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New President for Lutherans in Guatemala

by | Mar 11, 2025

Outgoing ILG President Ignacio Chan (left) installs new President Luis Alberto Jasinto (second from right) and other members of the Guatemalan church’s governing council.

GUATEMALA – The Lutheran Church in Guatemala (Iglesia Luterana en Guatemala – ILG) has elected a new president: Rev. Luis Alberto Jasinto. President Jasinto was elected and installed to a two-year term during the ILG’s Church Assembly in Guatemala City on February 1.

ILG President Luis Alberto Jasinto.

“To serve as president is to be a servant of all and to be at the service of all parishes and their needs,” President Jasinto said, reflecting on his election. “As St. Luke writes: ‘So you too, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty”’ (Luke 17:10).”

Rev. Jasinto is pastor of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Gualán, Zacapa, where has served since his ordination in 2000. Rev. Jasinto studied for pastoral ministry at Gauatemala’s Lutheran Center for Theological Studies (Centro Luterano de Estudios Teológicos – CLET). He also received a Master of Arts in Systematic Theology from Concordia Seminary (St. Louis, Missouri) in 2020.

President Jasinto succeeds Rev. Ignacio Chan, whose most recent period as president of the ILG began in 2019 and continued up until Rev. Jasinto’s election.

Also elected during the ILG’s 2025 Church Assembly were Rev. Esdras Natanael Orozco as Vice President; Otoniel Rodríguez Urrea as Treasurer; and Carlos Tobal Cerna as Secretary. Other business during the ILG’s Assembly included the reception of reports; approval of the church’s budget; and planning for youth and women’s conferences in 2025.

The Lutheran Church in Guatemala is a member church of the International Lutheran Council (ILC), a global association of Lutheran church bodies and groups, dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the basis of a shared commitment to the authority of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.

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Guatemalan Lutherans mourn death of former president

by | Jan 25, 2022

Rev. Dr. Abdiel Orozco

GUATEMALA – Guatemalan Lutherans are mourning the death of Rev. Dr. Abdiel Orozco Aguirre, former president of the Lutheran Church in Guatemala (Iglesia Luterana en Guatemala – ILG). Dr. Orozco recently contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized after his condition worsened. He slipped into a coma, eventually passing away on January 22, 2021.

“Brothers, our beloved pastor, Abdiel Orozco, is now in the presence of the Lord,” his congregation, Iglesia Luterana Castillo Feurte (Mighty Fortress Lutheran Church) wrote on social media announcing his death. “And it is the Lord who will allow us all to meet together in heaven.”

“This news is sad for the Lutheran Church in Guatemala,” said ILG President Ignacio Chan in a message to international church leaders. He expressed “sincere thanks for your prayers and comfort” in this time.

Dr. Orozco came to the ministry later in life, having spent many years as a medical doctor and immunohematologist. He received his medical degree from the Universidad de San Carlos de Gautemala, and eventually became an advisor to Guatemala’s ministry of health. While serving in that role, he pursued master’s studies at Cornell University (New York City, New York) and a doctorate in hematology from the University of Houston (Houston, Texas). He subsequently became the head of Guatemala’s national network of blood banks, a position in which he served for more than a decade.

Despite being the son of a Presbyterian pastor, Dr. Orozco did not attend church during his university days. While in Houston, however, he was introduced to the Lutheran faith. When he returned to Guatemala after his studies, he became involved with a Lutheran mission plant which was just beginning in Guatemala City.

Rev. Dr. Abdiel Orozco preaches at the ILC’s 2018 World Conference in Belgium.

Dr. Orozco began studies for the pastoral ministry a number of years later in 2007, and was ordained into the pastoral ministry in 2012 (he completed his service as head of Guatemala’s blood banks in 2011). In 2015, he was elected president of the ILG, a position to which he was reelected in 2017. He completed his tenure as ILG president in 2019.

In addition to serving two terms as president of the ILG, Dr. Orozco also served as National Director for the Lutheran Center for Theological Studies (Centro Luterano De Estudios Teologicos – CLET). As a testament to his continued interest in higher education, Dr. Aguirre recently received a Master of Arts from Concordia Seminary (St. Louis, Missouri) in 2020.

Two devotional services for Dr. Orozco were held on January 24, 2021. A funeral service was held on January 25—the date on which Dr. Orozco would have turned 63 years old. To accommodate health regulations, the services were also broadcast online.

The Lutheran Church in Guatemala is a member church of the International Lutheran Council (ILC), a global association of confessional Lutheran churches.

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