Latin American Ecumenical News March - May 2014 No. 2
LAEN
Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence.
Proverb 12,17
Information Service of the Latin American Council of Churches
Pentecost Pastoral Letter from the Board of Directors of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) Bogotá, Colombia May 2014 Pastoral letter from the Board of Directors Latin American Council of Churches, CLAI To the greater Latin American ecumenical family, He did not illuminate us to allow us to return, he will take us into the land he promised us.” This is the affirmation of faith of a beautiful song from the Latin American song book that encourages us today to continue the walk with a renewed hope and vigor. Meeting as the Board of Directors of CLAI from May 5-9 in Bogotá, Colombia, we have felt the presence and inspiration of the Spirit that encouraged the first community of an ecumenical and inclusive Pentecost faith. Amid the difficulties of the present time, we continue forward in the certainty of Jesus' presence that is felt along our paths to Emmaus and carries us back to the community of people that assume the challenge of being witnesses of the new life that he inspires in us through his Holy Spirit. For our communities Pentecost is a feast of ecumenism, with one Spirit inspiring us and giving gifts and tools to the community for a mutual and community transformation and building. The holding of our meeting of the Board of Directors and Secretariats in Colombia was under-
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stood by our brothers and sisters to be a gesture of solidarity on our part given the present situation of the country, caught up with the peace talks between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla movement, and the campaign period prior to the election of the country’s president and vice-president. We also saw a new agrarian strike where peasants and producers were protesting because the agreements reached with the government last year have not been fulfilled. So as to set ourselves within the national and international context, we had the support of the director of Justapaz, Jenny Neme, a member of one of the CLAI member churches in Colombia, who in general terms informed us about the different problems of the country and the consequences and participation of the churches. It was a very valuable framework for our gathering. We are gathered together within the diverse community of CLAI by the One who has called us to serve him, in unity. The Spirit of Jesus becomes evident to us when we work on behalf of the children whose mothers and fathers have been deprived of their liberty, victims of violence, of sexual abuse, of mistreatment, of invisibility and forgotten. We make ourselves one in the life giving Spirit when we find ways to bear witness to the new life, in the throes of the pains and crosses of our days. The presence of God becomes visible in the community when we come closer and open ourselves up to the displaced, migrant people suffer-
ing because of ethnic reasons; handicapped persons, women who are abused, treated wrongly, unvalued, students who are silenced, persecuted, stigmatized, and in all places where there is injustice and pain. As the Board of Directors of CLAI we want to share with you that in spite of the context and difficulties, we look to the future with hope, because we know that God calls us to be light in the darkness, calling us in the face of new challenges, and we cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed, to the contrary, we want to be characters directly involved in this building. Isaiah 43:18-21 affirms: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. As an ecumenical family we have walked together for over 32 years through deserts and solitudes, working for peace, justice and equity from a witness of unity. The reality of our continent continues to profoundly confront our churches in a context of inequality, poverty, discriminations of so many kinds that continue clamoring for the voice and action of the church with those who suffer most, but we know that there will be light if we forge new roads of life so that the people who
suffer and are thirsty for peace and justice may drink. . CLAI has always been solidary with the pain of our people and we have been able to carry out the task in different times, thanks to the commitment and efforts of faithful luminaries of hope and justice in these dark times. We give thanks to God because we have not been alone, our churches have impelled the walk and we have the support of so many brothers and sisters from different latitudes accompanying the work of CLAI, through their prayers, special offerings, participating in programs and different spaces, in incidence in the political structures and also in the ecclesiastical, always in defense of a full and abundant Life that Jesus Christ offers us, the reason for our journey and struggles. Today, financial resources at the global level are more limited and this affects us in all the spheres of our work. However, the churches require – and our continent needs – that we begin modifications within a structure that facilitate the task, providing spaces for participation that will allow us a greater incidence in those matters that require urgent answers for our communities and which respond to the new models that the social and global changes demand. Our current organizational structure, that dates back a long time, has served us well up until now, but we need to take a further step to maintain our vision of a vital, renovated and strengthened ecumenical movement that allows us to optimize resources and assure processes that will carry us forward in the conviction that the ecumeni-
cal movement is not only something of the past but of the present time and of what awaits us ahead. That is the reason why with conviction we affirm that we need to move toward a new model of ecumenism, which programmatically and methodologically can be an example for the international ecumenical movement, but above all one that is pertinent for responding to the current needs and demands in the light of the gospel of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Because of this, as CLAI we began in Bogotá, Colombia, a process of renovation that we believe will allow us to better serve. We are aware that these changes will require of all of us arduous work and patience. However, we are willing and happy to be able to participate in this historical moment of rethinking both as an organization and ecumenical representation. We assume our mission with a renewed commitment, in response to the new challenges imposed by reality and the feeling of the churches in the Havana Assembly when a "new" CLAI was asked for. We have felt the prayers of the brothers and sisters of the churches and we hope to be able to continue having them, as well as their participation in the processes. Let us pray together for CLAI at Pentecost and that life and justice flow among us. In the Spirit of Christ, Pastor Felipe Adolf President, Board of Directors Latin American Council of Churches, CLAI
Gatherings, dialogue and ecumenism mark visit to Chile by CLAI president From March 9-16, the Rev. Felipe Adolf, president of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), visited Chilean member churches and organisms of the continental ecumenical organization, along with others. Adolf has highlighted the “excellent reception and welcome offered by all visited.” ALC/Santiago he visit to Chile was in response to a call by the new CLAI board of directors at its first meeting in September, 2013, held in Quito, asking Adolf to visit the Chilean member churches and organisms It has been an opportunity to listen to the churches and
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to have space for dialogue with different Evangelical and ecumenical leaders in the country. Adolf’s visit coincided with the investiture of the new president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, following which he participated in a high-level roundtable on the theme: “Reflections on the Development of Latin America and the Caribbean,” at the invitation of the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena. Also participating were Michelle Bachelet, Dilma Rousseff, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and José Mujica, President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. On the occasion of the installation of President Bachelet, Adolf also took part in an ecumenical liturgical celebration with the new government authorities, in Santiago’s Metropolitan Cathedral.
As part of the planned agenda for his visit, Adolf met with Methodist Bishop Pedro Correa, and attended the monthly Meeting of the Ecumenical Fraternity in Chile (FRAECH), where Cardinal Ezzatti and other ecumenical authorities in Chile were present. The CLAI president also visited the Christian Churches Social Aid Foundation (FASIC), and dialogued with the foundation’s executive secretary, Claudio González, and president, Bishop Neftalí Aravena. Following that, he met with the Rev. Jorge Cardenas, moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and that church’s delegate to CLAI, the Rev. Gastón Ramírez. Adolf then paid a protocol visit to the Evangelical Theological Community of Chile (CTE), accompanied by the dean of CTE, Daniel Godoy, its president, Methodist Bishop Emeritus Neftalí Aravena, and the moderator
of the CLAI-Chile National Table, Pastor Pedro Zavala. Adolf’s agenda also included time for conversation with Pastor Juan Sepúlveda, a Pentecostal theologian and executive of SEPADE, the Evangelical Development Service agency. Bishop Guerra of the Wesleyan Church also received Adolf, as did Daniel Farfán, executive director of SEPADE, prior to a visit by the CLAI president to the University of Concepción and the Ecumenical Fraternity. The CLAI president’s busy agenda took him to see the churches in Coronel in the Province of Concepción, where he visited with Pastor María Muñoz, president of the La Hermosa Temple Church, and Pastor Irinaldo García, president of the Brothers in Christ Church. Following a gathering with the Evangelical Council of Coronel, Adolf met with the delegate to CLAI,
and then took part in a worship service in the Eben Ezer Pentecostal Church. Pastor Adolf’s visit to Chile ended with a worship service and lunch in the Pentecostal Church of Chile, Puente Alto, with Pastor Nivaldo Aréjula and Bishop Ulises Muñoz.
Rev. Felipe Adolf, President, CLAI (J.A.Paz ALC)