You might be surprised to learn there may be more Presbyterians in Mexico than in the United States of America. Even though I could get no solid membership figures from the Office of the General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, the total membership is around two million — with thirteen synods and sixty-two presbyteries.
There has been a Presbyterian/Reformed presence in Mexico since 1865. It was a courageous Mississippi schoolteacher (“a transplanted Yankee”) who set up a small primary school, largely on her own, in Monterrey in that year. By 1872 a presbytery had been organized. Missionaries from four denominations have shared in a Presbyterian/ Reformed mission presence in Mexico over the years: the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Presbyterian Church, US, the Reformed Church in America, and the Associate Reformed Church. These mission boards have invested countless mission dollars and hundreds of years of missionary service in one of the most responsive fields for the growth of Reformed Christianity in the last century.
On the centenary of the National Presbyterian Church in 1972, a new chapter of sister church cooperation was inaugurated called Puentes de Cristo, a joint mission effort along the Mexico-U.S. border. Today we are blessed to enjoy warm relations with our sister denomination even though we support few missionaries there now.
Five seminaries are scattered from Monterrey in the north to San Cristobal de las Casas in the south. The oldest seminary is located in Mexico City, founded more than a century ago. This seminary has recently suffered a student strike, frequent changes in administration, unpaid tax bills, and the temporary loss of some of its property.
I wish to share some personal reflections with hope for a brighter future.
Signs of renewal and expanding vision
A newly appointed rector and dean arrived in late 2006 to provide significant new leadership for this seminary. Four Mexican professors and their families are being sent out of the country to study for advanced degrees to Spain, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Colombia. There are now thirty students and a small faculty on campus. The seminary choir has resumed monthly visits to local churches to recruit students and awaken stewardship for the seminary budget. The program of seminary interns has been revived and the school of music is functioning again.
A pastor’s conference was held in February 2007, followed by a week of intensive master of theology level courses taught by guest professors. The life on campus has improved greatly since a student strike demanding the removal of the previous rector and administrator precipitated the exodus of 31 students and several faculty members. (Ten of these students are continuing their studies in the Comunidad Teologica in Mexico City; the Board of Directors has brought in a new administration.)
Additional problems followed in the wake of the student exodus. A dissident Presbyterian congregation took over the seminary chapel and an adjacent educational building at the edge of the seminary campus. The recovery of this property is now moving slowly through a litigation process in the courts. It has required tremendous efforts to renew the institution.
A dearth of trained pastors continues to hamper the further growth of many of the more than 2,000 congregations of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico. There are an estimated 1,200 active pastors, and Rector Erasmo Gonzalez Castro has called for the training of a thousand new pastors in this decade. Even though the national church does not yet ordain women to the ministry of Word and Sacrament there are dozens of well-prepared women studying theology, Christian education and church music.
A past history of property confiscation and persecution
Mexico has had a liberal constitution for many years but the actual achievement of full religious guarantees by Protestants has been hard won. Only recently have their congregations been able to register with the government as “religious associations” with full rights to property ownership.
The government confiscated the present block-sized campus of the Presbyterian Seminary in Mexico City during a wave of anti-clericalism in the early 1930s. Only after 35 years of litigation and tens of thousands of dollars paid in legal fees was the property restored to the national church in the 1960s. Significant grants from the Fifty Million Fund of the United Presbyterian Church USA in the early 1970s provided construction funds to build the present well-equipped campus that houses the seminary community.
A recent visit of PC(USA) Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, also president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, has cemented further the relations of Mexican Presbyterians to the Reformed family around the world. “We need to build more bridges and fewer fences,” a Mexican pastor told me.
Pray for peace, unity, and vision for our sister church in Mexico. Together we affirm with them a common Reformed heritage in the 21st century, regardless of the complex issues Presbyterians face on both sides of the border.
John H. Sinclair, a retired synod and mission board executive, recently taught in the Master of Theology program at the Presbyterian Seminary in Mexico City.
