An Anglican Province of America missions team consisting of Bishop Chandler Holder Jones, Suffragan of the Eastern United States, Dean Ralph Waterhouse of Saint Alban’s Cathedral, Oviedo, Florida, and Canon David Haines, Vicar General for Global Partnerships, visited Ecuador in August 2017. The team departed the United States on August 23 and returned on August 31. The APA team was joined by a mission team from Worthy Endeavors, a Christian missionary organization, consisting of Richard and Karen Todd, Matthew and Ivy McBurney and their son Oliver, and Peter Brundage. Both Matthew and Ivy served as translators during the visit. The teams met at the airport hotel in Quito and then traveled to Riobamba in the province of Chimborazo, the heart of mountainous, central Ecuador. En route to Riobamba and before leaving Quito, the teams visited a community of migrant Kechwa people who have moved to the city in search of employment. They have formed a local congregation and meet in rented space on the outskirts of the city.
Taking a mission trip to Ecuador to express love and support for the indigenous Kechwa people, devout Christians who for five-hundred years have suffered oppression from the Roman Church and the secular state alike, is guaranteed to be a life-changing experience. It was for the APA team. The cruel hacienda agricultural system, first implemented by the Roman Church and then reinforced by the secular government, effectively enslaved these native Christian people for generations. The Anglican Church has brought them a new sense of hope and promise for the future. These faithful Kechwa people have been organized into a Church called the Indigenous Pastoral of La Provincia Anglicana de America en Ecuador. They all stand in need of greater economic development and greater personal and political freedom.
During the second day, a clergy conference and teaching
session took place to discuss various aspects of the ministry and to outline
the itinerary for the remainder of the mission visit. During this session,
Bishop Chad gave a very thorough outline of Traditional Anglicanism with
particular emphasis on the features that make it distinctive from Roman
Catholicism. This presentation was most helpful for the ten indigenous
Ecuadorian clergy and for the Worthy Endeavors team members present.
In the remaining days, the teams were able to visit six additional communities as well as the property in the city of Gaumote which is used to administer the Indigenous Pastoral of the Anglican Province of America in Ecuador, and where it is hoped that a community center and seminary will soon be built. In the course of these visits, Bishop Chad confirmed twelve young people, six of whom he baptized prior to confirmation, and ordained three men to the Sacred Priesthood, Carlos Enrique Ayol Paca, Pedro Lema Marcatoma, and Luis Alberto Guaman Lojano.
Five of the six communities have received grants through
Samaritans Purse, the well-known evangelical Christian missionary effort, to
upgrade their church buildings, and Richard Todd, serving as its proxy, was
able to inspect four of the churches where the work was completed or in
progress. One community had just received the funding the week before our
arrival and so no construction had yet begun.
On the day before our departure, a meeting was held at
the administrative property in Guamote to review a budget for next year and to
outline the planned development of churches and other facilities. The
importance of developing self-help and community projects for the women of the
communities, as well as their role in the church in preparation of the altar,
and teaching children, was raised by Karen Todd. Various aspects concerning clergy training
and the adoption of the Anglican liturgy were also discussed, and the
Indigenous Pastoral has agreed to use the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer
in Spanish (Libro de Oracion Comun) as its official Prayer Book.
During
the mission trip, Bishop Chad was privileged to ordain the first three
indigenous Anglican priests in the history of Ecuador; the team also visited
three communities which had never before in history received the visit of a
bishop. The enthusiasm which greeted the team in these places was
understandably overwhelming.
The Kechwa
people speak both the Spanish and Kechwa languages in personal conversation,
and the Liturgy employs both languages at every service. Spanish is used for
the liturgical prayers, such as the Collects, scripture readings, and the Canon
of the Mass, etc., and the hymns are sung in Kechwa. The Kechwa choirs sing
enthusiastically in their native dialect and perform choreographed movements
while they sing.
The
long-standing desire of the Kechwa people is to have a self-determining,
self-governing, autonomous orthodox Church completely free of political
interference and free from both state and Roman Catholic control. The Kechwa
Indigenous Pastoral was created in 2006 after it was decided democratically
that the native people could no longer tolerate the neglect and abuse suffered
at the hands of the Roman Catholic authorities. All indigenous had been Roman
Catholics since conversions during the Spanish colonisation period in the
sixteenth century. In the late twentieth century the Roman Church began to
exact fees and payments from the Kechwa people for sacraments and services
celebrated. Exorbitant fees, beyond that which the native people could afford,
were required for all Masses, baptisms, and weddings.
Through the
ministry of Richard and Karen Todd of Worthy Endeavours, the existence of this
Church was brought to the attention of Bishop Grundorf, who in turn asked Canon
David Haines to investigate. After a two year investigation process and the
licensing by the government of the APA allowing it to minister in Ecuador, the end result was the reception of the Indigenous
Pastoral into the Anglican Province of America in 2016.
The Indigenous
Pastoral of La Provincia Anglicana de America en Ecuador is
a canonical Missionary District of the APA. It is, in effect, a missionary
diocese within our Province. It has a governing council much like a Diocesan
standing committee and can hold its own Synod. It is eligible to elect a bishop
and will probably do so within the next five years. Its canonical territory is
the entire country of Ecuador, but its constituency
is entirely comprised of indigenous native Kechwa people. It finally fulfills
the perennial dream of the Kechwa people to have their own native Church.
On the day of our departure the team spent part of the
day visiting sites in Quito before our various flights left late in the evening
of August 30.
There are currently thirty-three APA
communities in Chimborazo with a total of twenty thousand people. There are
currently five priests, five deacons, and one postulant in this group. Please pray earnestly for Ecuador, the Kechwa people, and our Indigenous
Pastoral, and please support this mission. These people now belong to our
Anglican family.
