On a map, the three obscure countries nestled on the Caribbean coast of South America seem closely connected. In reality, “the three Guianas” — French Guiana (a province of France), Suriname (formerly Dutch Guyana) and Guyana — are separated by three languages, two wide river deltas and a sketchy road system. Geography and language also isolate them from the rest of Latin America.
Song, fellowship and dialogue bridged those differences when Lutherans from the Guianas met last fall to explore mission and ministry in their context. A collaboration between the ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Suriname, the two-day “Glocal Mission Gathering” drew nearly 110 people to Paramaribo, Suriname. It was the first international Glocal gathering.
A quarter of the participants were youth leaders like Rafanelly Deekman of Paramaribo. “It was fun to see the French, Dutch and English Guianans working together and exchanging thoughts,” he said. “Devotions from a different country each day were highlights, and everybody likedour food.”
A dozen ELCA members also attended, including Chris Klafs, a participant in the companion relationship between the Florida-Bahamas Synod and the churches in Suriname and Guyana. “It was a slice of heaven for me,” said Klafs, who attended workshops focused on healing a region marred by deforestation and mining.
High demand for tropical hardwoods is a threat to the rainforest, while small-scale gold mining has triggered high mercury levels in local fish. Responding to these issues through the lens of stewarding God’s creation takes the focus off of “people pointing fingers,” said Nathaniel Heyde, a retired biologist from Suriname.
Heyde found other workshops on caring for children affected by domestic violence as well as people living with HIV and AIDS absorbing. But for him, the best part was the music.
Whether a Glocal Mission Gathering takes place at an ELCA synod assembly, congregation, seminary or in Paramaribo, the same questions lie at its heart: “What is mission? Who is our neighbor?”
In this context, answering these questions required engaging the present reality — Lutherans are a minority in the multicultural, multireligious Guianas — and the past. Founded by Dutch plantation owners almost 400 years ago, the churches in Guyana and Suriname were once slave-owning institutions that refused to let slaves join. Their makeup and leadership have changed since slavery was abolished in 1863 and both colonies and colonial churches became independent in the 1970s.
The much younger French Guiana Protestant Church, led by a Lutheran pastor from France, has many members from Madagascar and other French-speaking African countries.
While pews in Suriname are filled with people of Indian, Indonesian and African descent, members of Martin Luther Church who attended the gathering confessed that an important group was missing: the Maroons. Descendants of Africans, they have lived in the rainforest since they fled slavery in the 1820s.
Inspired by these questions, the congregation in downtown Paramaribo decided to celebrate Suriname’s national “Day of the Maroons” by inviting a Maroonian to share his culture and music.
Being in fellowship with Lutherans from The Guianas at the Glocal event “gave me a clearer perspective on Pentecost,” said Leroy Nicholson, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana. “Can you imagine hearing all of us singing the same song to the one God in our own language?”
Heyde, a member of the Moravian Church, appreciated “the way the Lutherans create an atmosphere in which anyone can feel very good, and the honesty of all that I have heard formally and informally.”
