Establishing Networks for Mission
Joseph Russ
Dear friends,
Some of you may have already seen that the PC(USA)’s World Mission (WM) ministry area has concluded, and my WM colleagues and I finished our service with WM on March 24th, 2025. Some of us will continue our service with the PC(USA) under the Global Ecumenical Partnerships ministry area.
I have accepted the offer to be a global ecumenical liaison serving the Synod of the Southwest and the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii! I will continue supporting the Mesoamerica Migration and Mission Network, a Network born out of a General Assembly overture submitted by the Presbytery of the Pacific and their partners in the Reformed Calvinist Church of El Salvador. While I am grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the Mesoamerica Migration and Mission Network in this new role, I must admit that it is sad to say farewell to World Mission, its valuable contributions, and my colleagues who have made this work possible. It’s hard to imagine serving without them.
I invite you to read the following Presbyterian News Service articles that highlight how PC(USA) has been preparing for the changes that have taken place.
February 7, 2025 – The Shifting Patterns of Ecumenical Global Engagement
February 5, 2025 – Interim Unified Agency Announces Shift in Global Ministry Engagement
November 5, 2024 – Next Steps in Reimagining Global Mission
January 23, 2025 – A New Vision for Global Ministry
March 17, 2025 – World Mission leader addresses questions regarding shift in global ministry approach
March 26, 2025 – Wednesday Chapel Service Honors World Missions Life Changing Ministry
March 28, 2025 – Financial sustainability is a critical component of changes in PC(USA) global engagement
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When I joined the PC(USA) as a mission co-worker three years ago, I had been living in El Salvador since November 2016. I first worked with the United Methodist Church, then at several NGOs and churches. Friends from my faith community at the Reformed Calvinist Church of El Salvador shared the opportunity with me to serve in El Salvador with their sister church in the United States: the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The church in El Salvador had called on their siblings in the PC(USA) to support them in launching a mission network to address migration issues in Central America, and the Presbytery of the Pacific submitted the overture to the 226th General Assembly, which passed the resolution. When I took this position, I was thrilled to collaborate even more robustly with a church I had been attending for five years, which has been a home for me and where I had grown in faith and participated in a beautiful community since moving to El Salvador. I will miss being able to work with this incredible community in the same way.
In this role, I worked with partners from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. I have visited indigenous communities in Huehuetenango, Guatemala with Pop No’j, learned about the rich and complex history of Guatemala with CEDEPCA, accompanied Salvadoran church and community leaders to the U.S.-Mexico border with Frontera de Cristo and so much more. I learned about mission partnerships with leadership from the Evangelical Presbyterian Mission in Honduras, the delicate dance of advocacy with the Ecumenical Forum in El Salvador and visited powerful efforts in the U.S. from a library working with a Mam-speaking community in Oregon to the Beth-el Farmworker Ministry in Florida, and everything in between.
Most importantly, I had the opportunity to walk alongside all these incredible ministries as they came together and launched the Mesoamerica Migration and Mission Network in March 2024. The chance to see these strong and innovative programs and their inspiring leadership join together for prayer, devotionals, tears, laughter, joy, excitement, planning, strategizing, and dreaming was unparalleled.
As much as I love learning about the incredible work people do throughout Central America, Mexico, and the U.S., the richest part of being a mission co-worker has been witnessing the connections between people. These connections include the collaboration between human rights advocates from Greece, Mexico, and El Salvador as they hosted a panel on the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the way indigenous organizations in Guatemala and churches throughout the region invoke the nahual of each day and the teamwork between a play therapist in the U.S. and teachers in El Salvador intent on finding ways to bring play therapy principles into the classroom. My greatest hope is that I helped facilitate these connections and that I will continue to do so as a global ecumenical liaison.
As Rev. Mienda Uriarte pointed out, synods, presbyteries, churches, and Presbyterians around the world are even more connected than ever before. That means many of us have the opportunity to reach out directly to the people we work with in countries all over the world to see how these changes are impacting them, how they feel about this new model for mission, and how they were able to contribute to envisioning these changes. This is true not only for outreach from the U.S. to partners around the world, but programs outside the PC(USA) can reach out to colleagues, partner churches, and siblings in Christ in the U.S. with prayers and questions.
If you would like to do so, consider reaching out directly to partners you work with, know, and have communicated with in the past. Let us work together with mid councils and churches so that together we can continue to step up and engage even more deeply with our partners around the world. Those who have a partnership with another church, presbytery or person can reach out directly to one another. If you have questions or feedback for the PC(USA)’s Interim Unified Agency Leadership, feel free to write them at: feedback@pcusa.org.
There are many emotions, changes, uncertainties and questions remaining, definitely for me writing it and possibly for you reading it. But let us use this moment as a catalyst that inspires us to strive for greater connection and stronger partnerships.
Joseph Russ