Puerto Rico (“rich port”) is the home of a distinctive Stone-Campbell community. It is the smallest of the larger Antilles of the Caribbean, about 100 miles east to west and 35 miles north to south, with a population of 3.8 million inhabitants. A central mountain range divides it into a lush, tropical northern coast and an arid, semi-desert to the south. It has been called the “island of enchantment” because of its natural beauty.
The island was conquered and colonized by Spain in 1493. The United States invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Puerto Rico became a colony and then a commonwealth, a U.S. territory, approved by the U.S. Congress in 1952. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and there are more than three million Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland.
At the end of the nineteenth century Puerto Rico was experiencing a significant transition. Having become a U.S. colony as a result of the Spanish-American War, it received many Protestant missions from the United States beginning in 1898. The Disciples of Christ came to the island on April 23, 1899. J. A. Erwin and his family were assigned to the northern part of Puerto Rico, in the city of Bayamón, as part of the comity agreement among the Protestant denominations that established missions. The first Disciples congregation was founded in 1901 in Bayamón. From Bayamón the Disciples moved to the countryside, starting the first Protestant rural congregation in Puerto Rico. Dajaos became, and still is, the Mecca of Puerto Rican Disciples.
The first missionaries experienced the misery and desperate needs of the Puerto Rican population and decided to respond by establishing two orphanages in Bayamón to educate and protect orphan children of the vicinity. By 1914 the missionaries had decided to change their strategy for mission in Puerto Rico. They closed the orphanages and concentrated on planting new congregations and on evangelism. Many children were transferred to the Polytechnic Institute of the Presbyterian Church in San Germán. The process of establishing new congregations resulted in Disciples expanding their influence, particularly in the northwestern part of Puerto Rico.
The Churches of Christ also sent missionaries to Puerto Rico. By the 1930s several congregations were established on the island. The first congregation was founded in San Juan, and from there new congregations were organized in Dorado and Vega Alta, two small towns in the northwestern part of Puerto Rico.
Manuel Jordán, Modesto Rivera, and Gregorio Rodríguez are recognized as prominent Puerto Rican church developers. Rev. Manuel Jordán was a pastor in Vega Alta for many years. His brother, Rev. Edmundo Jordán, was a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastor in Bayamón, Ciales, and Toa Baja for more than thirty years.
The first major crisis among Disciples in Puerto Rico erupted when, in 1933, a group of laypersons started prayer circles at noon in Calle Comerío Christian Church. A charismatic movement spread like fire in all of the churches, creating what is known in Puerto Rico as El Avivamiento del 33. The revival included glossolalia, dancing in the Spirit, fasting, aggressive evangelism, and a contagious enthusiasm that affected even other denominations. But the missionaries decided that the revival was not according to the “Disciples way” and tried to suppress and even stop the movement. A serious confrontation that lasted ten years provided the opportunity for Puerto Rican Disciples congregations to declare self-support and to rely on the tithing and offerings of the poor members of local congregations. By 1943 the United Christian Missionary Society and the Puerto Rican Disciples agreed to maintain their partnership but continued working toward the autonomy of the church in Puerto Rico. In 1954 a constitution was approved creating an administrative board, a governing body composed of the ordained pastors with representatives of the different sectors of the church, including the seminarians. Disciples continued to grow during the next three decades; in 1965 they announced that no more missionaries were needed, and they promulgated a new constitution. The second constitution was drafted and approved in 1967. A major revision was made in 1984, creating the office of the general pastor. This constitution has been further amended to clarify operational and administrative mechanisms, particularly related to property ownership and finances. The local congregations maintain their autonomy, while the representative board has been strengthened as the governing board for the whole denomination.
A second major crisis erupted in the 1960s and 1970s. A confrontation between a younger generation of pastors and the leaders of the denomination led to the expulsion of fourteen pastors and the loss of hundreds of important laypersons in the intellectual circles of Puerto Rico. Issues related to this crisis were the Vietnam War, which affected Puerto Rican society tremendously because more than a thousand Puerto Ricans (many of whom were members of Disciples congregations) died in that war; the U.S. Navy operations in Vieques and Culebra, which led many young pastors to join a Puerto Rican group of clergy against the naval presence in Puerto Rico; the rise of liberation theology; and the Cuban revolution. Both the faculty and the students of the Evangelical Seminary came under attack by conservative forces inside and outside the churches. The conflict left many wounds and scars that slowly have been healing, but that created a leadership crisis and void, because the generation that was supposed to assume leadership was missing.
Disciples of Christ in Puerto Rico developed a unique model of mission. It is a strongly charismatic denomination, but it expresses a creative diversity in worship. Puerto Rican Disciples have a deep appreciation for a solid intellectual and theological formation of their pastors. Many of them have doctoral degrees and teach or lecture in the prestigious academic institutions. Disciples in Puerto Rico sponsor a highly regarded religious TV program: “Gather at the Table.” Over the years Disciples have had active members of local congregations directing agencies and departments in the government of Puerto Rico. Disciples are proud of the active participation of distinguished professors from the campuses of the two most prestigious universities of the country: the University of Puerto Rico (state) and the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico (related to the Presbyterian Church).
Puerto Rican Disciples are responding to the challenges of the twenty-first century by continuing with the same evangelistic fervor of the last hundred years. They are reclaiming an educational vocation at all levels. Local congregations operate local elementary, middle, and high schools. A Sunday School curriculum designed for the whole church and a Lay Institute to prepare new leadership have been developed. Puerto Rican Disciples speak of themselves as “una iglesia de frontera” (a church of the frontier) in Puerto Rican society. They are also seeking through missionary partnerships to influence other countries, including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Carmelo Álvarez
See also Hispanics in the Movement; Latin America and Caribbean, Missions in
This entry, written by Carmelo Álvarez, was originally published in The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Edited by Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, and D. Newell Williams; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), pages 614-616. Republished with permission.