North Chile Conference
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Image not found or type unknown North Chile Conference RUBÉN SALAMANCA MUÑOZ Rubén Salamanca Muñoz The North Chile Conference (Asociación Norte de Chile or ANCh) is an administrative unit of the Seventh-day Adventist Church within the territory of Chile Union Mission (Unión Chilena or UCh). It is headquartered on 14 de Febrero street, 2784, Zip Code: 1243520, in the city of Antofagasta, Province and Region of Antofagasta, Republic of Chile.1 Territory and Statistics This is the northernmost local field in the Chile Union Mission. Geographically, it is the most extensive (34.42 percent of the continental and insular territory of Chile) and at the same time, it is the least densely populated area among the territorial-administrative units that compose the UCh. It covers the first four regions in the north of the country, starting from the border with Peru (Arica-Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Atacama), in a territory geographically and climatically marked by the Atacama Desert. In total, the surface of the four regions that comprise the ecclesiastical field is 260,324.4 km,2 and the total population reaches 1,776,951 inhabitants, of whom 13,955 are Adventists. These members are distributed in 123 congregations (78 churches and 45 groups), organized in 20 pastoral districts. That is, the average is approximately one Adventist per 127 inhabitants.2 In the educational area, with the commitment to educate future generations, the ANCh manages six school units through the Fundación Educacional Arnaldo Salamanca Cid (Arnaldo Salamanca Cid Educational Foundation), which are: Jardín de Infancia Bethel (Bethel Kindergarten), on 968 Esmeralda street, Arica, Arica and Parinacota, which serves 82 children;3 Colegio Adventista de Arica (Arica Adventist Academy), on 5501 Paisaje Aida, Valle Azapa, Km 2,5, Arica, with 574 students;4 Colegio Adventista de Iquique (Iquique Adventist Academy), on Libertad 750- Downtown, Iquique, Tarapacá, with 740 students;5 Colegio Adventista de Calama (Calama Adventist Academy), on Abaroa 1490-Downtown, Calama, Antofagasta, established in 1969, with 903 students;6 Colegio Adventista de Antofagasta (Antofagasta Adventist Academy), on 4137 Bellavista, Antofagasta, established in 1969, with 914 students;7 and, finally, Colegio Adventista de Copiapó (Copiapó Adventist Academy), on 1106 Los Carrera street, Copiapó, Atacama, established in 1942, with 855 students. The total number of students served by the Adventist Network in this region is 4,068.8 In the area of evangelism through communications, the preaching of the gospel via radio has a potential reach of more than two hundred thousand people. Currently, transmission is done through Radio Nuevo Tiempo Arica (Arica New Time Radio--101.9 FM) and Radio Nuevo Tiempo Iquique (Iquique New Time Radio--94.3 FM).9 On open television the TV Nuevo Tiempo (Hope Channel TV) signal reaches homes in the city of Antofagasta, on channel 21.10 Regarding the amount of collaborators, the ANCh has 503 servers, of whom 29 are pastors (21 credentialed ministers and 8 licensed); five workers who act as credentialed missionaries and six licensed workers; and, finally, another 463 employees contribute to the advancement of the mission in other evangelistic areas such as education, publications, and health.11 The Origin of the Adventist Work in the Conference Territory The lands of northern Chile were early witnesses to the emergence of the church in the country. One of the first nuclei of Sabbath-keeping believers would be formed in Huara, a city close to Iquique and linked to the salt industry. This occurred in response to Frederick W. Bishop's initial work, later continued by Granville H. Baber. Baber, first field superintendent of Misión Chilena (Chile Mission])within 1896 and 1902 (later Misión de la Costa Occidental [West Coast Mission]), visited Iquique and the towns in the saltpeter pampa (Huara, Zapiga, Negreiros) several times, accompanied by Enrique Balada and Eduardo Thomann. In 1896 the city of Iquique became the first to have an organized Adventist congregation in the country.12 That same year, in Huara, Baber baptized Julián Ocampo, who would later be ordained to the ministry. Thus, Ocampo, in December 1896, became the first Chilean ordained pastor. The records show a short but fruitful work of this new minister of the saltpeter pampa. In early 1897 Baber reported that Ocampo had baptized eight people in Iquique. However, he died two years later.13 In these first years, the situation in Iquique was relevant to Adventist work for at least two reasons: a report by Eduardo Thomann registered 17 baptisms after a month of campaigning with Baber in mid-1899,14 that is, the city was prosperous for the gospel; furthermore, Iquique's geographical location was strategic to the plans to evangelize Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, countries that together with Chile were part of the West Coast Mission. In fact, Iquique was the platform from which the first evangelistic incursions into neighboring countries were promoted, and some of the early converts in Huara took an active role in it. This last reason caused the headquarters of the mission and the printing press where Señales de los Tiempos (Signs of the Times) and La Revista Adventista (Adventist Review) were produced, to be moved from Valparaíso to Iquique during the administration of Herman F. Ketring, from mid- 1902 until early 1904. A report from 1901, although in modest terms, stated that Iquique was the Chilean city with the largest number of baptized members.15 Nonetheless, it is noted that until the third decade of the 20th century, the only church in Great North that appears active in the reports of the Asociación Chilena (Chile Conference--presently Asociación Metropolitana de Chile [Metropolitan Chile Conference]) is that of Antofagasta, a city where there were already converts in 1905, as stated in the May issue of La Revista Adventista (Adventist Review) of that year. In the same report, Walterio Thomann says that the church of Iquique gathered on 353 Juan Martínez street, on the corner with Ernesto Riquelme street, and that Julián Ocampo's widow had died.16 It seems that the evangelizing advance accompanied that of Adventist education. The urban centers with more Adventists were those where Adventist education was more present. A list of active schools in Chile, in 1937, shows that there were 11 schools throughout the country. Of these the Escuela de Zapiga (Zapiga School--the village became extinct along with the decline of the salt industry, presumably in the 1950s) belonged to the territory that today comprises the ANCh and was a small school, directed by only a teacher.17 Now the ANCh has an educational system with a solid and respectable institutional presence in the main cities in the northern part of Chile. The six institutions that offer Adventist education in the three compulsory school levels (early childhood education, elementary, and high school education) were created within 1942 (Copiapó Adventist Academy) and in 1974 (Arica Adventist Academy) and make the ANCh, together with Asociación Centro Sur de Chile (Central South Chile Conference), maintain the highest index in the school enrollment/SDA members ratio among the fields of Chile Union Mission (0.32 students per active Adventist member). During the first three decades of the 20th century, Adventism arrived in the cities of the northern Chile thanks also to the incessant work of canvassers, through the sale and extensive distribution of the magazine El Atalaya (The Watchtower). The official seat of the church in this part of the territory was Antofagasta. The importance of this city in the articulation of the church's evangelism plans for northern Chile was evident when, in 1918, the Austral Union Conference (Unión Austral) (presently Argentina Union Conference [Unión Argentina]) asked the Chile Conference to separate the territory from Caldera to the north (to the city of Tacna), in order to establish a new mission. The Chile Conference agreed, reserving the right to maintain the work of its canvassers in that area, and then sent the missionary Abrahan Berchin to Antofagasta in order to work on the new mission to be organized.18 In the following years, Luis Griott, Walterio Thomann, and Carlos Mayr were, along with Berchin, relevant workers in the promotion of Adventism in Antofagasta and northern Chile. Among the main urban evangelism strategies within the 1920s and 1950s were “public efforts,” usually month-long campaigns, and shorter intensive campaigns in the first and last quarter of the year, where the effort to win souls was combined with that of collecting offerings to support missionary action. The early initiative to create a mission in the north of the country could never be consolidated. So, in 1924, the Austral Union Conference agreed that the territory should continue to be under the control of the Chile Conference.19 In the following decades, the Adventist work was consolidated in Antofagasta, Iquique, Arica, Copiapó, Calama, and Vallenar, the great cities in northern Chile, and began to enter the small cities in the countryside. For example, it was consolidated in Camiña gorge, in the interior of Iquique, as a result of the dedicated work of Pastor Francisco Jiménez within 1950 and 1953, where years later a school would operate. Within the 1950s and 1980s, the church continued to grow through urban evangelism strategies in the format of great metropolitan campaigns. An example of this is the campaign of Pastor Antonio Arteaga in 1964, in Iquique, which had the support from Pastors Joel Leiva and Benjamín Almonte. The August 1964 issue of La Revista Adventista (Adventist Review) reports on that campaign under the title Agua en el desierto (Water in the desert),20 highlighting the attendance and interest expressed by about twelve hundred people, who gathered every night in the best hall in the city, the municipal theater.