An All Saints' Day Service in Bolivia

by Wilson Boots

Standing at right with arm outstretched, Wilson Boots conducted an outdoor liturgical service before the renovation work on Emmanual Methodist Church in Cochabamba, Bolivia began.

Protestant and Evangelical communions that have no celebration of All Saints' Day "do not believe in the return of souls," was an item the Rev. Wilson Boots found in one of Cochabamba's main newspapers.

Wilson and his wife, Nora Quiroga Boots, serve as missionaries in Bolivia. He describes an All Saints' Day service at Emmanuel Methodist Church in Cochabamba in which the congregation discovers "the keen sense of connection that early Methodists experienced with those [departed] saints believed to be part of the church 'beyond time and space.'"

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Photo courtesy Wilson and Nora Boots. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are copyright © The General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church and courtesy, New World Outlook magazine.