Mission and Objectives
The Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean
(CIEMAL) was organized in February 1969 in Santiago, Chile.
Its purpose is to make visible the connectionality and witness of the Methodist
Churches as they serve among our Latin American and Caribbean peoples and together.
Methodist presence was established in the Caribbean in 1760 on the island of Antigua
and in Latin America in 1836 in Argentina and Brazil.
Today there are approximately one million members of the Methodist Church and its
mission is lived out through congregations in all of the principal cities, the rural
and indigenous areas, and poor and marginalized neighborhoods. Its programs include
evangelization, education and social service with all ages from infancy through
adulthood through its schools, universities, clinics, hospitals, community centers,
soup kitchens, and programs for street children, youth and women, all in response
to the demands of the Gospel.
It responds to the Great Commandment of Jesus, “Go into all the world,” and gives
witness to the vision of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement in the 17th
century in England, “The World is my parish.”
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