Recently a group of Presbyterian Mission Agency personnel joined with ecumenical partners from across Latin America and the Caribbean and delegates from the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. They gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, at the “International Encounter for Reconciliation in Colombia: Ecumenical Experiences and Learnings in Peace Building.” The PMA delegation included Ellen Sherby, the Rev. Dr. Valdir França, Sue Rheem, and the Rev. Sarah Henken, PC(USA) mission co-worker serving in Colombia, a country seeking peace after more than 50 years of armed conflict.
Presbyterian World Mission staff are hailing the announcement that the Rev. Adelaida Jiménez of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia has been named part of a peace process negotiating team tasked with brokering a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army.
A current area coordinator and a former regional liaison with Presbyterian World Mission are among the four people recently named to the board of the American Waldensian Society.
Joseph Russ’ appointment as Presbyterian World Mission’s coordinator for migration issues, advocacy and mission in the Northern Triangle of Central America, a new mission co-worker position, is the fulfillment of an overture passed by the 223rd General Assembly, held in St. Louis in 2018.
Presbyterian World Mission has named Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and the Rev. José Manuel Capella-Pratts as new regional liaisons for the Caribbean. Cintrón-Olivieri has already begun her work and Capella-Pratts, her husband of 25 years, will join her in January 2022.
Prior to a meeting with the U.S. State Department, Catherine Gordon of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness was part of a group that met with partners working in Cuba to get a sense of current conditions in the island nation.
The Rev. John Henderson Sinclair, 96, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor for more than 70 years and an ardent advocate for peace and social justice, died in Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 2.
The Rev. Dr. Valdir França, World Mission’s coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, said Sunday’s contentious elections in Venezuela were tranquil and there was no evidence of any voter intimidation.
The sanctuary at Unión Cristiana Presbyterian Church in Santiago, Chile was full the evening of Sunday, July 21, as representatives of all four presbyteries of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Chile (IEPeCh) gathered to give thanks to God for 150 years of mission partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
