Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations Secretaries' Files: Colombia Mission

The work of the PCUSA in Colombia began in 1856 when the Board of Foreign Missions sent the Reverend Horace B. Pratt to Bogota to establish a mission station. Initially, conditions for evangelization were favorable, but civil war and staunch opposition from the government and the Roman Catholic Church precluded further expansion. For the next 32 years, Bogota remained the center of Presbyterian work in Colombia. Subsequent stations were later established at Barranquilla (1888), Medellin (1889), Bucaramanga (1912), Cerete (1913) and Ocana (1934).

Though Colombia was the first Latin American field occupied by the PCUSA, progress was remarkably slow there compared to that on the other fields in Latin America. Poor communication facilities enhanced the mission's isolation, though by the 1930s and 1940s expanded air travel mitigated this somewhat. Resistance to Protestant evangelization was intense from the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population, from the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and from the government.

The election of the liberal President Herrera in 1930 signaled a more favorable attitude toward Protestants. This resulted in the adoption of the 1936 constitution, which guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians. In 1937, the Presbyterian Church of Colombia was organized and two years later, the Colombia Synod procured a charter from the Synod Holding Corporation, thereby insuring a congregation's ability to hold title to its property - an important step in stabilizing the Protestant presence in Colombia.

The liberalization of the 1930s and the advent of the Second World War did much to expand Presbyterian work in Colombia. Displaced missionaries from the Orient were transferred to Colombia, and, for the first time in its history, the mission operated with a full staff. This period of unprecedented growth was checked, however, during the late 1940s. The return of civil war to Colombia in 1948 and the subsequent triumph of the Conservative Party marked a new era of Protestant persecution. Though the more violent aspects of this era had subsided by 1960, the crucial question of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Colombian government was at that time still unresolved.

The Church's ministry in Colombia has been primarily evangelistic and educational in nature. Schools such as the Colegio Americano for girls and boys in Bogota and the Bible Training School in Medellin illustrate this fact. In 1959, the Presbyterian Mission in Colombia was integrated within the Colombian Presbyterian Church, though financial and personnel support from the UPCUSA continued until the early 1970s.