September 1, 2004

Dear Friends,

I am attaching (see below) an article written by Sonia Gómez, an active member of Presbyterian women. I sent this recently to the PC(USA)’s Horizons magazine, but I haven’t heard yet if they’ll be able to publish it.

In my translation, I tried to remain faithful to Sonia’s words and thoughts and at the same time express them in “readable English,” which sometimes is a challenge.

Grace and Peace to you,

Ellen Dozier

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 133

Rejoicing in the Harvest – Psalm 126:5

I am not able to contain the joy that I have felt during this first year serving as a ruling elder in my church. I want to share this experience with other Presbyterian women and I would like my message to reach as many woman as possible and bear fruit in your lives.

I am a retired teacher who worked for 25 years in the primary schools in El Progreso, Guatemala. Since 1973, I have lived in Guastatoya, a town north east of the capital, Guatemala City, in the department of El Progreso. In 1974 I married a Presbyterian, Hector Gómez, and began to work in the Presbyterian Church El Dios Vivo (“The Living God”) in 1976. Very soon I discovered my vocation: teaching in Sunday school and working with women in my local church. Later, I worked with the women in the Presbyterial [women’s group at the presbytery level] and, beginning in 1982, with La Unión Sinódica, the women’s organization at the national level of the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala (IENPG).

I found the best opportunities to develop the gifts God gave me were in my work with women. I served the women’s organization as secretary, treasurer, and moderator, among other roles. I also had a part in the struggle for the ordination of women in the IENPG.

Before 1993, Presbyterian women in Guatemala were “comfortable.” We did not think the “ministry of women” included the roles of ruling elder or pastor. We had always heard that this work was only for men, and we accepted that. But in 1993, two women from Guatemala, Aurora de Enríquez and I, attended conference of women in Venezuela sponsored by AIPRAL (Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches of Latin America). We had the opportunity to share with women whose ministry was much broader than ours. We saw women pastors serving the Lord’s Supper. We got to know women elders who had important responsibilities in their presbyteries. We were literally frightened by what we saw.

All this was in God’s plan, because in this very same year a document along with a petition was presented to the Assembly (that is, the meeting of the Synod, which is the highest governing body in the Presbyterian Church of Guatemala), by a group of Mayan women asking for approval to ordain women as ruling elders and pastors. This document and petition had a great impact on the Assembly, and the Synod passed a resolution, directing the Sinódica to study the document.

With the help of CEDEPCA (Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies) and the few Guatemalan pastors who supported this idea, we began a very difficult process. It was difficult for the following reasons:

• because we ourselves, as women, were not prepared to accept the idea that we could serve God in these ways.
• because 90 percent of the men and 95 percent of the women were opposed to the idea that a woman could serve as a pastor or elder.
• because it was new work for our women’s organization and we had no resources.
• because we were not capable of reading the Bible in any other way than the way the pastors had taught us, and now we had to confront them.

There were meetings, encuentros, Bible studies, conventions, and the work of interpreting the Bible. We attended meetings with pastors and leaders who attacked us, accused us, and read obscure Bible texts against the ministry of women to us. We did not know how to defend ourselves because we did not fully understand the idea of women serving as pastors and elders. The women of the churches looked upon us with distrust and suspicion. Many women lost their privileges within the church (for example, they were not permitted to serve on committees or as church school teachers). The rest of the women isolated us; they did not want the other women to listen to us.

Then a great miracle happened. This small group of women studying the document began to read the Bible with new eyes. None of us had prior preparation; none had gone to seminary. We discovered that the woman is included in God’s plan.

As we traveled together, God prepared and lead us, and in five years, the Assembly of the IENPG, in May of 1998, gave their approval to the ordination of women. Now we could serve the Lord in the ministry of elder and pastor.

After 1998 in almost all the presbyteries, women were ordained as elders. They served as members of sessions as well as in their presbyteries and with the Synod. But I was a member of Norte Presbytery, the most conservative presbytery, which vigorously opposed the idea of ordaining women even though it was a mandate from the Synod. My husband, who supported me throughout the process, thought the same as I: “In Norte Presbytery they will never ordain a woman.”

My husband was called to his heavenly home, to live in the Lord’s presence, on March 20, 2002. He had always been the teacher of the adult Bible Sunday school class. During 2003, our church did not have a pastor and I was asked to teach the adult class, a service I performed with much love.

In God’s time and in the right time for my church, I was elected to serve as a ruling elder on December 28, 2003, and was ordained to that office on December 31, 2003.

Now, after seven months of serving in this capacity, I have been looking back and have discovered that in the history of our church we have not noted the names of women and men who were instruments of God as we walked this road. I think about the verse from Psalm 126, in the years 1993 to 1998 we “sowed with tears,” and all along the way there were persons who accompanied us whom we ought to remember: Luz María Coto, Raquel Lausch, Judith Castañeda, Betty Carrera and Veónica Pérez from CEDEPCA; Ester Polo de Sánchez; Yolanda Hernándes, Haydée Andrade, Lelis Armella, Elena Dozier, Lydia Hernandez, and Julia Ann Moffett from the PC(USA). During this time we were able to bring Irene Foulkes from the Latin American Biblical University in Costa Rica to lead us in several workshops; we attended encuentros in other countries; we sent representatives to meetings who returned home to share their new experiences with us. All these women accompanied us and taught us a new way to read the Bible so that we found in the Bible the support for our ministry. In Guatemala there were also pastors and leaders who supported our efforts—not as many as there are today, but there were a few. I’d like to mention three who helped us put together a document to present to the Assembly of the Synod and all the pastors of the church: Hermenegildo Méndez, the legal advisor of the church, Pastor Juan René Girón, the advisor of the Sinódica, and a professor from the national seminary, Carlos Peláez.

When we were in the process of seeking approval for the ordination of women, we needed appropriate materials. We had no books. I remember one time I sent a letter to Horizons asking for materials and they sent me a copy of the Bible study prepared for that year as well as ones from previous years. We used themes from “Women of the Good News” (1987-88), “Who Is the Christ?” (1994-95), and “Prayers of the Bible for a Faithful Journey” (1993-94). All these resources helped us discover the role of women in the Bible as we studied the Bible with new eyes, the eyes of women.

Many times, instead of being “a light” reflecting the love and peace of the gospel, the church in Guatemala reflects the society we live in, where there are sharp divisions and conflicts between the Maya and mestizos (a term used in Guatemala to denote persons of mixed indigenous and European ancestry). But walking and working together in these years, the light of the gospel has shone anew as women in the church have come together, Mayas and mestizas. I will never forget that after the vote was taken in favor of ordination of women at the Assembly in 1998, all the women present were invited to come forward for a prayer and a photo. There were Mayan women, mestizas, women from the PC(USA), mission volunteers and co-workers in Guatemala. We were united, willing and ready to take advantage of all the opportunities to serve God and our church.

To serve the Lord in Guatemala is a challenge. A challenge because we want to be involved in all possible areas of work; we want our involvement as women to be different from what we often see in our church where, unfortunately, the leadership is infected with egotism, ambition, and corruption. There are many pastors with a “double life.” The Unión Sinódica is striving to educate and train women so that they can assume leadership roles within the government of the church and in these positions lead with faith, love, and true service, as our Lord taught us.

To serve the Lord in Guatemala is a challenge because the positions that the men attain, they attain only because they are men, and the women must exert a great deal of effort to attain such positions. Not one woman occupies a position of leadership unless she has attained it with testimony to her faith, work, and effort.

Nevertheless it is a joy to serve the Lord, and so I say that we sow with tears, but with joy we are participating in the harvest, reaping the fruit of our efforts, all to the glory of God.

Sonia González de Gómez
Guastatoya, July 27, 2004