Guide to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Latin America and Caribbean Office Records

This collection consists of subject files documenting the work of foreign missionaries and Presbyterian churches in Latin America and the Caribbean. The files were created by the various mission offices of the Presbyterian Church from the 1950s through 2010. The collection is divided into series based on the denomination that created the files.

The PCUS country and subject files series, 1943-1984, contains administrative and subject files created by the staff of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, including the files of area secretaries Charles R. Hughes, Joseph R. Woody, and Thomas W. Foley. The majority of the files relate to the work of the Brazil Mission and the Mexico Mission. There are also subject files on ecumenical programs in Latin America and committees created by the National Council of Churches of Christ.

Materials related to the Brazil Mission include minutes from the mission’s Executive Committee and from the four individual regions of the Brazil mission, budgets for mission projects, and correspondence on area conferences/consultations. The first Latin America Conference was held in Campinas Brazil in 1955 and brought together both Latin American Presbyterian groups and PCUS entities.

The PCUS missionary correspondence series, 1957-1980, consists of files on individual missionaries, couples, and families who served the Presbyterian Church in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of the missionaries in this series served in either Brazil or Mexico. The series includes missionary applications, evaluations, letters from missionaries updating friends and family on their work, and administrative letters about taking leave or retiring from service. A few folders are marked as restricted since they contain personal data or medical information.

The PC(USA) country and subject files series, 1961-2009, contains files created by staff members of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. that document the work of missionaries in specific countries. This mostly consists of administrative correspondence, program committee meeting minutes, reports on regional churches, and subject files on theological education. The folders that relate to the Presbyterian Hunger Program, the Self-Development of People, or the Presbyterian Women Thank Offering consist entirely of approved grant applications. The folders labeled “background information on country and mission” contain press releases, maps, travel guides, and photocopies of histories of the Presbyterian Church in each country. Many of the folders labeled as “general correspondence”also contain meeting minutes and trip reports from PC(USA) staff.

Also included in this series are subject files on border ministries in Mexico, reports from the Caribbean and North America Council for Mission (CANACOM), and correspondence with the Assembly of the Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches (AIPRAL).

The PC(USA) Presbytery partnerships series, 1987-2007, contains correspondence from presbyteries in the United States requesting to form a partnership with a Latin American church as well as correspondence documenting those relationships.