February 23, 2004

Dear Friends,

Two years ago, when I began serving as “mission co-worker” for Cuba, I joked about how easy my work would be, saying, “How much problem could one little island in the Caribbean be?”

Maybe I said that one time too many. In mid-2003, my area of service was indeed expanded. I now am serving as “Caribbean Liaison: CANACOM, with emphasis on Cuba (excludes Haiti).” It may sound strange, especially if we think simply in terms of geography. There is, however, exciting mission logic behind this new title and assignment.

CANACOM, the Caribbean North-American Council for Mission, embodies an important trend in mission—the trend towards multi-lateral mission or “mission round-tables.” It is a regional mission body with a 16-year history. The PC(USA) is one of 12 denominations that meet together yearly to “to bear common witness, to challenge and empower one another for creative involvement in mission.” CANACOM is a small but significant embodiment of a commitment to multi-lateral mission. Resources are pooled, and mission decisions are made around the table. It is a mission structure that guards against powerful partners imposing their agendas—one that opens new avenues for mutuality.

CANACOM is comprised of three North American denominations and nine from the Caribbean. There is one staff person, the Reverend Verna Cassals, of the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

I have been aware of CANACOM’s ministry for about 10 years. With each passing year, my appreciation for it grows. It is not an organization for those who want quick, visible results. It is a mission organization for those who care about long-term results, strong relationships, and churches growing ever-stronger in the ability to incarnate the gospel in their own context.

Grenada is one of the smallest independent countries in the western hemisphere. Not surprisingly, the Presbyterian Church in Grenada (PGC) is a small church. For more than 100 years, the Presbyterian ministers serving in Grenada came from Scotland or Canada or elsewhere in the Caribbean. CANACOM has been accompanying the PCG for a number of years in its search for a permanent minister for its three congregations. A Canadian minister and his wife were appointed as mission workers to Grenada in 2002 but were not able to stay very long.

Then an unexpected gift from God appeared in a young Grenadian pastor, the Reverend Osbert James. James had lived for some years in the United States, where he received his theological education and was ordained as a Baptist minister. He arrived back in Grenada just at the time that the PCG was once again without a minister. Although the PCG wasn’t looking for a Baptist, and James was not planning on preaching to Presbyterians, both were open to God’s Spirit.

Not long after a relationship began between Osbert James and the Presbyterian Church of Grenada, the CANACOM Council held its annual meeting in St. Georges, the capital of Grenada. Important relationships were formed by this Baptist-on-his-way-to-becoming-Presbyterian with ministers and lay leaders from Reformed churches throughout the Caribbean/North American region. CANACOM agreed to provide support for James to travel to pastor-training and support events sponsored by the United Church of Jamaica and the Caymen Islands.

For the first time in history, the PCG has a Grenadian pastor. As the only clergyperson in the only Reformed denomination in Grenada, James does not benefit from the collegial relationships, support structures, and local resources that most ministers enjoy. CANACOM is providing a very significant network of support and relationships for Osbert James and the PCG.

The PCG and the PC(USA) are joined by two other North American denominations and eight other Caribbean denominations in the commitment to work together in mission in our regions. Because mission was understood for so long as the richer churches “helping” the poorer churches, it is not always easy to think of North America as a region equally in need of creative mission as the Caribbean. But when we begin talking about young people in our churches and societies, we quickly find that we are equally concerned and confused. We lack confidence that any of our churches have found good solutions for reaching out to disaffected youth, for combating the seductions of materialism, or for addressing the pain of young people with limited access to educational and economic opportunity.

We do, however, have confidence that God’s Spirit will move when young people come together to work, play, and worship. CANACOM sponsors a Young Adult Mission (YAM) work camp which brings together young adults from all the member churches. In 2003, the YAM work camp was hosted by the Protestant Church of Curação and attended by more than 30 young people from 14 different countries. The three-week program provided participants ages 18 to 30 with an intensive, first-hand experience of partnership in mission.

The Reverend Karen Herbst Kim, of DeKalb, Illinois, is my PC(USA) colleague on the CANACOM council. As one of the leaders of the work camp, Karen helped participants negotiate differences over matters as varied as language, worship style, theology, and appropriate dress. It wasn’t always easy, she reports, but “together we came to a deeper understanding of what it means to live out God’s mission in our own context and the world today.”

I thank you for your continued prayers and support for me and for God’s people in Cuba and across the Caribbean.

Tricia

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 129