The Cincinnati Plan and the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico: A brief study of relations between American mission boards and Mexican Protestant churches during the Mexican Revolution

Daniel James Young, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

On June 30 - July 1, 1914, 60 representatives of eleven different American Protestant missionary boards in Cincinnati, OH, met to decide on a new direction for the work that they had been carrying on in Mexico for over 40 years. American church leaders and missionaries made sweeping decisions in Cincinnati, thousands of miles from the reality of the Mexican Protestant Church, without consulting Mexican church leaders. This plan of mission comity was part of a larger context of the practice of comity by American and other missionaries around the world. The specific actions on the part of the foreign mission boards working in Mexico caused hurt among Mexican church members and in many cases strained the relationship between Mexican and American Protestants in an already charged atmosphere, heightened by American interventions in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. The paper addresses the growth and development of the Protestant Church in Mexico through the work of American missionaries in the context of Mexican Liberalism in the 19th century, the relationship of Protestants to the Mexican Revolution, the formation and implementation of the "Cincinnati Plan" as the mission board plan came to be known, and the reactions of the Mexican Protestant Church to that plan. The study focuses mainly on the Presbyterian Church in Mexico.

Subject Area

Latin American history|American history|Religious history

Recommended Citation

Young, Daniel James, "The Cincinnati Plan and the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico: A brief study of relations between American mission boards and Mexican Protestant churches during the Mexican Revolution" (2006). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1435310.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1435310

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