A Very Brief History of Orthodoxy in Guatemala

            The first Orthodox community in Guatemala was started by Mother Inés (Ayau), the founder and abbess of Holy Trinity Monastery in Guatemala. Mother Inés comes from a prominent Guatemalan family. Her father, Manuel Ayau, was a congressman, businessman, author, and founder of an important university. Her ancestor Rafael Ayau founded the first orphanage in Guatemala City in 1857. The orphanage was taken over by the government in the 1970’s, but given back to the Ayau family in the person of Mother Inés in 1996. Their monastic community, Holy Trinity, consists of three nuns, all former Roman Catholics. They were received into Orthodoxy by Metropolitan Antonio of the Antiochian Archdiocese of Mexico and Central America. On the grounds of the orphanage there is a church. Most of the parishioners are the orphans themselves, but there are also Orthodox expatriates in the city who attend services there.

            If anyone is even aware of Orthodoxy in Guatemala it is usually because of Mother Inés and the orphanage. However, word is only now getting out about one of the greatest miracles of our time: the historic conversion of a staggering number of 150,000 Guatemalans to Orthodoxy. This group was received by Metropolitan Athenagoras of the Greek Archdiocese of Mexico and Central America. So the nuns are in one jurisdiction, while the vast majority of Orthodox in the country are in another, and they cooperate. But we cannot overstate how huge and historic this recent reception of converts is. We hope to help the Orthodox in North America understand that there is far more going on in Guatemala than the orphanage. There are now suddenly 338 parishes all over the country and even over the border into Mexico. To put this in perspective, Ohio is about the same size as Guatemala, in terms of both area and population, and there are about 80 Orthodox parishes in that state, so the Guatemalan Church is already 3-4 times greater than the Orthodox population of Ohio.

            So who are these 150,000 people and how did they become Orthodox? This was achieved by a very special man, Archimandrite Andres Girón. Fr. Andres is Guatemalan and used to be a Roman Catholic priest. He has always had a heart for the poor and dispossessed in his country. The poor in Guatemala, who are mostly indigenous Maya people, have benefited greatly from Fr. Andres’ struggles to get them legal title to their land. They love him and are very loyal to him. The Roman Catholic hierarchy in Guatemala was opposed to Fr. Andres’ ministry, so about twenty years ago he left them. Not understanding how Orthodox jurisdictions operate, he ended up in a non-canonical jurisdiction based in the US, mainly because he had met someone from this group in Guatemala. Eventually Fr. Andres realized that he had to bring his people into canonical Orthodoxy. In 2010 the “Guatemalan Orthodox Catholic Church” was received by the Greek Archdiocese of Mexico and Central America. Inexplicably, the news of this historic event is only now reaching the ears the Orthodox faithful outside of Guatemala.

            Being indigenous Maya, most of the Orthodox in Guatemala speak a language other than Spanish as their mother tongue, so one of the pressing needs is to translate the Divine Liturgy into the numerous Mayan languages spoken by the faithful. For now, services are chanted in Spanish, but many Orthodox do not understand Spanish well, if at all.

            Even more urgent, though, is the need to train more clergy. There are only eight priests to serve their 338 parishes. One priest we know has to minister to fifty parishes by himself. The church also has lay leaders who lead services when a priest is not around, which is most of the time. If more priests are not trained and ordained soon, the people may get discouraged in the new Orthodox faith.

            Fr. Peter will be working to meet these two needs by teaching at the new Sts. Peter and Paul Seminary in Huehuetenango, which is currently being built, and by training and overseeing indigenous translation teams for the seven or more Maya languages spoken among the Guatemalan Orthodox. These languages are not related to Spanish, and are distinct from each other. In fact, the languages each have local dialects, so the language situation is complicated.

            Please pray for the new Guatemalan Orthodox Church, and remember the Jacksons in your prayers as they prepare to move to Guatemala to join this historic ministry.