He Wrote: “The Free Church of Scotland missionaries in Peru clung so tightly to the historic form of the church as it has grown up in Scotland…that in the Peruvian context they failed to express…basic elements of the gospel”. He further sees the lack of growth as being due to the missionaries’ emphasis on the sovereignty of God which influenced them against making evangelistic appeals for people to come forward. This is said to have been a mistake in Peru, since “the Indians’ fatalistic attitude to life has had such an influence on the general thinking, the hearers need to give some active and immediate way of demonstrating their faith”.
The Peruvian evangelical leader, Pedro Merino, has been nearly all his life a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Peru (IEPP). This is the denomination witch the Free Church mission founded. In 1981 he presented a paper at a national Presbyterian youth conference, analysing the history of the IEPP. He believes that the Free Church mission policy en Peru has “cancelled out true national leadership and held back the growth development of many congregations”.
Recently a post-graduate student at the Lima Evangelical Seminary, Gaye Mercier, presented a research paper in which she argued that the IEPP is a new religious movement which has been liberated from the Free Church mission. She lists something like 25 criticisms of the mission, and typically writes: “It is possible to clearly see the confusion between the cultural expression of the gospel on the part of the Scottish missionaries and the determination of the national church to rediscover its national identity and the expression of the gospel in its own culture… It is not possible to say even yet, as to what point the obvious identification of the gospel with the British or Scottish culture has influenced the lack of conversions”.
The line of thinking of each author is similar. The Free Church was so concerned with its ecclesiology and theology; that is it was so concerned to produce a correct national church, that it effectively put a “brake on the growth of many congregations”.
Shortly after the Lima Evangelical Seminary paper was made available, Free Church missionaries were meeting in their annual Field conference. It was then decided to evaluate the validity of such critically analyse the Free Church mission work in Peru. What is now written will, no doubt, be controversial, both from the view of the mission and the view of the national church.
2. EVALUATION OF THE DIACONAL MINISTRY
2.1 A BRIEF HISTORY
Carlos Mariátegui is an influential Lain American thinker. John A. Mackay comments: In respect to Protestantism, Mariátegui thinks that this not entered directly into Latin America in its own spiritual and religious power, but only indirectly, that is by means of educational and social work”. The need for medical and educational work was clear in the minds of the early missionaries. In 1920, Dr. Helen MacDougall wrote: “it is practically impossible for a protestant to be treated in a Roman Catholic hospital without consenting to confession and hearing Mass”. For many people there would have been little option had to pass an annual examination in Roman Catholic dogma. So John A. MacKay’s aim was to strike “a mortal blow at the system of Roman education, which is more responsible than any other agency for the woeful condition of this unhappy land”. The medical work was centred in Moyobamba and Cajamarca. In the 1920, two well-known independent missionaries in Moyobamba, Annie Soper and Rhoda Gould, were incorporated into the Free Church mission.
The medical work they started was carried on by Dr. Kenneth Mackay, who became the Medical Officer for the whole region. In Cajamarca the work was dominated by Sara MacDougall who nursed there from 1921 to 1955. She became so well known in Cajamarca that in 1952 the citizens gave her a gold medal, and after her death a monument was raised by public subscription and a street was named after her. Wherever the medical missionaries were, their work was in great demand. Dr. Harold Lindsay reported carrying out nearly 50 major operations and over 200 minor ones in a year. In nursing, Sara MacDougall managed to see an average each year of about 3.500 patients in his mission house; made 1500 home visits and dealt with 150 maternity cases. And when Nurse Mary Macleod went she was going to leave. But the lack of new volunteers from the Free Church combined with an increasing state medical work, to cause the decision to close down this side of the Free Church diaconal ministry.
Colegio San Andrés has taken up most of the mission’s educational work. From the start school was popular amongst Peruvians. It offered good academic standards, high morality and freedom from control of priests. By 1920, there were 260 pupils enrolled. Mackay wrote to Scotland:” We receive the boys of University professors, Cabinet ministers, foreign diplomats, leading doctors and lawyers”. In 1928 a new school building was opened by the then President of Peru, Sr. Leguia.
The school bore fruit in that, for instance, about forty years after its founding Sam Will could report of many ex-pupils in influential positions, and James Mackintosh could refer to others who were “filling key positions in the national evangelical work”. So Kessler could conclude that the school had served the Peruvian nation well. The educational work has been extended significantly recently, with the school’s headmaster being involved in starting up an evangelical teacher’s training college.
In Cajamarca, because of discrimination against Protestants, a Primary school was started up by Mrs. Calvin Mackay and Miss Christine Mackay. Later James Turnbull opened up a secondary department. However the Foreign Missions Committee decided to close the school in 1933. Later, in the time of Hugo Varnes, an English academy was run for several years in Cajamarca.
The other notable diaconal work is a community development project near Cajamarca. This project started in 1982 and was initially aimed at two poor rural communities. It gave help in a variety of areas-medical, veterinary, agriculture, adult education, irrigation, and the development of home industries. Nearly all the staff involved is Peruvians, and the project is presently being extended to other areas in the Cajamarca region.
2.2 AN EVALUATION
Much good has come from the diaconal work. The Colegio, the medical work and the community development programme have all helped to give the evangelical cause a good name. The Peruvian authorities, both local and national, have expressed gratitude for this aspect of the mission’s work.
Those involved have to combine their practical activities with evangelism. Reading through Dr. Lindsay’s reports to the General Assembly gives the impression that he was more interested in church extension than in medical work. And of the Colegio, John A. Mackay said:” Our pronounced Protestantism is no secret; the Word of god is taught openly”. In conjunction with Sarah MacDougall’s nursing that, “In Cajamarca there are two classes who don’t show interest in the truth: the donkeys and the priests”.
MacKay’s aim was to strike” a mortal blow at the system of Romish education”, and of having, as in the Reformation a movement to Protestantism though the educated classes. But this hope has yet to be fulfilled. Roman Catholics still dominate education, and the evangelical church is usually found among the lower social classes.
The diaconal work produced many who associated themselves only superficially with the evangelical cause. From his own experience, Pedro Merino says that people became involved more because of “the help the mission offered, than because of much spiritual need”. In 1941 in Moyobamba and its surrounding area, there were 660 adherents, but only 66 actual members. At the same time in the Cajamarca region there were 879 adherents, but only 111 members.
Mackay did plan to have direct church work alongside the school. However the demands of the educational work occupied all his energy. Thirty-six years after the founding of the school, James Mackintosh wrote: The sad fact is that we have not succeeded yet in building up a congregation of families interested, though the school, in our evangelical witness”.
The diaconal ministry has absorbed the time of most of the missionaries and been expensive. Up until Sarah MacDougall’s death in 1955, the mission employed about 32 of its people in educational and medical work; and only 5 in direct church work (see Table 2). In the last 30 years even with the closing of the Moyobamba medical work and an increased development of the national church, about 19 missionaries have been involved in diaconal work and only 12 in church work. On the finance side, large sums of money have been involved in the diaconal work, for instance the 20.000 paid out in 1928 for the new Colegio building; or the annual budget of 40.000 in 1985 for the Community Development projection. Although in the case of this project most of the money comes from sources outside of the Free Church.
TABLE 2
ANALYSIS OF FREE CHURCH MISSIONARIES IN PERU
TYPE OF WORK