The Peruvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Perú: The context in which the church serves Our Commitment to the ILEP

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Camilla Hall
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in Peru The Peruvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Iglesia Luterana Evangelica Peruana - ILEP), a member of the Lutheran World Federation, has approximately 1,100 members and is comprised of over a

ILEP communities are mostly found in and around Lima, Peru s political and economic capitol, though the ILEP has grown near Trujillo, along Peru s Northern coast, Iquitos in the Amazon Basin, and

1 in Peru The Peruvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Iglesia Luterana Evangelica Peruana - ILEP), a member of the Lutheran World Federation, has approximately 1,100 members and is comprised of over a dozen congregations and several mission starts or faith communities, as they are called in Perú. ILEP communities are mostly found in and around Lima, Peru s political and economic capitol, though the ILEP has grown near Trujillo, along Peru s Northern coast, Iquitos in the Amazon Basin, and Huancayo and Cusco in Central Andes. The ILEP does not shy away from announcing God s word and denouncing injustice at the times and places it is needed. ILEP is known for reminding the centers of power that they need to be held responsible for serving the people from whom their power is derived. As a national church body present in the lives of people relegated to society s margins, the ILEP responds prophetically to the many injustices that impact impoverished, mostly forgotten Peruvians Perú: The context in which the church serves Peru gained its independence from Spain in Of its 28 million inhabitants, 45% are Amerindian, 37% are mixed Amerindian and White, 15% are White, and the other 3% are Black, Japanese, Chinese and other. Spanish and Quechua are the official languages, though Aymara is also widely used in some areas. Our Commitment to the ILEP Our synod has journeyed through a more than 10 year, very passionate, relationship with ILEP. This relationship began with strong companion congregation relationships with a few Peruvian congregations. Today we are strengthening our relationship with the synod and building an equitable relationship with all of the Lutheran Churches in Peru. We are using the principles of Accompaniment, focusing on the following: Praying: including Familia y Familia Program Deepening relationships with all ILEP congregations Traveling to Peru for a cultural Immersion Supporting pastors salaries by partnering with the synod Partnering with financial transparency Being partner congregations Sembrando piloting children s program Supporting Lutheran missionaries in Peru

in Peru Lutherans first came to Peru in the mideighteenth century, during Peru s struggle for independence from Spain between 1850-1853.

Many of these immigrant workers remained in Peru.

2 in Peru Lutherans first came to Peru in the mideighteenth century, during Peru s struggle for independence from Spain between About 1500 Germans and German-Irish immigrants arrived to work under contract to the owners of the huge rancheros, or agricultural estates along the Pacific coast. Many of these immigrant workers remained in Peru. The first congregation to serve these German immigrants was established in Callao, the port city for Peru s capital, Lima, in 1897 by a group of Swiss Reformed and German Evangelicals. In 1899 Pastor Heinrich Burge arrived from Germany to serve the congregation. The congregations soon built a church building and a parochial school and affiliated with the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union in Germany. Pastor Burger served the congregation for 25 years, until his return to Germany in Although two other pastors served the congregation for very brief periods after 1936, the congregation had to rely principally on yearly visits from missionaries in Chile or Bolivia for pastoral assistance. In 1939, the church building was destroyed by an earthquake, and in 1940 the pastor then serving the congregation had to leave. During World War II, the congregation simply disappeared. After World War II, the Lutheran World Federation became interested in assisting ethnic German communities in Latin America. With the financial assistance of the National Lutheran Council in the United States, a German pastor returned to Peru in 1950 to help rebuild the Lutheran church presence there. More than 800 prospective members were identified, and in 1950 a Lutheran congregation was refounded in the San Isidreo section of Lima and registered with the Peruvian government (required for all non-catholic churches) as the Iglesia Evangelica Luterana en Peru ILEP (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru.)

3 The congregation sought to serve Lutherans of all languages and nationalities in Peru, in addition to the Germans. So the congregation, at the urging of the Lutheran World Federation, dropped the word German before its name was entered into the registration documents. The Lutheran World Federation also reached an agreement with the Evangelical Church of Germany to provide pastoral and financial assistance to the Lima congregation. In 1954 a modern worship center was dedicated. The women s organization of the congregation was instrumental in the founding of Casa Belen (Bethlehem House) in the poorer Brena section of Lima. Casa Belen was established in the early 1950 s to provide daycare and medical assistance services to the children of the very poor in Lima. With the assistance of the Church of Sweden and the Lutheran World Federation, a modern facility was built in the 1960 s and still provides social and support services for the people in the Brena area. In 1963, the Evangelical Church in Peru requested the help of the Lutheran Church in America to develop its Spanish and English ministry work. In 1946, the Lutheran church in America approved the request and in 1965 an LCA social worker came to Lima to serve as director of Casa Belen. During this period the German Church in San Isidro constituted itself as two independent congregations, one German-speaking, the other Spanish-speaking, sharing the same worship space. Pastors from the LCA also came to Peru to work especially among the poor in the barrios and pueblos jovenes (New villages, which began as squatter towns) around metropolitan Lima. From the work of these pastors, small Peruvian congregations began to form. The first of these congregations formed in the publo joven called Julio C. Tello, about 15 miles south of Lima in April of Much of the credit for the founding of this congregation, Congregacion Filadelpfia belongs to the LCA missionary Robert Engwal, whom the people of the congregation still hold dear in their memories. The congregation has its own building and meets for worship each Sunday evening often accompanied by the sounds of music from the tavern just down the street! The congregation operates a soup kitchen for neighborhood families and also provides an after-school study program for children. They have recently built a small library with the help of ELCA partners. The second Peruvian congregation, Congregacion Belen, formed in Brena around Casa Belen in The congregation officially dedicated its worship center in Brena in September The congregation has an active ministry in the Brena area, including a women s group and an active Sunday school Program. The women of the congregation teach sewing and crochet and make greeting cards by hand as a small sources of income and independence for women in the area. Belen Congregation has been instrumental through the years in assisting the founding of other Peruvian congregations in Marquez and Collique. As a small congregation itself, it has often suffered economically and emotionally when members leave to form a new congregation, but it continues to grow, even as it continues to struggle. Two other Peruvian congregations were founded in the pueblos jovenes around Lima in much the same way. The Marquez pueblo joven, north of the airport, was established in September 1978 by settlers, many of whom had come from the foothills of the Andes east of Lima, hopoing to find work and a home. This pueblo joven was assisted in its foundation by members of congregation Belen ain Brena and by LCA missionary Joseph Wold. In Marquez, the settlers first formed a soup kitchen to help feed the children of the pueblo; as the people of the community began to ask why the Lutheran women were providing food, the woman had the chance to share Bible stories about helping one s neighbor. These stories led to the formation of Bible classes in the homes of the women and finally on November 29, 1979, to the founding of Congregacion Luz Divina I marquez in the home of Lucila Hermengildo, one of the former members from Congregcion Belen. Today this is a fast growing congregation in it s second building with tremendous support from ELCA partners for Future Seekers, a children s program among other outreach ministries. 1n 1980, a Lutheran couple, Mathilde and Alberta Quiroz, who had joined the establishment of the pueblos joven called Collique northeast of Lima, began to gather the children of the pueblo to provide daycare for those whose parents had to leave early to work in Lima. They also founded a Sunday School for the students and they called their work Hermanos en Amor y Paz (Brothers in Love and Peace.) Mathilde and Alberto have been known to take large numbers of children by public transportation on field trips to the Lima zoo and other educational interests.

4 Today they are in a small building for their educational ministry and are officially constituted as Congregation Emanuel. Their children s ministry is supported by the ELCA and their ELCA partner congregations. Many of the poor who had come to Lima looking for jobs were Quechua Indians from the Andes, direct descendants of the great Inca empire of the sixteenth century. The LCA missionaries who worked among the poor in the pueblos jovenes were also drawn toward the areas from which the people had emigrated. Work began in the Cusco area in 1970 with LCA missionaries as teachers and workers. Although this first project ended in 1972, the LCA continued its interest in the social mission in the Andes, and in 1981, the LCA worked out an agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru (ELCPO) to continue this work. In 1985 the ministry in the Cusco area, previously constituted as a project of the ELCP, became an automous mission for the Lutheran Church in America (later the ELCA) called Iglesia Luterana en America Mision Peruana (ILAMP.) The agreement made in 1964 between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru and the Lutheran church in America (and later the ELCA) continued to support the congregations for several years. In 1992 there was only one missionary working in Cusco among the Quechua people. Karen Helikson, a domestic education specialist served there for 10 years. Her work was primarily in Health Care Training and Women s Ministry in the Quecua villages of Caycay, Sierra Bella and Huasac, providing training and support for the women's groups. In 1986, the Lutheran congregations in Lima, still independent even though supportive of one another, began to consider the idea of forming a national Lutheran synod, based on the Augsburg Confessions and the Small Catechism. Several meetings of representatives to he congregations resulted in a decision on November 29, 1986 that led to the founding of the Iglesia Luterana Evangelica Peruana (ILEP) our companion synod in Peru. The four smaller congregations and the larger German church recognized that social, cultural and economic difference between the Peruvian congregations and the German church would make a synodical arrangement between them difficult. The German church was also more theologically conservative in the way it viewed social ministry and the spread of the gospel among the poor. In addition, the Peruvian congregations had developed pastoral teams of dedicated lay people to lead worship and ministry after the LCA missionaries left. This lay-directed ministry also caused some concern in the German church whose pastors were provided by the Evangelical Church in Germany. As a result of the November 1986 decision, the four Peruvian congregations (Filadelfia, Belen, Luz Divina and Emanuel) met on January 27, 1987 and adopted a set of guidelines for the proposed synod. The congregations established a commission to prepare a constituting assembly for the new church body. The firs assembly of ILEP was held in January 1990, and the Executive Council was formed to carry out the church s work and ministry. In recognition of the importance of the work of the women in the congregations the first Executive Council was chaired by Ofelia Davia of Filadelfia. In 1990, after the election of President Fujimori in the first free election in Peru in 25 years, inflation soured up to 387% in August The poor were the most severely affected by the Fujishock as this inflationary economic disaster was the first challenge to face the new church body was a response to this economic challenge. The emergency program was established to proved assistance in the form of food support to nursing babies, nursing mothers, children under the age of 12, the elderly and disabled. This project, which led to the founding of the Vaso de Lecho program in Marquez, among others, was funded by the Division of Global mission of the ELCA. A second part of the Emergency Program was the establishment in each congregation of a cottage industry program to generate a small independent income. One of the projects is the production of greeting cards by the women s groups. The Second Assembly of the church was held in Brena, Lima on February 3, Benjamin Navarro was elected President of the church and the Executive Council prepared the formal documents to legally incorporate the church. On May 31, 1992, the Iglesia Luterana Evangelica Peruana (ILEP) was formally registered by the government of Peru. For many years ILEP did not have any ordained pastors. All pastoral activities were coordinated by the Pastoral Teams of lay leaders in each congregation. Members of the congregation were prepared for ordination in various Latin American Seminary programs. During this process, the church was guided by a pastor from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Rev. Katherine Bergbusch. The role of missionaries from the ELCIC in the life of the ILEP has been significant.

5 The companion synod program of the ELCA evolved out of a proposal by Bishop Herb Chilstrom that each ELCA synod seek out a relationship with a Lutheran church body in another part of the world. The Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod Global Mission Task Force, led by Dr. Michael Priebe and Donna Priebe made contact with the leaders of ILEP and formalized the relationship in In the year that followed, Bishop Paul Blom and ILEP president Benjamin Navarro communicated and plans were made for the first visit to Peru by representatives of TLGC. This first trip in 1995 included Bishop Paul Blom, Rev. Tim Anderson, Nathan Blom, Verlene Citzler, Rev. Boyd Faust, Rev. Ruth Fortis, Susan Giesecke, Deaconess Patricia Gorton, Reyna Pereira, Barbara Peterson, Michael Priebe, Donna Priebe. The second trip of the TLGC, in June 1999, was a huge celebration for the ordination of the first pastors in the ILEP. + The history of the past eleven years has not been written. There are many people still actively engaged on our Peru Team who will take up this work. As you wait for this to be recorded, feel free to talk directly to people like Past President Pedro Bullon, President Armando Capcha, David Wunsch, Jim Young, Bishop Mike Rinehart, Michael Roberts, John Warner, Sherri, Carsten, Austin and Marieke Alsguth, Wayne, Joni and Alex Norden and many, many others who have been instrumental in the last history of this relationship. Therefore history of the most recent ten years is still being written and you are part of that journey! This is an important partnership between two church bodies in two different countries. The exchange of gifts is transformative to everyone who participates. It is your turn to enter the story.

in Peru Deepening Relationships with all ILEP congregations 11 years after ordaining its first pastor, ILEP has 14 congregations, 3 Communities of Faith and one German congregation.

6 in Peru Deepening Relationships with all ILEP congregations 11 years after ordaining its first pastor, ILEP has 14 congregations, 3 Communities of Faith and one German congregation. The spirit of evangelism and outreach is passionate and energizing as these congregations commit themselves to serving some of the poorest families in South America. Our partnership with each other in prayer and deepening relationships is important to everyone. Name Pastor Partnership (Green indicates Location TX-LA Gulf Coast Congregations) Alemana, San Isidro German Couple, just arrived Lima German Belén, Breña Irene Ponce Lima Spirit of Joy, The Woodlands Congregaciones de Chocofan Marcos Garras Trujillo Christ the King, Houston, Germany Congregaciones de Cristo Vive Marcos Garras Trujillo Christ the King, Houston, Germany Congregaciones de Magdalena de Cao Federik Hahlerr Marcos Garras Trujillo Christ the King, Houston, Germany Congregaciones de San Andrés Marcos Garras Trujillo Christ the King, Houston, Germany Cristo Rey, Surco (ILEP Oficina) Dana Nelson (ELCA Missionary) Lima Christ the King, Houston, Germany Cristo Salvador, San Juan de Miraflores Ulrike Sallandth Lima Evangelische Lutheraniche Missionwerk, Neidersachen Ulrique Emanuel, Collique Benjamin Navarro Lima St Paul, La Grange, St Matthew, Sandy Hill, St. Peter's, Elk Grove, CA, Chilliwack Church of Christ, Chilliwack, Canada Emaus Andres Palencia Lima St. Paul Maplewood, British Columbia, Shepherd of the Woods, Jacksonville, FL, Fiel es Dios Yoli Zavaleta Iquitos Lord of Life, The Woodlands, TX Filadelfia Adita Torres Lima Lord of Life, The Woodlands, TX Galilea Armando Capcha Huacho Advent, Houston Luz Divina, Marqués Benjamin Navarro Lima Living Word, Katy San Juan Camino de Esperanza Fran Schmidt (Canadian Missionary) Lima Grace, Conroe, TX Huancayo Federik Hahlerr Huancayo Talitha Cumi Ofelia Davla Limpe Cuzco Kinsmen Lutheran Church Vida Nueva Pedro Bullon Lima

You will see God in a new way you will learn a lot about God. You will have the honor of experiencing ordinary life with amazing people. You will laugh and cry. Sometimes all at once!

7 Peru Culture Traveling to Peru for a Cross-Cultural Immersion We are interconnected across the globe through our shared faith. Experience more than a mission trip go deeper with a cross-cultural immersion. This trip will change your life. You will learn more about yourself than about others. You will see God in a new way you will learn a lot about God. You will have the honor of experiencing ordinary life with amazing people. You will laugh and cry. Sometimes all at once! The more you prepare, the more you will get out of it. Ordinary conversations become holy. These and many more heartfelt quotes come from those that have traveled to Peru and encountered the amazing, gifted Peruvian people. Our trips to Peru are designed so that the Lutheran Church in Peru (ILEP) and congregations in the TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod can accompany each other in faith and life. Time is spent listening to stories, visiting in communities, learning about congregational ministries and sharing projects designed by our friends in Peru. The emphasis is on relationships. We use the principles of accompaniment as the center of our experiences. That means we don t go to Peru with an intent to fix anything. We take time to plan trips in partnership with ILEP so that our visit strengthens our ministries. We enter as guests rather than a group coming to serve. We try to model walking with each other the way God walks with us. The big difference in this kind of travel is that the emphasis is more on the being together than the doing for. Its not primarily about money or what we can give. We know that money does not make people smarter or more gifted so we don t lead with our bank account. We work together on issues of justice on behalf of the poorest in our world.

8 Peru Practices that matter: Language Developing World not 3rd World Remembering Central and South Americans are also Americans Notice volume and frequency. US citizens often talk louder, interrupt or dominate conversations without even realizing it! Side by Side Posture Helping poor people vs sharing gifts, learning together, partnering, etc. Them vs Us Learn to pronounce names correctly Give away power Check Assumptions... IQ is not related to economic status Low economic status does not equal unhappiness or visa versa Everyone has something to give and something to receive Culture Becoming culturally conscience Developing Awareness Valuing diversity Admitting personal biases, stereotypes, and prejudices Becoming aware of cultural norms, attitudes, and beliefs Willingness to extend oneself psychologically and physically Recognizing comfort level in different situations Acquiring Knowledge Knowing how your culture is viewed by others Reading about other cultures Watching movies and documentaries about other cultures Attending cultural events and festivals Sharing knowledge and experiences with others Visiting other countries Developing and Maintaining Cross-Cultural Skills Making friends with people of different cultures Establishing professional and working relationships with people of different cultures Learning another language Learning verbal and nonverbal cues of other cultures Becoming more comfortable in cross-cultural situations Assessing what works and what does not Assessing how the beliefs and behaviors of the cultural group affect the client or family Learning to negotiate between the person's beliefs and practices and the culture of your profession Being more flexible Attending continuing education seminars and workshops Learning to develop culturally relevant and appropriate programs, materials, and interventions Ongoing evaluation of personal feelings and reactions Overcoming fears, personal biases, stereotypes, and prejudices

9 Peru Culture

Mission and Ministry Newsletter

Vol 12, No 5 December 2017 LATIN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Developing Healthy Churches and Church Leaders in Latin America and Beyond Mission and Ministry Newsletter Bob and Jan Young, 10704 S 89