After 37 years of serving the people of El Salvador—both in Canada and in Central America—Rev. Brian Rude will be retiring this fall. This mission has evolved considerably since its humble beginnings in the 1980s, ending with the past eight years of service in Rude’s mission blessed by the ABT Synod, In Mission with El Salvador/En Misión con El Salvador.
A lifetime of work in Central America was not what Rude initially envisioned. However, as filmmaker Woody Allen once famously said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell [God] about your plans.”
Pastor Brian must have set off quite the firestorm of laughter in heaven, because his original plan was for a short, one-year stint to help in El Salvador to do some development work, and then come back to Canada, while his Salvadoran friends would return to their home country. It turns out no one ended up where they expected to.
Rude’s advocacy on behalf of the Salvadoran people started in the mid-1980s in Calgary, when a Salvadoran friend put a megaphone in his hands at a protest in front of the U.S. consulate. The protesters were outraged at the U.S. government meddling with internal Salvadoran affairs.
After accepting the challenge a few years later to do work in El Salvador himself, Rude was exiled from the country in 1989, following the execution of six Jesuit priests. Rather than being silenced by this, Rude spent the next 14 months speaking to Canada and the world to shine a light on the many abuses being perpetrated in El Salvador upon a helpless civilian population.
He returned in 1990 to work as a prison chaplain, visiting those whom society would often rather forget about. Rude sought ways in which to support them, humanize them, and prepare them for life outside the walls. He taught them about forgiveness and grace, and prayed with these prisoners regularly, meeting them in their darkest hours.
In the years this prison ministry formed the heart of Rude’s mission in El Salvador, he estimates he made over 2,000 visits to see the inmates. That translates roughly into two visits per week, every week, for over 20 years.
When the government barred all visitors in 2015 from the prisons to mask the deplorable conditions, Rude and the inmates were cast adrift. All of the relationships he had built through counselling—both spiritual and emotional—were cruelly cut. While Rude still had his freedom, the inmates remained behind prison walls that housed five times as many people as the jails had originally been designed for.
After years of trying and failing to get back into the prisons, Rude began turning to another pressing issue in Central America: displaced persons. Some were migrants, some were deportees, some had lost their homes through the ubiquitous gang violence, but all of these people needed a safe place to stay, a chance to get back on their feet.
Then, in early 2020, the pandemic hit. All of the scheduled meetings and plans to provide emotional and spiritual support had to be cancelled. Because Rude lives with a health-care worker, and even tested positive for (asymptomatic) COVID-19, he couldn’t risk infecting these already marginalized people with such a serious disease.
So he has spent much of the past year online, casting his net around the world for Christian communities where he could participate remotely, as well as still leading prayer chains, services, and devotions locally.
He regards this year as a bit of a “trial run” for the less-busy life of a retiree. Less busy, but still engaged with his world and the people of El Salvador.
Rude plans to continue to live in El Salvador, but also to travel around the world and see more of God’s creation and the wonders of people in it. He has made such an impact here, and built his life here, that here is where he fits, where he belongs.
A collection of roommates and other community members have come to rely on Pastor Brian, knowing that he will always advocate for justice, and be a true friend to them, regardless of what life brings their way.
As his friend Roberto wrote, “Our words are not heard because we are seen as being inferior in society. But … [we are] very grateful to God and Brian for their great love. Considering the little that I and my people have, he has always been giving the best advice and … [sharing] a very special space in his house … with me. [Here] I can forget my sorrows and my burdens that I carry on this cross called life.”
Rude’s mission is called “En Misión con El Salvador.” While this is usually translated as “In mission with (the country of) El Salvador,” it could also be translated as “In mission with the Saviour.”
Rev. Brian Rude has truly walked with Jesus, providing care to the lost, lonely and displaced. He supports wherever he sees a need, and fights for justice for those who have no voice.
He wrote a letter to the ABT Synod, in which he said, “Anticipating this transition on the threshold, I extend a hearty thanks to all of you for your concern and support over the years—over the decades, from my own heart and on behalf of so many of our teachers and beneficiaries, especially Salvadorans. I trust you have been blessed as much as I have, thanks to our immersion in this ministry.”
This ministry of Pastor Brian Rude was briefly recognized during the Synod Convention on July 17, and will also be recognized later at a Zoom gathering on Tues., Aug. 31, from 4–6 P.M. (MDT). There will be opportunity for greetings, storytelling and expressions of thanks.
Please email the ABT Synod (abtsynodoffice@elcic.ca) for more information. Cards and letters may be mailed or emailed to the synod and will be forwarded to Pastor Rude after August 31.
Pastor Brian, we thank you for a lifetime of service, and wish you the very best in your retirement.—Richard Janzen
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