Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Hondureña, Honduras

La Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Hondureña fue fundada por misioneros de Eastern Mennonite Missions, quienes llegaron al norte de la costa Hondureña en 1950. Esta obra misionera empezó cerca de la amplia zona bananera en las ciudados de La Ceiba, Trujillo, y San Pedro Sula y sus alrededores. Muchas, pero no todas, de las 136 congregaciones están localizadas en estas áreas.

Historias

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Historia

Una Breve Introducción

La conferencia tiene sus orígenes desde 1950 con la llegada de los primeros misioneros menonitas. Desde el comienzo, los misioneros no solo se enfocaron en compartir el evangelio sino también respondieron a las necesidaded físicas de la gente, ayudándolas en el área de agricultura, educación, salud, y desarrollo comunitario. Durante la década de los 60, la transición de líderes extrangeros a nacionales ocurrió, y en e1969 las congregaciones se juntaros para crear la conferencia.

La Iglesia ha tenido un trabajo fuerte con refugiados salvadoreños de la guerra. Otras prioridades incluyen desarrollo comunitario y capacitación de líderes. La Iglesia es miembra del Congreso Mundial Menonita.

Orígenes

Background

The presence of Protestant Christianity in Honduras historically has been rather limited historically. The first Protestant organization to enter Honduras was the Central American Mission in 1896. By the 1920s, other Protestant churches had emerged and were able to expand alongside the sizable presence of the United Fruit Company, which by 1924 owned 87,000 acres of land in Honduras. However, the presence of Protestants in Honduras remained relatively small; in 1950 there were just 4,000 Protestants, although by 1967 that number grew to 18,000.

Beginnings of La Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Hondureña (IEMH)

In 1950, North American Mennonites from the East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, PA discussed the possibility of starting mission work in Central America. Church members reached out to the Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions (EMBM) to consider various locations to establish a mission. EMBM president Henry Garber and East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church member Jacob E. Brubaker toured the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. After seeing the poor living conditions on the northern coast of Honduras, the two men recommended Honduras as the location to establish a Mennonite missionary presence. Among the problems they saw in northern Honduras were malnutrition, tuberculosis, a lack of medicine, and a school attendance rate of less than half the students. At the time, Honduras was one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and this was especially true for its northern, coastal region. Thus, when the Mennonite Church was established in Honduras, the primary focus was placed on the northern part of the country.

Two missionaries from the East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, Grace and George Miller, arrived in Trujillo, Honduras in May 1950. In August 1951, Dora Taylor came to Honduras and served as a nurse for a medical clinic. The first church was constructed in the fall of 1952. The second permanent missionary couple, James and Beatrice Hess, arrived in Honduras in December 1952 and established Mennonite missions in Puerto Castillo, Santa Fe, San Antonio, and Guadalupe. Throughout the rest of the 1950s, the EMBM focused on establishing churches, medical clinics, and mission homes for the missionaries. Both missionaries and Hondurans viewed the medical clinics as essential to meeting the needs of the community and establishing trust between missionaries and Hondurans. In 1956, in the former United Fruit Company town of Tocoa, the Mennonite medical clinic served roughly 2,400 patients. In Sava in 1960, Mennonites constructed a chapel and a medical clinic, which served over 5,000 patients. The recently established Mennonite churches in the 1950s were rather small, such as the 24-member church in Santa Fe in 1953. The Mennonite missionaries soon realized they lacked the ability to fully educate Hondurans on Mennonite beliefs. In order to provide better education and training in the Mennonite faith for Hondurans, they opened a Bible institute in 1960. By the 1960s, the focus of the Mennonite missionaries shifted from establishing more churches and clinics to shifting leadership to native Hondurans, a process that proved long and challenging.

Timeline

1950 - Mennonites from Lancaster sent the first missionaries to northern Honduras to establish the Mennonite church. Mennonites became the only permanent, evangelical Christian presence in Trujillo.

1956 - Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities established a mission home, chapel, and medical clinic in Tocoa. The medical clinic served about 2,400 patients that year.

1960 - In response to both a lack of training and means of transportation for Honduran Christians, the EMBM established a mobile Bible institute to educate Hondurans on the Mennonite faith tradition.

1964 - Francisco Flores and his wife became the first Honduran, licensed co-pastors. They still shared responsibility with missionaries.

1965 - The Mission Council of the EMBM, comprised of missionaries, was dissolved and absorbed by the church organization in Honduras. This was one of the first steps in transitioning authority from the North American missionaries to the Honduran church members.

1969 - The constitution for la Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Hondureña (Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church), was approved. The power shift away from missionaries to Honduran Mennonites was not instantaneous, though.

1969 - La Guerra del Fútbol (The Soccer War) between Honduras and El Salvador broke out over contested borderlands, resulting in the deaths of 3,000 people and the loss of homes for 38,000 Salvadorans. Members of the Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church did volunteer work and distributed food, clothing, and medicine for some of the 50,000 Salvadoran victims that entered Honduras due to the conflict.

1970 - La Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Hondureña received full legal status. Property like church buildings, medical clinics, and housing shifted legally to the Hondurans.

1973 - North American Mennonite missionaries Edward and Gloria King started an evangelistic outreach to Honduran youth in Tegucigalpa. They started Bible studies and recreation programs, helping troubled teens, including ex-drug addicts. Throughout the next decade, their work continued without a formal meeting place. This ministry became known as Amor Viviente (Living Love).

1978 - La Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Hondureña granted separate legal status to Amor Viviente, although funding from EMBM continued to send financial support. Amor Viviente considered itself non-denominational as a neo-Pentecostal church, thus “Mennonite” was not included in the name.

1980-late 1980s - Significant numbers of Salvadoran refugees began entering Honduras. The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church and MCC were both involved in efforts to aid the refugees; in 1982 they consolidated their efforts to better coordinate as a single, Mennonite entity. Beginning in June 1984, the Mennonite Church (both MCC and IEMH) was placed in charge of the coordination of construction and maintenance of infrastructure in the camps of Mesa Grande and Colomoncagua. Mennonites and Catholics joined together in 1985 to hold worship services for refugees. The refugee crisis had lessened somewhat by the late 1980s with more refugees leaving than entering camps such as Mesa Grande (the primary camp Mennonites were in charge of) in 1987, when there was a monthly average of 90 repatriations to 21 new entries.

1987 - The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church along with the Franconia Mennonite Conference (Pennsylvania) founded Proyecto MAMA, Mujeres Amigas Millas Aparte (Women Friends Miles Apart). The vision of the MAMA project was and still is to construct a wall of protection around children who were born into poverty. It works to provide both formal and informal education and to strengthen individual and community values.

1993 - The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church helped to form the Christian Civic Movement that worked to end the clause in the Honduran constitution that made military service mandatory. The IEMH participated in hunger strikes and demonstrations, protesting a law they saw as counter to Jesus' teachings.

1995 - On April 5, 1995 the Honduran government abolished the clause in its constitution that mandated compulsory military service. The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church was integrally involved in the process of appealing to the government to change the constitution in the years leading up to the change and was a significant factor in the decision.

1997 - The MAMA project established the Community Center for School Tutoring and Special Attention as a response to problems with special education in Honduras, where 5 in 10 students demonstrate signs of learning disabilities, yet few receive appropriate help. This program provides instruction for teachers and parents on dealing with students' learning disabilities. It also provides instruction for an average of 130 students in an individualized manner.

1999 - The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church formed the Peace and Justice Project, working with past and current gang members in efforts to help them rehabilitate. The IEMH established this program in response to the abusive and violent practices of the government against gang members. The government had been arresting thousands of teens and young adults on the suspicion of being gang members. The Peace and Justice Project also provides HIV/AIDs education in hopes of preventing its spread. There are currently five staff members and 20 volunteers in three northern Honduras regions. MCC contributes approximately $38,000 per year to support the work of the program. Ricardo Torres, of MCC, works with the Delinquent Youth Recuperation Program of the Peace and Justice Project. He has personally helped 20 young people turn around their lives through visiting gang members in hospitals and prisons. Soccer games and community clean up efforts are an avenue for workers in Peace and Justice to talk about improving gang members’ self-esteem and resolving conflict nonviolently.  

There continue to be significant problems of violence by both the government and gang members, resulting in the killings of numerous rehabilitated gang members that had worked with the Peace and Justice program. Torres lamented the fact that 25 of the 60 young men he had worked with, some for as long as two years, had been killed, presumably by the government for their past gang affiliation.

2009 - In response to the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church called for church leaders to avoid further polarizing Honduran society. The church responded to the deaths of two Hondurans and the injury of dozens of others by asking for Christians to work for peace, not polarization. Also, the IEMH called on government authorities to respect the human rights of all Hondurans. In a statement, the IEMH asked for the Honduran people to “live together in diversity of thought and political ideology, seeking the true meaning of democracy, where everyone can live in harmony and respect each other, turning the conflict into an opportunity to… create a more just society with equal opportunities.”

Mennonite Identity

The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church practices many of the beliefs that were integral to the Anabaptists of the 16th century. This has been demonstrated in the way Honduran Mennonites have resisted violence and actively resisted the law that previously made military service compulsory. Their legislative victory in 1995 was a testament to their peace witness as a national church. Another key theological similarity between 16th century Anabaptists and present day Honduran Mennonites is an emphasis on community, which is apparent in the tradition of weekly or biweekly youth group meetings for young adults ranging from pre-teen to until marriage. In Tegucigalpa, the church has monthly Friday prayer meetings and occasional day or weekend-long retreats for various groups of church members.

A much different, but perhaps equally important way of demonstrating the value of community is the manner of responding to human suffering. Just as 16th century Anabaptists believed in an economy of common goods, where no one went hungry or suffered innocently, the IEMH has also embodied these beliefs. The IEMH’s value of community was clear in its response to the suffering of Salvadoran refugees in the 1970s and 1980s, when it provided food, shelter, finances, and spiritual outreach. This was equally true for the 1990s when the IEMH participated in demonstrations on the streets and hunger strikes opposing the government’s law of compulsory military service.

Fostering Mennonite Identity

In the early 1980s, there was an effort to learn the Anabaptist roots of their religion amongst many Central American Mennonites. As a result, Mennonite leaders created the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary, SEMILLA, in Guatemala City, to foster growth and provide theological training in the Anabaptist tradition for Mennonite pastors. SEMILLA continues to provide education for eight Central American countries, including Honduras. However, in the past decade, the emphasis on theological connections to the Anabaptist faith tradition appears to have waned. No longer are all of the pastors preaching an Anabaptist theology; rather, many are more concerned with the numerical growth of their congregation and many are preaching a theology of prosperity, an influence of other Evangelical denominations upon the Mennonite tradition in Honduras. Also, after a strong witness for the suffering of the poor throughout the 1980s and efforts in the 1990s to eliminate compulsory military service, the IEMH has been somewhat inactive lately on a national level.

At the same time, though, the IEMH has continued to profess a commitment to peace and justice issues. This was clear in their response to the military coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, when the IEMH called for Hondurans to treat each other with respect and love, rather than in polarizing and hateful ways. Also, the existence of the Peace and Justice Project and the MAMA Project both speak to Honduran Mennonites’ concern for social justice issues and the plight of the poor.

Honduran Mennonites maintain contact with one another on a theological level through a national, annual youth retreat and leadership meetings for pastors and delegates throughout the country. National church offices of organizations such as Peace and Justice and MCC also provide connection for Mennonites within the country. The IEMH is part of CAMCA (Consulta Anabautista Menonita Centro Americana, or the Central American Anabaptist-Mennonite Conference), which includes the Central American countries of Belize, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. CAMCA meets once a year, each time in a different country, and serves to promote dialogue amongst Mennonites throughout Central America.

Major Challenges Facing IEMH

IEMH is not currently growing at the rate of other churches, and is smaller than the church that branched off it in the 1980s, Amor Viviente; this is a source of concern for some members. Theological identity is an underlying issue that may challenge the church in the future. Some associate the gospel of health and wealth to a church with the capability to grow, while others see this as a separation from the Mennonite ideology the church is based on. Also, the IEMH faces difficulties in adequately training its leaders, especially in rural regions where many people have felt the call to ministry but lack access to formal instruction.

Another challenging issue is the role of women in the church. The expectation for male members is that they will form part of the local church leadership, which consists of the pastor, elders, deacons, and administrator. Women, while valued members of the congregation, are not always assumed to take the same positions, although at times they do. In some cases, they are more often assumed to become Sunday School teachers and compose the majority of the teachers. How this plays out in the future could have a powerful impact on the size and growth of the congregation and likely depends greatly on the particularity of the individual church.

Vision for the Future

Whether the church will continue uniformly as a Mennonite theology or will move away from its Anabaptist-Mennonite roots and become absorbed by new theological currents, such as that of prosperity, is uncertain. The IEMH has members that take various stances on the importance of the church being a prophetic voice in responding to injustice, with some members supporting and other opposing. On the other hand, the IEMH could become an even stronger voice for peace and justice that works against governmental corruption, poverty, and gang violence. Leaders in the church express desire for the beliefs and values of Anabaptism to be passed down to future generations so that the church may continue as a witness of peace, justice, community, and a follower of the teachings of Jesus.

Recursos Electrónicos

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Bibliografía anotada

Annotated Bibliography

Calix, Pedro. e-mail message to author. April 13, 2011.

E-mail message by the Pastor of the Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church in Tegucigalpa. Pastor Calix studied at SEMILLA Latin American Anabaptist Seminary and graduated in 1997. He has been a Mennonite pastor since 1975 and recounted his perceptions of the most influential events of the past several decades in the IEMH.

Charity Wire. “Honduran gang members ‘wander’ into new life.” Charity Wire. http://www.charitywire.com/charity96/01617.html (accessed April 17, 2011).

Article describing the origins and actions of the Peace and Justice program in Honduras that the IEMH and MCC support jointly.

Chavarría Gomez, Leonardo. e-mail message to author, April 4, 2011.

E-mail message describing the IEMH from the perspective of a church member in Tegucigalpa.

De Robelo, Erlinda. e-mail message to author. April 11, 2011.

E-mail explaining the situation of the Honduran Mennonite Church from the perspective of a church member and executive director of the MAMA Project in Honduras.

Destiny’s Children. “Honduras: Peace and Justice.” Destiny’s Children. http://www.destinyschildren.org/en/how-to-help/local-initiatives/honduras-paz-y-justicia/ (accessed April 15, 2011).

Explains the creation of the Peace and Justice program in La Ceiba, Honduras. The IEMH created the Peace and Justice program as part of their Christian Civic Movement in order to react to the increase of gang problems in the region. Peace and Justice helps gang members rehabilitate their lives and introduces them to Christianity.

Geiser, Charlie, and Linda Shelly. “History of the Mennonite Refugee Program in Honduras.” MCC Canada, 1987.

This article explains the situation of refugees in Honduras during El Salvador’s civil war during the early 1980s. The IEMH and MCC were involved in efforts to aid Salvadoran refugees, as well as to evangelize.

Honduras MAMA Project. “Global Family: educational sponsorship: Sponsorship Report, 2011.” MCC Global Family. http://globalfamily.mcc.org/system/files/Honduras_MAMA%20Project_Spring%202011%20US.pdf (accessed April 15, 2011).

Explains the vision of the MAMA project to build “a wall of protection” around poverty-stricken children. This also explains the contributions made by the MCC Global Family to the MAMA project, such as financial support for six preschools and two tutoring centers.

Kern, Kathleen. “No good side in this coup.” Mennonite Weekly Review. Aug. 10, 2009. http://www.mennoweekly.org/2009/8/10/no-good-side-coup/ (accessed April 13, 2011).

Responds to the military coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Kern summarizes the stance taken by the Honduran Mennonite Church that the government should respect the human rights of all Hondurans. The HMC also called on church leaders to avoid further polarizing Honduran society and instead strive for a Honduras where people can live together in harmony.

MAMA Project. “Between Faith and Works.” MAMA Project. proyectomama.org/index.php?lang=en&pag=inicio. (accessed April 12, 2011).

Explains the origins of the MAMA Project, which was a joint effort by Honduran Mennonites and Franconia Conference (PA) Mennonites to promote the development of families with limited resources. It provides explanations of each of the programs the MAMA Project created, such as preschool education, HIV-AIDs Prevention Education, and the Diakonia Farm.

MAMA Project. MAMA News. Pennsburg, PA: MAMA Project, Inc., Jan/Feb 2011.

Mentions the planned mission work by North American Mennonites to help the MAMA Project in 2011 with medical, dental, and construction work.

MAMA Project. MAMA News. Pennsburg, PA: MAMA Project, Inc., July/Aug 2006.

Tells of a dental team from the Franconia Mennonite Conference of Pennsylvania arriving and providing dental work for a week, during which they served over 300 patients.

MAMA Project. MAMA News. Pennsburg, PA: MAMA Project, Inc., Mar/Apr 2008.

Details the Nutrition Center, part of a program that works to help children suffering from severe malnutrition. One focus of the Nutrition Center is teaching parents how to provide proper nutrition for their children. Some children are sent to the hospital if in too serious a state of illness, but upon release from the hospital many return to the Nutrition Center to continue recuperation.

MAMA Project. MAMA News. Pennsburg, PA: MAMA Project, Inc., Sep/Oct 2005.

Details the efforts of the MAMA project to create 8-10 dental clinics as part of their Dental Clinic Project to serve impoverished Honduran youth. Also chronicles the establishment of a program in Nigeria in August of 2006 to prevent NOMA, a flesh-eating disease that affects severely malnourished children.

MAMA Project. MAMA News. Pennsburg, PA: MAMA Project, Inc., Sep/Oct 2006.

Provides a sidebar explaining the origins of particular MAMA outreach programs, such as a scholarship program in Haiti that began in 1998 to help dozens of Haitian students attend school.

Portal de Desarrollo Sostenible. “Derogación del Servicio Militar Obligatorio en Honduras.” Portal de Desarrollo Sostenible. http://rds.hn/index.php?documento=326 (accessed April 17, 2011).

This webpage details the efforts of various groups within Honduras to change the law in the Honduran constitution that made military service obligatory until 1995. The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church played a significant role in repealing the law.

Sevenier, Gaelle. “Politics of Toleration towards Youth Extermination in Honduras.” April 27, 2003. http://gsevenier.online.fr/gangavrilang.html (accessed April 15, 2011).

This website tells of the abuses perpetrated by the Honduran government against gang members, who have arbitrarily arrested and detained, beaten, and even killed by the government for as little as possessing a gang tattoo. Ricardo Torres, the coordinator of Peace and Justice’s Delinquent Youth Recuperation Program helps reintegrate gang members into society. Torres lamented the fact that 25 of the 60 youth the program helped in the reintegration process had been killed, presumably by the government for their gang-like appearances.

Shenk, Tim. “’Brother Ricardo:’ MCCer befriends the despised as he rehabilitates gang members.” Mennonite Weekly Review. May 29, 2006. http://www.mennoweekly.org/2006/5/29/brother-ricardo/?page=2 (accessed April 15, 2011).

Explains the work of Ricardo Torres, who is a part of the Peace and Justice Project of the Honduran Mennonite Church. Brother Ricardo has worked to help out gang members who have suffered abuse at the hands of the government for their gang affiliation. He has done this by helping to rehabilitate current and former gang members, as well as to provide education to prevent HIV/AIDs.

Shenk, Tim. “Honduran church calls for dialogue after coup.” Mennonite Weekly Review. Aug. 10, 2009. http://www.mennoweekly.org/2009/8/10/honduran-mennonites-call-dialogue-after-coup/ (accessed April 13, 2011).

Shenk describes the chaos and violence in Honduras, where two Hondurans were killed and dozens were wounded in protests. The Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church called on Christians to work for peace, rather than continuing the polarization of Hondurans.

Valladores, Jaime Prieto. Mission and Migration: Global Mennonite History. Kitchener, ON: Good Books, 2010.

Summarizes the establishment of the Mennonite Church in Honduras by EMBM members. Valladores briefly describes the transition of power from North American Mennonite missionaries to Honduran Mennonites in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He also provides background information about Honduras’ political situation.

Wenger, A. Grace. Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities: 1894-1980. (unpublished).

This unpublished book compiles reports and information from missionaries who helped to establish the Honduran Mennonite Church (HMC). The account begins with the aspirations of Lancaster Mennonites to spread the Mennonite Church to Honduras. It details the creation of various programs and buildings by Mennonites in Honduras through the 1970s.

Zwier, Elisabeth. e-mail message to author. April 12, 2011.

This e-mail describes the Honduran Mennonite Church from the perspective of a dual American and Dominican citizen who has worked and lived for four years in Honduras and attended the Mennonite Church in Tegucigalpa.

Archivos y Bibliotecas

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Links Externos

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