Guamote and mission

Although most of our time is invested in the Colombian Migration Ministry, congregations in Quito, the Latin American Council of Churches, and serving as a bridge between the Diocese of Central Ecuador and the wider church, another occasional facet of our life and work in Ecuador is the incredible privilege of accompanying Bishop Luis Fernando Ruiz and others from the Diocese in pastoral visits around the country.

Such was the case at the end of August when we spent a weekend visiting indigenous communities around Ambato and Riobamba. On that Sunday we traveled to the area around Guamote, south of Riobamba and about 5 hours from Quito, where we accompanied the Bishop to eight different indigenous communities. These villages lie between 12,000 and 13,000+ feet above sea level, right in the Ecuadorian Andes. Although many in the communities speak varying levels of Spanish, the Bishop had Quichua interpretation for those who do not and in order to show respect for the community members and their mother tongue.

Even though Ecuador is a relatively small country, it is unbelievably diverse. Part of this diversity is seen in the indigenous population of the country, which has been estimated by some to be 40% of the total population and which includes a dozen distinct linguistic groups. I have been told that Quichua itself, the language spoken by most Ecuadorian Andean indigenous peoples and some groups on the Coast and in the Amazon, has 17 different variations in Ecuador alone.

On that Sunday, the communities received the Bishop with processions, music, singing, dancing (which included us all) and speeches. It was very special and humbling to be part of such a remarkable visit. From village to village throughout that day we were given traditional meals of potatoes, white cheese, fava beans, hominy corn and drinks made with barley flour. In two villages we were even served guinea pig, a delicacy for special occasions. Both our children love much of the food and even when we are in Quito they will go out of their way to eat it, but it was our youngest daughter who probably ate an entire guinea pig all by herself.

These eight communities that we visited, along with 13 others in the region, have asked to be attended to by the Episcopal Church in a process which began about a year ago. Many have church buildings but no one to minister in them and there is one indigenous Episcopal priest from the area who attends to all of them with the help of lay ministers from the communities themselves. The invitations which these 21 villages have made come largely from their desire to be accompanied, and this was a theme repeated often during the visits. Before now, a priest would visit the villages once every year or so, and as such the sacraments which mean so much to the people were celebrated infrequently and often hastily.

Time and again during the visit people spoke of how important this part of community and church life is and how they long to have regular celebrations of the sacraments. Along with this, many people expressed their desire for a more consistent and permanent presence from the church in community life in general. Not only through the sacraments, but people want the church to truly be part of their families and community life as a companion in its natural cycle of life and death, of planting and harvest, and in the midst of its joys and sorrows.

As expressed by the communities, a third reason for their desire to be a part of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Central Ecuador is their feeling that they have an authentic place within it. They are impressed with the emphasis on lay leadership and the full participation of the whole community of faith in the decision-making and direction of the church. They feel that they will be heard and respected, and they believe that they have a lot to offer to the larger church as we walk together. From different conversations both that day and in other encounters, it seems that many understand the Episcopal Church as a space where ministry and a lived theology may develop which better reflects the life and faith of their own community and their cultural and religious traditions, and which may be more authentic to their indigenous worldview and organization. There is something of mutuality in this as they look to receive what the church offers along with offering themselves to the church in a way that will allow her to learn and grow as well.

As seen through these conversations, these villages seem to have an awareness of who they are and what they need, and they have a sense of what they want from the church in this budding relationship. They also hold an awareness about what they can offer to the church - such as the potential for an increased sense of community, healthier relationships with the rest of the creation, and a better living-out of our interconnectedness - and they are willing to share these gifts with the wider church community. As the Diocese and these communities enter into relationship, there is gift and reception; an attentiveness to what we need as well as to what we may offer each other in order to grow into a fuller awareness of God’s reign in the world and to walk toward and within a more life-giving way of being – and of being together.

As I reflect on these relationships, it seems that they have something to say to us all as we think, pray and offer ourselves up to God’s purposes for us in the world. Mission is so much about giving and receiving, and about creating something new and fruitful together through the relationship.

As we continue to live out God’s call in concrete ways through companion and mission relationships, we can also seek awareness about our own needs. These relationships should focus not only on what we may offer, but on what we may need from the relationship. In what ways do I need to see a fuller, more life-giving picture of God and God’s reign in the world? What do I, and my community, need in order to live this out in more authentic ways? As I seek to accompany others, in what ways do I need to be accompanied as well?

A wonderful promise, and challenge, of these relationships is that through them we may walk together in ways which better fulfill God’s purposes for us all. That through the community created in these relationships, we may grow in and live out together the love and abundant life that God desires for us all.