Colombian pastor wins sermon prize

Peter Stucky, right, baptizes Juan Esteban Herrera Garzón in 2017 with the assistance of Lilia Aranguren. — Mennonite Mission Network Peter Stucky, right, baptizes Juan Esteban Herrera Garzón in 2017 with the assistance of Lilia Aranguren. — Mennonite Mission Network

The University of Hamburg Department of Peace Church Theology has awarded the 2022 Menno Simons Sermon Prize to Peter Stucky, pastor of Teusaquillo Mennonite Church in ­Bogotá, Colombia, and professor at Seminario Bíblico Menonita de Colombia.

The winning sermon will be heard during the Oct. 2 worship service at Mennonite Church Hamburg-Altona. It was originally delivered last year in Bogotá at the opening of the congregation’s “Month of Mission.”

Based on 1 Peter 1:9, the sermon depicts the church as a missionary community, exercising hospitality toward strangers and sharing God’s infinite love, updating the concept of “mission” in contemporary ways.

Stucky is no stranger to the evolution of mission work. Born in Colombia to a North American missionary couple, he studied at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, the University of Edinburgh and the Ecumenical Institute for Higher Theological Studies in Jerusalem. He was president of Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia (Colombia Mennonite Church) from 1999 to 2009.

The prize encourages sermons that “bring the biblical testimony in the light of the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.”

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