St. James the Apostle's Mission, Colon
 | Cno. Lecoq 1573 Worship:Sundays 11:00 am Holy Eucharist |
History of the Mission
The Anglican Church started its activities in the area of Colon in January 1994.
Two months before a group of 140 families that had previously lived in the Centre and Old City of Montevideo were relocated through a programme of the Ministry of Housing. A number of these families had links with the Church and, as a result of this, the Ministry allowed the church to help the families in their resettlement in the new neighbourhood. It is important to note that while the families had been assigned to more respectable housing than they had previously , they were to experience a great impact in their lives by leaving the Centre and Old City were they had easy access to everything they needed. At the same time the older residents of Colon were suspicious of the new arrivals.
As a first step the Church aquired a house with potential for expansion where the activities started. At this stage Rev. Fernando Caberna and his wife were in charge of the work, attending to the liturgy in the area and to the administration of activities for improving the new neighbourhood.
Their work was undertaken with the assistance of 2 Peruvian missionaries - Fernando Martínez and his wife Esther Atoche who visited families and organised worship. As the work was growing and the social work in particular was becoming increasingly important the church decided to augment the team. To start with Coordinator Fernando Rodríguez appointed Daniel Pereira as Social Worker.
Subsequently a plan of work was developed with the participation local people to define the priorities for action. As a result Fernando De Los Santos was appointed as an architect to assess the possibilities of extending the houses of the new residents.
As one of the lines of work identified as a prirority was the work with children and adolescents funds were successfully secured from the Fund of the Americas for a project to work with young children. The work team continued to increase with the incorportaion of social workers and trainers inclusing Cristina Pérez, Tony Gómez, Inés Jacich, Viriginia Ardaix and Carolina Antenucci. Of these, Virginia Ardaix remains with us.
The Church was strengthened in its task by the addition of Mark and Caroline Gilmore from the UK who worked here for several years. At the same time Rev. Geoff Clement was in charge of the Pastoral activities.
In relation to the needs of local adolescents a Youth Centre was created in partnership with local government and several social workers worked with the young people along with a missionary couple with experience of youth work.
The Rev. Susana López developed activities linked to the pastoral work and also the development of mask and candle workshops for the work with adolescents.
Recognising the need to prepare young people for the world of work a project was developed in partnership with the Institute of Young People , and drawing on the churches expertise that had been developed in this area through work in the Old City.
Following the departure of Mark and Caroline Gilmore , until December 2003 the Bishop had pastoral responsibility for the mission assisted by the lay minisiters Alejandro and Ana. In that year the little school of Jesus was working with more than 30 children, a confirmation class was in progress, a new project was being undertaken to work with local people growing organic vegtables.
The activities of the parish continue to develop and grow and there is potential for further developments linked to the prison , the hospital and the local clinic. The social projects with children and adolescents continue to improve the quality of life for our people in this area and in this way we see ourselves as advocates in the task of bringing the Gospel to the most poor.
In April 2004 Rvd. Heber Castaño assumed responsibility for the parish.