010 17:55

We began our relationship with the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada en Cuba (IPRC)
in 1999. In the succeeding years we have taken well over eleven thousand pictures of the
churches in El Centro Presbytery. While some have been visited more than others due to
internal infrastructure reasons, most are represented in the albums which will be posted
here soon.

Read more: Browse Ten Years of Cuba Photos

   

Returning from the 2009 Inter-Presbytery Conference in Santa Clara, Cuba

Attention, open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Written by John Walter Friday, 27 March 2009 15:43

Returning from the 2009 Inter-Presbytery Conference in Santa Clara, Cuba.

(Por favor, mira abajo por la version en espanol.)

As the culmination of nearly a year's worth of planning, our delegation, once set at fifteen people, had been reduced to a servicable eleven, all survivors of the hours of briefing and planning meetings that composed our part of the program we would share with the pastors and leaders of El Centro Presbytery in Cuba.

Read more: Returning from the 2009 Inter-Presbytery Conference in Santa Clara, Cuba

   

A Cuba Reflection: The November 2009 Visits

Attention, open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Written by John Walter Wednesday, 10 March 2010 21:55

A Cuba Reflection: 1999 ~2009

John Walter ~ November 2-23, 2009 / Calabazar de Sagua

The visits to: Cabaiguán, Placetas, Sagua la Grande, Calabazar de Sagua and Encrucijada.


You’d think that after ten years of visiting and relationship building with the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada en Cuba (IPRC) I’d have devised some kind of method for evaluating my experiences and have reached some broad conclusions; but in fact I think just the opposite is true. I’m still collecting impressions, but now in both a wider geographical and contextual area.


Read more: A Cuba Reflection: The November 2009 Visits