His Eminence, Metropolitan Athenagoras of Mexico has in recent years embraced one of the biggest teams in Guatemala under his shoulder-cloth. This group was and is under the spiritual guidance of Fr. Andrew Giron. In order to understand and contemplate the beauty of God’s gift to Guatemala, it is necessary to know their history and all the difficulties they have gone through to find the Orthodox faith. Father Andrew Giron is one of the best known defenders of the rights of the Mayan Indian tribe;for 30 years in his struggle for the Indians he has been confronted by the administration of the Roman Catholic Church and the Guatemalan government. At that time, the religious environment of the papal church in Guatemala incorporated the so-called ‘charismatic groups’ to prevent the exodus of believers from its ranks. This decision did not have a good effect because of the civil war and eventually the papacy stopped recognising these communities, which were clearly now inspired by Protestant beliefs.
In these critical years Father Andrew made the decision to leave Roman Catholicism and unite all the natives. This mission of love led him to rebuild villages, roads and to grant them land titles, since the government had never granted them such titles, even though they had lived and farmed on the land for centuries. At the same time, the people asked him, “Father Andrew, what do we believe? What church do we belong to?”; so he decided to teach them Orthodoxy as much as he could and as much as he knew. In the end, ten years ago, his false Orthodox church had grown to 350,000 members throughout Guatemala. But God is great; he cares for, enlightens and waters his flock. That is why Father Andrew felt in his heart that all this was nothing without true faith. He followed the path to the true Church and made the decision to knock on the door of the Metropolis of Mexico to be received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate with his group of faithful. After so many years, the “fullness of time” came: they found in Metropolitan Athenagoras the open door of our Orthodox Church. Immediately, the Metropolitan sent us two priests, so that we could get to know them and see if their desire was serious and well-founded. We were surprised!
It was a group of more than 350,000 people, with 338 churches and chapels, most of whom are indigenous Guatemalans and even of the ancient Mayan tribe. They live in the mountains and vast plains and in the southern cities of Mexico. We have a great work ahead of us throughout Latin America, but now God has given us a group of souls in Guatemala to care for them, to teach them, to baptize them, and to glorify God together. Dear brothers and sisters, we are waiting for your blessings and your help. Our Bishop asks you for your help in the various projects of our Holy Metropolis and Guatemala.
It takes financial means to send priests to Guatemala to teach the catechists there how to catechize the faithful. Financial means are needed to print hundreds of thousands of catechetical texts for children and adults. Many of them are uneducated. Money is needed to prepare video tapes in Spanish or even in the local Mayan dialect, so that they can learn about the Mass, Baptism, Chrismation and all of our Church’s services. With the blessings of Metropolitan Athenagoras,
the Colombian missionary
π. Nicholas Antolinez
