Old Swedes participates in a companion relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Guatemala. In doing so, we learn from each other and share spiritual, human and material relationships. We encourage and pray for each other and hope to inspire each other in our work in the world about us.
Guatemala is the northernmost Central American county with a population of about 10 million. 45% of the population are of Mayan Indian descent and follow traditional Indians ways and speak Indian languages. The other 55% are of Spanish descent and speak Spanish. The two parishes with which Old Swedes has a particular relationship are in the sugar cane country southwest of Guatemala City. Iglesia Ascension is in San Carlos, a village where people work in the cane fields and live close to a subsistence level, often in homes with dirt floors. Iglesia Anunciacion is in Vista Linda, a suburb of the city of Santa Lucia Cotzemalquapa. Many of those parishioners work in factories and they are marginally more “affluent”, living in houses built of cinder block with concrete floors.
Old Swedes provides scholarships to send children in the two parishes to school. We pay half the expenses of students in San Carlos to attend a primary school and, in Vista Linda, to go to a secondary school. Our hope is that this will help make a better life for them as they grow up. We also pay for health services to be provided once a month in the village of San Carlos. In Guatemala, only 35% of the populations can reach local health services in less than an hour.
Old Swedes members have visited Ascension and Anunciacion, most recently in February of 2009. You may read about that trip and view pictures by clicking on the March 2009 newsletter. Our visits have been an inspiration. The love, warmth and appreciation showed by the parishioners more than equals our monetary support for them. We look forward to our continued relationship and to more visits between the churches.
D. Joy Segal, Rector | Columbus Blvd. & Christian Street | Philadelphia, PA 19147 | (215) 389-1513
