Relationship Agreement Signed
With Synod of the Peninsula

By Bill Williams,
Chair of the LWW Committee

With the stroke of a pen — two pens, actually — the Synod of Living Waters of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Synod the Peninsula of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico moved a step closer to adopting each other as relatives.

Edwin Tun Canto, president of the Synod of the Peninsula,
and Terry Newland, executive of the Synod of Living Waters,
sign an agreement for cooperation in ministry
between the two synods.

The pens were wielded by the Rev. Terry Newland, new executive of the Synod of Living Waters, and the Rev. Edwin Tun, president of the Synod of the Peninsula. The setting was the annual meeting of the Mexican synod, which covers the Yucatan peninsula, October 27-29, in the Gulf Coast city of Ciudad del Carmen.

The sister-synod relationship is expected to be finalized at the Synod of Living Waters’ annual meeting in Huntsville, Ala., in January. Three officials of the Mexican synod plan to attend that meeting, and another signing ceremony may be held. A hospitality committee is being formed to prepare for the Mexican delegation, which is to include Tun as well as the Rev. Amos Cahuich, synod secretary, and Elder Agur Mendicuti, synod treasurer. The agreement spells out three specific ways in which the two synods may cooperate:

• The Mexican synod agreed to endorse the U.S. synod’s mission project, Living Waters for the World, throughout its 11 presbyteries. The Yucatan area already has more LWW water purification projects, nine, than any other area. The Synod of the Peninsula agreed to name a synod water project coordinator, who will work with LWW’s coordinator for the Yucatan, Joanie Lukins of Danville, Ky.

• The two synods will seek to make possible an interchange of pastors from time to time to promote better understanding of each other’s religion, culture and language.

• The synods will exchange information to promote understanding and relationships among people in the pews of the two regions. One part of that effort is the new Spanish-language page of The Voice, which will be sent to the Mexican synod for distribution to churches there so that they will learn what is happening in Hispanic ministry in our area. The Mexican synod also will send information to our area, which The Voice can use to inform its readers about happenings in the Yucatan.

Representatives of the Synod of Living Waters and
the Synod of the Peninsula, left to right around
table: Terry Newland, Bill Williams, Bob Friley,
Joanie Lukins, Miquel Sansores, Edwin Tun Canto,
Amos Cahuich, and Agur Mendicuti.

The Synod of the Peninsula meeting was attended by Newland, Mrs. Lukins, Voice editor Jane Hines, LWW technician Bob Friley of Vicksburg, Miss., and Bill Williams of Paris, Tenn., moderator of the LWW Committee.