A letter from Katie Griffin in Argentina
June 25, 2012
Dear friends in God’s mission,
As you are starting to wind down activities for a relaxing summer break, we here in Buenos Aires are in the midst of the year’s activities, nearing the end of the first academic semester.
The Rector, Rev. Dr. José Davíd Rodríguez, at ISEDET through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.
We have had few students enter the undergraduate degree program this year. However, the good news is that the graduate degree programs (master’s degree in Sacred Scriptures and the doctoral degree in Theology) continue to grow, as does our exchange program with international students. Last year we had an exchange student from Chandler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as several from Germany. This year we again have exchange students from Germany, and one from Russia. Please encourage any seminary students you may know to consider a semester or a year of studies at ISEDET! More information can be found at www.isedet.edu.ar.
One of the major challenges we have been facing at ISEDET in the last few years is achieving accreditation for our various university-level degree programs.
ISEDET has been negotiating accreditation with the Ministry of Education of the Nation, which is the only accreditation agency here in Argentina. This is the first Protestant institute for theology to seek accreditation. The process has been difficult, as ISEDET has had to reorganize and restructure all of the institutional infrastructures and administration to meet the government’s standards. This process has absorbed costs and foci, at the expense of the spiritual and financial care ISEDET had been giving to the students. This has affected enrollment in the pastoral training program.
The new rector, who was installed in June 2011, has taken an altogether new approach to working with the Ministry of Education and the various governing and authority figures at ISEDET. He has begun a long-term (or at least a medium-term) planning process, which is something that ISEDET has never undertaken. This process includes recruiting new students, providing access to new sources for financial aid (which has been very difficult for many of the students), and creating a more self-sustaining source of funding in general.
Those of you in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who are involved in university or seminary education as professors or administrators will know a bit about the processes involved in making a theological education affordable and accredited, and how to maintain standards of academic and spiritual integrity and administrative transparency.
Most U.S. Presbyterians will also understand the importance of having an adequately prepared minister to whom to turn in moments of need, confusion, distress...as well as having a good speaker and worship leader directing Sunday worship. The training of a pastor is fundamental for a church’s ministry both within the church community and within the larger social context in which the church members strive to live and proclaim the gospel message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
Protestant churches in Latin America need highly trained pastors due to the complexities of living in countries where the economies and governments are even more unstable than currently in the United States and where religious organizations outside of the Roman Catholic Church continue to suffer social and economic marginalization.
PC(USA) Mission Co-worker, Rev. Kathleen Griffin, preaching in the chapel of the University Institute - ISEDET for the opening worship service, March 2012.
In order to provide a way in which U.S. Presbyterians can help ISEDET in its mission to prepare leaders for the proclamation of the hope of the gospel throughout South America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has established an Extra Commitment Opportunity account to which anyone can donate at any time. Our hope is to be able to raise US $10,000 in one year, on a one-time basis, to create a Development Office at ISEDET, which will then become self-sufficient. If only 2,000 U.S. Presbyterians would donate $5, we can make this mark VERY easily!
If you are a church member who appreciates your pastor, or if you are a pastor who has appreciated your seminary education, please pray for ISEDET and consider helping to make an accredited seminary education affordable for the next generations of pastors in Latin America.
The details of the Extra Commitment Opportunity account are as follows: Account number E052133; or online giving at http://gamc.pcusa.org/give/E052133/ (or use the link below). With a one-time donation of only $5 you can help open the opportunities for God to minister in peace, in justice, and in hope to millions of South Americans.
In other news, at the family level, my husband and I have decided that next year we will change the school that our children will attend so that they can receive a bilingual education (Spanish and English), and take them out of the public school system here. The infrastructure of the public schools is rapidly deteriorating as government corruption begins to expand. The impact this has on how well the teachers can work is appalling. Presbyterian World Mission will cover the cost of my children’s education, but help is needed from local churches and individual church members. You can support my salary and benefits needs online using the link below.
As always, pray constantly for the children of your pastors and of the church’s mission co-workers around the world. We are constantly trying to take care of others, and our children do not always understand our commitments. We need to learn to take care of our own children first. Your prayers are always needed and appreciated!
God be with you,
Katie Griffin
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 26
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