A small group from our diocese are currently on a visit to our friends in the Diocese of Peru. Here you can read more about what they're doing.
On Saturday 10 November, Phil Bradford and Doug Chaplin write:
A six hour bus journey from Perus second city, Arequipa,takes you to the small town of Cabanaconde at the far end of the Colca Canyon claimed locally to be the deepest canyon in the world.
On the edge of this town is the Diocese of Perus mostremote mission San Felipe (St Philips). The mission is served by a deacon,Justo Maqque. He spends most of his time there, living in a room in the missionhouse behind the church, and travelling back twice a month to visit his wifeand three daughters in Arequipa.
It is unpromising mission territory: the massive RomanCatholic Church in the town square, only has a very small congregation, andfolk religion has a deep hold on the local culture. The Anglican congregationis even smaller.
Justo has been ministering here since 2016, and getting toknow people. Although, as a deacon, he conducts regular services of HolyCommunion by extension, he is labouring in a culture which has a verytraditional catholic understanding of priesthood, and his role is not alwaysunderstood or appreciated.
He feels that the Anglican tradition offers a more profoundcritique of folk religion than the Roman Catholic Church locally has been ableto offer.
He is ambitious for growing his congregation, both indeepening the Christian commitment of his existing people through greaterappreciation of Scripture, and attracting new members to his church. He has apassion for evangelism, and is currently planning a programme of door-to-doorvisiting to share his faith.
It has been a privilege to visit, to hear about hisambitions for his congregation, and to offer the friendship, support andprayers of Worcester Diocese for his work.
Sunday 11 November in Arequipa:
On Sunday, the diocesan group in Peru met the youngestmember of the Anglican Church in Arequipa, two-month-old Maria-Fernanda(pictured here with her mother and Phil Bradford). She was only one of a largenumber of people with whom Phil, Margaret Rutter and Doug Chaplin met throughthe course of the day.
Morning worship was a Eucharist at Cristo Redentor (Christthe Redeemer), the oldest Anglican church outside Lima, near the centre ofArequipa, an Andean city surrounded by three volcanoes, thankfully dormant forthe last five hundred years. This is now a very well-established congregation,with a youth worker as well as a priest (Juan Marcos Ayala) and a lay minister(not unlike an ALM in Worcester).
In the afternoon, there was a Eucharist at the mission churchof Santiago Apostl (St James the Apostle), presided over by the regionalvicar, Carlos Quispe. When Phil visited in 2009, this site was simply an emptypiece of ground. It now comprises a church, with an added block which includestoilet facilities, dining-room, a one-room apartment for the priest, and aSunday School room.
Santiago is in Villa Ecologica: a shanty town area ofArequipa; the poverty of the surrounding roads and dwellings is obvious. Thechurch has, among other things, started a food project to address concernsabout malnutrition among the people of this area. They have recently had a newpriest, Jaime Siancas, who is still settling in (and preached the shortestsermon our group had ever heard in Peru!).
Doug and Phil were invited to concelebrate at bothEucharists, which was more of a challenge for Dougs very limited Spanish, thanit was for Phil. After each service, Margaret, Phil and Doug, shared greetingsfrom Worcester and were given prayers and good wishes to share with Worcester.
Tuesday 13 November in Juilaca:
The group from Worcester visited two schools in Juliaca, one of the higher places the Diocese is working inat 3,825 m (a little under 2 1/2 miles above sea level. The local priest, Luis,took them into first the infant school and then the junior school, of PeruanoEspaol. The assembly at the infants was a service with songs, a reading ofthe gospel read as it would be in church, a sermon and prayers, with incenseblowing from a burner at the foot of the makeshift altar. 
Then Phil and Doug anointed all the children as part of the conclusion of the service.
Inthe junior school (with about 300 pupils on roll) there was a school eucharistwhich was preceding a special celebration, with a class drama and a birthdayparty. The group took part invidious ways including administering communion to about30 of the older pupils, and again finished with anointing the wholeschool, one by one, in the school courtyard that was a real heat trap.
Those anointed included a teaching assistant dressed as a cartoon dog!
Sunday 18 November:
Thegroups last day in Juliaca saw them spending the morning in a nearby town Lampa visiting a womens prison. This visit included a Eucharist, at whichabout 15 prisoners were communicant, but which was attended by nearly the wholeprison population of 180. A high proportion of these women are in prison fordrug offences, often having been forced into being drug mules.
Sevenof these women had children with them (theyre allowed to keep them with themtill the age of three) and one woman was pregnant. Members of the church inJuliaca, who were also present, had brought gifts for both children andmothers. They also supplied hot chocolate and bread for a picnic in the prisonyard after the Eucharist for all prisoners. A small music group from the churchnot only led music in the Eucharist, but sang songs throughout the picnic.
Philand Doug were again invited to concelebrate, and then at the end of theservice, to anoint those prisoners who came forward to receive this ministry.Virtually all did, along with a number of wardens. The most unexpected momentcame as the picnic began, when Fr Luis led Doug and Phil off to share in blessingthe cells. This involved going into each in turn and sprinkling it with holywater. Although the prison was cramped and far too full, the group reflectedboth that the wardens treated the prisoners with respect, and there seemed tobe a genuine sense of mutual support almost a family bond among the inmates.
Theafternoon involved a brief look around the missions and the town, beforepreparing to fly out in the evening.
Afterarriving in Lima late Saturday night, Margaret Rutter went to stay with CMSmission partners Penny and Juan Carlos Marces, while Phil and Doug spent thenight in a hotel before flying to Jauja on Saturday morning.
Jaujawas briefly the first capital of Peru, and a significant site before theSpanish Conquest. Near the town are ruins of a major site which predates theIncas but was later occupied by them (Tunanmarca). On the Saturday, Doug andPhil met some of the clergy briefly to discuss their work, and had theopportunity to experience modern Jauja, a small town nestling in a valley inthe Andes, in the Anglican vicariato (archdeaconry) of Huancayo. It is a townof small shops and large and diverse local markets, but no supermarket chainhas penetrated here, and foreigners are rarely seen.
Therewas no Sunday morning service, so the local priest James Ortiz took Phil andDoug out to see the very extensive ruins at Tunanmarca, stopping to show themthe new mission-in-formation (i.e. the beginnings of a church plant) atTunanmarca, where they are currently renovating a chapel for Anglican use. Inthe afternoon Doug and Phil went with James to a local radio station whereJames was interviewed (with a contribution from Phil) about the AnglicanChurch. After this there was a concelebrated Eucharist in the Mission in Jauja,with the unusual dedication to The Just Judge. The small congregation sangenthusiastically, and there was a very high level of congregationalparticipation.
Thetwo photos show a view of Jauja from the hill above the town, one shot fromsome more ancient pre-Conquest ruins which can be found there. (Yes, Phil andDoug did climb this hill, which takes rather more work at an altitude of 3,400metres than it does at sea level!)
On Saturday 24 November, Doug and Phil wrote:
Last Wednesday we visited the first Anglican school in Lima, St Mateo (StMatthews), which was one of the two whose buildings were badly affected byflooding last year. As a result, some children are still learning in temporaryclassrooms. Nonetheless the school was in good heart, and the teachersenthusiastic and welcoming. The children were pleased to see visitors, althoughwe were slightly bemused by the English recitation in several classes of thetraditional language Lords Prayer.
OnThursday we mainly spent the day in conversation, especially with Bishop Jorgeand the Dean of the Cathedral.
OnFriday we spent the day visiting church and projects, beginning with SantsimaTrinidad (Most Holy Trinity), where a school sports event was in progress: eachclass was dressed in the team colours of a different nation. We moved on to SanJuan Evangelista (St John the Evangelist), which is also home of the Compassionproject, which has been working with significantly disadvantaged children for agood number of years, but which is due to come to an end in 2020. From there wewent to see the mission of Sagrada Familia (Holy Family), which is an ambitiousbuild on the edge of what is claimed to be the largest cemetery in LatinAmerica. This church is still in the process of being built, and currently hasa congregation of 25-30, meeting at 8am on a Sunday.
After Sagrada Familia we went on to the Shalom Centre,run by a CMS Mission Partner, Pat Blanchard, which works mainly with childrenand young people with various disabilities and learning difficulties.
The final day
Thefinal full day of the small diocesan visit to Peru saw the group go first for abrief visit to St Patrice Mission in Ventanilla in North Lima. This was shorterthan expected owing to severe traffic problems delaying the arrivals. Lima istrying to spend the last of its roadwork budgets before the end of the year,and this has had a major effect on weekend traffic. At the mission weoverlapped with some American visitors (one of whom is a Peruvian now living inFlorida) who had brought some gifts for the children in this very poor district ofLima. Around a hundred and forty children sang a couple of Christmas songs justafter we arrived the build up to Christmas comes as early in Peru as inEngland.
Fromthere we went to another poor northern district of Lima, Puente Piedra, to meetwith the parish priest, Benjamin, and hear about the work he is trying to do.He is especially engaged in addressing issues of poor family life, withdomestic abuse of the wives by husbands whose life consists of work and drink, andthe spin off effects on children.
He has been slowly building up his church,both in terms of developing the physical plant and growing the congregation.The photos accompanying this show something of the poverty of the area, and theway the parish is built on steep hillsides.
Asour visit concluded we joined both the English and Spanish languagecongregations at Good Shepherd Cathedral before flying back tothe UK Sunday evening, arriving in Birmingham on Monday evening.
