Summer Conference México 2025
Tearing down walls. Building Up Hope.
Inspired by Christ’s call to reconciliation and justice, this conference invites us to identify and tear down the walls that divide our communities—walls of exclusion, prejudice, inequality, violence, and environmental harm. Recognizing that true peace is rooted in justice, we will gather to share experiences, celebrate our spiritualities, and strengthen our collective commitment to a more just world. In the face of fragmentation, we affirm that hope is built through concrete actions, living faith, and community.
"For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” (Ephesians 2:14)
This verse challenges us to be agents of reconciliation, called to transform our realities through active, justice-rooted peace.
What to Expect During Our 2025 Conference Week
Our Summer Conference “Tearing Down Walls, Building Up Hope” begins on Monday, July 14 in the afternoon with check-in, dinner, and our opening worship.
From Tuesday through Friday, we’ll engage in a full program including Bible studies, workshops, panels, spiritual spaces, testimonies, advocacy activities, music, creativity and time to reconnect and enjoy community. There will also be a dedicated program for children, youth, and a special gathering for young adults.
This will be a unique opportunity to meet people from different countries and contexts, share the table, music, and culture, and learn from peace activists and organizations in Mexico who are working actively for justice, peace, and human rights.
We’ll close on Saturday morning with a final breakfast and a brief sending blessing, celebrating the hope we’ve built and the peace we’ve shared during this special week together.
Leadership 2025
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Bible study
Ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Mexico. Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Director Emeritus of Spanish programs at Calvin Theological Seminary. His teaching work has extended to various theological institutions in Latin America, the United States and other parts of the world. Member of Bible translation committees and theological advisor to World Vision Mexico. Mexican by birth, married, with 2 married children and 4 grandchildren.
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Liturgy and music
D. in Sacred Liturgy, Theologian, liturgist, writer and teacher of liturgy and pastoral ministry. Presbyter of the Methodist Church of Mexico AR. Participant in the area of liturgical ornament as part of Red Crearte and Bautistas por la Paz (BPFNA). Creator of liturgical content in the Methodist Church of Mexico. Current coordinator of theology at the Universidad Madero and liturgy teacher in various theological seminaries in Mexico. Participant in the liturgy team of 2017 and 2019.
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Liturgy
Victor Noé Ochoa Briones, born in Mexico City on June 19, 1994. From a very early age I had the desire to serve the Lord by the example of my parents, Olivo and Agustina, who faithfully showed the greatest example of life. At the age of 15 I was called by God to the pastoral ministry at the Baptist Seminary of Mexico, who provided all the opportunities to achieve the task. With a degree and Master in Theology, today with 15 years of pastoral ministry I have served in the central district of the Mexico Annual Conference, in the temple of the Creator Iztacalco, in the center of Mexico City. Currently president of Liturgy at the Conferential level, in continuous preparation in the Ecumenical, Interreligious and social field. With the fervent desire to serve the Lord, and walk where God says.
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Music
He has a degree in Political Science and Public Administration from UNAM and a Master's in Theological Studies from Palmer Seminary in Philadelphia. He worked for 8 years in the University Program for the Study of Cultural Diversity and Interculturality at UNAM, and he currently serves as the Leader of the Prevention Project with Population in Mobility at El Pozo de Vida. Throughout his life, he has worked with children in his church and has participated in more than 12 medical and educational brigades in the indigenous community of Los Chorros, Chiapas.
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Children
Melissa is an environmental engineer who lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. She is dedicated to reducing our global carbon footprint by contributing to and improving appliance efficiency standards and building energy codes. Melissa is bilingual in Spanish and English and has lived in several countries, including Mexico, Nicaragua, and the United States. Melissa, alongside their siblings Michelle and Steve, has been actively involved in leading the children's program at BPFNA's Summer Conferences. Passionate about environmental social justice and community empowerment, Melissa aims to foster a safe space where youth can be self-empowered, to make a positive impact in their communities.
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Youth
She is currently the Pastor of Iglesia Bautista Dios es Amor in Ensenada, Mexico. She holds a Master of Theology from Palmer Seminary and has completed diplomas in Youth Ministry, Art and Trauma, and Spiritual Accompaniment. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Cross-Cultural Missions from the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary and a Bachelor’s degree in Speech Therapy. With over 15 years of experience leading youth ministry, she has served in diverse pastoral and social contexts. She worked for a year with Tarahumara youth and adolescents in the Sierra of Chihuahua, was the Director of the student ministry Punto de Encuentro for five years, and a member of the pastoral team at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva for another five years. She also worked with El Pozo de Vida, supporting young women survivors of human trafficking, and served as youth ministry leader at Iglesia Bautista Shalom for two years. Her journey reflects a deep commitment to pastoral care, theological formation, and holistic justice.
Preachers
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Theologian and Specialist in Psycho-Spiritual Care, with experience in areas such as peacebuilding, gender perspective, conflict transformation, logotherapy, migration, project coordination, and as a facilitator of community processes with women.
She is the Director of Fundación SEPAZ, which serves migrant and refugee populations at the SEPAZ Humanitarian House in Mondomo-Cauca, Colombia (www.fundacionsepaz.org).
She is a member of the steering committee of GemPaz (Ecumenical Group of Women Peacebuilders) and currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of BPFNA–Bautistas por la Paz.
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She is a Nahuatl interfaith theologian and Baptist pastor. She has a B.A. in Theology and Indigenous Pastoral from the Baptist Seminary of Mexico (SBM), as well as a Master's degree in Latino/as Ministries from Palmer Theological Seminary (USA).
She serves as general director of the Mayan Intercultural Seminary (SIM) in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas-Mexico, while coordinating COSTIAY (Community of Indigenous Theologians of Abya Yala). She accompanies community processes in Mayan indigenous communities, as well as the promotion of individual and collective rights of girls and women. Her teaching passions include biblical studies, pastoral counseling, interculturalism, indigenous realities, ecumenism, gender, human rights, spirituality, ecotheology and peace building.
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She is a Baptist women pastor ordained in 2000 and currently ministers at Iglesia Bautista Shalom in Mexico City. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Theology from the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master's degree in Theological Sciences from the Latin American Biblical University in Costa Rica.
She has been a professor in various theological institutions in Mexico, especially in the areas of Bible, gender and interreligious dialogue. From a feminist perspective, her theological work focuses on contextual methodologies of biblical interpretation. She is the author of several publications on these topics.
Her pastoral commitment has also extended to the ecumenical sphere and to justice and peace initiatives, such as the Movement of Churches for Peace (Iglesias por la Paz) and the Spiritual Accompaniment Group in CDD-Mexico. Since 2021 she coordinates the Chair of Feminist Theology at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
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Liturgist, General Coordinator of the Kairos Center for Liturgy, Arts and Social Service. Member of the pastoral team of the First Baptist Church of Matanzas and Graduate in Theology from the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas. She has coordinated and directed workshops and liturgy courses. Promoter and organizer of ecumenical meetings and celebrations in the city of Matanzas and also at national level. Among her hobbies are plastic arts and writing poetry. She lives in Matanzas with her husband Orestes, her daughter Ingrid and her sons Lucas and Marcos.
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My spouse Deborah and I were just out of seminary when we attended our first Peace Camp in 1990 and knew we’d found our people. Though it took time, care, struggle, and commitment to figure out together what that meant for a Baptist group to have LGBTQ+ members in the early 1990s, attending Peace Camp quickly became a top priority for our family. Being part of BPFNA/Bautistas por la Paz has been a journey of challenge, growth, hope, and solidarity both personally and vocationally. The people of BPFNA/BPP have shaped who I am and how I am by showing through their lives what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
I’ve served for the past 23 years as pastor of Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, TN. Currently I also have the joy of being the Ministry Partner Liaison for the Alliance of Baptists. Deborah and I find great joy in the outdoors. On any given evening you might find us on the lake, wandering a trail through the forest, or simply sitting on the deck watching the birds in the backyard. When I’m inside, I’m often at my loom trying a new weaving pattern or creating something to use at home or give as a gift. Maybe I should say “one of my looms” – I’ve been told it’s a bit of an obsession.
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS
Healing and Re-humanizing: A Path to Peace After the Gaza War
Barbara Taft (US)
During the Gaza war, each side believed itself to be the victim. To reinforce that belief, the "other" was dehumanized, their trauma minimized, and justifications were reinforced for each and every action. The scars of that war are not just physical, and in order to heal, and to have a real peace, the parties need to find a path to reconciliation, which includes learning that the other is not only a real human being, but one that is capable of all the attributes each side believes belong only to itself. We will explore how to unwrap the full package of these negative ideas and feelings and how to begin the path to peace.
Barb Taft has been involved in peace and justice work on the Middle East since the 1960s. She has traveled to the region 10 times, and accumulated about two years on the ground there. She has a Master's in Political Science and did a thesis on "Nationalism, Legitimacy, and Sovereignty: The Case for Palestine Statehood". She serves on the Leadership Team of the US Section of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's Middle East Peace and Justice Action Committee and led a BPFNA Friendship Tour to the Middle East in 2009.
Shifting the Paradigm: Models of Change Emanating from the Global South
Toya Richards (US)
Focusing on research published in March 2025 in the "Handbook of Social Justice in the Global South," this workshop will examine some of the most current examples of change and transformation taking place in the Global South as a result of the knowledge and expertise of local/indigenous cultures and communities who know best how to inspire hope in context. This new resource also challenges the age-old belief that the Global North holds the rights to justice and hope, which it graciously distributes to "developing" nations.
Rev. Dr. Toya Richards is a theologian and pastoral care practitioner with a diverse portfolio that includes careers in secular and faith-based communications, church leadership positions in Kentucky and Minnesota, and extensive work in world missions. In 2023 she completed research on the healing and restoration of Black women impacted by racism in South Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in 2024 she began directing the Peace and Justice Ministry Certificate Program at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Rev. Richards holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in pastoral care from McCormick Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Western Kentucky University.
Spiritual Experiences of Andean and Amazonian Women in Caring for Creation Devastated by Climate Change and Extractivism
Nancy Piaguaje, Elizabeth Durazno, Jennifer Lessard, Eloy Alfaro (Global View- Ecuador)
Clowning to Tear Down Walls and Build Hope
Omar Tapia (Iglesia del Pacto Misión DF, México)
Between the Cross and the Land: Climate Justice, Peace, and Dignity in the Face of Extractivism
Anabel Guerrero Vargas, Natividad Morales Martínez (Seminario Bautista de México)
Migration and Human Trafficking: Can We Do Something?
Alonso Ulloa Contreras (Pozo de Vida, Mexico)
Free Palestine: Settler Colonialism from the River to the Sea
Ashlee Wiest-Laird (US)
Honouring Lament
Karen Turner (Canada)
Poetry as a Tool to Reclaim Public Spaces for Peace: The Experience of the Poetry Marathon for Peace in Ecuador. Continental Invitation for Peace, 2026
Eloy Alfaro – Jennifer Lessard – Elizabeth Durazno (Global View – Social Commitment- Ecuador)
Building Peace and Organizing Hope through the Search for Disappeared Persons in Mexico
Equipo del Eje de Iglesias y Espiritualidades de la Brigada Nacional de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas (México)
Building Hope in the Face of Food Dictatorships
Eleazar Pérez Encino (Seminario Intercultural Mayense, México)
Racism in migration
Paulina Olvera Cáñez (Espacio Migrante)
The ancestral peoples of the Andes and the Amazon maintain a unique relationship with creation. The entire community depends on its connection and relationship with the forest, the water, the mountains, and the resources of the Earth. This relationship is disrupted with the arrival of extractivist models of development. The land and nature are destroyed—and so is life itself, as food and peace become scarce.
When an industry—whether oil, mining, or logging—intervenes in an ecosystem, the territory is devastated, and the communities that inhabit it become divided, creating deep conflicts. While there are many industrial methods to restore forests, water sources, or soils, there are none to restore broken social relationships.
This workshop presents how women from Río Blanco (Andes) and the Siekopai people (Amazon) have found ways to restore their communities. It shows that, by using their own cultural strategies, it is possible to recover peace and reclaim the territory as a space for life. The women call this process “healing creation”—healing the living space of their ancestors, the Pacha Mama.
The workshop will feature two wise women: one from the Andes (in person) and one from the Amazon (joining online).
Nancy Piaguaje is a healer, shaman, and elder from the Siekopai people.
Elizabeth Durazno is a defender of nature and life, and a leader of the women's organization Sinchi Warmi.
Jennifer Lessard is a pastor, educator, and member of Global View.
Eloy Alfaro is an anthropologist, researcher, activist, and CEO of Global View.
The tradition of clowns and similar figures has played an important role in the various societies where they have emerged: from social and political critique to sacred functions in religious rituals. As liminal beings who dwell between fantasy and reality, between the sacred and the profane, clowns transform everyday spaces into places where dreams and reality coexist. With their (holy) madness, they challenge and confront the status quo and bear witness to other ways of being, to alternative possible realities, revealing deep aspects of our true selves as individuals and as societies. Through clowning, they offer the opportunity to imagine, explore, and create more human realities and better ways of being.
In this workshop, we will explore the tradition and art of clowning, as well as the possibilities it offers the church to awaken its imagination in ways that help it understand and live out its mission inspired by Jesus—the ultimate “holy fool.” This will be a space to imagine and explore another possible world—the project of God—in a playful, creative, performative, collective, and prophetic way, grounded in the tradition and art of the clown.
Co-pastor at MisiónDF Covenant Church in Mexico City. He is also a clown and social circus instructor. He has performed clown theater and street theater, and has collaborated on community transformation projects through circus arts.
Since 2019, he has provided pastoral accompaniment to collectives of families of disappeared persons in Mexico. He is part of an ecumenical team of allies from various faith traditions and communities that supports the actions of these collectives and searching families.
In the context of global climate and socio-environmental crisis, Latin America has become a laboratory for extractivism, where the most impoverished communities pay the price of "development." Inspired by Christ’s call to reconciliation and justice, this workshop invites critical reflection on the structures of sin embedded in extractive projects, the environmental inequalities they produce, and the ambivalent role the Church has played in either legitimizing or resisting these processes.
This proposal is rooted in a community-based process of peacebuilding and nonviolence, guided by popular education methodology and recognizing spiritualities as sources of hope and transformative action.
Anabel Guerrero Vargas, Ñuu Savi, is a theologian from the Baptist Seminary of Mexico. She is a territory defense advocate at the Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos A.C., where she supports community processes in the Eastern River Basin. She has contributed to halting mining projects in Libres, Puebla, through strategies of grassroots organizing and advocacy. Anabel participates in networks such as Iglesias y Minería, REMAM, and Reconpaz, connecting rural and Indigenous spiritualities with socio-environmental justice. She provides pastoral and community accompaniment to the Parish of San Juan Bautista in Libres.
Natividad Morales Martínez, Ñuu Savi, holds a Master’s in Theology from Palmer Natividad Morales Martínez, Ñuu Savi, holds a Master’s in Theology from Palmer Seminary. She collaborates with Amextra and the Theological Community of Mexico through the Baptist Seminary. Natividad has accompanied Indigenous and rural faith communities, promoting dignity and empowerment rooted in their spiritualities.
In the context of global climate and socio-environmental crisis, Latin America has become a laboratory for extractivism, where the most impoverished communities pay the price of "development." Inspired by Christ’s call to reconciliation and justice, this workshop invites critical reflection on the structures of sin embedded in extractive projects, the environmental inequalities they produce, and the ambivalent role the Church has played in either legitimizing or resisting these processes.
This proposal is rooted in a community-based process of peacebuilding and nonviolence, guided by popular education methodology and recognizing spiritualities as sources of hope and transformative action.
I have a degree in Political Science and Public Administration from UNAM and a Master in Theological Studies from Palmer Seminary (Philadelphia). I worked for 8 years in the University Program for the Study of Cultural Diversity and Interculturality at UNAM and I am currently Leader of the Prevention Project with Population in Mobility at El Pozo de Vida. Throughout my life I have worked with children in my church and have participated in more than 12 medical and educational brigades in the indigenous community of Los Chorros, Chiapas.
A brief history of Palestine and the Zionist movement that brought us to where we are today.
Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird is Pastor of First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain. She lived in Bethlehem for a year and worked with the Middle East Council of Churches and Sabeel Liberation Theology Center. Ashlee currently leads groups to Palestine twice a year.
The world seems chaotic and lost right now and many of us are anxious, angry and grieving. It is clearly a time to lament. Although much of the Bible was written in perilous times very similar to our own, and there is an unmistakeable thread of lament running through the Scriptures, it seems that the holy call to lament has been largely lost to the Western church. In this workshop we'll explore lament that is honoured in the Bible, and look at how the path to biblical hope rises, not out of wishful thinking, but out of lament.
Karen Turner is a retired social worker, now living in the small town of Bobcaygeon, in the Kawartha Lakes area of Ontario, with her wife, Heather Steeves. Karen has a deep Baptist history, but for many years has worshipped in Anglican churches, and managing to keep her Baptist connections through BPFNA and the Gathering of Baptists.
The Poetry Marathon for Peace began in Ecuador in 2021 as a response to the confinement caused by the pandemic. Since then, the poetry marathon has been organized annually.
The year 2023 marked a milestone, with 16 bridges in the city of Cuenca occupied and an online connection of readers and writers from Mexico, New York, Colombia, Quito, and Riobamba. The result was 80 hours of simultaneous reading, more than 600 people reading, and the joy of coming together united by the word.
In 2024, the process became a national movement with 16 cities participating, 43 reading points throughout the country, and four abroad (USA, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile), totaling more than 200 hours of simultaneous reading. Sixty percent of participants were women, who found that sharing poems outdoors is a safe action for peace and enjoyment of public spaces without fear.
The purpose of the National and Latin American Poetry Marathon for Peace is to confront the fears built by insecurity, theft, and fear of the other. It seeks to reoccupy public spaces (parks, corners, sidewalks, plazas, courtyards) as social gathering places where verses are shared instead of bullets, books are given instead of grenades, people share with others rather than fear them. The creative word as a bridge to dialogue and overcome fear.
This workshop focuses on sharing the results of Ecuador’s Poetry Marathon, sharing the methodology used so it can be replicated, and above all, inviting the entire continent to join together in the summer of 2026 to take to the streets, corners, parks, or churches and read poetry. Let the places where violent deaths have occurred, spaces of injustice, pain, and fear, be reclaimed with verses and turned into spaces of life.
Jennifer Lessard: Baptist pastor, English teacher, nature rights activist, and international coordinator for Global View.
Elizabeth Durazno: Indigenous leader, defender of water and nature, president of Sinchi Warmi, and board member of Global View.
Eloy Alfaro: Anthropologist, university professor, writer and filmmaker, cultural manager, activist and defender of the rights of nature, and CEO of Global View.
Based on the testimonies of families searching for their disappeared loved ones, this workshop-conversation seeks to create a space to make visible the tragedy of disappearance in Mexico, as well as the search efforts led by these families. It also aims to share how both the search itself and the spirituality that sustains it become ways of building peace and organizing hope.
The Churches and Spiritualities Axis was formally established in 2018, driven by families searching for their disappeared loved ones in Mexico, as one of the areas of action within the National Brigade for the Search of Disappeared Persons. It is made up of both people searching for their missing relatives and supporters from various faith traditions and spiritualities who accompany and support the search.
In these times of dictatorships, wars, and persecution by empire, we are witnessing the rise of totalitarianism targeting the world’s most vulnerable groups, peoples, and individuals. Under these regimes, there is also a subtle bombardment of advertising and food promotions that dictate and influence consumption, where a small group of corporations controls the entire food chain.
In this workshop, we will discuss alternatives that can help build hope and tear down the walls that weaken our right to food self-determination.
Eleazar Pérez Encino is a Tseltal indigenous person from the Maya linguistic family, from the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Eleazar holds a university degree in Sustainable Development from the Intercultural University of Chiapas and a bachelor's degree in Intercultural Theology from the Mayan Intercultural Seminary. He accompanies indigenous communities in defending and promoting care for the land while simultaneously building agroecological alternatives to promote lifestyles rooted in dignity and food self-determination.
The workshop aims to shed light on the racism that migrants face while transiting through Mexico, primarily anti-Black racism, centering the voices of Haitian and African migrants in Tijuana. It is a space for reflection on these experiences, seeking to generate a dialogue about racism in the context of migration. It is a call to organize our collective struggle from an anti-racist perspective and to propose how to be anti-racist allies and mobilize toward the fight against racism.
Paulina Olvera Cáñez is the executive director and founder of Espacio Migrante and has years of experience in culturally-based community organizing. Throughout her career, she has worked for access to human rights for migrants and refugees, with a focus on racial and language justice, and access to education.
She earned a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the Autonomous University of Baja California. In 2019, she was awarded the San Diego Fellowship and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Latin American Studies at the University of California, UCSD. Her research examines the experiences of Haitian and African migrants in Baja California, their access to rights, and institutional racism.
