Latinamerican Ecumenical News

Latin American Ecumenical News December - February 2013 • No. 1

LAEN

Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence.

Proverb 12,17

Information Service of the Latin American Council of Churches

Wooden cross adds new dimension to the upcoming Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) VI General Assembly in Cuba The delegates to the CLAI General Assembly will collect a financial offering for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and upon their arrival in Havana will be given small wooden crosses made from the remains of destroyed houses.

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n the face of the reiterated cases of violence and death suffered by the Qom People of the Argentinean provinces of Chaco and Formosa, and in line with the support given by the United Missions Board made-up of several Protestant churches, and that of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) Río de la Plata Region, the Synod of the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Río de la Plata has made known through a declaration its commitment of faith to accompany the Qom People in their demands.

These Qom communities are experiencing a situation of vulnerability associated with the harassment they have received ever since

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he initiative is a result of the National Theology and the Handicapped Forum organized by the Council of Churches of Cuba (CIC), held at the end of January in the Rafael Ocaña Seminary of the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba.

It was the first time that an event

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CLAI General Secretary, Rev. Nilton Giese, at VI Assembly preparatory meeting in Havana (J.A. Paz)

meeting the different dynamics and strategies for the VI General Assembly to be held from May 20-26 in Havana.

50 Cuban youth will have an active role at the assembly, not only serving as ushers but also sharing their vision of key matters in present day ecumenism and the bringing about of a more profound incidence in their reality. Prior to the continental gathering, these young people will attend a workshop on “Hands to Good Treatment,” aimed at creating awareness among those present at the assembly of different manifestations of violence and mistreatment.

The message at the opening

worship service of the VI Assembly will be given by the Argentinean Methodist Bishop Emeritus Federico Pagura, who will be honored for his commitment to an ecumenism of essences and option on behalf the poor of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In concluding the preparatory meeting, Giese affirmed that “we are convinced that it will be a good assembly, marked by the converging difficulties that have led to new dimensions for its strategy and logistics, in such a way that our mission and ecumenical vocation will be strengthened.”

Río de la Plata Waldensian Synod manifests its commitment to accompany the cause of the Qom People ALC/Buenos Aires

Evangelical seminaries and schools of theological formation in Cuba have been challenged to introduce the subject of the handicapped in their curriculums.

ALC/Havana From a news story by José Aurelio Paz for ALC.

ALC/Havana From a news story by José Aurelio Paz for ALC. t a preparatory meeting for the assembly early February in the Cuban capital, the Rev. Nilton Giese pointed out that the initial assembly logo consisting of a tree made up of many hands continues, but now incorporates the image of a small wooden cross symbolizing the concrete gesture of having the struggle of the Cuban people know “the solidarity on the part of the Latin American and world churches.”

Giese continued by saying that the assembly’s agenda continues, “and now with an increasing eagerness and another deeper dimension of the reason for being of faith.”

Giese and Cuban Quaker pastor, María Yi Reina, Coordinator of the Cuba CLAI National Table, explained to the participants at the preparatory

Cuban Evangelical theological schools evaluate the inclusion of the subject of the handicapped in their curriculums

presenting demands for the restitution of their territories. Over the recent years numerous members of the communities in both the Chaco and the Formosa provinces have constantly suffered increasing aggressions and threats.

The Waldensian Church, which held its Synodal Assembly from February 3-6, has a long experience of living and working with the Qom communities, along with the Common Apostolic Action (AAC, Spanish acronym), carrying out a Bible School project with communities in Villa El Bermejito in the Chaco province.

In the “Synodal Act,” the Waldensian Church expresses its willingness to work together with social organizations, religious institutions and sister churches in all

that will contribute to a respect for the full Rights of the Original Peoples.

Likewise, two letters were made public during the first week of February, demanding the intervention of the Argentinean president in the cases of repression and murders of members of the Qom People of the Chaco and the Formosa provinces.

Both documents (ambos escritos) had a significant repercussion, with over 8,000 signatures collected throughout the country and abroad, and call for an immediate investigation into the deaths and accidents that have occurred over the past days, an end to the persecutions and threats, and that justice be done in all the cases.

of this kind was able to gather together representatives from half of the theological seminaries in the country, and included Pentecostals, Adventists, Reformed, and Baptists.

The subject is both a sensitive and necessary one for the teaching institutions, said Hermes Souto, dean of the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba’s theological center.

Speaking at the closing of the national forum, the president of the CIC, Joel Ortega Dopico, said that more than the ending of an event “it marked the beginning of a process that will not finish until we have achieved that all Cuban theological institutions, in some way, have the subject of the handicapped on their agendas.”

National forum in Cuba on the handicapped (J. A. Paz)

Shifts in balance of power create uneasy relations in Latin America One sign of the shifting relationship was a Jan. 10 meeting between Argentine President Cristina Fernández and leaders of the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE). The halfhour session –the first time an Argentine president has met officially with an Evangelical delegation– is a likely first step toward constitutional separation of church and state, said Washington Uranga, a Uruguayan journalist, political analyst and university professor in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Catholic News Service/Lima,

By Barbara J. Fraser Catholic News Service

hen Venezuela’s bishops spoke out against postponing the inauguration of ailing President Hugo Chávez, the president’s supporters accused them of meddling in politics, while government opponents praised their comments.

That latest round of churchstate sparring is typical of the uneasy relationship between church leaders and government officials in many Latin American countries amid shifts in the balance of power between the church and political leaders.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court allowed indefinite postponement of the inauguration, scheduled for Jan. 10, raising questions about political leadership in the country. Chávez has not spoken or appeared publicly since undergoing a fourth cancer operation in Havana Dec. 11.

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LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

2 Latin America and Environment

A “Rose for CLAI” Advent and Christmas Appeal As part of its efforts to keep Cuba as the host country for its VI Assembly in 2013, the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) is supporting a “Rose for CLAI” Advent and Christmas appeal.

CLAI, ALC/Quito nforming about the appeal on the CLAI website, general secretary Rev. Nilton Giese expresses that “CLAI is experiencing times of great anguish and tension,

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as during a dark stormy night in which we wish that dawn come quickly. The restrictions and blockade by the United States toward Cuba want to discourage us from our hope of being able to share the CLAI VI Assembly with the churches in Cuba.

A considerable amount of the funds for the assembly have been blocked in the U.S. without any possibility for using them to cover accommodation, feeding and transportation expenses in Cuba. There will be over 400 participants at the assembly, representing 180 churches and ecumenical organizations of Latin

Shifts in balance of power…

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America, the United States and Europe. There is a reason for the financial restrictions placed on the CLAI funds, and that is because CLAI decided to hold its VI Assembly in Cuba.”

Giese continues by pointing out that “the churches of Cuba are asking us to not allow this situation to be an impediment for holding the assembly in their country. They yearn and pray to God that this possibility be maintained. For that reason they want to carry out a local campaign of prayer and monetary offerings for the CLAI VI Assembly.

They have also extended the challenge to the whole continental ecumenical movement, consisting of a day of prayer and an offering equivalent to the price of a rose for CLAI. The challenge is that each church collects the offering given by every member of its denomination. The goal is to collect US $20,000. … We invite your denomination’s delegate to then bring the money to Havana for the VI General Assembly.”

Source: Latin American Council of Churches, CLAI: http://www.claiweb.org/ For the documents (in Spanish) with regard to the blocking in the U.S. of the CLAI funds for the VI Assembly in Havana, see: http://www.claiweb.org/vi%20asamblea/principal.html

A Rose for CLAI (CLAI)

Head of WCRC’s justice programme now based in Geneva Dora Arce-Valentín is now in Geneva to take on fulltime responsibility for the Office of Justice and Partnership of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).

World Communion of Reformed Churches, ALC/Geneva

Now I am where I have to be. Our staff team needs to be together so that we can make justice issues felt,” says ArceValentín. “The justice programme is one of the organization’s two pillars along with Theology and Communion. I am happy to be here to provide the balance.”

Arce-Valentín had been working in her native Cuba as part-time

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LAEN Latin American Ecumenical News is a quarterly produced by the Communication Department of the Latin American Council of Churches Editor: Geoffrey Reeson Translation: Geoff Reeson Layout and Editorial Coordination: Amparo Salazar Chacón Press service: ALC, Methodist News Service, ENI, Presbyterian News Press, ACNS, Zenit, Factiva, ACPress.

Departamento de Comunicaciones CLAI Inglaterra N32-113 y Av. Mariana de Jesús Casilla 17-08-8522, Quito, Ecuador Telepone: (593-2) 255-3996/252-9933 Fax: (593-2) 256-8373 E-mail: nilton@claiweb.org www.claiweb.org ISSN 1390-0358 Subscriptions: Latin America and the Caribbean: One year US$ 12, Two years US$ 20 Other regions: One year US$16, Two years US$26

programme consultant for justice programmes since January 2012.

Funding from the Council for World Mission has enabled the Cuban pastor and justice advocate to come to Geneva for 2013. In 2014 she will move with the staff team to new offices in Hannover, Germany.

In welcoming Arce-Valentín, WCRC General Secretary Setri Nyomi says: “Rev. Dora ArceValentín comes to WCRC with much experience as a pastor and a person committed to justice. With her as a full-time member of the staff team, WCRC will be better able to continue its work with its member churches to be a strong force for justice in the world.”

Arce-Valentín says she is grateful to the Presbyterian Church in Cuba for allowing her to take on this assignment with WCRC at a time when there is a pressing need for pastors in the country.

“My church doesn’t have financial resources. We are giving what we have – human resources.

It is our way of saying we know the importance of justice work to WCRC and the ecumenical movement,” she says.

In the coming year, ArceValentín will be focussing on creating closer contacts with regional church groups. Based on her experience in the Caribbean region, she knows this is the way to connect with local parishes to learn about their needs and let them know what WCRC can offer.

Arce-Valentín’s vision for the justice programme puts a priority on working with youth. Plans

Dora Arce-Valentín Sumichan)

(WCRC

include offering workshops on positive, non-violent images of masculinity and supporting youth involvement in ecological justice.

“Justice issues appeal to young people,” she notes. “There is the potential for youth to take on some issues and force their churches to deal with them.”

Plans for 2013 include followup to a meeting last year in Brazil that produced proposals for a new frame of reference for the world’s financial structures. A panel of experts is now being formed to follow through on the proposals. And in March, Arce-Valentín will convene a meeting of WCRC’s networks of justice advocates in the context of a consultation on human trafficking.

Source: World Comunión of Reformed Churches, WCRC: http://www.wcrc.ch/node/911

But if Venezuela’s prelates were criticized for expressing political views, they are not alone.

Church-state conflicts date back to colonial times, and when the region shook off Spanish rule, the Catholic Church had to readjust its relationship with each newly independent Latin American country, says Alexander Wilde, a senior scholar in the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Latin America program.

Most countries’ constitutions gave the Catholic Church a privileged place, but some of those privileges have eroded as those documents have been revised over the years.

One sign of the shifting relationship was a Jan. 10 meeting between Argentine President Cristina Fernández and leaders of the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE). The half-hour session — the first time an Argentine president has met officially with an Evangelical delegation — is a likely first step toward constitutional separation of church and state, said Washington Uranga, a Uruguayan journalist, political analyst and university professor in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

That may further complicate an already complex church-state relationship in that country, where former dictator Jorge Videla last year accused top church officials of complicity in the government’s “dirty war” against leftist opponents between 1976 and 1983. In November the bishops denied that claim and issued a general apology, asking “the forgiveness of everyone whom we failed or did not support as we should have.”

The bishops said they were open to a review of their predecessors’ actions under the dictatorship, which often put them at odds with priests, sisters and other church workers who were threatened by the government because of their work on behalf of victims and their families.

Church leaders in Chile in the 1970s also initially supported former dictator Augusto Pinochet’s violent crackdown on opponents, although their position changed over time, Wilde says. There, too, many church workers at the grass roots took an active stand against the dictatorship.

Because of their positions in Latin American societies, both presidents and church leaders run the risk of becoming isolated from the grass roots, says Wilde, who has studied human rights and violence in various countries in the region, including Chile.

“It’s a bubble — it happens to people in power,” he says. He adds, however, “You hardly ever get a hierarchy that is uniform,” and bishops have been threatened or killed for taking stands against dictators or strong-arm rulers.

While church leaders were accused of being too close to rightwing governments in the 1970s and 1980s, they have distanced themselves from a new breed of Latin American leader. Since the 1990s, countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have elected left-leaning, populist presidents who pledged to redistribute wealth and

give poor, indigenous and disenfranchised citizens a greater role in their countries’ civic life.

In all three countries, bishops have sparred with the presidents in newspaper headlines and public statements, although Uranga says the reasons vary from country to country.

In a statement issued Jan. 3, with an eye toward the Feb. 17 presidential elections, Ecuador’s bishops called for voters to “not favor political and legislative options that are contrary to fundamental values and ethical principles” and called for respect for human rights and “freedom of expression.”

Opponents have accused Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa of attempting to stifle criticism in the media, a charge that has also been leveled against Chavez in Venezuela and Fernandez in Argentina.

The Ecuadorian bishops also noted that citizens were not “an amorphous mass to be manipulated or used as a tool, but a group of people with their own vision of public affairs, who are willing to defend their rights and carry out their obligations.”

The Bolivian government’s use of power was on the agenda when the country’s bishops met in midNovember to elect new leaders. The prelates chose Bishop Oscar Aparicio Céspedes, head of the military ordinariate, replacing Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval, 76, who led the conference for 15 years, and whose sharp exchanges with President Evo Morales have often made newspaper headlines.

Cardinal Terrazas, who did not attend the bishops’ meeting for health reasons, sent a message in which he warned of government “manipulation” of the judiciary, as well as the expansion of crime and drug trafficking.

Bolivia’s vice minister of social defense and controlled substances, Felipe Cáceres, shot back that the bishops were “taking sides, ideologically speaking,” while a congressman from Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism accused the church of “politics.”

In their message, the Ecuadorian bishops acknowledged that politics is a touchy subject.

“Some people say the bishops should support all governments acritically; others say they should maintain steadfast opposition; and some say we should abstain from saying anything. The three views are partial and imprecise,” they wrote in their Jan. 3 statement. “It is not our place to express political preferences, but it is our job to evaluate the ethical and religious implications and consequences of political plans.”

Those comments reflect what Wilde says is broader ambiguity about the church’s involvement in politics.

“The Vatican has sent very different signals in recent years,” he says. “There’s always an inherent tension, because the church claims some authority over the whole society, and where the lines are drawn as a practical matter may change over time.”

Source: Catholic News Service, CNS: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1300177.htm

Latin America and Environment 3

A recent report by Amnesty International points out that the Guatemalan authorities put the lives of women in danger, by not protecting them nor guaranteeing that those responsible for homicides are brought to trial, while femicide continues being a constant with almost a thousand women murdered in 2011, and six thousand over the last years.

ALC/Guatemala City ccording to the report pubon the lished www.ladob.com website, 560 women were murdered in Guatemala in 2012, with less than 4% of the cases ending with sentences for those responsible, even though the Guatemalan congress had approved a law in 2008 that specifies crimes of violence against women.

The law also created special courts and laid down guidelines for

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the imposing of punishment, but up until the present time it has not brought about the awaited results as a mechanism to stop violence against women.

For its part, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), has affirmed that these murders are kept silent and hidden in the daily violence of the country, where 98% of crimes remain unpunished, while mutilated and tortured bodies of women and girls are exhibited, murdered by men or organized men’s groups to demonstrate their gender supremacy.

For Sebastián Elgueta, a researcher for Amnesty International stated that the number of femicide homicides has not lowered, in spite of how shameful this scourge is for Guatemalan society.

Elgueta said that thousands of cases from the previous decade have yet to be solved or have been shelved, because of a supposed lack of evidence, as a result of an ineffective investigation and no guarantee that those responsible will be brought to trial.

A woman holds flowers before a demonstration protesting violence against women in Guatemala City, Jan. 19, 2013 (Reuters Jorge Dan López www.trust.org)

Statement on global economy delivered to Bolivia In La Paz, an ecumenical delegation delivered to Bolivian government officials a statement on ethical principles for a new global economic system. The statement was received by Bolivian minister of the presidency Juan Ramón Quintana at the government palace on 9 January.

WCC, ALC/La Paz he ecumenical delegation was led by Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, a Brazilian pastor and moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee.

“We share the commitment to work in favour of the future of humankind,” said Quintana while receiving the document titled “São Paulo Statement: International Financial Transformation for the Economy of Life”. “We have to work on a common agenda of cooperation,” he added.

The statement was jointly produced by the participants of a conference in 2012, promoted by the WCC, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Council for World Mission in Guarulhos, Brazil.

Speaking to the delegates, Quintana stressed the importance of working in partnership with different global actors. “Churches can be very effective in sharing and promoting gifts that encourage the good living of all people. We work to defend and promote peoples’ dignity, which is also one of your mandates,” Quintana said.

Being a country struggling to elevate its economy, Bolivia is a key participant in the debate on development, especially initiated by the United Nations. The country is now led by its first indigenous president, Evo Morales, working on implementing balance within power structures, introducing a process for fair distribution of the natural resources.

The delegation also met with Ambassador Fernando Huanacuni, vice-minister for interreligious affairs at the Ministry of External Affairs in Bolivia. In the meeting, Huanacuni expressed appreciation for the statement.

“This document can be an important piece in the upcoming

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From left to right: Ana Maria Guzmán, Humberto Martin Shikiya, Bishop Javier Rojas Terán, Juan Ramón Quintana, Walter Altmann, Caterina Bain and Marcelo Schneider (Maya Nemtala Ministry of the Presidency in Bolivia)

dialogue among different segments of our society”, he said. The ambassador also received a copy of the regional ecumenical proposal for the establishment of an agency of cooperation under the Union of South American Nations.

Government’s role in promoting an economy of life Humberto Martin Shikiya, who is among those who have drafted the proposal, said, “The Bolivian government can play a decisive role in the debate about the concept of development taking place between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union.”

Shikiya, a delegate, is executive director of the Regional Ecumenical Centre for Advisory and Service (CREAS), member organization of the ACT Alliance.

“In the ecumenical movement we are advocating for a wider understanding of development inspired by the concept of good living,” Shikiya said. “The Andean concept of Sumak Kawsay is more holistic than the current basic idea of development.”

Shikiya was referring to the expression Sumak Kawsay, from the indigenous people of Quichua, which means “good life”.

The WCC Central Committee moderator Altmann shared his views about possible avenues of cooperation among churches and governments. “Most of the leaders currently in charge in Latin America once took part in processes promoted by the civil society,” said Altmann. He said that such process include the “World Social Forum and the People’s

Summit, which are spaces where we are present side by side with other civil society movements”.

While explaining to the ambassador the scope of action for the ecumenical movement, Altmann mentioned work of the WCC and the ACT Alliance. “The cooperation between these two organizations is a concrete example of the synergy between spirituality and action,” he said.

In the meeting, human rights and environmental issues were discussed. Altmann also spoke about work of the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network.

The delegation included Bishop Javier Rojas Terán of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia (IEMB), Caterina Bain, CREAS’s deputy director, Ana Maria Guzmán, responsible for public relations at the IEMB, and Dr Marcelo Schneider, the WCC’s communications liaison for Latin America.

The series of meetings in Bolivia are part of a regional ecumenical advocacy initiative, a follow up to the process which led to the development of the “São Paulo Statement”.

In October 2012, the Argentinean chancellery received another statement by the ecumenical delegation comprised of representatives from the WCC, the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), the Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in Latin America (AIPRAL), the World Association for Christian Communication and the Latin America and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC).

Source: World Council of Churches, WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/ecumenical-delegation-del.html

First ecumenical accompaniment team arrives in Colombia The Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Colombia (PEAC, Spanish acronym) has announced the arrival of the first accompaniment team for the San Onofre region in Sucre, on the Colombian north coast.

ALC/By Milton Mejía for ALC

he arrival of this first accompaniment team marks the first steps being taken

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so that the founding purpose of PEAC becomes a reality. This purpose of PEAC is to transmit hope and confidence to leaders of social organizations, and contribute to the protection and help in the incrementing of security for the people and community processes that have constantly suffered threats and persecution.

The members of the first ecumenical accompaniment team to arrive come from Mexico, El

Salvador and the Dominican Republic. They were presented at a protocol event on February 16, with the presence of representatives from the churches and Christian organizations that are a part of PEAC, as well as the participation of leaders of social organizations and civil authorities of San Onofre.

Blanca Lucía Echeverry and Chris Ferguson of the Ecumenical Accompaniment

Program in Colombia, said that the arrival of the first ecumenical accompaniment team begins a process of formation on protection and self-protection, as well as

on the law of victims and mechanisms for participation and incidence of the communities, so as to bring about respect for human rights and the search for justice.

Presentation of members of first PEAC international accompaniment team in San Onofre region of Colombia (PEAC CLAI)

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

Femicide continues to be a phenomenon that sadly marks Guatemalan society

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

4 Church and Society

Rio: At-risk youth tell stories of violence and resilience “What’s my dream? To be an honorable man, get a job and live in a better place with less violence,” answered Yago Conceição da Silva, 14, resident of Favela do Sapo, a slum in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Senador Camará.

ACT Alliance, ALC/Rio de Janeiro

By Susanne Buchweitz, Lutheran Foundation of Diakonia in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil We have gone through several wars here. Many people died, and that’s not good. It undervalues the community; it creates prejudice. Other people think we’re animals, as if we’re worth nothing. I can’t forget the violence I’ve witnessed.”

Yago’s experience is like that of so many other young people in Brazil. According to the World Health Organisation, Brazil has one of the world’s highest murder rates – ranked fourth among 99 countries surveyed last year. Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are the most frequent victims of homicide, particularly poor, black youth, according to an Instituto Sangari

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study produced last year, “2012 Map of Violence Data - The New Patters of Homicidal Violence in Brazil.”

Levels of violence in Yago’s Rio neighborhood have been particularly high. In addition to homicide, it holds the infamous status of being the neighbourhood with the highest rates of theft and bus burnings in Rio. Gang and drug-related violence has run rampant. Massive and multiple police operations to quell the fighting and drug activity in recent years has inflicted a violence all its own on the community, leaving citizens dead and schools closed.

Creative transformation Against this backdrop, ACT Alliance members have come together to provide positive, creative outlets for Yago and other young people like him. Arte em Conjunto (Art Together), funded by the Lutheran Foundation of Diakonia (Brazil) and the Protestant Agency for Diakonia and Development, is a small organisation founded in 2006 that promotes social and cultural activities for at-risk youth in the Favela do Sapo slum and neighboring areas. Arte em Conjunto is built upon the neighbourhood residents’ ideas and expectations; it is supported and sustained by community mobilisation.

“We work with very little money.

Together with the community, we created groups of carnival dancers; we developed a neighbourhood association; we are creating a trade association; we work together with the churches and the African heritage religions of the region,” explains Arte em Conjunto’s social educator, Mario Luis Gomes.

To expand its reach despite limited resources, Arte em Conjunto partners with related organisations in the area. Its work with the nearby Cultural Centre Caixa de Surpresa (Surprise Box) is one such example.

Twin sisters Dayana and Dayane Main, 23, have attended classes at the cultural centre since they were 11. Their experience instilled in them a love of dance, which has shaped their long-term interests and aspirations.

“We know it’s hard, but we dream of living from our art,” they explain. Now they are studying geography at university and have jobs that contribute to their family’s income.

Ana Carolina da Silva, a 27-yearold university history student, also has had many years of experience with the group and has watched it evolve with time.

“After we started the group, other responsibilities came along: the graphite workshop; the drawing workshop. Meetings were held in the

Churches valuable for peace and security in Latin America WCC/ALC/Antigua Long years of civil war and importing of weapons since the 1980s have created a difficult situation in Latin America, where the preventing of the proliferation of arms is a challenge”, stated Prof.

Benjamin Maerchana at a World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation in Antigua, Guatemala.

Maerchana, who is a member of the faculty at the Martin Luther King University, Nicaragua, said that about 4.5 million small weapons were in the possession of the civil population in the region in 2007 and are still in circulation.

The consultation he was addressing was focused on developing an ecumenical response on peace and human security in Latin America.

The event brought together more than thirty participants from around twenty countries from November 30 to 2 December.

The consultation was organized by the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) in cooperation with the Latin American Council of Churches and

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the Ecumenical Christian Council of Guatemala.

Prof. Maerchana went on to say that the “challenge to stop the arms proliferation as well as combating drug trafficking in Latin America is essential for reducing the level of violence and setting conditions for human security, peace and development.”

At the conference, participants also noted that several Latin American countries have made progress in economic growth and social development, yet a sense of insecurity and vulnerability prevails among the people.

Addressing the participants of the consultation, Rita Claverie de Sciolli, vice minister for foreign affairs of the Republic of Nicaragua, said that an “increasingly polarized social order dehumanizes people in many parts of Latin America, therefore the role of churches in protecting the dignity and security of the people has become valuable.”

“The role of churches in a country like Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of people from Central American countries are stranded as migrants, the shelter and care pro-

Rita Claverie de Sciolli, Nicaraguan Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, addressing consultation in Antigua, Guatemala (Mayra Rodriguez)

vided by the churches are valuable,” she added.

“Criminalization in exploitation of natural resources, especially the land of indigenous peoples, is a common trend in many Latin American countries”, said Maria do Carmo Moreira Lima, president of a national indigenous women’s association in Peru and former member of parliament.

“Mobility of indigenous people and their peaceful lives are threatened by transnational companies, who collaborate with corrupt politicians and rulers in several countries in Latin America,” she added.

“Human security concerns are critical in the Latin American region today. Initiatives to incorporate a human security orientation in regional and local development policies and planning are still very few,” said Prof. James Esponda from the Roman Catholic Church in Chile.

“A human security orientation demands that the needs of the vulnerable be addressed and integrated into development strategies,” he added.

In a thematic presentation on “peace and human security in an emerging geo-political context” the CCIA director Dr Mathews George Chunakara stated that “placing people rather than states at the focal point of security considerations is the need of the day.”

He said that “human security can be protected only in a society where security of the individuals and societies are valued.”

Source: World Council of Churches, WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-consultation-develops.html

Yago Conceição da Silva, 14, resident of Favela do Sapo, a slum in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Senador Camará, cradles his baby sister (ACT Arte em Conjunto Brazil)

courtyard of my building. I ended up getting more and more involved.”

Toward a happy ending Youth will shape the future, concludes Gomes. “There is an African proverb that says: ‘If you want to understand how the story ends, pay attention to its beginning.’” The story of Arte em Conjunto began with a community cleaning campaign

initiated by its young people. Its story continues, playing a role in directing young people toward their own happy endings.

“The young people of Senador Camará are reinventing themselves and building a better future,” concludes Gomes. “Along with their stories of violence are fantastic stories of resilience.”

Source: ACT Alliance: http://www.actalliance.org/stories/youth-in-rio

Ecumenical initiative in Colombia offers Diploma in Diaconal Service for Peace

Diaconal Service for Peace (Unireformada)

ALC/Barranquilla he Reformed University Corporation (CUR) and the Baptist University Foundation (FUB) have signed an agreement to offer a course on Diaconal Service for Peace, as part of their theology programs.

Aimed at social workers, theologians, pastors, social researchers, and community leaders, the course is intended to strengthen the public and political incidence of the ecclesial communities in the building of peace in Colombia, starting from a biblical theological perspective. It is designed to take into account local experiences and those of the international ecumenical movement in non-violence and the search for justice.

The course is a consequence of the “Initiatives for Peace of Evangelical and Ecumenical Churches in Colombia” survey, carried out in 2011, and is offered with the cooperation of the Ecumenical Network of Colombia, the World Council of Churches (WCC), the

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Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), and the Ecumenical Regional Center for Consultancy and Service (CREAS).

The course content includes: - Historical analysis, context and alternatives for peace in Colombia: Milton Mejía (Colombia).

- The social action of the churches in Colombia and the search for peace: Pablo Moreno (Colombia).

- International experiences of the ecumenical movement in the search for peace: Chris Fergusson (Canada).

- The content of peace from the perspective of the Bible, gender and human rights: Adelaida Jiménez (Colombia).

- Incidence for peace: Humberto Shikiya and Caterine Bain (Argentina).

- Systematizing and recovering of memory: Maritze Wheats and Amilcar Ulloa (Colombia).

- Mediation and conflict resolution through methods of non-violence: Jenny Neme (Colombia).

Church and Society 5

Indigenous Evangelical pastoral ministry to the handicapped trains 12 leaders for work in Chimborazo As part of the celebration held on January 12 to mark the 26th anniversary of the Blind Department of the Association of Indigenous Evangelical Churches of the Province of Chimborazo,12 community leaders trained in the work of attending to people with handicaps were recognized, emphasizing the inclusiveness that is to characterize faith for all human beings.

Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE) applauds the participation of youth in the life of the country Reviewing the political, economic, social and religious reality of the country in 2012, FAIE applauds “the increasing participation of the youngest generations in the national life,” and the improved distribution of goods among the several sectors of the population.

ALC/Buenos Aires

Crowd gathered in Colta, Chimborazo (www.flickr.com)

ALC/Colta he government of Ecuador was invited to take part in the anniversary celebration held in the town of Colta, and sent a delegation in representation of the Manuel Espejo program for the handicapped that is directed by VicePresident Lenin Moreno. Also present were persons with different handicaps, along with pastors and leaders of Indigenous churches from distant rural communities, as well as education officers and important figures of the province of Chimborazo.

The event was organized by community leader César Yumi and Ángel Guamán, a blind doctor and

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lawyer, with the collaboration of Radio Colta and the network of Popular Radiophone Schools providing coverage for the Indigenous listeners of the province as well as the country. In addition, there was national press coverage through the media accompanying the representatives of the Manuel Espejo program.

In a message sent to the Rev. Noel Fernández, member of the commission that coordinates the ministries to the handicapped in Latin America of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Guamán thanked his fellow Baptist pastor for

having fostered the work in Ecuador, ratifying that “for the Indigenous persons with handicaps it is as if the Gospel had arrived, beginning in 2000, with your presence.”

Guamán added that, “we remain firm in the daily struggle to have the Gospel reach more persons with handicaps, beginning with the distribution of CDs that the New Light ministry of Spain sends to us monthly. We pray that the work be developed not only in the social aspect, but also the pastoral, so that it continues growing, as up to now, in Chimborazo and throughout all of Ecuador.”

Reactivating of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (MCP) of Costa Rica promotes dialogue in the search to overcome HIV/Aids According to the web site of the Costa Rican Lutheran Church (ILCO), the MCP was reactivated last week following the restructuring of the organization, principles and model for cooperation of the Global Fund.

ALC/San José he Country Coordinating Mechanism, of which the Costa Rican Lutheran Church is a member, is a space for dialogue to access help to overcome the HIV/Aids pandemic, and gathered together organizations, such as the Ministry of Justice and Peace, ONUSIDA and civil society initiatives, among oth-

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ers.

At the center of the discussions was the need to join efforts in the face of the stigma, and to promote respect for the human rights of the population that are bearers of HIV/Aids and integrate them as active participants in forums and panels on matters inherent to attitudes with regard to persons who live with the virus, as well as the analysis of data and evidence to increase knowledge and reinforce the programs of prevention in the most vulnerable segments in the society.

Likewise, the Country Coordinating Mechanism (MCP) evaluated the opportunities offered by the Global Fund in its commitment to overcome HIV/Aids in the Central American region, in addition

Reactivating of the HIV-Aids Country Coordinating Mechanism of Costa Rica (ILCO)

to the strengths and weaknesses of the MCP itself. The support of the Ministry of Health and the Costa Rican Social Security were considered as being necessary to strengthen these commitments and the actions to be carried out in the coming months, and for the MCP to be able to fulfill the purposes for which it was created.

As part of its commitment on behalf of the poor and humble, the Costa Rican Lutheran Church expressed a willingness to continue being part of a project that dignifies people with HIV/Aids, and besides offering them assistance promotes their fundamental rights and the struggle against all vestiges of discrimination.

n a pastoral letter signed by its president, Methodist pastor Néstor Miguez, FAIE highlights however that economic growth cannot be obtained at the price of environmental unbalance and laments speculative financial actions, from which both the State and private enterprise should refrain. According to the FAIE letter, productive activity should come before speculation.

FAIE emphasizes that in spite of the progress made, there is still a “long road to travel to improve the living and working conditions, and the salary levels of the most vulnerable sectors.“ The ecumenical organism deplores the actions by persons who shield themselves behind the title of pastor or the Evangelical faith, “to deceive, break the law and swindle.” It further points out that it is painful to have to recognize the existence of those so-called “pastors” who deform the message and the simple faith of their followers, promising prosperity or miracles with the purpose of increasing their congregation or gaining personal prestige.

The FAIE pastoral letter affirms

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that some of those religious manifestations reach the limits of fanaticism, and adds: “A faith of full conviction is one that makes itself known through a sincere dialogue, and not in the qualifying or disqualifying of others. The past and present participation of Christians in support of and involvement in acts of violations of human rights cannot but be incompatible with the faith that we profess.”

Speaking in favor of religious pluralism, FAIE defends and reaffirms the necessary separation between Church and State, as well as the guaranteeing, without privileges, of the freedom of the churches, associations and faith communities, in their mission of fostering the personal growth of their members in the exercising of their faith with social responsibility. FAIE therefore asks that such freedom be taken into consideration by the proposed new Civil and Commercial Code being debated, and demands the immediate repeal of the Worship Registration law, put into effect during the military dictatorship.

Pastor Néstor Míguez of the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE)

Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE) delegation dialogues with the nation’s President FAIE, ALC/Buenos Aires he FAIE delegation of pastors of Evangelical churches, representatives of Evangelical educational institutions, and lay persons, was received on January 10 by the President of Argentina, Dr. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the Secretary of Worship of the Nation, Ambassador Guillermo Olivieri.

The matters touched on in the pleasant and fruitful dialogue included historical considerations, the contribution of the Evangelical presence in the country since its foundation, and the commitment to a full upholding of human rights.

The ecumenical delegation felt itself heard and understood when it presented FAIE’s historic demand that the law of Registration of

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Worship, sanctioned by the last military dictatorship (Decree Nº 21,745), be repealed and that the new Civil and Commercial Code being debated incorporate the recognition of the ecclesiastical and religious character of the Evangelical churches.

The meeting ended with the sharing of a moment of prayer with President Fernández, asking that God accompany and protect her during the trip she was about to begin, for which she was deeply grateful.

The members of the FAIE delegation evaluated the gathering as a positive one and considered it an important step in the contribution that the Evangelical churches can offer to the whole Argentine nation.

Source: Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches, FAIE: http://faie.org.ar/nuevo/

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

Ecuador

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

6 Latin America and Environment

Justice is the key to peace in Colombia In a recently published article, Dr Lilia Solano described the impact of Colombia’s armed conflict on its people. A long-time human rights activist, Solano reported that in the conflict, decades-long Colombia has seen five million people displaced, sixty thousand declared as “missing”, thousands killed, and a million hectares of land snatched away from the rightful owners.

WCC, ALC/

By Marcelo Schneider* olano works as director of the Justice and Life project in Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. She is among the leadership of social movements in Colombia. Through this work she began to be engaged with the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme for human rights advocacy.

Following a round of peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in November 2012, Solano reports that she sees human and environmental rights integral to the peace process.

She identifies the role played by ecumenical partners as important for achieving justice and peace in

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the region.

In a recent WCC consultation on peace and human security in Guatemala, Solano stressed that the peace process in Colombia is important for other countries in the region, explaining why.

“It is important to understand the structural causes of conflict in Colombia. This war is connected to similar situations in other countries of the region, triggered by the growth of poverty and struggles for land,” said Solano.

The occupation of the Colombian territory and manipulation of natural resources by the multinationals have resulted in a loss of sovereignty. The destruction of the environment remains a phenomenon that Solano calls both a symptom and a significant impact of the current unjust economic model.

She identified links between the government’s decisions and the paramilitary forces active in different areas of the Colombian territory.

“The presence of paramilitary forces in the country is part of a strategy imposed by the state in order to oppress those that are considered ‘inconvenient actors’ by the economic, political and military powers,” noted Solano.

Therefore, the persecution and elimination of members of workers’ unions, human rights organizations and social movements became inevitable.

“Even today, the paramilitary

Lilia Solano (Justicia y Vida)

activity remains, most evidently in the areas where megaprojects by the multinationals are being implemented,” said Solano.

The agenda for peace negotiations between the government and the FARC rebels, both in Norway and Cuba, have included guarantees of comprehensive agricultural development. These were accompanied by proposals for the right to exercise political opposition, the end of armed conflict, a strategy for combating drug trafficking and a plan of compensation for the victims of violence.

Global advocacy for peace Solano believes that the limited participation by civil society in this process shows that the Colombian government is not taking into con-

sideration the realities of thousands of citizens, who experience the structural causes of the war on a daily basis.

“The dynamics of the peace process should be established by the social actors. We have the right to be part of this process. The civil society can help in building the basis for a lasting peace,” Solano added.

Solano stressed that the WCC and other international organizations can play a vital role in the Colombian peace process by supporting the civil society. She said that it is high time for such a support since the Colombian government is threatening to prosecute local organizations, which hope to claim a seat in the roundtable of peace talks.

“Therefore we demand that international organizations like the WCC, with its vast experience in peace talks internationally, accompany, endorse and support the victims of the conflict in Colombia,” she continued.

“The ecumenical partners can help to assure the Colombians that they have the opportunity to build the country that they envision,” said Solano.

In a situation where Colombian civil society urges a bilateral ceasefire, support from the international community can make a difference.

The WCC’s programme executive for human rights and global advocacy, Christina Papazoglou, hopes that the peace talks in Cuba

may lead both the Colombian government and the FARC rebels “to show good will and refrain from any actions that may jeopardize the continuation of the dialogue”.

She believes that “both sides have a responsibility towards the people of Colombia to exhaust all efforts in order to put an end to this conflict and bring peace and justice in the country,” she said.

Solano also spoke about the Programme of Ecumenical Accompaniment in Colombia (PEAC), an initiative supported by the WCC and implemented by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and other regional ecumenical organizations.

She said, “There are many elements that can be drawn up from the WCC’s experience in Palestine and Israel. However, implementing such an initiative in Colombia requires further considerations, such as high profile international support that can allow an organ such as the WCC to become a valid voice between the Colombian government and the civil society working for peace.”

The PEAC initiative is inspired by the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, and aims to support communities affected by the conflict in Colombia. *Dr Marcelo Schneider works as WCC communication liaison for Latin America and is based in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Source: World Council of Churches, WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/newsmanagement/eng/a/article/1634/justice-is-the-key-to-pea.html

Brazilian churches comfort the bereaved from Santa María fire Feelings of loss, grief and despair marked the funeral services of an estimated 235 university students killed in a night club fire on Sunday, 27 January, in Santa María, Brazil. Vigils, masses, worships and ecumenical services are held across the country in memory of the victims, offering prayers for the bereaved.

Brazilian churches comfort the bereaved from Santa María fire.

WCC, ALC/Porto Alegre

he fire started around 2:30 am in the “Kiss” night club during a musical performance.

Sparks from a pyrotechnics show ignited the ceiling and fire rapidly spread through the building.

Following the incident, Bishop Francisco de Assis da Silva of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (IEAB) South Western Diocese, using social media and networking, called the diocese’s local membership to gather for a vigil at the Anglican cathedral.

They also collected information and discussed how the community could help.

A chain of solidarity was formed to comfort, strengthen and support all those affected by the tragedy, Bishop Silva said.

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“Ecumenical prayer circles, celebrations, marches, public events and other related activities are being organized to express solidarity and offer spiritual and psychological support to families of the victims.”

Many people with serious injuries are still under treatment in hospitals, their families fearing for their lives and anxiously awaiting their recovery. “We rely on the grace of God. Such tragedies reveal to us that the same pain which weakens us also brings us closer to God and to each other,” Silva said.

Silva, who also serves as vice moderator of the ecumenical humanitarian organization ACT Alliance, pointed out challenges ahead for the Christian community in Santa María. “As churches we need to act in a way that people feel supported in their faith and that they can live their grief without losing hope,” he said. “We will keep proclaiming that the word of God is a word of life!”

For pastor Nestor Paulo Friedrich, president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), “as a Christian community, we look for a reasonable answer to the question on the causes of this tragedy. In the midst of pain and tears, we express our word of solidarity to the bereaved families and encourage them to trust in the comforting presence of God,” he said.

People carry a religious painting as they march in tribute to the victims of the night club fire in the city of Santa Maria, Brazil (Reuters Edison Vara WCC)

Friedrich issued a public message of solidarity to the victims’ families on Monday, 28 January inspired by the Kyrie Eleison, a biblical expression that refers to the cry of God’s people as they undergo unbearable and painful situations.

During the ensuing days Friedrich has received more confirmations about the victims and their affiliation to the IECLB. “We still don’t have a final number of members among the victims, especially because many of them are being buried in other cities around Santa María,” he said. Friedrich is also preparing a pastoral letter to be read in over 1500 congregations on Sunday, one week after the tragedy.

Prayers for the victims and bereaved Santa María has a population of 262,000, many of whom are uni-

versity students.

In the afternoon of 28 January an ecumenical service gathered thousands of people at the Saldanha Marinho square, located less than one kilometre away from the nightclub. The service was celebrated by Fr Francesco Bianchini from the Roman Catholic Church, Rev. Reinoldo Neumann from the IECLB, and Bishop Silva from IEAB. The service was followed by a march of solidarity of some 35,000 people through the main streets of the city. Another ecumenical service will take place on Friday, 1 February at the Anglican Cathedral of the Mediator, in Santa María.

“We regret and mourn the loss of those young people who, in the vigor of their youth, were surprised by the fatality of the accident,” said the president of the Methodist Bishops Conference of Brazil,

Bishop Adonias Pereira do Lago.

“Our solidarity in Jesus allows us to feel the pain that is in all those families and friends of the victims.

Please count on our prayers and support,” he added.

Methodist Bishop Marisa Ferreira de Freitas said among the reasons for prayer, is to analyze the security conditions of public venues and to encourage “that political leaders use financial and human resources responsibly to improve the conditions and efficiency of security supervision of such establishments.”

In a letter addressed to Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, expressed solidarity with the Brazilian people in the face of this tragedy.

Tveit underlined the positive role played by the Brazilian churches in this situation. “We received testimonies from our member churches in Brazil reporting the ecumenical pastoral efforts being made locally and nationally.

Such initiatives are a clear signal of the Christian unity and solidarity that we confess in our work worldwide,” he said.

The tragedy of Santa María was the second worst fire in history of Brazil, after around 503 people died on 17 December 1961, in Niterói, at a circus fire.

Source: World Council of Churches, WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/brazilian-churches-comfor.html

Latin America and Environment 7

Lobaina describes herself as a “Christian militant” who takes a feminist reading of the Bible to workshops and religious services around Cuba, to discuss gender equality and a culture of peace.

IPS, ALC/Havana

articipants learn about gender violence, its prevention and ways to break free, among other issues.

“All churches know that the abuse of women is also a family and community problem,” says Lobaina, who is coordinator of the Women and Gender Programme of the Council of Churches of Cuba (CIC).

Lobaina, who is also coordinator of the “Débora” Christian Women’s Network, founded in 2009, spoke with IPS’ Ivet González about her work preventing violence against women.

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Q: What is the reaction to these issues in Christian communities?

A: Sometimes there is a great deal of apprehension or expectations about what we are going to say. But when we address the issues of gender-based violence and discrimination through biblical texts, we are met mostly with acceptance.

The Bible has many liberating stories and others where women’s exclusion is denounced.

We have also encountered rejection. The gender issue can be disturbing because it addresses very difficult realities, and not everybody wants to know about them.

We have made progress compared to more than 20 years ago, when women’s problems had just begun to be discussed in Cuban churches. Now there is a greater openness to talking about gender inequality and many congregations ask us to hold workshops.

Q: What does this “alternative” reading of the Bible consist of? How are sexist passages addressed?

A: It is true that the Bible contains texts that are discriminatory toward women — in some communities they were expressly forbidden from speaking — but it also contains liberating ones.

For example, many say that for God there are no differences of sex or race. We cannot forget that some passages were a result of very patriarchal eras and contexts, in which women were not taken into consideration.

Midiam Lobaina, coordinator of the Women and Gender Programme of the Council of Churches of Cuba, CIC (Jorge Luis Baños IPS)

Q: Who tends to come to the workshops?

A: They are open to everyone, but it is mainly women who come.

Nevertheless, the number of men taking part in the workshops has grown across the country, through the CIC programme.

The question of masculinity is also addressed using biblical passages, although this focus is new.

People tend to confuse questions of masculinity with sexual diversity, an issue that many people are still reluctant to discuss.

Q: What special characteristics does the prevention of gender-based violence have in Christian communities?

A: Many women are abused in their homes and even in their churches, and they don’t tell anyone. They keep their problem a secret out of shame and the idea that “family matters” are not talked about in public. Some underestimate the seriousness of their situation, others don’t realise that they are in danger, and others reveal their secret only very confidentially.

That is why it is essential to train and raise the awareness of congregation leaders. That way they can assist women who ask for help or talk about their problem.

Sometimes the solution is not within reach, but sometimes it is.

People who are abused generally lack the tools and resources to get out of the situation they find themselves in.

In Cuba not all of the structures exist, either, for victims to break that vicious cycle. I know of Christian congregations that support abused women, especially in the most extreme cases. On the other hand, people need to identify other, more subtle forms of violence.

Q: What are these other faces of abuses?

A: When women are made invisible, silenced, ignored and not allowed to participate, and their contributions are not recognised, they are very much abused.

Psychological violence, in all of its magnitude, is the most widespread. Women are centrally involved in pastoral work with children, caring for the sick and evangelical work, roles that they have always embraced.

I was the adviser to a student from Havana’s Instituto Superior de Estudios Bíblicos y Teológicos (Higher Institute of Biblical and Theological Studies), who conducted a study on gender-based violence among 28 women from a community in the Cuban capital.

When we processed the data, we found that six of them were in a dangerous situation.

Unfortunately, one of them was murdered by her spouse that week, and he subsequently committed suicide. It was a tragedy…we were unable to save her. But we alerted the other five to the danger they were in.

Q: How much has women’s participation in Protestant churches changed?

A: I come from a Baptist denomination that does not ordain women. I later joined another Baptist group that does.

The history of women who have wanted to be pastors has been hard. For example, women missionaries studied in seminaries just like men, but when they graduated, they did not have the right to be pastors. In fact, if they married, they couldn’t even be missionaries.

That is why at a young age I joined a Christian group that stood up for the role of women in the church, and that asked for more equality and justice for them.

A gender-based approach has become much more influential in pastoral and ecclesiastical work and at Christian research institutes since the Decade of Women, from 1985 to 1995. This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ordainment of the first three women in the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba.

Q: How much can religious communities contribute to the struggle against gender-based violence?

A: Congregations that work for gender equality are fortresses in their communities. In some, their work goes beyond the neighbourhood. When a woman is abused at home, the whole family is abused, and the whole community is affected.

Source: Inter Press Service News Agency, IPS: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/12/qa-a-missionary-who-preaches-genderequality/

Martin Junge, has offered the communion’s deepest sympathy to the families of the more than 230 young people who died in a “dreadful” nightclub fire 27 January in Brazil.

LWF, ALC/Geneva Words fail us before the death of so many young people.

Their desires and hopes, their joys and ambitions have been tragically cut short,” Junge said in a letter to the President of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), Rev. Dr Nestor P. Friedrich.

The fire took place after a band

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lit fireworks at a crowded nightclub in Santa Maria, a university city in the Rio Grande do Sol region. The victims, most under the age of 20, had inhaled toxic fumes or were crushed in the panic.

Junge offered prayers for the injured and for IECLB congregations coping with the pastoral challenges caused by the tragedy.

“It is promised that it is precisely in such times of deep pain and weakness that God takes us by the hand and inspires the ministry of love, care and acceptance to which the congregations and communities of the IECLB are today being called,” Junge said.

The general secretary assured the Brazilian church of the Lutheran communion’s support, solidarity and accompaniment.

Source: Lutheran World Federation, LWF: http://www.lutheranworld.org/lwf/index.php/sympathy-families-brazil-firevictims.html

A young woman sheds tears as she is embraced during the funeral of a victim of the Kiss nightclub fatal fire in Santa María, Brazil (AP Felipe Dana)

Evangelical Methodist Church of Panama (IEMPA) elects new bishop and commits to important agreements in its XX General Assembly ALC/Panama City ith the theme, “Evangelical Methodist Church, An Instrument of God Transforming the World With the Power of the Gospel,” the denomination recently held its XX General Assembly.

The assembly had a broad agenda of work in commissions seeking new strategies for the present period, focusing on Life and Mission, Witness and Presence, and Administration.

The bible studies during what is the most important meeting of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Panama were led by Bishop Jorge Bravo, Secretary of the Council of Bishops of the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches of Latin America (CIEMAL).

The assembly brought together a great number of delegates from the Panamanian church’s congregations, and took place January 17-20 in the area of the

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Chiriquí Volcano, some 600 kilometers to the west of the capital, Panama City.

Important agreements were made, among them a covenant agreement of cooperation with the Methodist Church of Peru, to maintain relationships of cooperation with the Wesleyan Theological Seminary in that country, an institution that can provide for the training of pastors and laypersons.

Likewise, the agreement will allow for the establishing of contacts with the Program for Discipleship and that of Volunteers in Action (PROVEA), while at the same time paying attention to the school education aspect.

According to the IEMPA web site, the Reverend Pedro Araúz Valdés was elected by the assembly, on the 14th ballot, to be the new bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Panama. The Bishop-Elect will be consecrated on Saturday, February 16, in Panama City.

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

A Missionary Who Preaches Gender Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Offers Deepest Equality: Interview with Midiam Lobaina, Coordinator of the Women Sympathy to Families of Brazil Fire Victims and Gender Programme of the The General Secretary of The Lutheran World Council of Churches of Cuba Federation (LWF), Rev.

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2013

8 Latin America and Environment

Indigenous Communities in the South World Association for American Chaco produce new foods Christian Communication (WACC) celebrates the power of community radio

“My children love trying all these new foods – they enjoy everything!” says Cielo from the Guaraní community of Choroquepiau, one of the 11 communities which over the past two years have participated in a food security and nutrition program.

February 13 was World Radio Day, a day dedicated to celebrating radio as a medium. Recently WACC introduced a new initiative in support of community radio as a means of helping marginalized and excluded groups to have a voice in society.

CWSLAC/Gran Chaco

he program is supported

by Church World Service and Foods Resource Bank in the Chaco region of Bolivia and Paraguay.

The 11 communities are located in the semi arid part of the Chaco where there is an average annual rainfall of just 450-650 mm as well as periods of prolonged drought attributed by many to climate change and deforestation. The communities live in conditions of poverty and social exclusion with high levels of malnutrition. In 2010, the first year of this program a food and nutritional survey was carried out revealing that in some communities chronic malnutrition in children under 5 years old is as high as 95 per cent.

Over two years the communities worked together to develop Production Plans based on existing capacity, knowledge and experience of community members and with the overall objective of improving their food security and nutrition in a sustainable way.

While some communities chose to focus on livestock others chose to develop kitchen gardens and experiment with new seeds and irrigation techniques. The communities received material support for their Production Plans as well as specialised technical accompaniment in learning and implementing new techniques as well as indigenous to indigenous and bi-national learning exchanges.

According to project participant Carlos Amadeo, “Having institutions accompany us in this experience in our communities has been really important.

We are illiterate and so it is very abstract for us to sit down and learn inside four walls. The practical accompaniment and the community exchanges have been very good.”

In Bolivia the four participating communities – Naguanaurenda, Salado Grande, Choroquepiao and Chimeo - have developed family and communal kitchen gardens and over 42 families have now introduced new fruit and vegetables in to their diets including radish, tomato, beetroot, peppers, mandarins and avocados. They are also producing their own organic pesticides and in October this year participated in a major agricultural fair in the

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WACC, ALC/Guatemala City

ommunity media are widely recognised by governments, international development agencies, and civil society organisations as key agents in participatory development. They represent a unique way of reaching and involving people.

Community radio, the most prevalent of all community media, is a vital alternative both to state-owned and commercial private radio. Community radio’s affordability and reach make it a powerful agent of social change.

A number of countries have introduced laws and regulations that acknowledge community radio as a distinct media sector.

Nevertheless, despite these advances, challenges persist at global and regional levels.

These challenges include the lack of proper enabling legislation, how to sustain community radio in the long term, and little sharing of community radio networks practices and knowledge. A further challenge is that the exclusion and marginalizing of women witnessed in mainstream media is sometimes reproduced in community media practices.

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Vegetable garden in Salado Grande in the Chaco of Bolivia (CWS)

Chaco region of Tarija which marked the first time for them participating in such an event.

There has also been a strong focus, in addition to the introduction of new foods, to recovering traditional Guaraní foods which are largely maize based and include nutritious soups and drinks which can be stored for months at a time thereby ensuring that the communities have food during climate vulnerable periods of the year.

As a result of the focus on strengthening their livestock management skills - sheep, goats and cows - the participating communities in Paraguay have managed to increase their consumption of meat and dairy products. In San Lazaro, goats milk is being produced and consumed for the first time and the community hopes to eventually begin to commercialise this product for sale in local markets.

Given that they are largely responsible for the diet of their children, women play an important role in the project. In Santa Fe in Paraguay the women´s group has developed a poultry project and eggs are now part of their family diet while in Nepoxen the women’s group has received training on cheese processing. In addition the indigenous to indigenous exchange component of the project has provided new opportunities for them to travel outside their community and learn from other women.

According to Estela Suarez from Nepoxen, “Women´s participation is very important and yet there are very few spaces for us outside the community. This project gave me the opportunity to travel to Bolivia and learn from communities there.

During the visit I saw that the

women work together to develop their communities and through supporting each other they have developed new skills. My participation in this event, has made me stronger as a woman leader.”

Over all the project has helped all involved understand the complex economic, social and cultural dynamics of food security in indigenous communities in the Chaco of Paraguay and Bolivia.

One of the challenging components of the program has been the adoption of nutrition as a concept in the communities. In many cases there is a reluctance to allow outsiders in to their family home or have outsiders tell them what should be eaten. A gradual process of trust building has taken place during these two years which will be strengthened as the program continues in its next phase.

According to Mirtha Bernal from implementing partner Committee of Churches for Emergency Aid (CIPAE), “During these two years we have worked with one of the most vulnerable groups in Paraguay – indigenous peoples –strengthening and developing family agriculture practices so that they can begin to produce healthy foods and at the same time maintain their indigenous identity and ancestral knowledge.

We have managed to develop capacities in the community but this is just the first step in what is a long road ahead. Ongoing accompaniment is required by the communities so that they can intensify these skills and learn new ones.”

A new phase of the program is currently being developed and will begin in early 2013.

Source: Church World Service Latin America and the Caribbean, CWSLAC: http://cwslac.org/indigenous_communities_in_the_south_american_chaco_produce_new_foods-L2eX86.html

Vokaribe, Colombia (WACC)

The NGO Cultural Survival has noted that community radio partners in Guatemala are currently fighting for their right to freedom of expression. A new bill in the Guatemalan Congress, Bill 4479, proposes a reform in the criminal code that criminalises individual actors and representatives of unlicensed stations, effectively penalising community radio with up to 10 years in prison.

This bill is a threat to dozens of community radio stations that base their existence on the promises made in the Guatemalan Peace Accords, the country’s own constitution, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Since 1996 when the Peace Accords were signed, community radio has become an extremely important means of communication for Indigenous groups around Guatemala. Even in small villages without electricity, it is likely that most families will have a battery powered radio in order to stay informed on important issues, listen to traditional music, and educational programming.

On the occasion of World Radio Day WACC affirms its support for community radio as a means of strengthening the communication rights and public voices of poor, marginalized, excluded and dispossessed people and communities everywhere.

Source: World Association for Christian Communication (WACC): http://waccglobal.org/component/content/article/3253:wacc-celebratesthe-power-of-community-radio.html