A letter from Katie Griffin in Argentina
June 27, 2014
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
—Psalm 130:7-8
Dear friends,
Life and ministry have taken a different turn in the past few months. I put myself in solitary confinement, away from colleagues, students, and even home and family, in order to get my doctoral thesis into form. No one can write a doctoral thesis in five weeks, but after two years of thinking, without having enough time to sit down and write, five weeks at 14 hours a day helped me to take a huge step forward. So now I am about three-fourths of the way through and feeling like it will be possible.
In the meantime, life has continued without my active presence. I took one day to sit with the Rector at the Instituto Superior Evangélico De Estudios Teológicos (ISEDET) and asked her why church members in the PC(USA) might be interested in supporting the work at ISEDET.
Elsa Agüero is the Rector and Acting Dean at ISEDET at least until the Annual Assembly in April 2015, when she will either be reelected or step down if the Assembly should decide to elect someone else for a four year term.
Before I present her answer, let me introduce you to the Rector. Elsa Agüero is a psychologist and a lay pastor in the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina. Her gifts are especially appropriate for guiding ISEDET through this period of transition. Her training has made her an astute listener and she is able to analyze the institutional psychology of ISEDET. We hope and pray that she will be able to guide the various members of the ISEDET community to a more consensus-based mode of decision-making. God willing, Elsa’s particular talents will help ISEDET to establish a stronger organizational and financial base on which to grow.
In answer to my question, Elsa suggested that church members might be interested in knowing about how unique ISEDET is. ISEDET’s roots took hold more than 130 years ago among Methodists and Waldensians in the River Plate region. The Disciples of Christ joined soon afterwards, and slowly but surely ISEDET became a part of God’s mission in most of the historical Protestant churches in Latin America. In Hispanic South America ISEDET has been the only Protestant institute of theological education to offer a doctoral degree in theology, and it became the first Protestant institute to offer accredited university and graduate degrees.
ISEDET has not been able to maintain its accreditation and is working to establish a more solid institutional organization that will ensure permanent accreditation. The problems in the accreditation process have not been a lack of academic integrity or competence, but rather the organizational complications of being an interdenominational Protestant institute in an officially Roman Catholic country.
As a part of that process ISEDET has been reevaluating its degree programs in order to provide pastoral training for churches that are faced with increasing economic impoverishment, geographically mobile memberships, and a greater cultural diversity in membership. The themes of poverty and a decrease in the basic educational levels of members provide challenges to church leadership. More lay leaders do not have a high school education or stable incomes. Nevertheless, we continue to believe that all members of the Body of Christ, that is, the Church, are called to participate in God’s mission in this world. In increasingly difficult contexts, pastors need to be trained to help others discover the Bible as a life-giving Word, and inform their own call to grow in the image and ministry of Christ, the Living Word. ISEDET has been a leader in Protestant theological education in Hispanic America, and with the proper institutional organization the Faculty are prepared to meet these challenges.
The Rector working with Dr. Pedro Kalmbach, professor of Practical Theology (left), and outside consultants to build the appropriate computer platform to create online classrooms for distance students
One of Elsa’s particular hopes is that ISEDET’s degree programs will be available through online education so as to serve the many prospective students who are not able to travel to Buenos Aires in order to study.
Please pray for Elsa as she works with the entire ISEDET community to build the institutional organization necessary for the formation of a new generation of church leaders. Would you also consider participating financially in ISEDET through Presbyterian World Mission? I know seminary students in the States appreciate, and perhaps take for granted, the generous financial aid packages in most Presbyterian seminaries. Churches would not have the pastors they have without financial aid. Contributing to my sending and support through Presbyterian World Mission is a way of contributing to the financial aid of the students at ISEDET.
For those of you who have been supporting me so faithfully in prayers and financial gifts, or those who may be considering supporting my work through prayer, correspondence and financial gifts, please consider inviting me to speak to your congregations when I am on Interpretation Assignment in the next couple of months. I have so many stories to tell you about students at ISEDET and the way they have been called to participate in God’s mission in the Southern Cone of South America.
In my last newsletter I included a possible itineration calendar. Many things have happened since, and I have had to make a couple of modifications. I would encourage you to check my mission connections web page from time to time in the next couple of months for updates at: www.pcusa.org/kathleen-griffin. Please also feel free to contact me at kathleen_m_griffin@yahoo.com.ar and Rachel Anderson at rachel.anderson@pcusa.org to learn of ways to host me as a mission speaker in your area.
In closing, I have a pressing prayer request. We are applying for an immigrant visa for my husband, so that he can accompany our children and myself for a yearlong interpretation assignment. We had thought the process would take nine months, but it looks like it will take a year or more. Please pray that the process will move along quickly, and that God would grant us wisdom as we try to make arrangements for our pending trip to the States.
Katie Griffin
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 63
Read more about Katie Griffin’s ministry
Write to Katie Griffin
Individuals: Give online to E200350for Katie Griffin’s sending and support
Congregations: Give toD506384 for Katie Griffin’s sending and support
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 63
Read more about Katie Griffin’s ministry
Write to Katie Griffin
Individuals: Give online to E200350for Katie Griffin’s sending and support
Congregations: Give toD506384 for Katie Griffin’s sending and support
