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The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 46
Rev. Kathleen M. Griffin
Mission co-worker in Argentina since 1998
Serving at ISEDET (Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos)
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Contact: Katie Griffin (katie.griffin@pcusa.org)
About Katie Griffin's ministry
Katie Griffin was appointed to serve as a mission co-worker in 1998 in the area of theological education in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In her first term of service, she was assigned to teach at a Pentecostal seminary (Seminario Emanuel of the Asociación La Iglesia de Dios –ALIDD). ALIDD is a PC(USA) mission partner. Since 2001, she has been assigned to teach church history at the Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos –ISEDET, a university-level Protestant institute.
Katie teaches regular classes in Church History to students who are preparing to be pastors, as well as guiding undergraduate students through their thesis projects in the Church History department.
Katie believes that theological education means to disciple church leaders so that they, in turn, can disciple others to work for evangelism, reconciliation in cultures of violence, and helping those most affected by poverty, especially women and children, to find real and long-term solutions. All three of these critical global issues that have been identified by Presbyterian World Mission with our mission partners around the world influence her work as a church historian in theological education.
ISEDET serves nine Protestant denominations in the Río de la Plata region of South America (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). Three of these churches (Waldensian Evangelical Church of Río de la Plata – IEVRP , Evangelical Church of Río de la Plata – IERP and the Reformed Churches of Argentina –IRA) are also partners in mission with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Katie also continues to be active in ALIDD, where her husband is a minister. ALIDD churches are active centers in their communities, with soup kitchens, clothing closets, sewing workshops and other outreach activities. In times of natural disasters such as floods and drought, ALIDD churches are often the focal points through which ecumenical agencies distribute food, clothing, bedding and other necessary items to disaster victims. ALIDD also promotes a critical (rather than literal) theological education to students at a popular level. Students at the seminary struggle to try to understand and minister the biblical message of salvation and liberation within contexts of poverty, abuse and delinquency.
About Katie Griffin
Since the birth of her second child and the beginnings of her doctoral studies, Katie’s teaching has taken place in Buenos Aires. Previously she traveled frequently to extension sites to give intensive workshops. “I miss the traveling,” writes Katie, “because it provided me with a constant contact with the reality of the living situations for the great majority of the poor in Argentina.”
Katie graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, with a B.A. in French studies. After college she spent two years at Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, as a French instructor and swim coach. She then enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary, from which she received an M.Div. degree. While at Fuller she was a substitute teacher for the Alhambra Unified School District in Alhambra and a faculty secretary at Fuller. After Fuller, Katie attended Princeton Theological Seminary and received a Th.M. degree in church history with an emphasis on the Reformation era. While at Princeton Katie was a teaching fellow and a research assistant. Katie finished her doctoral degree in Church History at ISEDET, studying the life stories of early Argentine Pentecostals in the second decade of the twentieth century, in March 2015.
Katie is a clergy member of Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery. She is married to Rev. Daniel A. Fratea, a psychologist and pastor of ALIDD. They have a daughter, Noelia Nicole Fratea Griffin, and a son, Brian Daniel Fratea Griffin.
Birthdays:
Katie - September 18
Daniel - November 17
Noelia - December 12
Brian - September 1
